Reason for Joining: “God Became a Reality”

Interview with early member who found the best explanation of God he’d ever received: God became a reality 

Part 1 of an interview in Episode 2 of “Why I Stayed – Unificationist Stories”, where Jack Corley, a farmer’s son from Ireland, tells his story. 

Continued in part 2: More Than a Belief: Finding a Living, Loving God    Part 3: Importance of an Ideal When We “Marry Reality”    Part 4: Joining Was “the Best Decision in My Life”   Part 5: 50 Years Devoted to Peace in Troubled World

See the video of the interview

Jack Corley grew up on a farm in the West of Ireland as one of nine children. He joined the Unification Church in Birmingham, U.K. in August 1973. Over the past 50 years, he has held leadership positions within this group, working in more than 80 countries, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, the United States, South Asia and Southeast Asia.

His longest posting was in Moscow, where he worked for over 15 years in the former Soviet Union. He also made more than 60 visits to China and multiple visits to Mongolia to introduce character education based on the principles of his organization. Jack and Renée are proud parents and grandparents. Renée helped to found the Washington Times in 1982, and they were European Continental Directors of the Unification Movement 2015-2017 and currently serve as East European subregional directors.

Presenter: Hi everyone, welcome back to another episode of our show. We’re so excited about today’s guest, and we managed to catch him on a short visit back home to Ireland. He is very famous, well known and a longtime member of the Unification Church.

The first question is: “Jack, why did you spend so little time here in Ireland?”

Jack: Well, because my work took me overseas, the UK, the United States, Russia, South and Southeast Asia and other parts of the world. I’ve been travelling much of my life in various missions.

Presenter: Are you happy to be back to Ireland?

Jack: I am always happy to come back to Ireland, because I, of course, have my roots here. I grew up in County Mayo. I was from a family of ten children, five boys and five girls, and the eldest child, a son, passed away at the age of two years old. So, we were basically nine members.

We had a very devout background in the Catholic faith. At the age of 20, I became a member of the Unification Church, following two other siblings into the church.

Presenter: Let’s dive a little bit into it. Can you tell us a little bit about your life? The world is so different nowadays, right? What was it like back then?

Jack: Life was very simple for me growing up. We grew up on a 30-acre farm. We did the normal things that children growing up on a farm do, from milking cows to feeding pigs and shearing sheep, and all the kinds of things you do on a farm.

We walked about two kilometers every day to primary school, through the fields. And then there was no car, no TV, no telephone in those days. And we went to church every Sunday. We prayed the rosary every evening. We prayed before every meal. Our family was very devout in that way.

And then from the age of 13 to 18, I was in a Catholic boarding school, which was run by the Diocese of Clonfert. My teachers were actually priests mostly. I was totally enveloped in the Catholic environment. A part of the reason I was there was, I think, because my mother was hoping that one of her boys might become a priest.

And while I deeply respected and appreciated the education I got and the priests that were teaching, I just didn’t feel that was my role in the future. After leaving high school at the boarding school, I studied electronic engineering, computer science and navigation in Cork City.

It was while being in that study that I heard about the Unification Church through my younger brother and younger sister. I went along to listen and find out what they were doing.

I was so impressed as soon as I heard the first presentation. It immediately touched my heart. And even more importantly, I would say the people that I met touched me. It wasn’t that they were just believing some new idea or theology. Their very demeanour and attitude were something that I really was moved by. I felt their religion, their faith was very genuine, and that they were really living by what they believed. And I thought, these people are for real.

After listening to the Divine Principle for several weeks after work, I decided this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. And I’m still here.

Presenter: […] Jack, I can’t help but ask because it’s not that common for people who are already religious to turn to another movement, another religion. You already had God in your life, and I hear you had a strong religious background. I know there are several core principles in the teachings, but for you, if you had to choose one thing, what was it that made you say, “I’m going to stay here, and I’m going to build my life according to this.”

Jack: The first thing was that God to me was a belief, but when I heard the Divine Principle, God became a reality. And how is that possible? I felt that the teachings about the creation, the duality of creation connected to the Creator, God, made it all so real. In other words, it wasn’t like God is out there, separate from his creation. God is totally embedded in his creation. It’s just that we didn’t see it.

I felt that this was the best explanation I’d ever received. I was grateful – and will always be grateful to my Catholic upbringing; that I would never forget. But there was something more needed in this modern, more scientific age. There needs to be more rational explanations about why there is a God. It’s more than a belief or an opinion. You should have a reasonable understanding. There has to be a first Creator and a benign and purposeful Creator.

And so that’s what I encountered when I met the Divine Principle. It felt more real.

Continued in part 2: More Than a Belief: Finding a Living, Loving God   Part 3: Importance of an Ideal When We “Marry Reality”   Part 4: Joining Was “the Best Decision in My Life”  Part 5: 50 Years Devoted to Peace in Troubled World

Featured image above: Jack Corley being interviewed in August 2024. Photo: Screenshot from Episode 2 of “Why I Stayed – Unificationist Stories”

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