But this confusion is the result of the commerce of Ethical Culture
with Churchianity and Judaism, in other words, with the supernatural.
A teacher who is trying to convince both Christian and Jew that without
discarding their obsolete and obstructive dogmas they can join
the Ethical Movement, is compelled by the very exigencies of the
_mesalliance_ to tarry in the region of fog and obscurity. And this
confusion in thought, this lack of decision and clarity in one's
concepts, this metaphysical vagueness and bewildering rhetoric is the
price Orthodoxy exacts before it will bestow its smile upon a prodigal
teacher seeking to return to the fold.
We could not agree with the head of the Ethical Movement that it was
worth our while to try to win the favor of the churches, or to seek
their co-operation. In our opinion such a _rapprochement_ would only
redound to the glory of an institution that has proven itself not
only incapable of saving the world, but of positively hindering its
salvation. This indictment is not voiced in haste, or in malice, but
because it is based upon careful observation and study.
The church can never become a great moral power until it is
rationalized. In this age of enlightenment the church can not be
honest and Orthodox at the same time. We recommend this thought to the
consideration of the Ethical lecturers. And no institution can make
others honest, if it is dishonest itself. Is the church honest with
science? Is it honest with history? Is it honest with the Bible? Mark
these brave words of Huxley:
"When Sunday after Sunday, men who profess to be our instructors in
righteousness, read out the statement that 'In six days the Lord made
heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is,' in innumerable
churches, they are either propagating what they may honestly know, and,
therefore, are bound to know, to be falsities; or if they use the words
in some non-natural sense, they fall below the moral standard of the
much-abused Jesuit."
How refreshing!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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