How to study religious teaching?

                                            So that we will understand what we are supposed to learn.

 What is our attitude of mind when we start reading? 

• I must understand
• I must follow
• I believe in this book

Believing in the teaching prior to reading it is not a very good start. It will impair our ability to use one of the gifts that God gave us when he created us. Our creative thinking, our ability to discern good from bad, important from useless, and so on.

The best attitude when reading a “new” religious teaching and trust in ourselves, and in God if we already know about God enough to have that trust. And we need an open mind. A mind willing to learn, to discover, and to understand.

I have read many books encompassing the teaching of our True Father, Dr. Sun Myung Moon. I read a few of them more than once. I had three different reactions when reading a particular paragraph or chapter.

• I understood and agreed
• I did not understand what I read
• I did not agree with what I was reading

However, I never stop reading, simply because I did not agree or did not understand. I kept on reading. This attitude, gave me, I least to some degree, the full spectrum of the personality of our True Father and what he has been trying to communicate to each of us throughout his life.

After years of reading, I have a solid trust in our True Parents. I believe in their genuine desire to be the conduit of God’s love and teaching. They have done and still doing today through Holy Mother Han their very best to help humanity understand who we are in relationship to the creator, in relationship to human beings, and in relationship to the creation.

Let us remember that we not yet “another church” but a movement to eliminate the need for churches because each individual and families in the entire world will have their lives connected to one another and our beloved Heavenly Parent. We will know the meaning of "Living for sake of others".

May 8, 2025