Theos-Talk Archives (January 1997 Message tl00206)

Another thought - if I can say something positive about the current state
of Christianity, it is that while it has quite a significant shadow, there
are attempts being made within Christiandom to (as Jung would say) claim
its shadow ... to take responsibility. There is a growing movement among
some of the dominant mainstream denominations (primarily Methodist,
Lutheran, and Presbyterian) to begin to publically answer some of the
assertions of the more extreme right and fundamentalist factions ... they
have become concerned that because of the PR savvy some of those factions,
the word "Christian" has come to automatically represent a set of narrow
beliefs that are most definately not shared by all Christians. In the last
couple decades significant efforts have been made to acknowledge the full
equality of women ... and there is a movement to develop an environmental
ethic based upon Christian values (the most public presentation of this
movement recently was in Al Gore's "Earth in the Balance" - a book that
had questionable environmental science, but was interesting in that it
made quite an argument for practicing responsible environmental behaviour 
as a Christian virtue). Anyway, point is, a belief system (IMO) is still
alive and vital when it is attempting in some way to address its own
flaws. In this respect, I think Theosophy could learn a lesson from
Christianity. 
							Regards, JRC