new church life: september/october 2015
human society for millennia,” the Chief Justice wrote. “Just who do we think
we are?”
“The Constitution itself says nothing about marriage,” he noted, and its
decision is “not a legal judgment.”
When four out of nine members of the court object so strenuously, how
much confidence can we have in even the legal correctness of the decision?
But the real issue is deeper than legal. As the Writings explain very clearly,
in terms of discrete degrees, civil order comes from, contains and expresses the
two higher degrees of order: spiritual and moral. Or should.
(WEO)
extending the benefits
The way to extend the benefits of marriage to more people is not to redefine
marriage, but to teach people what it truly is and why it is so valuable. Applying
the word “marriage” more loosely does nothing to promote the reality of
marriage, and in fact damages that effort.
And the way to extend the blessings of the New Church to more people
is not to stop teaching certain doctrines because they are out of step with the
times, such as many of those in the book Conjugial Love, but to teach them
more clearly and effectively.
(WEO)
i’m not a role model, but i play one on tv
At the end of Bertolt Brecht’s play, Galileo, a former disciple turns bitterly on
his fallen idol and laments, “Unhappy is the land that has no hero.” To which
Galileo replies, “Unhappy is the land that needs a hero.”
We seem always in search of heroes, but often are looking in the wrong
places. That’s why F. Scott Fitzgerald, with a writer’s eye for the drama of life,
once said: “Show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy.”
We know the feeling. A popular hero for decades was comedian and actor
Bill Cosby. In his long-running TV hit, The Cosby Show, and in countless
appearances where he chastised young people to shape up their lives, he was
the perfect role model for father, husband, family values. Now he has been
exposed – although not convicted – as an apparent serial sexual abuser of
women.
One more “hero” fallen in shame from his pedestal.
Sadly it is a story repeated throughout history – and throughout the Word.
Consider David, the hero shepherd boy who slew Goliath with the “smooth
stone” of the Lord’s truth, but as a grown man and leader made sure that the
husband of the alluring Bathsheba would die in battle so that he could take her
for himself.
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