Adultery & the Death of Covenant
S. M. Hutchens on the Seventh Commandment
It has been nearly a generation now since I had my first intimate exposure to an institution constituted in a lie. During my early years of doctoral study I took the pastorate of a small Congregational church. I had never been a Congregationalist, but the church’s presentation of itself and its denomination did not offend. It had a “mainline” flavor, but each congregation was free to decide on its own complexion, so long as it remained congregationally governed, and could have as little or as much to do with the national organization as it pleased. Although the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds were found in the worship materials in the back of its hymnal, on Sunday mornings the congregation would recite the beautiful Salem Church Covenant of 1629:
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S. M. Hutchens is a Touchstone senior editor.
more on the ten commandments from the online archives
31.5—September/October 2018
The Secular State Without the Decalogue by James M. Kushiner
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more from the online archives
22.6—July/August 2009
on the Integration of Anger into the Virtuous Life by Leon J. Podles
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on Being a Free Narnian & the Joy of Subordination by Donald T. Williams
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on Boethius's Consolation in a Time of Plague by Thomas Albert Howard
