Initiating a Movement for Moral Reawakening

 

"America was founded on the Puritan spirit and grew to be the strongest country in the world in just two hundred years because it received God's boundless love and blessing. 
But that America cast God aside. 
I went to the United States to awaken America's spirit, to save America from destruction, and to urge the American people to repent and return to God."

America, a land blessed by God, had contracted a serious illness in the 1970s. At that time, the United States was threatened by the Cold War and much American youth were living lives of decadence, far removed from the Will of God. It was during that crisis, when the dire warnings of moral decay blared out of America's media and academic institutions, that Rev. and Mrs. Moon called on the people to return to Godism and reawaken the Judeo-Christian spirit.

In 1974 and 1975, Rev. Moon delivered a speech entitled "One Nation Under God" before members of the House of Representatives: "America was born through God's blessing. This blessing, however, was not for Americans alone. This was God's blessing for the world, given through America. Therefore, the American people must understand the principle of this blessing and sacrifice itself to save the world. To do this, there needs to be a reawakening that drives America to return to its founding spirit. Christianity, which has been divided into dozens of denominations, must be united, embrace all religions, and open a new future for world civilization."

On June 1, 1976, at Yankee Stadium in New York, Rev. Moon held a large rally in commemoration of America’s Bicentennial. Then, on September 18 that same year, he held a rally at the Washington Monument. The Washington Monument holds a deep significance in America's history for being the stage where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. held his March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and where Rev. Billy Graham held a couple of his crusades. On the day of Rev. Moon's rally, 300,000 people gathered to hear his revivalist message.

Newsweek, a world-renowned weekly magazine, named Rev. Sun Myung Moon "Person of the Year" in 1976, for his great impact on American society.

On September 18, 1976, a crowd of 300,000 gathered at the Washington Monument in Washington D.C., to listen as Rev. Moon spoke: "I have come to America to save the youth and revitalize them into people of hope. Following the rally, Rev. Moon's moral reawakening movement spread globally.