1. This is something I wrote earlier this year. It was in response to one of the anti-
Semitic statements in Original Divine Principle. After a period of lobbying, which in
itself was very revealing of the spiritual health of the Unification community, it was
removed and some other passages also corrected. It also raises interesting
questions about the status of such texts and the process through which they are
develop
Dear reader,
In the Original Divine Principle presentations – slides and accompanying book – the
following statement appears in the chapter on Korea as the chosen nation:
"As punishment for the murder of Jesus: 2000-year tragic history of lost
Jewish nation; the Holocaust of 6 million Jews"
This statement in Original Divine Principle is problematic for several reasons:
1. The word punishment implies that the 2000 years of suffering and the
Holocaust were deliberately intended by God as retribution for the killing of
Jesus. This however is not an accurate representation of the position
described in Exposition of the Divine Principle, where it states, “The people of
Israel… suffered oppression and persecution… as the tragic consequence of
the mistake their ancestors committed when they condemned to death the
Messiah…” (p. 117) Here the emphasis is on the suffering of the Jews being a
tragedy. It was a consequence of the crucifixion but was neither desirable nor
necessary. It was a consequence because Christians accused Jews of
rejecting Jesus, blamed them for the crucifixion of Jesus and took it upon
themselves to punish them. This contributed substantially to the environment
that made the Holocaust possible. But True Father in 1976 issued a
statement which said the Holocaust was a ‘Cain inspired action’, one of
Hitler’s ‘satanic designs and plans’ which should have been prevented ‘by a
unified front of all Christian and Jewish forces’.
http://www.reverendsunmyungmoon.org/teach_faq_judaism.html
In other words the Holocaust was an act of Satan and not an act of God and
should never have happened. So this statement is not an accurate
representation of the Divine Principle or of True Father’s publically stated view
on this subject.
2. To state that God punished the Jews for killing Jesus is to present God as a
wrathful and vengeful deity which is not, as far as I know, the way that True
Parents or our movement generally understands God.
3. As Jesus was actually put to death by the Romans one might wonder why
Christians blamed the Jews. Christians sought acceptance within the Roman
Empire and so did not want to accuse or blame the Romans for killing Jesus.
It didn’t look good if Jesus appeared to have been a political trouble maker
challenging the system. So, to curry favour with the Romans, they blamed the
Jews. New Testament scholars recognise this is the reason why Pilate, who
was known to be a brutal ruler, is described quite sympathetically in the
gospels.
4. This idea that the Jews should suffer for ‘rejecting their messiah’ is a classic

2. piece of anti-Judaism used by Christians for nearly 2000 years to justify the
way that they marginalised, mistreated, persecuted and killed Jews. Jesus, on
the other hand, from the cross asked God to forgive the people because he
realised that what was happening was a tragic mistake. If Jesus asked God to
forgive the people who were involved in his death, is it likely that God would
punish them? If Jesus forgave the people who killed him, who has the
authority to ‘punish’ them?
5. Socrates was executed by the rulers of Athens for ‘corrupting the morals of
young people’ (i.e. teaching them to think for themselves) but one doesn’t
hear a clamor for Greeks to be punished or attribute the suffering of the
Greeks during the Ottoman Empire to their ‘rejection and murder’ of Socrates.
To hold Jews to a different standard to other people is anti-Semitism.
6. Jesus was not murdered. He went through a judicial process, however flawed,
and was executed by the Roman authorities on a political charge and
essentially for political reasons namely claiming to be or being proclaimed the
messiah - a title with strong political overtones. This may be why Jesus told
his disciples not to tell people he was the messiah. (Mk 8:27-30) But they did
and this led to all sorts of problems such as bringing up the Elijah question. In
actual fact Jesus received a lot of support from Jewish people. All his
followers were Jews and all the leaders of the early church were Jews who
believed in Jesus. The vigorous polemical debates in the New Testament
weren't between Jesus and the Jews but typical of controversies among
Jews. Jesus was deeply involved in the political and religious goings on of his
time. The positions he articulated were those of the minority position of the
followers of Rabbi Hillel from whom he drew supporters. Hillel’s followers later
formed the majority and are the progenitors of modern rabbinic Judaism. Thus
the teachings of Jesus are actually very Jewish and represented an important
strand of first century Judaism. The gospels testify to the crowds that followed
him. (Mt 4:23; Lk 6:17; 11:29; Jn 11:45) They even wanted to make him king
(Jn 6:15) Just a week before his death when he entered Jerusalem he was
cheered, not jeered. The high priest organised his arrest at night because
they feared the people who supported him would make it impossible for them
to arrest him during the day. (Mt 26:5) The high priest handed Jesus over to
the Romans because it was his job to report any subversives to the Roman
authorities. He was afraid that Jesus would cause an uprising and provoke a
violent Roman response. (Jn 11:46-50) The temple authorities had to
collaborate with the Roman occupying power. High priests that didn't
cooperate were replaced. Caiaphas though had an unusually long 'reign'
because he was so ‘co-operative’. So Jesus fell foul of powerful religious and
political machinations. He had many supporters in the highest places such as
Nicodemus as well as amongst the common people but they were out
manoevered by the small and unrepresentative ruling clique. So it is not
correct to say ‘the Jews rejected Jesus’ although the people who handed him
over to the Roman authorities were Jews. These are some of the conclusions
of modern NT scholarship. The Divine Principle is also very careful to lay the
blame not on the Jewish people as a whole but specifically on the personal
failure of John the Baptist who made it very hard for faithful Jews to follow
Jesus.
7. The implication of such a statement is that the way Jews have suffered for the

3. past 2000 years, culminating in the Holocaust, was a predestined and
inevitable consequence of the crucifixion of Jesus. And yet had the messiah
come at an earlier time, say at the time of Charlemagne, then he would have
come without the Jews being suitably ‘punished’.
8. Most Christian churches have now, at last, repudiated the sort of crude anti-
Semitism expressed in the ODP statement as they recognise that it is wrong
and contributed towards the Holocaust. They have in different ways
apologised for what happened. They have also engaged in widespread
education programs to teach their members about Judaism and to correct
stereotypical and distorted views about Jews. Father also condemned anti-
Semitism unreservedly so it is surprising to find such statements in ODP.
9. It would appear that in some places Unification members have brought their
naïve Christian anti-Semitism into the Unification movement and this is
something that needs to be addressed. Otherwise through lectures and
guides such as ODP prejudice towards Jews is being perpetrated as well as
an incorrect and unprincipled understanding of Jewish suffering and the
Holocaust.
10. It is important for the spiritual and moral well being of the Unification
community that we have an accurate understanding of Judaism and the
complex relationship between Jesus and his fellow Jews. It is very disturbing
that such statements are thought, written down and published in Unification
texts. This suggests that the Unification community as a whole is either anti-
Semitic or at best ignorant about the implications of such statements and
certainly not educated properly about such matters.
11. I suggest that there be a general and widespread education of the Unification
movement about different religions, especially Judaism and Christianity which
are our older brothers. It is important that we inherit the Jewish and Christian
foundations. This can only be done by loving them and the best expression of
this is to learn about and learn from them. Not only is this the right way to
behave, it would also make it easier for them to take an interest in True
Parents because they might feel that we love and respect them instead of
always accusing them of failing.
12. It is therefore important that this statement is deleted in the Korean as well as
all other versions. It is not necessary to the argument that Korea is the nation
prepared to receive the Lord of the Second Advent. It is not a statement which
can be found in the Principle.
13. Such a statement will cause great problems for us with the Jewish community
as well as the interfaith world in general. It is the classic formulation of anti-
Jewish sentiment that has resonated through European history for 2000
years. It has been repudiated by all the major denominations and in interfaith
circles. It merely confirms an old belief that the Unification Church is anti-
Semitic. So even for PR reasons it should be removed.
14. If one wants to mention the Holocaust it would be best to quote from Father's
words in his 1976 statement: "The Holocaust was a Cain inspired action,
one of Hitler’s satanic designs and plans which should have been
prevented by a unified front of all Christian and Jewish forces." Such a
statement should be placed in the section on Mission of the Messiah where
the consequences of the crucifixion are discussed or in the section about

4. Nazism and the Second World War.
15. So what should be our attitude towards Judaism and Christianity? It would
appear that the Unification Church has been persecuted in Korea and Japan
by established churches. Of course from a historical point of view this
persecution has been relatively mild. Well if the Unification movement sees
itself as ‘Abel’ it should obviously follow the pattern for the natural subjugation
of Satan that was established by Jacob, Joseph and Jesus. When Jacob was
cheated and mistreated by Laban he didn’t complain but absorbed the ill
treatment and kept his position. When he went to meet Esau he didn’t accuse
his older brother of ‘failing’. Even though his elder brother came to meet him
with 400 men he bowed down to him saying, “to see your face is to see the
face of God with such favour you have received me.” When Joseph met his
brothers he didn’t accuse them of ‘failing’ for selling him into slavery but
instead said, “do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold
me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. So it was not you who
sent me here, but God.” So maybe we should not complain and accuse Jews
and Christians of failing but be more like Jacob and Joseph.
16. As to the meaning of Jewish suffering and the Holocaust. I think indemnity is
what needs to be done to restore something to the way that it was, to restore
something that went wrong. The Jewish people paid a lot of indemnity
because of the uncomplaining religious attitude they generally took towards
their unjust treatment and suffering. If they hadn't, the suffering wouldn't have
been indemnity and would have broken them and either resulted in the
extinction of Judaism or their reduction to a state of resentful victim hood.
Instead they have always bounced back. They were the suffering servant of
European history. As time goes by I have come to the conclusion that in
Europe the Jews were Abel, suffered the most, sacrificed the most,
contributed the most to culture, civilisation, medicine, welfare, education, art,
commerce etc. and maybe were (statistically) closest to God; and Christianity
was Cain - envious of Jews and their propensity to prosper when they ‘weren't
supposed to’. I think the Holocaust was Cain killing Abel on a
racial/continental/religious level. So the Holocaust was an act of Satan, not an
act of God. I wonder why Satan wanted to do that? I think the world would be
immeasurable better with an extra 6m Jews if one considers how much the
survivors have contributed to the world. It is a pity whoever researched the
history parallels didn't have access to a history of Judaism.
William Haines
Yom HaShoah
27th Nissan 5770
Holocaust Memorial Day
10 April 2010