really don’t because the Lord doesn’t make evil babies. The intrinsic baby is a
receptacle of life from the Lord.
Hereditary evils are necessary so that we can be in equilibrium – evil on
one side, good on the other. This is so that we can go to heaven – not because
we are born good but because we can choose to love and obey God.
Charis P. Cole
Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania
Remaining True to Doctrine
To The Editors:
In the March/April issue of New Church Life, Chelsea Rose Odhner weighed
in on gender and the priesthood with an article titled, Women Priests: Freedom
and Providence. Arguing for ordaining women on the ground of not injuring
women’s freedom by excluding them from the priesthood, she presented an
unusual, even novel approach to the subject.
However, although citing statements by three General Church leaders
published in New Church Life for 1897 and 1937, she cited nothing either from
them or from the Heavenly Doctrines regarding the gender of the priesthood.
Indeed, I think if those leaders could see into the world – Carl Theophilus
Odhner, William F. Pendleton and Charles E. Doering – they would be
surprised, if not shocked, to have their statements so applied. Nor did she
cite any of the more recent articles demonstrating the doctrinal basis for a
priesthood consisting of educated men.
For Mrs. Odhner’s edification, and the edification of others still not
acquainted with the doctrinal basis, I present here a summary of the argument
I presented in New Church Life in 2012 in an article, Gender and the Priesthood
of the New Church in the 21st Century:
1. The Church is a unique organization, originating from Divine
revelation, and being, therefore, a creation, not of men, but of God.
2. The Heavenly Doctrines are not subject to revision, but are immutable.
3. The Church is a church according to its understanding of the Word
(Sacred Scripture 51, 52) and of doctrine drawn from the Word (Ibid. 53,
77), which, in the New Church, includes the Heavenly Doctrines.
4. The Church is formed in wives by the union of their affections and
loves with their husbands’ insights and judgments, or in the words of
the doctrine, by a union of her will with her husband’s understanding
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