To the editor:

Monday’s Journal-World article about the Phoenix Affirmations group and its support by Lawrence’s Ecumenical Christian Ministries is not surprising. However, it was a little surprising that the First Baptist Church and the First Presbyterian Church also were supporters.

Although I did not hear any of the talks given at these churches, the article reports of the Phoenix group’s main teaching as being simple speaks of Pantheism in its purist form. Pantheism is a false doctrine that God is in everything and that the various forces and workings of nature are modes or manifestations of His existence. This is not the gospel of Christ.

C.S. Lewis in his book “Mere Christianity” says, “Pantheism usually believes that God, so to speak, animates the universe as you animate your body; that the universe almost is God, so that if it did not exist He would not exist either, and anything you find in the universe is a part of God.” Later, with regard to the Pantheism, he says a Christian’s response to this doctrine is, “Don’t talk damned nonsense.” A footnote to this statement explains that he did not use the word damned as a frivolous swearing but to say that nonsense that is damned is under God’s curse.

The Apostle Paul speaks in a similar tone when he says in Romans 1:18 that, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.”

Carl Burkhead,

Lawrence