Editorial November 6, 1976 Issue

Spirituality: The Great Cleanser

Peter J. Henniker-Heaton

We're all antipollutionists today. At least so long as it's the other fellow's pollution. When it comes to our own particular form of pollution, we're slower to recognize it or we may argue that possible advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

Because of this inconsistency, high hopes for antipollution measures too often end in disappointment. This is likely to continue until the essential breakthrough is achieved: the basic pollutant behind all specific pollutants, ours and the other fellow's, must be identified, denounced, and dealt with. For this we need a new perception of reality, a perception of reality as wholly spiritual, unpolluted and unpollutable.

To approach this problem from another angle. "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God."^{Matt. 5:8;} These words of Christ Jesus are widely respected. Purity of heart, indeed purity of all kinds, is generally agreed to be desirable. Yet at the same time many good and thoughtful people have reservations about purity, about both the word and the concept.