Episode #65: Clara Letter Five - Editing

Jan,16 2026

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October 2, 1988

To the Council and to all Chapters,

Several of you have written requesting that the books of my elders be "updated for a modern readership." Some ask that certain passages be softened, others that explanations be inserted where the meaning is unclear. A few have suggested that entire sections be removed so that our message may appear more united.

I was asked to provide a clear guide on each chapter and on each verse, like it is done in the Torah.

I must refuse this.

The two books of Christopher were written before I was born. The book of my aunt Ruth was written before I was fully an adult. They belong to their time as surely as the fields belong to their seasons. I will not pretend to be their editor.

I cannot either pretend to have the sole understanding behind these words simply because I share blood with these authors and live in one of the houses where these books were written.

We did not modernize the Bible when the world changed around it. Why then should we modernize these works that were born from the same soil of struggle and prayer? If they contain rough places, it is because life contains rough places.

Yes, there are confusing passages.

Yes, there are words that trouble the new generation.

But the remedy for confusion is not erasure.

What remains perfectly clear is the love Christopher had for other human beings and his passion that we be free and honest before God. That spirit does not require polishing.

To smooth the edges would be to lie about who they were. My grandfather wrote with a skipping typewriter; my aunt wrote with a restless heart; Christopher spoke in parables that even his friends did not always understand. These are not flaws. They are fingerprints.

The best I can offer is this: I have recently received a bundle of letters written by my grandmother Myriam in the years after Christopher's death. They were discovered in a cedar box while repairing the roof of her old house. I believe they may shed light without replacing anything.

If the Council agrees, I will arrange for parts of these letters to be copied and shared, not as corrections, but as windows. Let them stand beside the earlier books, not over them. Of course, personal ones with no public value will remain private, as Myriam was both a very public person about religious affairs, and a private, almost shy one about her own personal life.

We are caretakers, not owners.

With firmness and affection,

Clara Mercer

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