© 2013 André Chappuis
© 2013 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
The following text was composed to be read at an assembly where parishioners of the Vaudois Evangelical Reformed Church will meet following the adoption by its Synodal Council and its Synod of the principle of preparing a blessing rite for same-sex couples.
Although this is denied by most atheists, the indifferent and enemies of religions, our civilization is Christian and has been built over the centuries from the religion that Jesus taught us. Its distant origins are Judaic. At the beginning of this millennium, our civilization risks collapsing as a result of Christianity which is attacked from all sides. For several decades, church leaders have tended to distort the fundamental principles of Christianity and align our religion with political correctness and fashionable popular thinking. For fear of losing a few parishioners, our leaders are ready to make significant concessions, and if these are adopted, hundreds or thousands of people silently move away from the Churches and some end up becoming indifferent.
Over the past few decades, I have observed the following degenerations:
The recent position of the Synodal Council and the Synod of our Church on the subject of same-sex couples contributes to the collapse of our religion and our civilization.
Here now is a series of sentences gleaned here and there that confirm what has just been said. Each time there is mention of “family”, it is, of course, a traditional family, composed of a man, a woman and one or more children:
| Almost all the enduring values of civilization have their roots in the family. The family was the first successful peaceful grouping, for man and woman learned to reconcile their antagonisms while teaching peaceful occupations to their children. | UB 68:2.8 |
| No civilization has survived by abandoning its customs, unless it has adopted better and more appropriate customs. | UB 68:4.6 |
| Civilization depends directly on the efficient functioning of the family. | UB 79:8.9 |
| Although religious, social, and educational institutions are all essential to the survival of a cultural civilization, it is the family that plays the major civilizing role. A child learns most of the essential things in life from his family and neighbors. | UB 82:0.2 |
| The legitimate social aims of self-preservation are rapidly transformed into vile and menacing forms of selfish satisfaction. Self-preservation builds society; the unleashing of selfish satisfactions infallibly destroys civilization. | UB 68:2.11 |
| Let men enjoy life; let the human race find pleasure in a thousand and one ways; let evolutionary humanity explore all legitimate forms of self-gratification, the fruits of the long biological struggle to ascend… But… self-gratification will have truly cost a fatal price if it causes the breakdown of marriage, the decadence of family life and the destruction of the home—the supreme evolutionary acquisition of men and the only hope for the survival of civilization. | UB 84:8.6 |
| Marriage is an institution designed to accommodate sexual differences while ensuring the continuity of civilization and the reproduction of the race. | UB 84:6.7 |
| Although democracy is an ideal, it is a product of civilization and not of evolution. Here is one of the dangers of democracy: Servile obedience to public opinion; the majority is not always right. | UB 71:2.1-6 |
| No civilization can long survive the loss of what is best in its religion. | UB 155:3.8 |
| The inner world and the outer world have different sets of values. Every civilization is in peril when three-quarters of its youth enter materialistic professions and devote themselves to the pursuit of the sensory activities of the outer world. Civilization is in danger when the youth neglect to take an interest in ethics, sociology, philosophy, fine arts, religion and cosmology. | UB 111:4.4 |
| — | — |
| The family is the core of civilization. | Internet. Will Durant, History of Civilization, Payot 1952 Paris |
| No culture, no religion, no civilization is safe from destruction. | Internet. Jacques Ruffié, Extract from From Biology to Culture. Examination of the problems posed by human races and racism. |
| Religion without morality: tree without fruit Morality without religion: tree without roots | Cardinal Spellman, the dictionary of QUOTES from around the world, KARL PETIT, Marabout, 1977 |
| It is horrible to live in the midst of this insane humanity and to witness, helplessly, the failure of civilization. | Internet. Romain Rolland commenting on the start of the war of 1914 - 1918 in his journal, August 3, 1914 |
| A civilization that proves incapable of resolving the problems that its functioning raises is a decadent civilization. | Internet. Aimé Césaire, 1st sentence of Discourse on Colonialism, Editions PRESENCE AFRICAIN, Paris 1955. The white colonizers are dominators who consider that other races must be enslaved. |
André Chappuis