new church life: march/april 2015
merciful, loving and compassionate, and not to judge the soul of anyone.
In a cultural climate that has swung from the extreme judgment of Turing’s
time to people openly embracing and championing the cause of homosexuality
and gay marriage, the Church must hold to clear doctrine. Those teachings see
the marriage of a man and a woman as the very model of the order of heaven.
But we are also called upon by our doctrines to be kind, tolerant, charitable
and non-judgmental of individuals.
When some of Jesus’ many followers turned away from His “hard sayings”
and “walked no more with Him,” He said to the remaining twelve disciples:
“Will you also go away?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we
go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.” (John 6: 67-68)
(BMH)
guest editorial - reflections on paris
(The following was written by the Rev. Howard A. Thompson, pastor of the Colchester
New Church, for the February issue of the Newsletter for the New Church in Great Britain.
It was written in response to the terrorism that took the lives of 17 people in Paris in
January and is reprinted with permission.)
We are all painfully aware of the tragic events of the 7th and 8th of January
in Paris. History has no shortage of horrible things done in the name of
religion. While many teachings have been used to shed light on the incident
and to help us to wrestle with the important issues of freedom of thought and
action v s. respect and reverence for God and church, one teaching that came
to mind for me was taken from True Christianity 310 teaching about the Ten
Commandments:
In the spiritual meaning, murders stand for all methods of killing and destroying
people’s souls. There are many different methods, such as turning people away from
God, religion and divine worship; setting up roadblocks against such things; and
persuading people to turn away from and even feel aversion to such things. All the
devils and satans in hell practice these methods. People in our world who violate
and prostitute the holy things of the church are connected to these devils and
satans.
While I grieved for the 17 people who were murdered, I also grieved for
the thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands more, who were turned further
away from God because of what they witnessed being done in the name of
God. This type of murder is far more prevalent.
I believe that this incident stands as a call to action. Not as a call to any
type of violence, but as a call for us to spread a different message about God.
When you discuss this situation among your family and friends, remind them
of the God we know. Remind them of the nature of the God you have come to
know. Maybe some of these teachings will help:
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