INTRODUCTION

The state of the world we know is uncertain, insecure, and confused. Although there are many achievements and advances, the human condition is not satisfactory. First of all, albeit the life structured by human beings appears to many of them permanent and stable, it is, in fact, nothing of the kind. Death is a constant stalking unknown and people have a very uneven and chaotic approach to fighting it. In many cases they do not attempt to fight it sufficiently at all.

The Central Tenet: The Two Commandments of Love:
**[from the Old and New Testaments]

According to these Commandments God is Good, Merciful and Kind, otherwise how are we to love him with our whole being?

Hell never was, for God is a loving Father and what loving father would condemn his children to suffer for all eternity? No human in his right mind would consider such cruelty. How then would God consider it? Since there is no hell, Jesus was wrong in this matter, but that makes him no less a Son of God. By evolution we are not to be perfect, only to strive for perfection. Christ's genius and legacy lay in what he taught men to do for one another. That was the tremendous breakthrough in evolution he made. That was the mission of his short life. For it he lived and loved and died a martyr's death. For it he is the greatest, most evolved philosopher, Teacher and emissary of God the world has known.

The Teacher's love was a great overflowing compassion reaching to the endangered and the suffering. It also reached to his family and brethren. It was a high and uplifting Love which made him get involved in progressing circles of activity for those in dire straits. It was present in all he did, even in his brief outbursts of temper. We are to love his sublime and imperfect yet developed Self as he loved our kind.

How can we love a God that would demand the human sacrifice of primitive tribes for the expiation of sin? Despite his genius the Teacher was sadly misled. He believed in his sacrifice and God forgave him this "sacrilege" and unreason because he loved and believed in Love. To us, his brothers and sisters the Teacher is to be more lovable still for his imperfections because, like him, we are misled and imperfect, yet trying to evolve closer and closer to perfect Love.

In the matter of the Teacher's miracles and resurrection there is dispute, one which cannot be resolved by seeking cognitive proof. However, this does not matter: we are to believe as we see fit. Clearly he was Son of God and the greatest spiritual leader the world has witnessed.

How do we follow the Teacher in this age? The answer is simple: We are to continue his mission to mankind. To wit, we are to take care of those near us but we are to go out of our way to rescue and help those in danger and suffering everywhere. We are to bring the Teacher's Mission to them. For some of us this means joining a life-long formal mission, such as medical rescue or work for peace, which require professional training and permanent commitment.

Another variant of such a choice is a very intensive three-year commitment following the Teacher's example. What about the rest of us who have no training and family ties besides? People like that (whom we will call lay people) must work for a living outside the Mission and need to contribute resources or volunteer work to the Mission effort. How this might be accomplished will be discussed outside the core belief statement. Besides maintaining existing formal missions we may find it necessary to start new ones.

There is not enough research done on the large-scale problems afflicting the human condition. By research is meant the study of root causes with a view to the prevention and elimination of the problem. There is only one peace research institute devoted to the prevention of wars and aggression. There is no child or dependents' abuse research institute and the same may be true of many other sources of human death and pain.

There is even not enough medical research although there is a considerable effort in this field. A part of the Mission, therefore, is the formation and development of research formal missions in many areas of human want. Mankind will never be redeemed from early death and suffering until such missions are instituted. Since this viewpoint is of necessity evolutionary, it is expected that all these changes will take place gradually and harmoniously in the Love the Teacher taught human beings to practice in his name.

The Teacher's legacy to us is clear. The Teacher loved Life. He would secure the lives of men from any harm. According to the Commandments of Love we are to save life whenever possible. Wars are therefore immoral, as is capital punishment. Abortion is also to be avoided. On the other hand, reason tells us that in order to curtail death and suffering we must limit populations. Therefore methods of birth control are to be perfected to a maximal effectiveness. Saving human life is, according to the Teacher, a sacred duty that we may not shirk, not an arbitrary "humanitarianism." Once again, we are to go out of our way to save all human life endangered by premature death.

The Mission is a growing, evolving progression of service to the endangered and the suffering. It encompasses the whole human condition. It is the hand of God reaching down to those in dire distress, and as such it is holy.

In discussing the Mission we base our rhetoric on the two Commandments of Love which are the great sacred law of God and human nature. Basing ourselves on this law we can be sure that the Mission is compatible with our humanity and the fulfillment of our lives. Contributing material goods or work to the formal missions is a matter of individual conscience formed by the two Commandments of Love.

It is our duty to save lives and redeem pain. This duty involves us in processes which are very complex. Thus the Teacher's Mission is a great human challenge commanding the best of our human resources. People in the Mission should let their natural faculties develop and be formed by Mission activity.

The Teacher did not teach people to pray extensively. He favored action through the Mission as the way to God. Therefore the Mission should feature prayer and religious observance as sparsely as possible.

Since the Mission involves a minimum of organized religious observance it is open to all creeds and systems of ethic. The benefits of the Mission embrace all peoples and all walks of life. The Mission is completely a-racial, a-political, and classless. This last must be emphasized. There is no room for class conflict in the Mission's service.

Our God of Gods is to us humans a goodness and a loving kindness that gives us power to do good. By good is meant all that enhances life creatively and lovingly and lifts the human spirit to new heights of worth and splendor. God is the source of all that we make and create. The things that we make and create are the myriad goods we produce. We are to honor them and treat them without excess or miserliness. God rewards us for our creativity and stewardship with a great sense of fulfillment and belonging. We are to sustain our families and friends and gain from this an even higher fulfillment and satisfaction. We are further to take care of the endangered and the suffering, finding in this Mission the highest fulfillment of our nature.

What is more, each creative act, each familial undertaking, and each action to redeem those who are victims is an offering and a prayer to God as long as it is compatible with the two Commandments of Love. In this way all our lives are to be made up of acts of worship to the Almighty. Our religion is one that takes up all our living and all civilization. It is most intimately integrated with daily life and all our doings.

Thus we have in Neo-Christian Humanism the core belief in an Infinite, Loving, and Merciful God who is the beginning and end of all things.

It must be said that Neo-Christian Humanism is not a Second Coming or a new religion. It is simply a contemporary and evolutionary reading of the archaic Christian faith. It is thus a renewal of this faith, not its replacement. As such it is the Christian formation most befitting the beginning of the third millennium in its upward civilizational climb.

The real faith summarized above is the greatest treasure from God. It has been found by much searching and pain and travail, many mistakes and sins. God forgives us these sins committed in groping for the truth.

As man progresses, he elicits the concept of the Ultimate from the love and reason inculcated into his nature. Thus through Biblical times man arrived at the two great Commandments of Love and since then has attained to the concept of God as a purely loving, rational and solicitous Being. According to the Teacher, our earthly destiny is to transform reality by shaping an ascending and loving civilization using the power given to us by God. We can see that this is so when we consider that God is good.

If, therefore, there is early death, suffering, and primitivism and God does not tangibly intervene, he must have given us the power to obliterate this blight ourselves. Indeed, we should thank God for everything he has given us and see him in all we have at hand to do our will and his. This is the new maturity we have aspired to in our age. May it lead us to a future full of venture and blessedness, of growth and soaring flight of spirit.

The Teacher across millennia--a probable profile

He was an active man--active and volatile. He exulted in action, although he loved long discourses about his mission--particularly with women. He revered children. He stepped lightly on long journeys among the rock and dust and was known for his humor. On the one occasion in which he became violent he was like the western squall bearing down, and he was noted for his sarcasm and scathing diatribe against the mighty. The Teacher was a peace-maker according to the conditions of his time. He tried to bring together the poor and the rich, but he was critical of those in power. If he had known the skills of peace-making and arbitration he might have lived life longer, but he did not, and he fell like a great tree falling. To this day we suffer the emblem of his death upon our breasts. But his life is in us and around us. It is the light that illuminates our darkness and lifts us ever higher to the Power that Is above.

We want to encourage lay people to support the Mission in the best ways available to them. This involves making life choices for those who are not affluent enough to make direct money contributions or offer volunteer work to the Mission. Such people are left with the problem of how to exercise their Neo-Christian Humanist conscience. For them one possibility is to band in small clusters of families and/or individuals which we will call "Houses" or even "Communities of Love". These would be patterned after present-day parishes without much of the worship they involve and with more mutual help in daily matters among members. The structuring of a House would be a very special enterprise.

Methods for organizing Houses should be developed most carefully according to the needs of the participants. Since money would be a problem for all members, they should save by pooling resources on such items as child care, chores, food buying and food preparation. There may be the possibility of establishing adjacent housing in House compounds to save on travel, shopping and other expenditures. Thus Houses would be cooperative arrangements aimed at saving money and freeing up time for Mission work.

There are many advantages to the House formation. They are similar to those of extended families. The closeness of individuals in such structures is very satisfying to many. As a result the House formation is an elective for people who do not have limited income. The House arrangement is thus recommended for the general Neo-Christian Humanist membership. In particular there are many people who do not have families and live singly. For some of them there would be a great reward in belonging to a House. There they could experience the joy of family life and the rearing of children and serve the Mission as fully developed Neo-Christian Humanists. Theirs would be the happiness of having friends close enough to replace family without the burden of full family membership.

Members of a House should live in friendship, sharing the sacred bond of working for the Mission. In time their relationships should wax into a Community of Love, with a maximum of trust, respect, and devotion between all participants. The children should learn this felicity from the adults in the Community and mature to participation in the Mission under their inspiration and guidance.

Another possibility, particularly for the young, is to form troops similar to scout troops which would make money doing public service jobs and donate it to formal missions. These troops would be led by seniors from the Houses or from the formal missions themselves. Troops of this kind would afford a great deal of togetherness and camaraderie to the members in the adventure of working together. For these young people there would be a special fascination to doing something serious and adult for the Ultimate at a tender age. They would have role models from the Mission to emulate and would grow up to be magnificent Neo-Christian Humanists.

Human culture could support the Teacher's Mission in order to secure it in the minds of men as something feasible, desirable, and profoundly satisfying to the human spirit. Cultural support could be vital to the success of the Mission. Human resources of spiritual strength and physical endurance may not last in the Mission effort without the affirmation and celebration, the escape and respite of cultural expression. It is no accident that the Teacher's earthly mission began at a wedding feast. Accordingly, a native culture could develop around the formal missions--offerings in literature, art, drama, music, dance and film rendering the glory and triumph of rescuing men, of living the Mission. People working to produce these offerings could be considered part of the Mission effort. Among them would be those who would develop the Teacher's philosophy to present day values.

Mission culture should be incisive, heroic, tender, satirical, humorous, and escapist. It should develop at minimum cost. Its proceeds should go to Mission funding whenever possible. As Mission culture would grow, it could involve more and more talent and creativity, adding substance and excitement to the serious efforts of formal Mission workers. Such a culture would be invaluable in shaping an enlightened moral social order and would play a decisive role in the evolution of societies to their optimal worth.

We have noted that there is no room for class warfare in Neo-Christian Humanism. Particularly, there is no room for conflict between the rich and the poor. The Teacher, as we have already mentioned, promoted accord between these two groups.

That is why the Mission is not directed at the poor at the expense of the rich. It is, once again, directed at the endangered and the suffering at the expense of everybody who can contribute.

For the rich this removes the onus of charity understood as giving to the poor, which is ineffective and rebellion-provoking. Charity leads to misdirected giving and to skepticism of the good-will and probity of those needing help. We are all familiar with the "no good bum" epithet used against the poor and the "do-gooder" epithet used against those who would help them. These epithets express a set of attitudes all too common in our day. Ultimately, such attitudes can lead to complete isolation of the poor, and to societies plagued with blight.

It is true that not all people who are poor need help. There are those who prefer to do less and live simply. They do not need the efforts of others to sustain them. On the other hand, there may be those who are well-to-do, yet need help urgently, theirs being a mortal peril or a level of suffering not to be borne.

For the poor receiving charity may be a problem. Some may find it demeaning or conducive to envy. These feelings of inadequacy and bitterness can possibly even lead to aggressiveness and violence, for the human drive of possessiveness is very strong. It is not too far-fetched to say that charity could become a factor in the development of war, which is the greatest of man-made evils. This may explain why some people instinctively shy away from charity. Such people would most likely be more willing to be generous on the Neo-Christian Humanist basis.

The excuse that everyone is giving as much as they can to others in distress is patently false. In affluent countries people spend billions on all types of luxury such as cosmetics, expensive cars, travel and exorbitant real estate, while early death and pain continue.

At the root of spendthrift materialism there is a great emptiness and lack of purpose in life. People would be much happier living in more modest circumstances and taking part in the Mission. This is not to suggest that they should live colorless lives (see section on Neo-Christian Humanist culture above) or fail to give their children a chance at education, but we all know how much we could contribute to the Mission if we gave up the endless clutter or the plus-perfect housing arrangements and life-styles. Whatever he was, the Teacher was no material perfectionist. We must listen to the voice of our conscience and heed his call.

There is also the matter of giving to causes outside the Mission. We must remember that the Mission has priority over any other type of giving and act accordingly.

We envision that some people may have presuppositions about the Mission which will be an obstacle to its development.

The "great movement" fallacy is the supposition that the Mission is practically non-existent and that it would take an operation of surpassing extent to launch it upon the world. Nothing could be farther from the truth. While we have said that the Mission is a sizable undertaking of great complexity, its groundwork exists and many parts require only evolution and enlargement. Others are very clearly set out, like the formal research missions we have invoked. The "very bright agent" or the "very good agent" excuse is one which claims that the Mission is an elite pursuit meant only for the brilliant or the saintly. This is obviously against the Teacher's intention since he recruited simple as well as accomplished and sullied as well as pure men and women for his own mission. There was clearly no claim to be made that his role was one of a scintillating leader or holy guru. He was a genius as stated before, but his genius lay in the actions of his movement.

A separate discussion is indicated for the "very brave agent" fallacy, which would purport that it takes enormous courage to contribute to the Mission. Several arguments apply. First of all, according to the Commandments of Love, the Mission is to be unequivocally non-violent and non-conflict-provoking. It is to use the power of reason instead of the power of force. Secondly, it elicits gratitude, not vengeance, even from those who do not believe its tenets. Thirdly, the Mission is a group action, not a lonely struggle of individuals. That is its strength even in our present circumstance. All this indicates that while the Mission requires the courage of perseverance, it would only rarely involve high heroics of the antic kind. Mission culture would be a possible source of moral support and courage needed for Mission work.

Another objection to the Mission could be the amount of work involved. This is the most serious obstacle to be overcome. Here as Neo-Christian Humanists we must prioritize our efforts. We must also remember that the Mission is an evolutionary undertaking. We have touched on both these points before. Thus unnecessary work and unnecessary pastimes should be gradually eliminated to make way for that which is truly fulfilling and enriching--the Mission as humanity's common good and common purpose. When we see the Mission to its fruition we will attain to a full measure of happiness on earth.

Neo-Christian Humanism lifts the work ethic from a secular and functional precept to a spiritual tenet. All able-bodied persons should work and take part in the Mission. As we have said before, all that man does in the context of the two Commandments of Love is an offering and a form of worship. Therefore all work is blessed and holy and as such should be a source of happiness even when it is in itself unrewarding and tiresome. The disabled who cannot work are greatly deprived and should be commiserated with, not disparaged. They serve by bearing up bravely in their suffering and being the focus of those in the Mission. We repeat: in Neo-Christian Humanism work is happiness. Thus the Neo-Christian Humanist work ethic exceeds the secular ethic by giving meaning to work that we do in the name of the Almighty.

As we have already said, war is immoral in the light of the two great Commandments of God. Indeed, war is the worst man-made evil and destructiveness of the human race. In truth there should be no warring and no armies. However, this is not what has developed over millennia of uncontrolled human evolution. Mankind has never enjoyed a lengthy historical period without war. Most people still think war is a legitimate human endeavor in the face of the fact that it leads to unbelievable carnage and wreckage of the civilizational product worked out by men over generations.

However, our outlook is evolutionary and we notice that there has been appreciable evolution toward the lessening of war strife and toward permanent Peace. Some of the world's best armies are now being used as peace-keeping forces and militia more than instruments of war. This seems to be an increasing and lasting development. Also, there is more experience at negotiation of conflicts between warring parties and that experience is still growing.

At this point the natural step in the evolution toward Peace would be the institution of Peace research leading to war prevention. We have already remarked on the scarcity of Peace research resources. Therefore the Peace effort of the Mission should be directed, among other things, to the formation of Peace research institutes and to the implementation of their findings. This would involve sociologists, anthropologists, and behavioral scientists as well as tacticians and strategists for all the situational variants of war. We expect that such studies could result in methods of war elimination and thus in permanent and unconditional Peace. An increasing number of nations is ready to foster Peace and to serve as an example to less developed countries. This is the bright hope that has dawned in our day and we must not lose its chance, reverting to the darkness that has plagued the past history of our race.

One of the primary evils of the human race is the abuse of those who are children, or are disabled, or enfeebled by old age. It is a crime that strikes at the very heart of the tender familial structure of the human community and propagates like cancer over generations, truly calling to the heavens for revenge. There is no injustice more heinous nor condition more pitiable than that of the victims of dependents abuse. Yet surprisingly little has been done to prevent and do away with dependents abuse, and the sanctions against it are often inadequate and irrational.

We will take child abuse in the USA as our example of dependents abuse. Child abuse has not been adequately studied to determine the origins of this human failing. As a result only topical remedies for it exist in the shape of counseling for the abusive guardian and some criminal sanctions for near-lethal or lethal abuse. There is no attempt to study genetic predisposition to child abuse. The situational conditioning of abusive guardians is relatively better known, but what to do about it is still disputed. For instance, it is not certain when, if at all, it is safe to return an abused child to the custody of its abusive guardian. Another option is supervised visitation by the guardian but this seems to be rarely practiced. Thus the Mission for child abuse should once again feature research as well as rescue and nurturing missions. The nurturing missions need to be expanded, for the remedy of abuse sustained is love and it is love we must shower on the children brutalized by the rabidities of human nature. This we know from the two Commandments of Love.

Hunger and famine are still a fact of life on Earth today, although it is said that there is enough food to feed the entire human population. Obviously famine and hunger address are a sizable part of the Mission. Hunger is an intolerable form of human suffering and death from hunger one of the cruelest ways for people, particularly children, to die.

Besides comprehensive research into the causes of hunger and famine the Mission needs to develop sufficient stores of food and methods of getting it to food shortage danger sites promptly and without fail. This would involve, among other things, standing militias to protect the transfer, storage, and distribution of foodstuffs. That in turn would require efforts which are diplomatic, tactical and political.

The proper organization for the execution of such efforts is the world government, hence the Mission would have to establish contacts with the United Nations. Such contacts would probably consist of suasion and money contributions. Laws facilitating hunger address should be developed and incorporated into International Law. The world community has much to do to eradicate hunger. In this day and age there is no excuse for famine and hunger should be a diminishing phenomenon. The day hunger is eliminated from the planet will mark a new era for mankind and its Mission.

For those who do not believe in a Supreme Being the Second Commandment of Love is proposed as an ethic which is at once loving and evolutionary; the Mission is open to such people at all times.

Human beings have a great store of goodness in their souls and that is why we are able to undertake the Mission as an initiative.

There are people who love to make money. Far from being discouraged from that pursuit by Neo-Christian Humanism (in the name of humility and self-denial) they should be invited to make as much as possible and share a generous portion with the Mission. This is the modern approach to charity taken as a mandate of conscience. We would expect the community of the world's societies to evolve into a global unity under the input of the Mission. This unity would be a plurality which is a mosaic of nationalities and cultures. With time a Renaissance of local cultures and ethnicities could develop in the global unity as Mission undertakings bring a new flowering to our human estate.