A Battle Between Light and Darkness
Last Thursday Ray and I drove north to our quiet place, the 750-person town of New Harmony, Indiana. We enjoy New Harmony because it is peaceful, friendly, historic, and tiny.
It is special to us because the first time we were there, we were newlyweds–as in less than three months into our marriage. I needed to go there for work and we were blessed to be able to make the trip during Ray’s spring break from graduate school.
New Harmony is historic because it was the home of two attempts at utopia. The Harmonites (or Rappites) were first. German George Rapp led 800 Harmonists there in 1814. The Harmonists were devout believers in Jesus. They believed that Jesus was going to return very soon. They lived celibate lives and waited for His return.
Between 1814 and 1824, the Harmonists built 180 structures. They established a thriving community that shipped products across the United States and into Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the British Isles. After ten years, the Harmonists sold their community and moved back to Pennsylvania, where they had first settled after immigrating to the U.S. from Germany.
Welsh businessman and social reformer Robert Owen, along with his business partner William Maclure, purchased New Harmony. Owen was an atheist. He dreamed of founding a “Community of Equality.” In his plan, children would not live with their parents, but rather in dormitories, where they would receive an education without religion. His experiment lasted only from 1825 to 1827.
Members of the Owen family continued to live in New Harmony. In 1941 Kenneth Dale Owen, who was born in New Harmony, married Jane Blaffer, daughter of the founder of what became ExxonMobil Oil Co. When Kenneth took Jane to see his hometown, she became enamored with it. Jane Owen spent her long life as a generous philanthropist, both in her native Houston and in New Harmony. She died in 2010, but the people of New Harmony still remember her fondly. Several mentioned her to Ray and me last weekend.
One of Jane Owen’s projects in New Harmony was the New Harmony Inn, built in 1974. Ray and I stayed there on my employer’s expense account in 1975. We stayed there again last weekend, taking advantage of deep winter discounts.
New Harmony is a place where believers need sensitive and wise spiritual discernment. Evidences of belief in Jesus are all around town.
Ray and I always enjoy going inside the pretty St. Stephens Episcopal Church to see the architecture and stained glass windows.
This cross was in the flooded lake behind the inn.
Symbols of the Alpha and the Omega decorate the entrance to New Harmony’s “Roofless Church.”
Inside was this scripture from Jeremiah.
One corner of the lobby of the New Harmony Inn is a circular chapel. The Ten Commandments circle its exterior.
Though evidence of faith is all around town, townspeople and visitors also see evidence of “spirituality” that is far afield from Biblical teaching. Some of it seems to be a strange mixture of Christianity and other religions. Some is completely evil: Ray and I saw carved wooden “magic wands” in one store.
Ray and I enjoyed the conversation we had about this with one of the owners of the local dulcimer shop. When I noticed the beautiful wooden cross in the shop, . . .
. . . I asked the two owners if they were believers. We learned that the owner who is a native of New Harmony is also a minister. He explained some about the dichotomy that we were seeing. He mentioned the opposing views of the two utopian founders: the first leader believed strongly in Jesus; the second was an adamant unbeliever. The minister believes a battle between light and darkness continues in New Harmony.
In truth that battle continues everywhere, especially in our own hearts. The need for sensitive and wise spiritual discernment is necessary wherever we are, and the need to train our children to have discerning hearts is essential. I am grateful that homeschooling gives you extra time to do that.
My friend told our daughter Bethany not to let her childhood go by without reading Little Women. Don’t let your children’s childhood go by without giving them a solid biblical foundation.
Therefore, take up the full armor of God,
so that you will be able to resist in the evil day,
and having done everything, to stand firm.
Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth,
and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
and having shod your feet
with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith
with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
And take the helmet of salvation,
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Ephesians 6:13-17