A strange organization is presently taking root in the land. It is called CAUSA. Almost every minister and priest in the country has been or probably shall be contacted in some way by CAUSA, usually by a representative of the movement. (Many of these CAUSA representatives are young people from foreign countries, such as Germany, France, Japan and Korea. They are dubbed “Moonies,” as they are also members of the so-called Unification Church of the Rev. Moon).

What is CAUSA?

What is CAUSA? From the cover of the Manual used at the CAUSA seminars and conferences we get this information:

CAUSA is the Latin word for cause. This word was adopted as the name of CAUSA International when we began our work in 1980. CAUSA stands for the First Cause of the universe, God, and the primary work of CAUSA is to teach Godism, a God-centered world view. Furthermore, CAUSA stands for the common cause of all men and women in striving for a moral world of freedom and brotherhood under God. CAUSA is working to unite religious and conscientious persons, and we feel that there is no better name we could have than CAUSA.

More specifically, we are informed elsewhere that CAUSA originally was the acronymn for “Confederation of Associations for the Unity of the Societies of the Americas,” but this title is no longer used as the meaning of the name.

CAUSA is undoubtedly the most prominent and active of the many organizations founded by Sun Myung Moon, the founder of The Unification Church. No doubt about it, this man has vision, determination and organizational and financial abilities of a unique order.

The CAUSA organization is the American outgrowth of Moon’s anti-communist organization in Asia called International Federation for Victory Over Communism which he organized in the early 1960s, which has grown to over 14 million members in Korea and Japan. CAUSA International was begun in 1980 “to provide Latin Americans with an ideological framework in their struggle against communism. CAUSA chapters have now been initiated in more than 21 nations throughout South and Central America . . . . CAUSA has now expanded and become global in scope, being active in the U.S.A. Europe and Africa” (from the Preface of the Lecture Manual). CAUSA USA is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and has chapters in all 50 states. The president is Phillip Sanchez, a former U.S. Ambassador to Honduras and Columbia.

Why should we bother investigating CAUSA with its origins in its cultic founder, Sun Myung Moon? How significant is this organization to Reformed Christianity?

The Objectives of CAUSA

First ofall, it should be noted that we are not dealing here with just another run-of-the-mill cultic organization. CAUSA represents a finely-tuned anti-communist movement backed by literally millions of dollars and promoted by prestigious anti-communist leaders of great influence.

The ostensible purpose of CAUSA is to unite all Godfearing peoples ofthe world in the ideological struggle with Marxist-Leninist philosophy. This is no small task, but CAUSA has undertaken it with a determined cultic zeal.

The purpose and plan of CAUSA is clearly stated in the Manual: [Rev. Moon] “came to see clearly that there is no way we can eliminate communism if we do not confront it with a superior ideology or worldview. This worldview must begin with the idea of God. An affirmation of God’s existence is the one way we can overcome communism (p. iii). The strategy of CAUSA, accordingly, is to; 1) carefully examine the ideology of communism and expose its lies and deception; and 2) to present a positive counterproposal to communism by a powerful and logical philosophical affirmation of the existence of God, appropriate for the modern day human intellectual and spiritual development. . . . God ism enlightens, inspires and motivates any man or woman of conscience. Godism represents a solution to communism from the roots” (Ibid).

How is CAUSA doing in achieving these lofty objectives?

There is no question but that the financial resources behind CAUSA give it the potential of being the most influencial anti-communist movement in the world today. When CAUSA puts on a seminar, for example, as it does about every week somewhere in the nation, things are done in an impressive style.

Two-hundred to four-hundred ministers and priests are invited to these seminars with all expenses paid, including air fare. Big name speakers are featured to challenge the audiences with the horrors of international Communism. There is the converted Elridge Cleaver (a founder of the Black Panthers in the 1960s); or Dr. Cleon Skousen, the famous FBI Counter-Intelligence officer and author (a Mormon); or the well-known John Nobel, an evangelical who has traveled the land the past two decades speaking of his experiences as a slave in Siberia for nine years. Other speakers include retired generals E. D. Woellner, Daniel Graham, John Singlaub, and many others. The Rev. Richard Wurmbrand (Lutheran) and Dr. Fred Schwarz (Baptist) have also been featured on CAUSA programs. Dr. Schwarz, himself the founder of the highly respected Christian Anti-Communist Crusade, said of CAUSA: “I can’t find words to express the joy, the delight that I have felt that at long last an intelligent, articulate discussion of dialectical materialism is taking place in the United States.”

The seminar that I attended at the plush Pheasant Run Resort near Chicago, was attended by almost 400 clergy (of every type and description). We were told that the cost to CAUSA for that three-day meeting was approximately $250,000. And remember such conferences are being held almost every week somewhere in the United States! The goal of CAUSA is to have 300,000 clergymen attend such seminars in the next two years in order to mobilize an effective counter-communist movement in the United States. A worthy objective indeed!

Impressions of the Seminar

The CAUSA lectures are presented by articulate (Unification Church) speakers who utilize the latest in visual slide presentation technology. (I peeked behind the huge screen and someone told me that the synchronized battery of 27 slide projectors cost a half million dollars, and that it costs $10,000 just to transport this equipment from one seminar to the next one).

Each participant receives a handsome 260 page Manual with which to follow the illustrated lectures. The first six lectures deal with Communist ideology and history, focusing on the Red advance in the West. It is accurate and informative and, in my opinion, worth the time and effort to attend. I have not seen or heard anything better. In addition, the opportunity for personal witness and discussion with other attendees was worthwhile. The clergy, which included many women, ranged from conservative to liberal, from an Orthodox Priest to Black Pentacostalists. My first impression of CAUSA, then, is that here is a well-healed organization superbly organized.

Perhaps a word about Unification Church financing would be of interest to the reader. It seems to be cloaked in mystery. One “Moony” official told some of us privately that the Unification Church works closely with foreign banks and corporations, especially in Korea and Japan, and that plans are being made to traverse the world with a highway to facilitate automobile travel and the shipping of goods! (Honestly, that’s what we were told!) Apparently the link between Japan and Korea is already under construction, including an elaborate undersea tunnel. This highway is envisioned to connect Korea to China to Moscow to Western Europe, and even Africa. Apparently there are enormous financial resources behind these big “Moony” plans to unite the world philosophically and even with a highway! We ought to ask ourselves in the face of these vain dreams, Are we as serious about the conquest of the nations by the Gospel and their unification under the Kingship of Jesus Christ (Matt. 28:18–20; Rev. 11:15)?

My second impression is that many of the CAUSA educational materials are excellent, produced by recognized experts in the various geo-political and military disciplines. CAUSA has held international seminars on nuclear warfare, and an offshoot organization, The International Security Council, has produced excellent documents on Soviet strategy and countermeasures for stopping the Red advance. (Incidentally, the new Washington Times is certainly one of the best conservative newspapers in the United States today-another Moon-financed project. He only lost $112 million on that operation this past year, but never mind that!) I am forced to concede that the anti-communist efforts of CAUSA are truly outstanding and perhaps the most notable in the world today. We should be profoundly grateful to God that these millions are being used to fight Communism and not to promote it. Obviously, Mr. Moon’s experience in a Communist prison camp in North Korea for two and a half years has made him, if anything, a dedicated foe of Communism!

The CAUSA Worldview

The last four formal lectures given at the seminar dealt with the CAUSA Worldview in which an inclusivistic philosophy was developed which embraces all religions and philosophies which appeal to a “god.” CAUSA terms this “Godism.” Here the orthodox Christian has to part company with CAUSA and the Moony religion if he would be faithful to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot agree with CAUSA’s philosophy that “All mankind should be united, for we are all the children of God. Beyond religious, cultural and national differences, we are one family under one parent–God ” (Ibid, p. iii). We cannot subscribe to the statement that ”he (Moon) began to outline a system of thought of the highest dimension which would . . . stimulate the God-affirming world to put an end to hypocrisy and live according to the truths taught by the world’s great religions” (Ibid).

The CAUSA Manual says that the philosophy of Godism “comes on the foundation of the Judeo-Christian tradition, which teaches that man is reconciled to God through the saving work of Christ, but at the same time, Godism is not incompatible with the other great faiths of the world, each of which stresses the need for the union of man with God” (Ibid, p. ii). Again, “God is a powerful unifying adhesive, able to bring God-loving people together. It is not based on doctrine, but rather on common sense. It therefore is able to bring together God-affirming and conscientious people beyond color and creed” (Ibid p. iii).

Such a naive, uncritical position fails miserably to analyze the fundamental differences between the competing religions and in particular between Christianity, the only true religion, and all other non-Christian religions which are based on Satanic lies. The Manual states on page 170:

The CAUSA Worldview is based on universal principles that are in conflict with no religion. The CAUSA Worldview is respected in Buddhist countries as well as in Christian nations. It can also be taught very effectively in the Islamic and Hindu cultures. In countries such as Japan and Korea, which are primarily Buddhist, the CAUSA Worldview is flourishing.

These and other similar statements demonstrate that the religious basis of CAUSA and the Unification Church is manifestly anti-Christian. It is in essence humanistic and liberal–the very philosophy from which Marxism and Leninism have sprung in the first place. The challenge by CAUSA to liberal pro-socialist preachers may indeed open their eyes to the brutal effects of communism these past 70 years, with its slaughter of 150 million persons, but the CAUSA Worldview will not challenge their humanistic theology which denies the one true, living, triune, sovereign God who has revealed Himself exclusively as Savior in His Word and in His Son, Jesus Christ.

CAUSA is a lost Cause because it denies the basic Christian truth that Jesus is the unique Son of God, the eternal Son of the eternal Father. True “Godism” confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh (I John 4:2). “Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also” (I John 2:23). The denial by CAUSA that Jesus Christ is the exclusive way to the Father makes this movement of the spirit of anti-Christ. Despite all its “Godism” it is in reality anti-GOD!

Conclusion

The destruction of atheistic Communism is a certainty according to the Word of God. God is using His own Providential methods to accomplish that end, including such antiCommunist organizations as CAUSA. And for this we should be fervently thankful. But the Worldview and Counterproposal offered by CAUSA is no solution to Communism, as far as orthodox Christianity is concerned. The religion of CAUSA shall also crumble under the powerful Word of God, because it, too, is an enemy of Christ’s Kingdom.

CAUSA is a significant movement on the world scene to day, and I believe that we should thank God for its attack, howbeit superficial, against Red Communism. But for the replacement of Communism we must look not to CAUSA but to the religion of the Holy Scriptures–to the Reformed faith. This faith, and this faith alone, can and shall conquer the world (I John 5:4), according to the sure promise ofGod to His Anointed One (Psalm 2).

Note: Rev. Norman L. Jones is a minister of the Reformed Church in the U.S. (Eureka Classis) at Pierre, South Dakota.