Free Spirits Leaving the Herd....To Where?

What do I know?

The more I read Friedrich Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil, I'm increasingly disturbed by my mind's notion that I know what is good. As a religious man, good and evil are more or less clearly defined, with the good path smoothly paved despite regular traffic from the Evil One congesting my commute. I know I'm a sinner because I veer towards the dark woods off the main road. I'm comforted because know the truth...

"Let us straight away say once more what we have already said a hundred times: for ears today offer such truths ‑ our truths no ready welcome. We know well enough how offensive it sounds when someone says plainly and without metaphor that man is an animal; but it will be reckoned almost a crime in us that precisely in regard to men of `modern ideas' we constantly employ the terms `herd', `herd instinct', and the like. But what of that! we can do no other: for it is precisely here that our new insight lies. We have found that in all principal moral judgements Europe has become unanimous, including the lands where Europe's influence predominates: one manifestly knows in Europe what Socrates thought he did not know, and what that celebrated old serpent once promised to teach ‑ one `knows' today what is good and evil" (Beyond Good and Evil).

For many Christians and people of faith, the Truth-Seeker's journey stops before it begins. The Bible is the perfect Word of God! Follow the religion to achieve eternal happiness, lest you be condemned! Religious pontiffs and believers alike shout such proclamations. With such an attitude, religion becomes a barn for a herd led by a selected few, while the followers are required to obey--or else risk expulsion into the wild. Its truth claims are all that matter.

The most famous Truth-Seekers often found themselves in the wild, even those Nietzsche claims contributed to the development of the religious herds. Socrates was condemned as a corrupter of youth. Galileo was excommunicated. Even Jesus--of who's teachings the "herd" of Christianity is based--was a, crazy apocalyptic prophet, seen as an outcast by the Jews of his time.

Due to religion's emphasis on obedience, Nietzsche believed Europe's hope lie not in the traditional person of faith, but in the free spirits:

"We, who have a different faith ‑ we, to whom the democratic movement is not merely a form assumed by political organization in decay but also a form assumed by man in decay, that is to say in diminishment, in process of becoming mediocre and losing his value: whither must the direct our hopes? ‑ Towards new philosophers, we have no other choice; towards spirits strong and original enough to make a start on antithetical evaluations and to revalue and reverse `eternal values'; towards heralds and forerunners, towards men of the future who in the present knot together the constraint which compels the will of millennia on to new paths. To teach man the future of man as his will, as dependent on a human will, and to prepare for great enterprises and collective experiments in discipline and breeding so as to make an end of that gruesome dominion of chance and nonsense that has hitherto been called `history' ‑ the nonsense of the `greatest number' is only its latest form for that a new kind of philosopher and commander will some time be needed, in face of whom whatever has existed on earth of hidden, dreadful and benevolent spirits may well look pale and dwarfed. It is the image of such leaders which hovers before our eyes ‑ may I say that aloud, you free spirits?" (Beyond Good and Evil)

Nietzsche believed the free spirit broke away from the herd and the obedient nature of Christian morality. Once broken away, the free spirits could seek a higher morality. Nietzsche believed this transvaluation of values would lead to the ubermensch--the Superman. The herd would slowly diminish as more and more people embraced themselves as the ubermensch, filled with a higher, "child-like" morality. Nietzsche, unfortunately, never defines this new morality. He leaves the free spirit so free that it wanders into oblivion, wondering if he had any freedom at all. He is lead by the Spirit, but has no truth claims to ground him.

Am I walking into the stable as an obedient human animal? Many are. An obedient spirit, not wrong in its own right, traverses churches across the world. "Filial piety towards the Parent" turns into blind obedience quickly. Immediate acceptance of the latest expression of truth or revelation is seen as a requirement for leaders and members alike. The newest donation request is often shoved down the throats of members by leadership. It's as if there's no time to wrestle with and seek the Truth. And if one does, he or she is seen by some as disuniting.

It is true that Mother Han has limited time on earth to complete the tasks that have been put on her heart. Father Moon had the same mindset. Yet in their teachings they still urge believers to wrestle: to pray, read, and reflect intensely. The opening section of Exposition of Divine Principle explicitly calls readers to be seekers in Spirit and Truth. To evaluate the truth claims, while at the same time taking into account experiences with the unknown, the Divine, and of the soul. 

That's how I choose to seek the Truth. Therefore, when one asks, "Do you know if Unificationism is the full Truth," I answer:

No. But I believe it is.

I cannot say, as of yet, that its objectively the full, final Truth. There are contradictions to investigate, accusations that require attention, schismatic leaders whose words can lean towards the prophetic, among many other lingering questions. Yet, the truth claims are the highest I've come across. And despite these questions, my experiences as a Unificaitonist have transformed my life. I've felt what I consider to be the Heart of God. I've been touched so positively it that I'm willing to die for the Principle. That's why I put my absolute faith and life in Unificationism. Not because I know for a 100% fact that its true. But because its the morality I choose to ground myself in. 

And if, during my Truth-Seeking journey, I find Unificationism, its founders, its leaders, and its organizations to be just a fraudulent barn for the herd, the truth-seeking journey will still continue. 

Keep your faith. Wrestle with it, even if it shatters.