new church life: september / october 2013
of the people. The work of education intersects with the front line in that
war. Generally speaking, American children today are not receiving a solid
grounding in their own nation’s history, ideals and principles of government.
How, then, can they be expected to preserve that system of government?
How likely is it that the kind of rational, just and free civil order that grew
out of the Judeo-Christian tradition will persist in the absence of the faith that
formed and nurtured it? The founders of the country certainly didn’t think it
would, as Mr. Jungé amply demonstrates.
I think “We Hold These Truths . . . ” is an important work, and hope that
eventually it will be used in classes and made available to students in New
Church schools.
The Cathedral Book Room plans to have it in stock by the time this issue of
New Church Life is published. It may also be obtained for $5 (to cover printing
and postage) by contacting the author: [email protected].
(The Rev. Robert S. Jungé has served the Church and New Church
education in a number of capacities throughout the world, and has always
had a strong appreciation for history. He lives in retirement in Kempton,
Pennsylvania.)
A New Pamphlet on Marriage
“One of the most critical threats to our nation today is, in our opinion, the
deterioration of marriage, that is, the demise of the institution of marriage as
a union between one man and one woman.”
Thus writes the Rev. Kurt P. Nemitz in the introduction to a pamphlet
he has published: A Theological Argument for Heterosexual and Monogamous
Marriage, From the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.
“The true nature and significance of marriage,” Mr. Nemitz writes, “cannot
be grasped unless men and women are understood to be not merely physical
but essentially spiritual beings, who were created for each other by God.”
The 17-page pamphlet consists of excerpts from Swedenborg’s Secrets of
Heaven and Marriage Love, and includes a brief biography of Swedenborg at
the end.
In his effort to bring knowledge of the Divine purpose of marriage to the
public at large, Mr. Nemitz distributed 100 copies of the pamphlet in April at
a conference at Grove City College (about 65 miles north of Pittsburgh). The
response was encouraging and all the copies were quickly taken.
The pamphlet may be obtained for $1 at the Cathedral Book Room in
Bryn Athyn, or from the Pittsburgh New Church, 299 Le Roi Rd., Pittsburgh,
PA 15208, or from Mr. Nemitz ([email protected]
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