We do not hide God and religion

   
Meishu-sama
You may find it strange to hear this from me, but before the end of the Second World War, I was not able to do anything related to religion. I was doing something called Japan Purifying Therapy, which is a form of folk therapy, but I would hardly call this proper work. After the war came the freedom of religion, and finally, I was able to do something religious. That is why my Church grew into what it is today and why I am able to publish books like Save America.

   
Sermon, October 20, 1952

From before, I wanted to do religion, but that was simply impossible before the end of the Second World War. So I reluctantly did something called Purifying Therapy, a form of folk therapy. I had no other choice as things related to religion were simply out of the question. But the end of the war brought the freedom of religion, and finally, I was able to establish a religious organization.

   
Sermon, December 17, 1952

    
During that time, society was quite critical of new religions, so I had no chance. I couldn’t say that religion was what I wanted to do. Even with regard to healing, I had to hide our true identity and do it as folk therapy under the name of Japan Purifying Therapy. In those days, the authorities were on high alert against religion, so I was not able to do anything. But the war ended, and freedom of religion came into existence, which was a huge blessing for me. I was able, at long last, to officially register my religious organization in August of 1947 and start my religious work. From then on, I was able to do what I had really wanted to do.

   
Sermon, June 16, 1953

    
Originally, my World Church of Messiah officially started its activities as a religious organization in August of 1947. Until then, oppression from the officials was so severe that I was forced to do my work in the form of folk therapy under the name of Japan Purifying Therapy. Having said that, healing power was weak without faith, so I had some people bow to the image of Kannon. Kannon faith was something traditional and acceptable to the authorities—I guess you can see how much they hated new religions. But how lucky I was! After the war came democracy and freedom of religion, and now I can advance my work through a religious organization openly and publicly.

   
“Why our Church flourishes,”
September 30, 1953

   
Kyoshu-sama

In society, we often hear something like “flowers for a better world,” where we plant flowers with an aim to create a more beautiful environment around us, which in turn serves for the betterment of the human mind, thus preventing, for example, youths from getting involved in crimes. Well, you get the idea, right? Through flowers, people are trying to comfort and soothe the human mind. Yes, sure, it is not a bad idea, but are these activities in society the same as “creating heaven through flowers” that Meishu-sama talked about? No, they are not. There is a mile of difference between what people do in society and what Meishu-sama taught us.

In “The uniqueness of the salvation of our Church,” Meishu-sama said that what he does is “different from all other religions,” didn’t he? So there is a difference, and actually, there should be a difference, between “creating a better world” that people in society usually talk about and “creating heaven” that Meishu-sama talked about.

Make no mistake. Our aim is of course to make this world a better place, but what did Meishu-sama mean when he said “creating heaven”?

Now, we can replace the word heaven with the world of God, right? The world of God is heaven, isn’t it? If so, is there any world, be it spiritual or material, that is not governed by God?

No, right? In fact, does not God live even in a garbage dump? Does not God live in all our feelings that are both good and bad? Yes, He does. He made those feelings since He is the Creator of everything.

God is the one who created all that exists, and at the same time, He governs all that He created. The invisible world and the visible world, all the dimensions in the universe, and even the past, present and future—they are all governed by God. It is this God who advances His work of salvation within each one of us even now.

With regard to flower activities, the difference between us and those who do similar things in society is that when we, followers of Meishu-sama, prepare a flower arrangement somewhere, we acknowledge that there is no place that is not the world of God, including the place we will arrange flowers. We acknowledge that God’s heaven already exists in the place where we will prepare flowers.

   
On Ikebana and Art
October 24, 2018

Masaaki-sama

Even though the non-religious Japanese Purifying Therapy Promotion Association was growing and attracting many members, Meishu-sama decided to close it and instead, established Japan Kannon Church, a religious organization, in 1948. Meishu-sama did this while there were many who opposed this move and, as a result, they left him. In short, Meishu-sama’s main concern was not whether his activities would be accepted by society or not. Our attitude should be the same.

Nowadays, people talk about “organic food” or natural food or this and that, right? In my opinion, I think we are deluding ourselves with these things, thinking that human civilization has somehow advanced. When we talk about organic food, we usually say that science has proved something or the power of nature is great or something like that. But, why doesn’t anyone admit the power of God? When are we ever going to do that?

I’d say we are really good at hiding God, wouldn’t you say? When we try to spread Nature Farming, we say, “Since the natural world is God’s creation, it is okay to say to society, ‘Let’s appreciate the power of nature and eat healthy food!’”—we’re very good at hiding God. But we should be the opposite, right? What we must say to the whole world when spreading Nature Farming is this: “Since God prepared the natural world, let us give thanks to the one and only God when eating food.” Isn’t this the correct attitude if we want to spread Meishu-sama’s Nature Farming?

We say “we need to remove religious elements in spreading Nature Farming” or “we need as many people as possible to join this movement.” All those things are fine, but what’s the point of doing Meishu-sama’s Nature Farming if we hide God? “Wow, I now know that God grows and prepares all crops and food!”—this is it, right? We just want as many people as possible to think like this, right?

. . . Or are we ashamed of putting God out to the world when spreading Nature Farming? No, right? Actually, we should not be ashamed of putting God out in whatever we do. Otherwise, Meishu-sama might say to us, “I see that you are hiding the word God. What’s the reason for doing that? Is God something to be ashamed of?” We really need to start changing the way we do things one by one.

   
Meeting with staff ministers
October 31, 2016

   
Published in Glory, no. 16, May 1, 2021