Eric Butterworth

Archive Letter Sheds Light on Social Change Within Unity

As a spiritual movement, Unity has evolved in its consciousness of race relations. Letters written in 1956 between a congregant and minister provide a snapshot of the social landscape and how attitudes were being challenged. 

It was 1956, and racial conflicts were escalating in the United States. Although a Supreme Court ruling upheld "separate but equal" facilities in 1896, African-Americans were beginning to challenge institutional racial segregation. Brown v. the Topeka Board of Education had outlawed segregation in public schools in 1954.

Eric Butterworth Wants You to Break the Ten Commandments

Breaking the Ten Commandments by Eric Butterworth

Some 20 years ago, Rev. Tom Thorpe got some personal advice from acclaimed author Eric Butterworth. “He said, to me, ‘Be your own curmudgeon; don’t worship anyone else’s words,’” recalled Thorpe.

Some of Butterworth’s most provocative words were aimed at unquestioning adherence to Judeo-Christian dogma. Breaking the Ten Commandments: Discover the Deeper Meaning, his provocative re-think of this cornerstone of the Bible, was re-released in February by Unity Books.

Work and the Success Syndrome (Part 2)

Work and the Success Syndrome (Part 2)

A distinguished professor at Harvard University once said, "The University pays me for doing what I would gladly do for nothing, if I could afford it." Most persons might laugh at his naivete. However, what he is saying is that his work is not just a place to tediously make a living but an opportunity to joyously live his making. In other words, he is looking at his teaching work in terms of the privilege it gives him to grow as a person. And growth is what life is all about ... not just paychecks and fringe benefits, but growth. It is probably true that the best living is "made" by those workers whose chief motivation is to give themselves away. …

Refreshing is the holism of Ralph Waldo Emerson:

Work and the Success Syndrome (Part 1)

Work and the Success Syndrome (Part 1)

When Jesus says, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (Jn. 8:32 KJV), He implies that our bondage in life is caused by our acceptance of erroneous beliefs. A Greek philosopher, Zeno, says, "The most important part of learning is to unlearn our errors." In the study of spiritual economics, nothing is more basic or more rife with mistaken beliefs than our attitudes toward work.

Why do you work? You may smile at the question, for it seems perfectly obvious that everyone works to make a living. However, if this is the only reason you can come up with, then it is one of the errors that needs to be unlearned. It is an attitude that may well be frustrating your creative flow.

The Effusion of Light

Effusion of Light

We are living today in a complex and changing world. If there is one thing one needs more than anything else, it is light: light in terms of insight into self, guidance along life’s way, knowledge of the secrets of the universe, and the wisdom to use light and not abuse it. The clearest thinkers the race has produced have always seen the course of their lives as the quest for light. It is said that Goethe, who spent his life on this quest, gasped the last words on his deathbed: “More light!”1

The Healing Stream, Part 3

The Healing Stream, Part 3; waterfall

Excerpted from In the Flow of Life.

Some years ago there was a Widely published news item telling of the conclusions reached by a former professor at Harvard Medical School. He pointed out that most illnesses are cured without the victims ever knowing they have had them. He cited many instances in which postmortem examinations revealed unmistakable traces of diseases which the subject had conquered without knowing it.

The Healing Stream, Part 1

The Healing Stream, Part 1; waterfall

Excerpted from In the Flow of Life.

“Some people get all the breaks!” How often this cry is heard from the self-pitying or the sympathetic! And it would appear to be true. It has been proved that certain people are “accident prone,” while others are always stumbling onto everything from exciting jobs to interesting vacation spots. The Egyptians have a saying about the person who always “falls in the river and comes up with a fish in his mouth.”

Abundance

We are in an age of great change … corporations are streamlining their workforces … industries are either being eliminated or are moving into new fields. … Jobs once considered to be secure are being eliminated. Many workers are being faced with … retraining for new fields of work [or] … launching out in entrepreneurial endeavors, calling for faith and vision and the need to tap into the universal flow of substance.

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