Month: October 2015
PETER SUTHERLAND: UN SPECIAL MIGRATION REPRESENTATIVE CALLS FOR DESTRUCTION OF EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA
Says it is the “duty” of the West to “respect” migrants who undermine its culture and social mores
Peter Sutherland, the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General for International Migration, told the UN News Center it is not only the responsibility of Europe but also the United States and Canada to accept illegal immigration.
STEVE PETTIT & TOBE WITMER, BOB JONES GRADUATES: GUILT BY ASSOCIATION~A SPIRITUALLY DANGEROUS COMBINATION
DANGER IN THE CHURCH
THE SOFT SIDE OF “FUNDAMENTALISM”, OR?
HOLD ON NOW! SUPPRESS THOSE THOUGHTS!
FIRST SEE OUR PREVIOUS POSTS ABOUT PASTOR WITMER:
“DELAWARE 501C3 PASTOR ISSUES PSYCHOLOGICAL ADVICE TO OTHER PASTORS~ANALYZED & CRITIQUED FOR ORDINARY CHRISTIANS, JUST TO CLARIFY”
“”THIS PRESENT BATTLEGROUND”?~BUT CHRISTIANS HAVE FORSAKEN THE BATTLEFIELD BY THE DROVES~REPARATIVE CONVERSION THERAPY PROS & CONS~FORMER LESBIAN, CHRISTIAN CONVERT INFLUENCING PASTORS TO CONSIDER GAY MINDSET”
“FEMA INDEBTED 501C3 PASTOR SOLICITS MONEY FOR “OPERATION OF KINGDOM”~BUT GIVING SERVICES HUGE DEBT INSTEAD~LACK FAITH ABOUT YOUR FINANCES WHEN FEMA, WELFARE, UNEMPLOYMENT ARE THERE TO SUPPORT YOU?
TOBE WITMER OF LIGHTHOUSE BAPTIST CHURCH, NEWARK, DELAWARE INVITES STEVE PETTIT, BOB JONES UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT TO SPEAK AGAIN
THEY SURE ARE!
MAYBE THE SAME PAGE AS
LIBERAL LIBERTY UNIVERSITY!
WHAT APPEARS TO BE FUNDAMENTALISM IS NOT!
DENY, COVER UP, CONDEMN & REBUKE
(IN JESUS’ NAME, NO LESS);
PROTECT THAT 501C3 TAX EXEMPTION;
DO WHAT THE IRS COMMANDS, EVEN IF IT MEANS TURNING IN THE NON-COMPLIANT
AL JAZEERA EXPOSES SEX ABUSE AT BJU
BOB JONES UNIVERSITY: SEPARATION DETERIORATES UNDER PRESIDENT PETTIT DURING ENDLESS SEX ABUSE INVESTIGATION
he following report is by Don Jasmin, The Fundamentalist Journal, August-September 2014, djfbmhosea46@charter.net.
I thank the Lord for Dr. Jasmin’s spiritual discernment and his willingness to speak out for the truth’s sake. It appears to me that the vast majority of Bible-believing preachers today are perfectly content to watch the battle from the sidelines.
If this were our report, we go further in warning about Bob Jones University, including the error of fundamentalist interdenominationalism. (See the free eBook In Essentials Unity, available from www.wayoflife.org.)
AN ANALYSIS OF A “TOWN HALL” INTERVIEW MEETING WITH DR. STEPHEN PETTIT, THE NEW BJU PRESIDENT
By Don Jasmin
djfbmhosea46@charter.net
On July 7, 2014, Dr. Steve Pettit, the new President of Bob Jones University was interviewed live in a town-hall format by Marshall Franklin, a BJU “Executive Vice-President,” concerning his goals and plans for BJU, an interview which the F. D. editor watched and took extensive notes. The following article is a personal analysis of this interview.
THE POSITIVES
1. CONVERSATIONAL TONE: Dr. Pettit maintains an excellent “conversational” speech tone rapport with his audiences. He possesses the personal demeanor of a congenial likable gentleman, who also has a unique sense of humor in his public remarks.
2. GENUINE SPIRITUAL BURDEN FOR STUDENTS: The new BJU President obviously has a genuine burden for the spiritual life of BJU students. He desires to “make the chapel program the highlight of the day” for students, a noble goal. [During his seven years as a BJU student, the daily chapel program was truly the “highlight” of the now F.D. editor’s day! Yours truly could hardly wait to get to his seat for those daily chapel sessions!]
4. DESIRE FOR REVIVAL: The BJU evangelist-president believes there is a great need to pray for revival.
THE NEGATIVES
1. ATHLETICS
The “BJU Bruins” athletic sign/symbol dominated the background for the town-hall program, located directly in the center of the backdrop. When questioned about inter-collegiate athletics, Dr. Pettit stated that it was “not a problem,” that it was a “wonderful thing” and that he was “for it.” He was glad that inter-collegiate sports has been “added” to the BJU program. It should and will received a lot of attention.
[Fundamentalist Journal Ed: For 85 years, BJU successfully operated an “intramural” [in house] sports program only. Inter-collegiate sports has proven to be the spiritual death for every Christian college that has ever utilized it!!]
2. ACADEMICS-ACCREDITATION
Dr. Pettit approves it. He noted that BJU has been accredited for 10 years by TRACS, a religious national accrediting association. He also stated that BJU is preparing to submit an application to the regional secular SACS, for which two years’ work will go into the process.
Fundamentalist Journal Ed: Several decades ago, Dr. Bob Jones III wrote a booklet entitled Taking the Higher Ground: The Accreditation Issues from the Bible Point of View. In that booklet he unapologetically declared: “The compromises implicit in an unholy accreditation alliance may not appear at first, but it is evident that no man can serve two masters (p.4)….Regional accreditation is a sellout to the gods of the secular educational world (p.6).” Question: Who has changed? BJU or the Bible? It’s not the Scripture!
3. BIBLE TEXT ISSUE
Dr. Pettit stated that he “understands” the Bible text “issue carefully,” since he has studied it for 35 years. Both BJU and he take the same stand “as what I was taught” at BJU. Dr. Pettit says he “holds [the] right position” on the Bible. According to Dr. Pettit, the “use or non-use of the KJV should be a non-issue” to Bible-believers.
Fundamentalist Journal Ed: BJU adheres to the apostate critical text composed by Bible-denying liberals! The KJV is not a “non- issue” for discerning obedient perceptive Bible-believing Christians, it is a vital issue that correctly places professing Christians into two contrasting theological camps: The traditional Received Text—the text received by Bible churches down through the centuries, based upon 98.5 % of extant manuscripts, versus the Critical Text, the text concocted and promoted by apostate liberals based upon 1.5% of the manuscripts.
An Important Omission
In his answers, Dr. Pettit stated that at BJU there are three Bible texts that are sold and used: the KJV-NKJV and NASV. However, Dr. Pettit made an important omission: He failed to state that BJU sells the English Standard Version [ESV], 91.5% of which is word-for-word nothing less than the old liberal Revised Standard Version [RSV]. He also failed to mention that as of 2013, there were 20 shelve rows of ESV for sale at the campus book store [F.D. editor’s count], a number that is “inching” close to the number of KJV shelve rows!
Dr. Pettit somewhat reluctantly noted that BJU has about 2850 students enrolled in the undergraduate and graduate divisions for 2014. This writer believes that this decreasing enrollment can be partly attributed to the fact that BJU has lost much of its former KJV Biblicist Fundamentalist constituency due to its defective Bible text stance.
4. THE MUSIC ISSUE
When queried about BJU’s stance on the vital music issue, Dr. Pettit simply claimed that BJU took a “centrist” stance on music, a middle “balanced” stand, on which he never elucidated or made any qualifying remarks.
Another Notable Omission
When given the opportunity to delineate BJU’s position on the essential music issue, Dr. Pettit simply claimed a “centrist” policy for BJU, never once clarifying what the term “centrist” might mean from a musical viewpoint. Here was a golden opportunity for the BJU president to state the university’s bold clear outspoken opposition to Contemporary Christian Music [CCM-religious rock!] and Dr. Pettit totally forfeited this choice to make a plain statement. CCM music is the music that is rapidly destroying the inner character of Bible-believing churches, yet the new BJU president did not make any statement of any kind about CCM’s destructive traits.
Dr. Pettit’s silence here actually speaks volumes, since one of his closest friends, Dr. Fred Coleman., the “Department Head” [Dean] of BJU’s music division, recently produced a hymnbook that contains 30 hymns by Charismatic heretics whose associations include ecumenical R.C. and New-Age connections! Sadly, that hymnal was published by Dr. Pettit’s own publishing company, Heart Publications!
5. CHANGES IN DRESS CODE
When asked about BJU’s changes in dress codes, Dr. Pettit readily admitted that BJU had made some changes, but claimed that those “changes in dress code” are “just like [the] changes in your local church,” and that BJU was “doing pretty good” in that regard.
This writer readily admits that most local churches have made changes—gradual changes—over several decades in clothing apparel codes, but that these changes for the most part are for the worse, not the better! Apparel standards have dropped, and these lowering
As he visits the BJU campus each year, this writer can readily note the gradually lowering apparel standards there.
6. BJU’S RELATIONSHIP TO GREENVILLE, S.C. LOCAL CHURCHES
Dr. Pettit rightly stated the importance of students knowing the importance of local churches to student’s lives, declaring that of the three most important influences on BJU student lives: (a) Bible classes (b) other classes and (c) local churches; that local churches played the most influential part in the students’ lives.
He said he strongly supports the former BJU President’s choice to permit dorm students to attend local churches on Sunday morning. He said that he recently met with 52 pastors from Greenville, SC area churches and that it was his desire to work with “like minded” churches, However, he never defined what he meant by that term.
The BJU President said that 17% of S.C. students at BJU come from just 10 Greenville, SC area churches, a fact in which he seemed greatly delighted. QUESTION: Are these 10 churches the same pro-BJU churches that have adopted the ESV and are now also utilizing pro-CCM/CCM music in their services and special music? [While he doesn’t possess exact statistics, there are about 10 Greenville area pro BJU churches that have done just that!]
A Conflicting Dilemma?
When Dr. Pettit was questioned about changes at Northland International University [NIU]. Dr. Pettit indicated that he had worked for nearly 30 years for the Northland Camp & Conference Center, 20 years as the evangelist and 9 years as the full-time camp director. He then declared that he would “not [say] one negative thing about a place I love,” but then said he was “uncomfortable with changes” taking place there. Ed: You can’t have it both ways!
7. NO STATEMENTS OF ANY KIND ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF EVANGELISM, THE GREAT COMMISSION AND THE DEFENSE OF THE FAITH.
Since BJU was built by Dr. Bob Jones Sr. on an intensely evangelistic soul-winning foundation and the corresponding militant defense of the faith, this writer was surprised that not even one time were either of these two dual Biblical emphases mentioned, suggested or even inferred by Dr. Pettit. Staunch BJU advocates might claim this was due to lack of time during the one-hour session, but this writer does not concur with that argument.
CONCLUSION
Old-line BJU grads who had hoped for a return to the Bob Jones Sr. type ministry at BJU will be gravely disappointed. In this writer’s view, Dr. Pettit is going to continue to pursue the same policies and practices that have been taking BJU down the wrong road for several decades. If you are looking for a Fundamentalist school to endorse and support, this writer suggests that you find a Baptist Bible institute or Baptist College that is owned and operated under a Baptist, N. T. local church auspices.
ADDENDUM
A local Greenville, SC newspaper contained a large picture and accompanying article of a high school senior, along with his family, with the article title that the young man “signs with BJU Bruins” to play “intercollegiate” basketball there while he majors in “Sports Management” at BJU.
Fundamentalist Journal Ed: The public newspaper pictures from BJU all feature intercollegiate athletics. Where are the newspaper pictures for young men who sign up as “preacher boys” at BJU?
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research
purposes:
When people are informed of how dangerous contemporary worship music is and how that even the most “conservative” contemporary “hymn writers” are using their music as an ecumenical bridge to connect “traditional” churches with “the broader church,” as Getty/Townend have admitted, and instead of repenting of using it, they become the defensive and justify their actions, THAT IS CLEAR EVIDENCE OF COMPROMISE. Justifying the use of contemporary worship is a loud warning that a ministry is heading in the wrong direction, yea, a most dangerous direction. If you justify it, you are justifying the end-time apostasy that ALL of the mainstream contemporary worship musicians represent. You are justifying the breakdown in biblical separatism.
If you justify it, you will use more and more of it, and you will give your family and church an appetite for it, and you will build bridges to that extremely dangerous world: bridges over which your church will eventually walk. Those who are justifying the use of contemporary worship music are playing with fire. (See The Directory of Contemporary Worship Musicians, a free eBook available from Way of Life for documentation — www.wayoflife.org/free_ebooks/.)
Republished:
Friday, February 6, 2015
CANTUS: HOMOSEXUALS PERFORM AT “FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTIAN” BOB JONES UNIVERSITY~NOT THE FIRST “CHRISTIAN” SCHOOL OR CHURCH EITHER
Thich Nhat Hanh – Zen Buddhist master of our time, philosopher, teacher and prolific writer on mindful living.”
ALSO SEE OUR PREVIOUS POSTS REFERENCING “THICH NHAT HANH” AND BUDDHIST “MINDFULNESS”:
Meet Cantus!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCITYzdx72o
__________________________________________________________
The following article is similar to the accusations, charges and demands made by pastor Witmer recently to this blog:
SEE: http://www.wayoflife.org/index_files/pastor_demands_I_remove_his_people.html; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
“Pastor Demands That I Remove His People from My Mailing List”
October 22, 2015 (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article)
Recently I received the following email from a pastor:
“There are church members here that have developed a critical mindset from various sources, including your website and subscription to your emails with Way of Life. I respectfully ask that you take members of —— Baptist Church from ———- off your subscription list without bashing me and by keeping out of this local New Testament issue. ——— and ———– do not need critical influence because they are babes in Christ and their Pastor (that’s me), sees spiritually fit for you to take your emails off their sending list. If you do not then I will take this further. This is not up for debate! God hates discord and that is final. Thank you for respecting the authority of this local N. T. Church.”
REPLY FROM BROTHER CLOUD
Hello, Pastor ——–.
I am sorry to hear from you under these circumstances. It would not be ethical for me to remove the names. These men subscribed of their own free will, and it is up to them to unsubscribe. To remove them on your request would be like going to the post office and demanding that a stop be placed on someone else’s mail without their knowledge and approval.
As for a critical mindset, if the church members you mentioned have a truly critical mindset and are causing carnal divisions in the church and are not showing proper respect to the pastor, they did not learn that from me and I would reprove them for such a thing. I warn about that frequently. See my reports such as “Keys to Fruitful Church Membership,” “I Am Not Your Pastor,” “A Critical Eye,” and “The Pastor’s Authority and the Church Member’s Responsibility.” All of these are freely available at the Way of Life web site.
As for protecting the church from error, you certainly have that responsibility, and I understand this very well.
I was a pastor in Tennessee in the 1970s, and since 1979 I have held a position similar to a pastor as a missionary church planter.
The pastor has the authority and responsibility to build up his people in the Lord Jesus Christ and the Word of God and to protect them from error.But the way he protects the sheep from error is not to bully them and demand unquestioning submission to his authority and to treat their challenges as carnal divisiveness. That is the way of an emperor, not a pastor (1 Peter 5:1-3). The way that a biblical pastor protects the sheep is to train them in the truth so they have good spiritual discernment. This is how the pastor “shuts the mouths” of heretics (Titus. 1:9-11).
If one of our church members starts reading Reformed theology or something else that I consider to be in error, I am not going to contact the preacher or the author and demand that he remove our church members from his mailing list or try to force him to stop publishing his material.
I am first going to make the effort to find out exactly what is being taught by reading the material or listening to the sermons for myself. I am not going to depend on second-hand information or what someone else says about that preacher or author.
Then I am going to teach that church member why I believe that particular author is wrong and why he should not follow him, and if I believe that the wrong doctrine is dangerous, I am going to urge him to stop listening to it.
The pastor has the authority and responsibility to do this.
He does not, though, have the authority to keep his people from hearing other preachers that speak the truth, even if he doesn’t appreciate who they are.
That is what Diotrophes was guilty of, and the apostle John described his sin in very strong terms (3 John 9-11). Diotrophes tried to forbid his people to hear the truth spoken by other preachers. It wasn’t a matter of protecting them from heresy; it was an issue of maintaining his authority over people’s lives.
In my long experience, most pastors that get upset at me for supposedly interfering in their “local church affairs” and for supposedly stirring up their people “to criticism” have not made the effort to carefully and prayerfully read what I had said (or to watch the music videos, etc.) and have not proven that I am actually in error. Often the problem has to do with something I have said about one of their preacher heroes like Jack Hyles or Paul Chappell or Clarence Sexton or whoever. They react knee-jerk fashion without carefully checking out what I have said and why I am concerned, and they automatically charge me with causing division.
The truth causes division, just as surely as error does. The prophets of old caused great discord and division. Jesus caused tremendous discord among the Jews, and He continues to cause discord in this sin-cursed, error-afflicted world. He said He did not come to bring peace but division (Lk. 12:51). Paul stirred up discord throughout his ministry.
God does not hate “discord” that is the product of truth.
If I have spoken the truth about the compromise of some well-known preacher, or if I have spoken the truth about the music issue or the evangelism issue or whatever issue it might be, and that truth causes division among some independent Baptists, that is not sin. It only exposes the fact that there are a lot of independent Baptist compromisers and heretics.
It would be a good thing and not a bad thing, a godly thing and not a carnal thing, for independent Baptists who are faithful to the truth of God’s Word to divide from those who are following pragmatic human thinking rather than God’s Word and who are compromising the truth by moving in a worldly, contemporary path, etc.
The real problem lies in the fact that so many independent Baptists are men followers more than Christ followers and are committed to many errors that they have learned from their misguided heroes. Instead of testing everything by God’s Word as a true Berean (Acts 17:11), they test things by their tradition (all the while giving lip service to being Biblicists).
It is frightful that so many independent Baptist preachers are so shockingly ignorant of these fundamental and basic biblical truths.
In Christ,
Brother Cloud
POPE FRANCIS & THE THOMAS MERTON CONNECTION~ONE WORLD RELIGION MORE INTERFAITH & MYSTICAL THAN TRUE CHRISTIANITY
POPE FRANCIS & THE THOMAS MERTON CONNECTION
Pope Francis and the Thomas Merton Connection by Ray Yungen is our newest Lighthouse Trails BookletTract. The Booklet Tract is 14 pages long and sells for $1.95 for single copies. Quantity discounts are as much as 50% off retail. Our Booklet Tracts are designed to give away to others or for your own personal use. Below is the content of the booklet. To order copies of Pope Francis and the Thomas Merton Connection, click here.
After writing this booklet at my publisher’s headquarters in Montana, I learned that the Parliament of the World Religions was taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah that same week. I decided to head down there, and with a media pass, was able to enter the conference. What I experienced at the conference has confirmed to me that Pope Francis is without question an ardent interspiritualist on the same page as Thomas Merton.—Ray Yungen
Pope Francis and the Thomas Merton Connection
By Ray Yungen
In 2013, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was elected Pope Francis the First. This new pope immediately began causing ripples in the Catholic Church with his statements on certain issues. He also caused many to take notice of his unpapal lifestyle such as living in a guesthouse with twelve others rather than living in the papal apartments like previous popes. He projects a down-to-earth image that denotes compassion and trust. He has been called the people’s pope, someone who is your friend, someone you can trust. But there are certain things about Pope Francis’ coming on the scene that are being ignored by the media and most people.
The first of these are the unusual circumstances that surrounded his election to the papacy. Pope Benedict resigned from his position as Pope. He is the first Catholic pope to do this since the 1400s. Popes do not resign but rather continue to be popes until they die. There was no obvious reason for Pope Benedict to resign. There was no scandal, nor no immediate health issue. (Two years into Pope Francis’ reign, Benedict is still alive.)
The second is the number of books about Pope Francis that have been released since he came on the scene. Previous popes had perhaps one or two books about them or by them. But books by or about Pope Francis are extremely prolific. You see them everywhere. Many of these books use descriptions such as revolution and hope.
The cover story in Christianity Today’s December 2014 issue proclaims: “Why Everyone is Flocking to Francis.” CT has its own idea of why “everyone” is drawn to the Pope. But if I am correct in my conclusions about contemplative spirituality and its outcome, then what is happening here is an occurrence that will affect the lives of millions of people, both Catholic and non-Catholic.
In his speech to the U.S. Congress on September 24th, 2015, Pope Francis praised four Americans he admired.1 One in particular stood out from the perspective of the spiritual future of the world—the Catholic monk, Thomas Merton. If you have been reading Lighthouse Trails literature for any length of time, you will know this reference by the pope is quite sobering and very significant. It is this situation that this booklet will be discussing.
Who is Thomas Merton? (1915-1968)
What Martin Luther King was to the civil rights movement and what Henry Ford was to the automobile, Thomas Merton is to contemplative prayer. Although this prayer movement existed centuries before he came along, Merton, a Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky, took it out of its monastic setting and made it available to, and popular with, the masses. I personally have been researching Thomas Merton and the contemplative prayer movement for over 20 years, and for me, hands down, Thomas Merton has influenced the Christian mystical movement more than any person of recent decades.
Merton penned one of the most classic descriptions of contemplative spirituality I have ever come across. He explained:
It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race . . . now I realize what we all are. . . . If only they [people] could all see themselves as they really are . . . I suppose the big problem would be thatwe would fall down and worship each other. . . . At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusions, a point of pure truth. . . . This little point . . . is the pureglory of God in us. It is in everybody. 2 (emphasis mine)
This panentheistic (i.e., God in everyone) view is similar to the occultic definition of the higher self.
In order to understand Merton’s connection to mystical occultism, we need first to understand a sect of the Muslim world—the Sufis, who are the mystics of Islam. They chant the name of Allah as a mantra, go into meditative trances, and experience God in everything. A prominent Catholic audiotape company promotes a series of cassettes Merton did on Sufism. It explains:
Merton loved and shared a deep spiritual kinship with the Sufis, the spiritual teachers and mystics of Islam. Here he shares their profound spirituality.3
To further show Merton’s “spiritual kinship” with Sufism, in a letter to a Sufi Master, Merton disclosed, “My prayer tends very much to what you call fana.”4 So what is fana? The Dictionary of Mysticism and the Occult defines it as “the act of merging with the Divine Oneness”5 (meaning all is one and all is God).
Merton saw the Sufi concept of fana as being a catalyst for Muslim unity with Christianity despite the obvious doctrinal differences. In a dialogue with a Sufi leader, Merton asked about the Muslim concept of salvation. The master wrote back stating:
Islam inculcates individual responsibility for one’s actions and does not subscribe to the doctrine of atonement or the theory of redemption.6 (emphasis added)
To Merton, of course, this meant little because he believed that fana and contemplation were the same thing. He responded:
Personally, in matters where dogmatic beliefs [the atonement]differ, I think that controversy is of little value because it takes us away from the spiritual realities into the realm of words and ideas . . . in words there are apt to be infinite complexities and subtleties which are beyond resolution. . . . But much more important is the sharing of the experience of divine light . . . It is here that the area of fruitful dialogue exists between Christianity and Islam.7 (emphasis mine)
Merton himself underlined that point when he told a group of contemplative women:
I’m deeply impregnated with Sufism.8
And he elaborated elsewhere:
Asia, Zen, Islam, etc., all these things come together in my life. It would be madness for me to attempt to create a monastic life for myself by excluding all these. I would be less a monk.9 (emphasis mine)
When we evaluate Merton’s mystical worldview, it clearly resonates with what technically would be considered traditional New Age thought. This is an inescapable fact!
Merton’s mystical experiences ultimately made him a kindred spirit and co-mystic with those in Eastern religions because his insights were identical to their insights. At an interfaith conference in Thailand, he stated:
I believe that by openness to Buddhism, to Hinduism, and to these great Asian [mystical] traditions, we stand a wonderful chance of learning more about the potentiality of our own Christian traditions.10
Please understand that contemplative prayer alone was the catalyst for such theological views. One of Merton’s biographers made this very clear when he explained:
If one wants to understand Merton’s going to the East it is important to understand that it was his rootedness in his own faith tradition [Catholicism] that gave him the spiritual equipment [contemplative prayer] he needed to grasp the way of wisdom that is proper to the East.11
This was the ripe fruit of the Desert Fathers, the ancient monks who borrowed mystical methods from Eastern religion, which altered their understanding of God. This is what one gets from contemplative prayer. There is no other way to put it. It does not take being a scholar to see the logic in this.
Contemplative Prayer and The Expansion of the Catholic Church
The most obvious integration of this movement can be found in Roman Catholicism. Michael Leach, former president of the Catholic Book Publishers Association, made this incredibly candid assertion:
[M]any people also believe that the spiritual principles underlying the New Age movement will soon be incorporated—or rather reincorporated—into the mainstream of Catholic belief. In fact, it’s happening in the United States right now.12
Incorporating it is! And it is assimilating primarily through the contemplative prayer movement.
Contemplative leader Basil Pennington, openly acknowledging its growing size, said, “We are part of an immensely large community … ‘We are Legion.’”13 Backing him up, a major Catholic resource company stated, “Contemplative prayer has once again become commonplace in the Christian community.”14
William Shannon (a mysticism proponent and a sympathetic biographer of Thomas Merton) went so far as to say “contemplative spirituality has now widely replaced old-style Catholicism.”15 This is not to say the Mass or any of the sacraments have been abandoned, but the underlying spiritual ideology of many in the Catholic church is now contemplative in its orientation.
One of my personal experiences with the saturation of mysticism in the Catholic church was in a phone conversation I had with the head nun at a local retreat center who told me the same message Shannon conveys. She made it clear The Cloud of Unknowing (an ancient primer on contemplative prayer) is now the basis for nearly all Catholic spirituality, and contemplative prayer is now becoming widespread all over the world.
I had always been confused as to the real nature of this advance in the Catholic church. Was this just the work of a few mavericks and renegades, or did the church hierarchy sanction this practice? My concerns were affirmed when I read in an interview that the mystical prayer movement not only had the approval of the highest echelons of Catholicism but also was, in fact, the source of its expansion. Speaking of a meeting between the late Pope Paul VI and members of the Catholic Trappist Monastic Order in the 1970s, Thomas Keating, disclosed the following:
The Pontiff declared that unless the Church rediscovered the contemplative tradition, renewal couldn’t take place. He specifically called upon the monastics, because they lived the contemplative life, to help the laity and those in other religious orders bring that dimension into their lives as well.16
Just look at the official catechism of the Catholic church to see contemplative prayer officially endorsed and promoted to the faithful by the powers that be. The catechism firmly states: “Contemplative prayer is hearing the word of God … Contemplative prayer is silence.”17
The Merton Paradigm
A 2013 article from the UK news source The Telegraph states:
[Pope] Francis is a Jesuit and his long, arduous formation as a priest was founded on the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius.18
The Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) reaffirmed the pope’s “Ignatian spirituality,” stating that:
All Jesuits share the experience of a rigorous spiritual formation process marked by a transformative experience with the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. To think that the leader of the Catholic Church is one who follows in the tradition of Ignatius, whose life has been devoted to finding God in all things, and who is committed to the service of faith and the promotion of justice, fills me with great hope. This is a great day for the Jesuits and the worldwide Church.19
Harvey D. Egan, S.J., Professor Emeritus of Systematic and Mystical Theology at Boston College explains the following about St. Ignatius of Loyola:
Ignatius of Loyola . . . is one of the Christian tradition’s profoundest mystics and perhaps its greatest mystagogue [one who teaches mystical doctrines].20
Today, the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius incorporate contemplative prayer practices. Considering that Ignatian spirituality compliments much of Thomas Merton’s spiritual outlook, it is not surprising that a Jesuit pope would say the following words to the U.S. Congress:
[Thomas Merton] remains a source of spiritual inspiration and a guide for many people. . . . Merton was above all a man of prayer, a thinker who challenged the certitudes of his time and opened new horizonsfor souls and for the Church.21 (emphasis added)
The problem is that Merton did indeed open new horizons, but not in a good way. The horizons he opened were to “spiritual realities” that were at odds with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Rather, it reflected an interspiritual perception and even beyond that into the realm of the occult. In the book The Aquarian Conspiracy, the following information shows just how far Merton had crossed the line into realms that were spiritually dangerous.
In 1967, Barbara Marx Hubbard, a futurist moved by Teilhard’s vision evolving human consciousness, invited a thousand people from around the world . . . to form “a human front” to those who shared a belief in the possibility of transcendent consciousness. Hundreds responded, including . . . Thomas Merton.22
Even though Marx Hubbard was an outright occultist, Merton still was on board with her. There didn’t seem to be any hesitancy on his part to embrace what she referred to as transcendent consciousness. In a nutshell,transcendent consciousness is the very essence of the teaching of all the world’s mystical traditions that God is inall that exists. But consider the implications of such a belief: If God were in everything, including all people, as Merton and Hubbard believed, then there would be no need for Jesus to die for the sins of the world to reconcile man to God because man would already be divine.
The account that best illustrates what outcome this could have for Christianity is the story of Sue Monk Kidd who was a Southern Baptist Sunday school teacher in a small town in South Carolina. She would have been seen as an average Christian wife and mother. She gives a revealing description of her spiritual transformation in her book God’s Joyful Surprise: Finding Yourself Loved sharing how she suffered a deep hollowness and spiritual hunger for many years even though she was very active in her church. She sums up her feelings:
Maybe we sense we’re disconnected from God somehow. He becomes superfluous to the business at hand. He lives on the periphery so long we begin to think that is where He belongs. Anything else seems unsophisticated or fanatical.23
Ironically, a Sunday school co-worker handed her a book by Thomas Merton, telling her she needed to read it. Once Monk Kidd read it, her life changed dramatically.
In her third book, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, not too many years after she wrote her first two books (which by the way were widely accepted in Christian circles, including a back cover endorsement by Moody Monthly magazine), there had been a dramatic change in her spiritual life as you can see in this narrative she wrote:
The minister was preaching. He was holding up a Bible. It was open, perched atop his raised hand as if a blackbird had landed there. He was saying that the Bible was the sole and ultimate authority of the Christian’s life. The sole and ultimate authority.
I remember a feeling rising up from a place about two inches below my navel. It was a passionate, determined feeling, and it spread out from the core of me like a current so that my skin vibrated with it. If feelings could be translated into English, this feeling would have roughly been the word no!
It was the purest inner knowing I had experienced, and it was shouting in me no, no, no! The ultimate authority of my life is not the Bible; it is not confined between the covers of a book. It is not something written by men and frozen in time. It is not from a source outside myself. My ultimate authority is the divine voice in my own soul. Period.24
Now Sue Monk Kidd worships the “Goddess Sophia” rather than Jesus Christ:
We also need Goddess consciousness to reveal earth’s holiness. . . . Matter becomes inspirited; it breathes divinity. Earth becomes alive and sacred. . . . Goddess offers us the holiness of everything.25
During his speech to the US Congress, Pope Francis said that Thomas Merton sowed peace in the “contemplative style.” But actually, Merton did something far different than sow peace; he sowed the actual belief systems of other religions as these two quotes below illustrate:
The God [Merton] knew in prayer was the same experience that Buddhists describe in their enlightenment.26
In other words, Merton found Buddhist enlightenment in contemplative prayer. Merton’s view that God is in every person is summed up in this statement:
During a conference on contemplative prayer, the question was put to Thomas Merton: “How can we best help people to attain union with God?” His answer was very clear: “We must tell them that they are already united with God. Contemplative prayer is nothing other than ‘coming into consciousness’ of what is already there.”27
Even influential Catholic leaders recognize this and refer to Merton as being a “lapsed monk” who “went ‘wandering in the East, seeking consolation, apparently, of non-Christian, Eastern spirituality.’”28
These new horizons by Thomas Merton that Pope Francis has found to be exemplar are going to lead to an even greater slide into interspirituality within Catholicism and even evangelical Christianity. In essence, those who are flocking to Pope Francis, as Christianity Today stated, are inadvertently flocking to Thomas Merton.
After writing this booklet at my publisher’s headquarters in Montana, I learned that the Parliament of the World Religions was taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah that same week. I decided to head down there, and with a media pass, was able to enter the conference. What I experienced at the conference has confirmed to me that Pope Francis is without question an ardent interspiritualist and on the same page as Thomas Merton. In one document I read (a letter written to all the conference participants by Archbishop Carlo Maria Bigano Vatican Ambassador to the U.S.), the Archbishop stated:
United to all of you in a bond of spiritual communion and in hope of increasing unity among all people of faith, the Holy Father offers his blessing and prayers as a pledge of strength and God.29 (emphasis added)
“Spiritual communion” is not referring to human kindness and respect to all people. This “spiritual communion” is where doctrines and beliefs are set aside, and a unity is established just as Thomas Merton suggested to the Sufi master (see page 5).
At the conference, I heard terms (in connection with the Pope, the Catholic Church, and all the world’s religions) such as “oneness,” “dialogue of fraternity,” and “he [Pope Francis] is a buddha” (said by a Buddhist monk); and the general consensus was that anyone who was not in favor of such a unity was spiritually wayward.
When Thomas Merton told the Sufi master that doctrine takes us away from the “spiritual realities” (a mystical state of oneness), he said “much more important is the sharing of the experience of divine light.” In other words, beliefs must be set aside, and in their place is a unity that can be reached through mysticism. All of the world’s major religions have a practice that offers this mystical state.
Just as Merton saw “fana” (Islamic mystical state) as one of the paths to spiritual unity, Pope Francis sees the various religions as one family. He is bringing Thomas Merton’s ideas of unity to the table of global unity among all humanity. Thomas Merton’s “contemplative style” (that Pope Francis referenced to Congress) saw no contradiction between Christianity and Buddhism; and Merton said he wanted to be the best Buddhist he could possibly be.30 When Pope Francis praised Thomas Merton (knowing full well the implications of this), he gave a green light for everyone to embrace interspirituality. And where there is interspirituality, there is no place for the Cross of Jesus Christ.
To order copies of Pope Francis and the Thomas Merton Connection, click here.
Endnotes:
1. Pope Francis’ speech to the U.S. Congress in September 2015: http://time.com/4048176/pope-francis-us-visit-congress-transcript.
2. Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (Garden City, NY: Doubleday Publishers, 1989), pp. 157-158.
3. Credence Cassettes magazine, Winter/Lent, 1998, p. 24.
4. M. Basil Pennington, Thomas Merton, My Brother (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1996), p. 115, citing from The Hidden Ground of Love), pp. 63-64.
5. Nevill Drury, The Dictionary of Mysticism and the Occult (San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 1985), p. 85.
6. Rob Baker and Gray Henry, Editors, Merton and Sufism (Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae, 1999), p. 109.
7. Ibid., p. 110.
8. Ibid., p. 69.
9. Ibid., p. 41.
10. William Shannon, Silent Lamp, The Thomas Merton Story (New York, NY: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1992), p. 276.
11. Ibid., p. 281.
12. Michael Leach (America, May 2, 1992), p. 384.
13. M. Basil Pennington, Centered Living: The Way of Centering Prayer (New York, NY: Doubleday Publishing, Image Book edition, September 1988), p. 10.
14. Sheed & Ward Catalog, Winter/Lent, 1978, p. 12.
15. William Shannon, Seeds of Peace (New York, NY: Crossroad Publishing, 1996), p. 25.
16. Anne A. Simpson, “Resting in God” (Common Boundary magazine, Sept./Oct. 1997, http://www.livingrosaries.org/interview.htm), p. 25.
17. Catechism of the Catholic Church (Urbi et Orbi Communications, 1994), p. 652.
18. Charles More, “A New Pope, a New Primate and a New Life for Christianity” (The Telegraph, March 15, 2013, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9932996/A-new-Pope-a-new-Primate-anda-new-life-for-Christianity.html).
19. From the AJCU website stated by John Hurley, JD (president Canisius College), “Statements on Pope Francis’ Election from Presidents of AJCU and Jesuit Institutions” (March 14, 2013 http://web.archive.org/web/20150325025014/http://www.ajcunet.edu/news-detail?TN=NEWS-20130314084452).
20. Harvey D. Egan, Soundings in the Christian Mystical Tradition (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2010), p. 227.
21. Pope Francis’ speech to the U.S. Congress in September 2015: http://time.com/4048176/pope-francis-us-visit-congress-transcript.
22. Marilyn Ferguson, The Aquarian Conspiracy (Los Angeles, CA: J.P. Archer, 1980), p. 57.
23. Sue Monk Kidd, God’s Joyful Surprise (San Francisco, CA: Harper, 1987), p. 56.
24. Sue Monk Kidd, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter (San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins, 1996), p. 76.
25. Ibid., pp. 162-163.
26. Brian C. Taylor, Setting the Gospel Free (New York, NY: Continuum Publishing, 1996), p. 76.
27. Brennan Manning, The Signature of Jesus (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 1996, Revised Edition), p. 211.
28. Deborah Halter, “Whose Orthodoxy Is It? (National Catholic Reporter, March 11, 2005, http://natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2005a/031105/031105a.php).
29. Can be read at: https://cadeioparliament.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/message-to-pwr.pdf.
30. David Steindl-Rast, “Recollection of Thomas Merton’s Last Days in the West” (Monastic Studies, 7:10, 1969).
To order copies of Pope Francis and the Thomas Merton Connection, click here.
_______________________________________________
WHO IS THOMAS MERTON?
SEE: http://apprising.org/2008/08/28/who-is-thomas-merton/;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
As we prepare to discuss the Contemplative Mystic Thomas Merton we will be entering the very Temple of the Contemplative Spirituality Movement (CSM) itself to touch one of its most “anointed” Buddhas. Those who teach Contemplative Spirituality Mysticism such as Richard Foster, the Quaker mystic who is listed among the “living spiritual teachers” at the Spirituality & Practice website, hold the late Merton in extremely high regard. Regardless, in this article I will show you that Merton taught a “social conversion,” which was a clear rejection of the historic orthodox Christian theology and the absolute necessity for mankind to be born again/regenerated. Merton’s teachings about Contemplative/Centering Prayer (i.e. transcendental meditation) for the inward conversion of man was right in line with the same foolish social gospel preached in liberal theology. And now through so-called “Christian” mysticism this falsehood has been reimagined by Guru Brian McLaren and others in the Emergent Church as their own warped and toxic myth of the Kingdom of God.Spiritual Director Thomas MertonA wise man attacks the city of the mighty and pulls down the stronghold in which they trust (Proverbs 21:20).In the CSM you will much talk about Spiritual Formation (SF) from men like Richard Foster, the Guru of Contemplation, and his faithful sidekick Dallas Willard. One of the main ideas they promote is the need for a Spiritual Director in one’s life. First we turn to a book called Spiritual Direction & Meditationby Thomas Merton, the man Foster says shared “priceless wisdom for all Christians who long to go deeper in the spiritual life.” In it Merton explains the origin for this supposed requirement of “spiritual direction.” As he does you will see where this whole messed up mysticism immediately went off-track. Merton tells us the:original, primitive meaning of spiritual direction suggests a particular need connected with a special ascetic task, a peculiar vocation for which a professional formation is required. In other words, spiritual direction is a monastic concept. It is a practice which wasunnecessary until men withdrew from the Christian community in order to live as solitaries in the desert. For the ordinary member in the primitive Christian community there was no particular need of personal direction in the professional sense. The bishop, the living and visible representative of the apostle who had founded the local Church, spoke for Christ and the apostles, and, helped by the presbyters, took care of all the spiritual needs of his flock (11, emphasis mine).In reading the above one must take into account that as a Roman Catholic monk Merton’s view of Church history is badly skewed. However, even with that we can see the whole of this so-called “Christian” mysticism, with its “spiritual formation” and “spiritual directors” teaching their contemplative spirituality began as a rebellion against Biblical authority and the outline for Church leadership in the pastoral epistles. We’ll return to this “monastic concept” later but for now we can see Merton admits that “men withdrew from the Christian community in order to live as solitaries in the desert.” This is where mysticism would enter into their religious life as the eastern “Desert Fathers” began seeking “common ground” with Buddhists, Muslims and Hindus in their worship. There they turned their back on their brothers and sisters in local churches in favor of seeking individual religious experience apart from the prescribed method of worshipping God in this Age of Grace laid out in the New Testament.As we return to begin looking more specifically at Thomas Merton I want to mention that in his excellent series Mysticism Gary Gilley points out just how deeply Guru Richard Foster is influenced by the mystic monk Thomas Merton. Just a quick aside for those who wonder why I use the title Guru so often with these “spiritual directors” in the Emergent Church like Foster and McLaren; if you are going to assign each other titles from apostate Rome and involve yourselves in trying to teach practices of Eastern mysticism, then a Guru is what you are. Gilley is right when he says of Foster:Foster cites and/or quotes Merton on at least nine separate occasions in Celebration of Discipline, yet Merton was not a Christian as far as we can tell. He was a twentieth-century Roman Catholic who had so immersed himself in Buddhism that he claimed he saw no contradiction between Buddhism and Christianity and intended to become as good a Buddhist as he could.But despite his doctrinal views and New Age leanings Foster considers Merton’sContemplative Prayer, “A must book,” and says of Merton, “[He] has perhaps done more than any other twentieth-century figure to make the life of prayer widely known and understood.” Merton wrote, “If only [people] could see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed…. I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other.”Merton’s MessageThe above quote from Merton comes from his Conjectures Of A Guilty Bystander (CGB) which was first published in 1966 and is a good representation of where his contemplative spirituality ultimately led him. On the back cover we’re told that as he neared “the end of his life” the Mystic Monk “played a significant role in introducing Eastern religions to the West.” Now let’s look at the above quote once again, but this time in its broader context. Beginning on page 156 of CGB Merton is describing an experience he has one day while watching people “in the center of the shopping district.” Merton tells the reader he “was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people,…even though we were total strangers.” As he continues on describing this epiphany Merton says he comes to understand that the solitary life of a monk creates “the illusion that by making vows we become a different species of being” as it were.In the following we will catch a glimpse of the universalism which underlies the more liberal vein of theology within apostate Roman Catholicism as Merton says of the monastic life that:though “out of the world” we are in the same world as everybody else, the world of the bomb, the world of race hatred, the world of technology, the world of mass media, big business, revolution, and all the rest. We take a different attitude to all these things, for we belong to God. Yet so does everybody else belong to God. We just happen to make a profession out of this consciousness (157, emphasis mine).As one continues to read there is no question Merton is writing in praise of his fellow mankind and downplaying our sinful nature. In fact he even says it “is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race,” even though it “makes many terrible mistakes.” This love of man is a common theme in the writings I’ve studied by those who are longtime practitioners of Contemplative/Centering Prayer. And with this misapplied love comes an anthropocentric understanding of God. Rather than focusing on how we’ve caused God such grief by these “terrible mistakes,” which are the results of a fallen nature that can only be cured by the Cross of Christ, instead Merton turns things backward when he says:yet, with all that, God Himself gloried in becoming a member of the human race. A member of the human race! To think that such a commonplace realization should suddenly seem like news that one holds the winning ticket in a cosmic sweepstake. I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, and now I realize we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people they are all walking around shining like the sun (157).Now we have the context for the earlier quote and it is beyond question that Merton is literally gushing about what he sees as mankind’s innate goodness. This becomes even clearer as the late mystic comes to believe that his “solitude” really “is not just my own.” This says Merton “is because I am one with them…and when I am alone they are not ‘they’ but my own self.” And what follows is an unmistakable denial of the doctrine of original sin:Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed….I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other. But this cannot be seen, only believed and “understood” by a peculiar gift.Again, that expression, le point vierge, (I cannot translate it) comes in here. At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our mind or the brutalities of our own will. This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us. It is so to speak His name written is us, as our poverty, as our indigence, as our dependence, as our sonship. It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see it we would see these billion points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely….I have no program for this seeing. It is only given. But the gate of heaven is everywhere (158).Clear Contextual Evidence Of The Human Potential MovementI’ve purposely chosen to include this much of the text of Merton’s book to annihilate the argument that my conclusions have been formed by taking the Mystic Monk out of context. It is beyond question that he is talking about an inner quality of goodness at “the center of our being.” Further he tells us this “point of nothingness” is itself “untouched by sin,” and in line with ancient Gnosticism this divine spark “belongs to God,” and this “point” of deity within mankind “is the pure glory of God in us.” And finally doctrine in agreement with the “Inner Light” of the Quakers comes emerging as Merton tells us this “little point of nothingness” is “in everybody” and is “blazing with the invisible light of heaven.” Men and women, this is a uniform testimony from those I have read who practice contemplative spirituality. So it’s little wonder that in the back of his own booklet Meditative Prayer under “Further Study In Meditation” Guru Foster would call Merton the Mystic Monk’s book Contemplative Prayer, “A powerful analysis of the central nature of contemplative prayer. A must book.”On Slice Of Laodicea I once posted the abbreviated quote from Merton’s CGB as an example of an anthropocentric denial of original sin and an improper view of mankind’s true nature. And then underneath I placed the following from Christ Jesus the Lord:What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person (Mark 7:20-23).While this would certainly appear to be a flat contradiction by mankind’s Creator Himself of Merton’s mystic teachings above there were quite a few who were unable see that these statements are mutually exclusive and therefore diametrically opposed. Whatever equivocation we’d like to use about Merton his statement stands in its context. He is unquestionably talking about an innate goodness in mankind. Whereas Jesus says in no uncertain terms there is not. This is as old as Genesis 8:21 where He had already said: “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” And we also consider this from the inspired Apostle Paul – ”I know thatnothing good lives in me (Romans 7:18). So the sad story is that sin proceeds out of the heart of man, and every intention of man’s heart is evil, and nothing good is inherent in mankind that would make him worthy of God’s saving him despite what Norman Vincent Peale and his clone Robert Schueller and one of his disciples smilin’ Joel Osteen say to the contrary.For Men Shall Be Lovers Of Their Own SelvesIf you actually read what myself and others have written on Thomas Merton you would know that by the time his life was over he was for all intents and purposes a Buddhist and his theology ended up as panentheistic as the other mystics before him. I documented Merton’s disgusting recounting of his spiritual experience at Polonnaruwa in Thomas Merton And The Buddhas. The information that follows now is from my article Contemplative Prayer And Meditation and was itself literally taken from Merton’s Message at The Thomas Merton Foundation. They are in a much better position to know what this heretic taught than any of us. For the Lord’s sake isn’t it time we finally see what is so blatantly obvious? This simply has no place in Christian theology:He takes people into deep places within themselves… At the core of Thomas Merton’s spiritual writings is the search for the “true self” and our need for relationship withGod, other people and all of creation… He concludes that we must discover God as the center of our being to which all things tend…Merton’s interests were prophetic,…he foresaw…the source of the problem [we face] is that man “has become alienated from his inner self which is the image of God.” [The solution] requires a social conversion,… The first step in this turning is a transformation of consciousness and Thomas Merton is a preeminent guide to us in this first step…[and] a spiritual master whose influence crosses generations and religious affiliations.And as I have previously pointed out, of course it would cross “religious affiliations” because there is no mention of the inherent sin nature of man, or the need for being regenerated, or of the Cross of Christ as the only real solution for sin. What we have just read from a Site sympathetic to Merton could be agreed to by virtually anyone from any spiritual background, and this is precisely my point. It is exactly this same message of New Age spirituality that comes through the “transformation of consciousness” to all those who practice this transcendental meditation long enough to anger God until He finally abandons them to their reprobate mind. (see–Romans 1:18-32)Men and women, God is not the center of mankind’s being and His image in man was shattered at the Fall. The absolute Truth is that apart from Christ one cannot even begin to restore this imago Dei. This is an appeal for you to see these things taught by demons for what they actually are…the worship of mankind and a major step toward the fulfillment of Satan’s blasphemous boast frozen in time for us by God the Holy Spirit in Isaiah 14:14 – “I will make myself like the Most High.”____________________________________________________________THOMAS MERTON AND THE BUDDHAS
SEE: http://apprising.org/2006/05/30/thomas-merton-and-the-buddhas/;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God. (Exodus 20:4-5, KJV)It is simply beyond question that the Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism which Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster is teaching your pastors is heavily influenced by the late Roman Catholic Trappist monk Thomas Merton.In his book A Time of Departing Ray Yungen offers this bit of personal testimony in an encounter with Guru Foster: “I attended a local seminar where Richard Foster was speaking. At the end of the meeting, I approached him. Wanting to know more about Foster’s beliefs, I asked, ‘What do you think about the current contemplative prayer movement?’ Foster emphatically told me, ‘Thomas Merton tried to awaken God’s people!’ ”The Unholy Ground Of IdolatryWhat you are about to see is an account from Thomas Merton’s own journal concerning his “total integration” as he observed the huge Buddha statues at Polonnaruwa. This event happened during the tour of Asia he was on in 1968 when he was accidentally electrocuted. As a matter of fact, in the series “Merton Center Occasional Papers” from Merton.org, the website of “The Thomas Merton Center [which] is the official repository of Merton’s artistic estate,” ITMS President Dr. Paul M. Pearson tells us:In his Asian Journal Merton refered to himself as a pilgrim – “I have left my monastery to come here not just as a research scholar or even as an author. I come as a pilgrim…to drink from ancient sources of monastic vision and experience.” (3)I now take the following section from the book Thomas Merton: My Brother by the late Spiritual Master M. Basil Pennington who was a fellow Trappist monk and a close friend of Merton’s. It will be presented without comment, but as you read I ask you to consider that Merton’s own account of awe while he stood before these pagan idols is coming from someone many evangelicals today consider to be a Christian.”Pennington writes: “At Polonnaruwa,…Merton was able to enter into the sanctuary with the solitariness he wanted. The pilgrim took off his shoes and let the dampness of the living earth speak to him. At this point it is not only best but necessary to let Merton speak for himself”:I am able to approach the Buddhas barefoot and undisturbed, my feet in wet grass, wet sand. Then the silence of the extraordinary faces. The great smiles. Huge and yet subtle. Filled with every possibility, questioning nothing, knowing everything, rejecting nothing, the peace not of emotional resignation but of Madhyamika [the “Middle Path” school of Buddhism], of sunyata [“emptiness, the Void” – a basic concept in Buddhism], that has seen through every question without trying to discredit anyone or anything – without refutation – without establishing some argument. For the doctrinaire, the mind that needs well established positions, such peace, such silence, can be frightening.I was knocked over with a rush of relief and thankfulness at the obvious clarity of the figures, the clarity and fluidity of shape and line, the design of the monumental bodies composed into the rock shape and landscape, figure rock and tree. And the sweep of bare rock slopping away on the other side of the hollow, where you can go back and see different aspects of the figures. Looking at these figures I was suddenly, almost forcibly, jerked clean out of the habitual, half-tied vision of things, and an inner clearness, clarity, as if exploding from the rocks themselves, became evident and obvious. The queer evidence of the reclining figure, the smile, the sad smile of Ananda standing with arms folded (much more “imperitive” than Da Vinchi’s Mona Lisa because completely simple and straightforward).The thing about all this is that there is no puzzle, no problem and really no “mystery.” All problems are resolved and everything is clear, simply because what matters is clear. The rock, all matter, all life is charged with dharmakaya… everything is emptiness and everything is compassion. I don’t know when in my life I have ever had such a sense of beauty and spiritual validity running together in one aesthetic illumination. Surely, with Mahabalipuram and Polonnaruwa my Asian pilgrimage had become clear and had purified itself. I mean, I know and have seen what I was obscurely looking for. I don’t know what else remains, but I have now seen and have pierced through the surface and have got beyond the shadow and the disguise.Basil Pennington then adds, “here through the aesthetic experience that Merton entered into and sought to express the mystical experience…quiet, isolation, simplicity and freshness. There is a wholeness. Merton said he could not express it adequately. He might have added, as did his Cistercian Fathers in speaking of such moments of total integration, that those who have experienced it know what he was talking about, and those who have not should seek the experience so that they will know.”“Merton did not return to this experience in the few journal entries that would follow. As I have said, a week later he would be dead.” (171,172,173).____________________________________________________________
Thomas Merton from “Who Cares About The Saints?” with Fr. James Martin, S.J. (Jesuit priest)
SYBIL MACBETH’S “PRAYING IN COLOR” BOOK SERIES ROOTED IN BUDDHIST NEW AGE PRACTICES~NOT FOR TRUE CHRISTIANS
John 14:6-“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
I’ve been noticing a new trend – adult coloring books. The little research I have done links these books with Buddhism. Do you have any information on this new trend?
I just stay away from things like this, but the reason I’m asking is because my 13 year old daughter was introduced to them at Sunday School today. Thankfully I had already warned her about these books, so she knew enough to bring it to my attention. I would like to warn this Sunday School teacher . . . who is already using these books at her school to calm the “bad” kids down.
As far as I’m concerned it’s just another way for the evil one to come into the church. I am really afraid for people; no one seems to question anything these days.
Thanks for any insight that you can give.
S.S.
Our Comments:
Much of this idea has been propagated by Sybil MacBeth’s Praying in Color book series.While there is certainly nothing harmful about adults coloring, in and of itself, the idea behind MacBeth’s praying through coloring does have a contemplative spirituality premise. On MacBeth’s website, she gives 8 reasons to color while praying:
1) You want to pray but words escape you.
2) Sitting still and staying focused in prayer are a challenge.
3) Your body wants to be part of your prayer.
4) You want to just hang out with God but don’t know how.
5) Listening to God feels like an impossible task .
6) Your mind wanders and your body complains.
7) You want a visual, concrete way to pray.
8) You Need a new way to pray.
In Sybil MacBeth’s book, Praying in Color: Drawing a New Path to God, the book is endorsed on the back cover by emergent writer Phyllis Tickle (a colleague of Brian McLaren). In that book, MacBeth speaks frequently about the contemplative practice called lectio divina, a meditative practice. With Tickle’s endorsement and the promotion of contemplative practices, we must question what MacBeth’s “new path” to God is. A look at the endnotes in the book may provide an answer to that question. She cites Thomas Merton (panentheistic contemplative Catholic monk), Parker Palmer (New Age sympathizer), and Tony Jones (contemplative emergent leader).
In a 2015 Religious News Service article titled “Coloring books for grown-ups: Calming — but a spiritual practice?,” it states:
Alison Gary used to go to church on Sunday mornings, but lately she’s embraced a different ritual: staying home and coloring with her 6-year-old daughter, Emerson. . . . “Emerson and I color almost every Sunday morning,” Gary said, while her husband, a yoga teacher, cooks and listens to music. “I let my mind let go, and I feel more connected to the world, more centered. . . . Gary is not the only grown-up rediscovering the contemplative joys of what once was considered a childish pastime. . . . Many books feature circular mandalas and Zen patterns, as well as mystical peacocks. . . . While adult coloring is mostly being marketed as a balm for the stress of modern life, many fans, like Gary, also describe it in spiritual terms.
Which raises the obvious question: Can coloring seriously be considered a spiritual practice? Some may scoff, but “it can become more than just coloring, if you want it to,” said Sybil MacBeth, author of the 2007 book “Praying in Color.” . . . MacBeth shares techniques to “incorporate the intention of prayer into coloring,” by doodling names of people or events, and intercessory requests such as healing and peace. MacBeth, a “dancer, doodler and former community college math professor” married to a retired Episcopal priest, believes coloring and doodling can be powerful prayer practices — a revelation she stumbled upon by accident. (source)
Praying in color or adult coloring books is another deceptive scheme of the enemy to get people to enter the dangerous contemplative silence that is rooted in New Age style meditation.
_________________________________________________________
Sybil MacBeth: I Get Still By Moving
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
- Artist-in-Residence Memphis Theological Seminary 2010-2011.
- Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Tidewater Community College in Virginia Beach from 1991 to 2004.
- Graduated from Randolph-Macon College with a B.S. in Mathematics and College of William and Mary with an. M.S. in Mathematics.
Religion Book Review: Praying in Color:
“Drawing a New Path to God”
“I Could Tell You About Phyllis Tickle…But I Won’t.”
- I could tell you about emailing Phyllis to tell her about our potential move to Memphis in 2004 and her generous three-page response with the history of the city… but I won’t.
- I could tell you about how I showed my notebook of doodled prayers to Phyllis at our first lunch together in Memphis and she said, “You’re going to write a book.”
- I could tell you about not having had a mentor at age 15 or 25 or 35…or until 55 when Phyllis became one for me.
- I could tell you about how Phyllis mothered me through the process of writing Praying in Color.
- I could tell you about the instructions she gave me to get rid of the Imposter Syndrome when I felt like a loser and thought I had no business writing a book.
- I could tell you about my husband Andy and me going to the Farm at Lucy (her home) for 4:30pm dinners so she could be in bed by 7pm.
- I could tell you about how her husband Sam kicked her out of the kitchen when he retired saying, “I never liked your cooking anyway,” and cooked the meals from then on.
- I could tell you about eating Sam’s weird concoctions of squash and tomatoes and okra from their garden on the Farm.
- I could tell you about the hundreds of books on the shelves in Lucy that have dedications and acknowledgments to Phyllis Tickle written in them.
- I could tell you about how every time I look at my dining room table I picture Phyllis and Sam seated there for a dozen Christmas, Easter, and Birthday dinners.
- I could tell you about substituting portobello mushrooms for ground lamb in a classic moussaka recipe so vegetarian Phyllis could eat it.
- I could tell you about how she would read any manuscript sent to her and respond to every email and text.
- I could tell you about our visit with Phyllis in late April at the Farm and the strawberries, glasses of sparkling water and wine, and goodbye kisses that (unknown to us at the time) would be our last ones with her.
- I could tell you about how she emailed Andy and me the following day to say she hadn’t wanted to ruin our visit with the news that she had only four months to live.
- I could tell you about our shock at the news because she looked so vital and radiant when we saw her.
- I could tell you about a woman who was unafraid to die because she had done that in her 20’s and had seen the Light.
- I could tell you about the first ever unanswered text and prayer I sent to Phyllis on September 19.
- I could tell you about how infinitely grateful I am that she shared herself and her wisdom with so many of us in her four-score and one years.
- I could tell you about how different my life would be without Phyllis Tickle in it.
- I could tell you about how I am less afraid to die knowing that Sam and Phyllis have preceded me into the Kingdom of Heaven… but I won’t.
“The Great Emergence” by Phyllis Tickle
WHO THINKS THE REFORMATION IS OVER
WHO IS PHYLLIS TICKLE?
In the fall of 2008, Baker Books (through their partnership with Emergent Village-Emersion Books) will release Tickle’s book called The Great Emergence. The following description of the book confirms Tickle’s allegiance to emerging spirituality:[I]ntended to provide a practical, positive vision of the church as it steps into the future. Tickle says the book will discuss the development of the emerging church, what she calls the “Great Emergence,” placing it among the other great phenomena in the history of Christianity, including the Great Schism and the Great Reformation. “Every 500 years,” Tickle said, “the empowered structures of institutionalized Christianity, whatever they may be, become an intolerable carapace that must be shattered so that renewal and growth may occur. Now is such a time.”2In a PBS interview, Tickle referred to this “[e]very 500 years” theory and said, “the church has a giant rummage sale.” She said, “Christianity is in the midst of a new reformation that will radically remake the faith.”3 At the Joint Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) where Tickle and McLaren shared a platform, one participant noted that, “[Tickle said] Brian McLaren is to this new reformation what Martin Luther was to the Protestant Reformation.”4 (source)
Phyllis Tickle, founding editor of the religion department at Publishers Weekly, will write a book on emerging Christianity for Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group. The book, whose current working title is The Great Emergence, will be the seventh in Baker’s ēmersion series, a partnership between Baker Books and Emergent Village, intended to provide a practical, positive vision of the church as it steps into the future. (Online source)
“Phyllis Tickle is the best friend the emergent movement could ever have,” said Doug Pagitt, series editor for ēmersion. “She’s a keen observer of the American church scene. She’s also gracious and wise. Her books, from The Divine Hours to her memoirs, are essential reading. We look forward to the release of The Great Emergence with much anticipation.” (ibid.)
‘The Great Emergence’ refers to a monumental phenomenon in our world, and this book asks three questions about it. Or looked at the other way around, this book is about a monumental phenomenon considered from the perspective of three very basic questions: What is this thing? How did it come to be? Where is it going?”So begins Phyllis Tickle’s extraordinary new book, The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why. In this much-anticipated book, Tickle brings her encyclopedic knowledge of American religion to bear on the current shifts in the Christian landscape. Paired with her Southern wit and charm, The Great Emergence promises to be the bellwether book in emerging Christianity.The Great Emergence National Event is a unique and freshly designed event built on innovative adult learning techniques including interaction, participation, and inspiring content on the current state of and future possibilities for Christianity. Around the four main sessions with Phyllis Tickle, participants will also enjoy the daily office—thrice daily times of prayer—based on Phyllis Tickle’s bestselling book, The Divine Hours, in the majestic and historic Cathedral of St. Mary in Memphis, Tennessee, which will be bedecked with Advent greenery. (Online source)
“Phyllis Tickle offers a creative and provocative overview of multiple social and cultural changes in our era, their relation to previous major paradigm shifts, and their particular impact on North American Christianity. This is an immensely important contribution to the current conversation about new and emerging forms of Christianity in a post-modern environment—and a delight to read!”
—The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori,
Presiding Bishop and Primate,
The Episcopal Church (Online source)
founding editor of the Religion Department of PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, the international journal of the book industry, is frequently quoted in sources like USA TODAY, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, NY TIMES, as well as in electronic media like PBS, NPR, THE HALLMARK CHANNEL, etc., Tickle is an authority on religion in America and a much sought after lecturer on the subject… Tickle is currently a Senior Fellow of Cathedral College of the Washington National Cathedral. A founding member of The Canterbury Roundtable, she serves now, as she has in the past, on a number of advisory and corporate boards. A lay eucharistic minister and lector in the Episcopal Church,… (Online source)
Washington National Cathedral is a church for national purposes called to embody God’s love and to welcome people of all faiths and perspectives. A unique blend of the spiritual and the civic, this Episcopal Cathedral is a voice for generous-spirited Christianity and a catalyst for reconciliation and interfaith dialogue to promote respect and understanding. We invite all people to share in our commitment to create a more hopeful and just world. (Online source)
For almost 80 years, the Cathedral College has served as the pre-eminent center of continuing education dedicated to strengthening and sustaining those called to ministries of proclamation. (Online source)
The Center for Prayer and Pilgrimage invites you to explore its diverse offerings of spiritual growth through communities gathered in prayer, devotional practices, and reflection. Except as noted, gatherings meet in the center, located on the crypt level of the Cathedral and accessible through the Visitor’s Center or Resurrection Chapel.
Benedictine Life and Prayer
Mondays, 6 pm in the CCPP
Explore the principles of living a balanced life, and learn more about the ecumenical cathedral-based Community of Reconciliation. Each gathering concludes with Centering Prayer.Centering Prayer
Tuesdays, 6–7 pm; Wednesdays, 8–8:30 am
Open your entire being to God’s presence during this time of silent prayer as you move beyond thoughts, words and emotions into a quiet communion with the Divine. The Tuesday sessions include a time for teaching and discussion.Christian Meditation: Silence, Stillness, Simplicity
Fourth Saturdays, 10–11 am
Experience a rhythm of contemplative prayer that includes a reading from one of the great contemplatives, a period of silent meditation, and time for sharing and reflection.
(Online source)
On the following pages, explorefaith.org offers a subjective look at some of the spiritual teachers who have shaped our lives. These essays are by no means comprehensive. Numerous Web Sites catalogue different saints and spiritual guides in great detail (and we will provide links to a few of the best).Our coverage is intended to show what these people can mean to us now, how they can help us envision new realties in which a relationship with God is the core from which all thoughts and actions spread. Here our explorefaith writers have mused about the spiritual teachers in their lives who continue to give them guidance and help them discover new avenues of devotion deep within. It is our hope that their essays may kindle thoughts of those spiritual teachers who have molded your life, and perhaps spur you to explore a few you might not have known. (Online source)
It’s interesting how many traditions (pause) When you read the great enlightened ones; meditation, centering prayer, reflection—in every tradition you can find the mystics—and what’s always at the heart of the spiritual lives, the everyday lives of the great ones was always a period of time.Whether it’s prayers, chanting, meditation, reflection, study—whatever you call it—what is it essentially; it’s taking time to breathe. Because when you’ve been breathing, (slight pause) in a proper sort of way, you’re far better equipped to handle what life throws your way. (I will say it again, and again, and again, 5:41-6:23)
CATHOLIC/ANGLICAN ADELYNROOD RETREAT IN JUNE
(LABYRINTH ECSTASY ABOVE)
http://www.adelynrood.org/labyrinth-2/
http://prayingincolor.com/adelynrood-retreat-in-june
(From her new release, How to Protect Your Child From the New Age & Spiritual Deception)
He alone, who owns the youth, gains the Future!1—Adolph Hitler
The traditional Christian family has been a continual obstacle to the globalist vision of solidarity. . . . the United Nations and its mental health gurus have fought hard to eradicate those old “poisonous certainties” that stood in their way. . . . The results can be disastrous. Students trained to scorn God’s guidelines and conform to the crowd are . . . soon driven by evolving new notions that undermine all truth and certainty. 2—Carl Teichrib (research journalist)
On a universal scale, humankind is seeking no less than its reunion with the “divine,” its transcendence into ever higher forms of life. Hindus call our earth Brahma, or God, for they rightly see no difference between our earth and the divine. This ancient simple truth is slowly dawning again upon humanity . . . as we are about to enter our cosmic age and to become what we were always meant to be: the planet of God.3
Education is a key vehicle to implement Robert Muller’s “vision” for a New Age. . . . [Muller’s] education curriculum served as a spiritual and political model, based on the metaphysical beliefs of Theosophy, for education reform in the United States and around the world. Muller’s spiritual framework was particularly appealing to globalists and futurists, many of whom were the architects of the transformation of education.4
Another legacy from the Age of Aquarius that has been enshrined in too many of our social studies curricula is a disturbing anti-rational bias. Curriculum guides for . . . global education are shot through with calls for “raised consciousness,” for students and teachers to view themselves “as passengers on a small cosmic spaceship,” for classroom activities involving “intuiting,” “imaging,” or “visioning” a “preferred future.”
Two proponents of such curricula have offered a candid caution: “These exercises may seem dangerous to your logical thought patterns. For best results, suspend your judging skills and prepare to accept ideas that seem silly and/or impractical.” Well, if we’re going to give up critical judgment, we’d better give up the game of education altogether.5
Behind [this resurgence of religions] lies a widespread pessimism about the future of humankind, and unsatisfied longing for alternative paths to salvation.
All the centuries that the Spirit of God had been working in Christians, He must also have been working in Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and all the others. . . . This will mean that some claims about the exclusiveness of the Church will have to be renounced.6
For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. (Matthew 24:24)
In the esoteric tradition, the Christ is not the name of an individual but of an Office in the Hierarchy. The present holder of that Office, the Lord Maitreya, has held it for 2,600 years, and manifested in Palestine through His Disciple, Jesus, by the occult method of overshadowing, the most frequent form used for the manifestation of Avatars. He has never left the world, but for 2,000 years has waited and planned for this immediate future time, training His Disciples, and preparing Himself for the awesome task which awaits Him. He has made it known that this time, He Himself will come.8
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4)
According to Ageless Wisdom, there really is only one sin—separateness. In the early years of World War II, Alice Bailey noted that we will achieve peace in the world only after we first create unity. . . . The persistence of war is more likely to spring from rampant nationalism, ethnocentrism, and intolerant religious fundamentalism–all extreme and separative attitudes.9
And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:7-8)
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? . . . And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate. (2 Corinthians 6:14-17)
Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. . . . fear not, neither be dismayed. (Deuteronomy 31:6, 8)
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. (Romans 12:2-3)
The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies. (Psalm 18:2-3)
1. Adolf Hitler speech at the Reichsparteitag, 1935 (can listen on www.youtube.com).
2. Carl Teichrib, “Education for a New World” (Kjos Ministries website, http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/forcing-change/12/8-education.htm).
3. Robert Muller, New Genesis: Shaping a Global Spirituality (New York, NY: Doubleday and Co., 1982), p. 49.
4. “Muller’s Plan for a World Spiritual Renaissance & Education” (Herescope Blog, Discernment Research Group, October 30, 2005, https://ratherexposethem.org/2005/10/mullers-plan-for-world-spiritual.html).
5. Raymond English, Teaching International Politics in High School (University Press of America, 1989), p. 9, citing William Bennett.
6. “An Emerging Coalition: Political and Religious Leaders Come Together,” A Special Report (North Bay, ON: The Omega Letter, November 1988), p. 2, citing Robert Runcie.
7. Ibid., p. 3.
8. Warren B. Smith, False Christ Coming: Does Anybody Care? (Magalia, CA: Mountain Stream Press, 2011), p. 47, quoting Benjamin Creme in The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom (North Hollywood, CA: The Tara Press, 1980), p. 30.
9. Corinne McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson, Spiritual Politics (New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 1994), p. 147.
T.D. JAKES EXPOSED
T.D. Jakes
Enlarged October 20, 2015 (first published September 11, 2001) (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org)
Thomas D. Jakes, known popularly as T.D., is a Church of God in Christ motivational speaker and pastor of the Potter’s House, a megachurch in Dallas, Texas. His book Woman, Thou Art Loosed has sold millions of copies. He has been nominated for a Grammy for his music and has his own line of Hallmark greeting cards.
This dynamic speaker grew up in Charleston, West Virginia, and was raised Baptist but switched to Pentecostal after “speaking in tongues” at a storefront Apostolic church. He was married in 1980 and has twin sons. His far-flung itinerant preaching ministry was based for many years in West Virginia, but in 1996 he moved to Texas and founded the Potter’s House, purchasing property formerly belong to W.V. Grant’s Eagle’s Nest Family Church for $3.2 million.
For the 25th anniversary of Jake’s ministry in 2001, Time magazine featured him on its cover and called him “America’s Best Preacher.” The Time article absolutely resonated in praise for Jakes: “He is a virtuoso, a prodigy. The only thing more exhilarating than the style of T.D. Jakes’ sermons is their rigor and compassion…It’s Oprah-in-a-pulpit.” The article observe that Jake’s “enthusiasts can adopt an awed tone not unlike acolytes of bebop jazz in the ‘50s or grunge in the early 1990s.”
Such praise from a worldly magazine that regularly mocks things pertaining to Jesus Christ and challenges the authority of the Bible sends up strong warning signals for Bible believers, because Jesus Christ said, “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26). When this wicked world loves a preacher, something is wrong!
Jakes holds the positive-only, avoid-controversy, judge-not New Evangelical philosophy. Like New Evangelicals in general, Jakes says many good things. He can encourage discouraged women to trust in God. He can challenge selfish fathers to be the committed family men they ought to be. He can bring interesting and challenging things out of his Scripture texts. He preaches many good things. A major problem with T.D. Jakes and every other New Evangelical is not the error that he teaches but the truth that he neglects. There are so many biblical truths that he will never deal with, such as separation and sacrifice. His preaching against sin and error is in generalities.
In an interview with Charisma magazine, December 16, 1996, Jakes was asked what he believes about women as pastors. He replied: “I try to avoid setting myself up as a judge to tell anybody what God did or did not call them to do. There are many women who are celebrated as ministers: Marilyn Hickey, Joyce Meyer, Jackie McCullough, Dr. Iona Locke, Ernestine Reems and Iverna Tompkins. Many women are making a contribution to the body of Christ.” Thus, in regard to the hard issues, T.D. Jakes is a fence-straddler. In spite of the clear teaching of the Word of God, in spite of the fact that the apostle Paul solemnly forbade women to preach or usurp authority over men (1 Tim 2:12), Jakes refuses to judge whether it is right or wrong for a woman to be a pastor. He refuses to enter into controversy and risk destroying his popularity. Instead of basing his answer on the Word of God, he bases it on pragmatism. He points to women who appear to be successful in the ministry. In other words, if it works, it must be right.
Jakes is ecumenical. He has often spoken at Promise Keepers and other ecumenical forums, and he supported the heretic Robert Schuller.
Jakes appears with and supports the most radical of today’s charismatics, including Paul and Jan Crouch and Trinity Broadcasting Network. This is the network that has helped popularize such unscriptural practices and dangerous phenomena as hysterical laughing, spirit slaying, Christian rock & roll, healing in the atonement, and evangelical Catholicism.
Jakes himself practices the unscriptural and dangerous “spirit slaying,” whereby people are knocked to the floor, allegedly by the Holy Spirit.
In August 1995, Jakes appeared at Oral Roberts University with a lineup of some of the biggest names in the Word-faith movement, including R.W. Schambach, Lester Sumrall, and T.L. Osborn. One of Jakes’ fellow speakers at that conference was Rodney Howard-Browne, who blasphemously calls himself the “Holy Ghost bartender” because of the strange drunkenness that has manifested during his meetings.
Jakes believes in the prosperity gospel. Like many of the Trinity Broadcasting Network preachers, Jakes falsely claims that Jesus was rich and that God wants us to be rich, too. He and his wife live in a $1.7 million mansion. When raising funds for the Trinity Broadcasting Network, Jakes uses the unscriptural prosperity gospel message that has worked so well for many of the Pentecostals. He told the TBN audience that if they give to TBN, God will give them prosperity in everything, money, marriage, romance, etc.
I saw Jakes preaching on the television in 2001, and right in the midst of his preaching he began babbling away in mutterings he called “tongues.” In direct disobedience to the Bible, there was not even an attempt to interpret the “tongues.”
Jakes admits that he formerly preached “Jesus Only” or “Oneness” theology, which rejects the doctrine of the Trinity. But he still faces two ways on this important issue. In a conversation in the Elephant Room, held at First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida, January 2012, Jakes said on one hand that he has moved away from a Oneness view to embrace the Trinity as “one God, three Persons.” But he hastened to say that he still “prefers” the term “manifestations,” believes that men on both sides of the issue are “saying the same thing,” and fellowships with those on all sides. He issued no repentance for the fact that by his own admission he preached Oneness heresy for years. In fact, he is still at least sympathetic to Oneness theology, still defends its unscriptural terminology (by the misuse of 1 Timothy 3:16, for example), still falsely claims that this doctrine is an issue of “seeing through a glass darkly” and thus no one has the issue right, and refuses to obey the Bible by separating from heretics.
In fact, he’s not sure there are any heretics, and he’s far too busy promoting unity to worry much about them, even if they exist.
In a 2015 interview with the Huffington Post, Jakes not only fudged about the issue of homosexuality, he also questioned the divine inspiration of Paul’s epistles, which is a fundamental error. Instead of plainly stating what the Bible teaches about homosexuality, Jakes described his views as “evolved and evolving.” To justify evolution in doctrinal and moral thinking, he used the example of the apostle Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 11, saying, “Paul spends a lot of time wrestling back and forth, trying to understand should a woman wear a head covering, should you cut your hair. I mean, they grappled back then and we’re grappling now because we’re humans and we are flawed and we’re not God” (“T.D. Jakes Comes Out for ‘Gay Rights’ and ‘LGBT Churches,” Christian News Network, Aug. 7, 2015). This is a frightful and terrible error on the part of a supposed Bible-believing pastor. Paul was not “grappling” with anything that he wrote in 1 Corinthians 11. He was writing under divine inspiration, which is why he prefaced the chapter by commending the church for keeping his teaching (1 Cor. 11:1-2). Yes, the preacher is human and not God, but the preacher has the infallible Word of God in the canon of Scripture, and he has the Spirit of God as his Interpreter, and he is solemnly commissioned to preach God’s Word without question and compromise, in season and out of season (2 Tim. 4:1-2). God has spoken on the issue of homosexuality. There is no more for a preacher to say than what God has already said.
America’s preachers are her fundamental problem. America doesn’t fear God today because America’s preachers don’t preach the fear of God. Like T.D. Jakes, they are too busy building megachurches by preaching smooth things (e.g., motivational psychology).
“Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land. … But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings” (Jeremiah 23:15, 22).
Oprah and Bishop T.D. Jakes Satanic False Prophets EXPOSED !!!
T. D. Jakes EXPOSED says there are Many Paths to God
SOCIALIST BRAINWASHING OF YOUTH: VILLAINS IN NEW CAPTAIN AMERICA COMIC ARE OPPONENTS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
Super hero turns “socialist”
New Captain America Now Battles Conservatives
Published on Oct 16, 2015
Captain America started out by taking on Nazis and defending freedom, now, however, Marvel has him siding with Democrats in Washington and beating up on conservatives who quote the US Constitution.
http://www.infowars.com/new-villains-…
http://www.infowars.com/new-villains-…
New Captain America Goes Liberal, Battles Tea Party!
Published on Oct 17, 2015
Captain America started out by taking on Nazis and defending freedom, now, however, Marvel has him siding with Democrats in Washington and beating up on conservatives who quote the US Constitution. http://www.infowars.com/new-villains-…
** http://www.infowars.com/the-villain-o…
** http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/03/0…
** http://www.infowars.com/the-villain-o…
** http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/03/0…
Alex Jones Works For The ‘Red Skull’
In Captain America Comic
Published on Oct 17, 2015
Alex breaks down how Marvel put him in Uncanny Avengers #4 as an ignorant redneck that needs to be put down, according to the Red Skull. http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/03/0…
SECOND EBOLA NURSE TREATED WITH TOXIC PHARMACEUTICALS NOW IN CRITICAL CONDITION~MEDIA HAS SAID SHE WAS CURED
Second Ebola nurse now crashing into critical condition after CDC-controlled media falsely proclaimed her ‘cured’ by toxic pharmaceuticals
A second nurse is also in serious health trouble due to toxic Ebola treatments
Same system that pushes toxic pharmaceutical treatments viciously attacks colloidal silver
______________________________________________________________
Ebola Relapses: Zombie Virus That Won’t Die
Published on Oct 20, 2015
9 months after being cleared of Ebola, a British nurse relapsed and nearly died a couple of days ago. What we were told about Ebola has now been shown to be rubbish.
And after being lied to for decades about the UN Agenda called the War on Drugs, a UN committee was set to reverse policy, honestly accessing the disaster. The report however was stopped. But Richard Branson has gone public with the details.
And after being lied to for decades about the UN Agenda called the War on Drugs, a UN committee was set to reverse policy, honestly accessing the disaster. The report however was stopped. But Richard Branson has gone public with the details.
How the CDC Lied About Ebola
Published on Oct 20, 2015
As scientists & the medical establishment express amazement that Ebola would resurface in survivors months later and be re-transmissible, a caller points out that it is a virus. Like herpes and other viruses, we now know that Ebola can be brought under control but remain contagious and may surface later.
NEW OBAMA TERROR CZAR WILL TARGET CONSERVATIVES & CHRISTIANS WITH IMPETUS FROM SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER~AN AMERICAN GESTAPO TAKES SHAPE
New Obama Terror Czar Will Target Conservatives, Christians
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
The Obama administration's increasingly controversial Justice Department, in partnership with the ultra-leftist Southern Poverty Law Center, announced the creation of a new czar position to focus on “domestic terrorism” — especially the alleged threat from Christians and Americans with “anti-government” views. While ostensibly created to serve as a coordination office overseeing domestic terror cases, critics and analysts are sounding the alarm, warning that the administration is plotting to go after its political opponents with the full force of the federal government.The impetus for the Obama DOJ's new focus on conservatives, libertarians, Christians, and others appears to be the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), widely viewed as an “anti-Christian hate group” and strongly criticized even by mainstream voices on the Left. Civil rights attorney and Southern Center for Human Rights President Stephen Bright, citing investigations and even a federal judge, lambasted SPLC founder Morris Dees as a “con man and fraud” who takes advantage of “naive, well-meaning people.”Ironically, the SPLC was implicated in an actual domestic terrorism case, one of the few, just over two years ago. The attack involved a deranged homosexual activist, relying on the far-left group's “hate” propaganda, who tried to massacre employees of the Family Research Council, a pro-family group falsely characterized as a “hate group” by the SPLC. “We’ve been pushing for something like this for quite a few years,” declared SPLC mouthpiece Mark Potok about the new domestic terror czar. “We feel like it’s very much a step forward, although we’ll have to see how it plays out.”The announcement of the new domestic extremism czar position was made at George Washington University by Obama's Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin, a Harvard lawyer. “We need to make sure we have the mechanisms in place so that we can continue to remain just as focused on the domestic terrorism threat while addressing the international terrorism threat,” Carlin said in a question-and-answer session after his speech, which was co-hosted by the SPLC. “The new DT [Domestic Terror] Counsel will not only help ensure that DT cases are properly coordinated by will also play a key role in our headquarters-level efforts to identify trends to help shape our strategy, and to analyze legal gaps or enhancements required to ensure we can combat these threats.”What bureaucrat might fill the position was not immediately clear. But when it comes to what the Obama administration is looking for, Carlin offered more details. “Homegrown violent extremists can be motivated by any viewpoint on the full spectrum of hate — anti-government views, racism, bigotry, anarchy and other despicable beliefs,” Carlin explained, without explaining how being opposed to government was hateful or why people's views should concern the federal government. “When it comes to hate and intolerance, no single ideology governs.” But if Carlin's views on what constitutes “hate” and “anti-government” views are anything like the SPLC's, Americans should expect Obama's new terror czar to step up its escalating anti-constitutional attacks and intimidation against Christian groups, forces that stand for traditional (or biblical) marriage, pro-family organizations, pro-life groups, constitutionalist organizations, and more.The SPLC specializes in smearing conservatives and Christians by, among other tactics, sandwiching peaceful activists between National Socialists (Nazis) and Ku Klux Klan groups. The group refers to the John Birch Society, for example, the parent organization of this magazine, as “Chief among the Patriot groups,” with the word patriot, in SPLC-speak, used to connote something negative, namely "anti-government," though the JBS is not anti-government in the slightest, only anti-lawless or -tyrannical government. The SPLC also demonizes as “hate groups” everything from mainstream pro-family organizations to voices that criticize radical Islamism. On top of that, the SPLC has been widely ridiculed for wildly inflating its lists of both “hate” groups and “patriot” groups, even listing defunct websites run by a single person or the “Granny Warriors” as targets in its outlandish propaganda materials.But critics say it is the SPLC and its allies, in fact, that deserve more scrutiny — and not just because the group's hate propaganda inspired terrorist Floyd Corkins to buy a gun and try to murder as many innocent employees of a mainstream pro-family group as possible, and then shove Chi-fil-A sandwiches in his victims' mouths. In fact, the SPLC's views are so radical that the mainstream American Family Association, with millions of supporters, labels it an “anti-Christian hate group,” and numerous prominent voices on the Left have denounced the SPLC as well.While the SPLC's ramblings are occasionally taken seriously by anti-Christian bigots in government and the establishement media, most conservative and libertarian organizations and individuals consider it a badge of honor to be slandered by the SPLC. Still, its methodology has long been the subject of ridicule, and it has become increasingly marginalized as an extremist group among sensible Americans.Despite the stench of the SPLC's reputation — even prominent leftists have blasted the outfit and its founder as money-grubbing scam artists that bilk and terrorize donors while demonizing those whose views it disagrees with — Carlin had nothing but praise for the outfit. Groups like the SPLC, which has long been openly associated with communists, terrorists, and other radicals, “dedicate themselves to examining what the threat is, observing it, and reporting on it,” Carlin claimed, apparently with a straight face. Of course, in reality, the opposite is true, as even other arms of the Obama administration and growing swaths of the establishment media have slowly started to realize. “I can say, based on our briefings, that as I said in my opening remarks, we very much think that the domestic terrorism threat is a real and present threat that demands to be addressed in new, creative ways,” Carlin continued, adding that the “Southern Poverty Law Center and other groups in this space are very important.”Ironically, Carlin also discredited much of his argument about anti-government activists by touting a debunked “study” claiming that alleged “right-wing extremists,” apparently hiding under every bed, have become a bigger threat to America than Islamic terrorists — many of whom have been armed and openly supported by the Obama administration, prompting even retired U.S. generals to argue that Obama had “switched sides” in the terror war. The propaganda “study” in question, produced by the statist George Soros-funded New America Foundation (no link to this magazine), has been widely ridiculed as a pathetic attempt at propaganda on par with Obama administration efforts to demonize conservatives, libertarians, Ron Paul supporters, veterans, pro-life activists, liberty lovers, and more as potential terrorists and extremists in various official reports.A report on “right-wing extremism” produced by Obama's Department of Homeland Security warning of veterans and conservatives was eventually withdrawn after it went public. The DHS was subjected to merciless ridicule once the sources, many of which were known hoax websites, emerged. But other, similar propaganda continues to be pumped out, at taxpayer expense. And the New America report, while not directly affiliated with the administration, has been blasted for major flaws that provide evidence of deliberate manipulation to achieve the desired result — demonizing political opponents.A recent article on Obama's new czar hunting right-wing extremists by Leo Hohmann at WND, for example, pointed out that the New America study cited a mentally ill, drug-abusing, anti-Christian terrorist motivated by National Socialism as an example of “right-wing terrorism.” Other alleged examples of “right-wing terrorism” included a 2004 bank robbery, an armed home robbery in 2009, and a few non-political shootings of police. In all, the “study” managed to find or invent 48 victims of “right-wing terrorism” since the September 11 attacks killed 3,000 Americans. When it comes to Islamist terrorism, though, the “study” failed to include everything from Chattanooga shooter Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez's recent attack that killed five U.S. servicemen to John Muhammad's Washington, D.C., shooting spree that left 10 dead back in 2002. Despite being debunked, the pseudo-study was regurgitated by Carlin and some leftist media outlets without noting its obvious flaws.Critics, though, are already warning that Obama's new domestic terror czar is no joke. Bryan Fischer, writing on the pro-family One News Now site, blasted the president's “abiding hostility to people of Christian faith” — as exemplified most recently by the new terror czar position and Obama's apparent belief that Christians are a threat to national security. “If you are a sincerely devoted follower of Jesus Christ, your president believes you are a potential domestic terrorist,” Fischer wrote, pointing to Obama's new domestic terror czar job and the statements made by Carlin and the SPLC. “And where, pray tell, does this threat come from? From the Muslim Brotherhood, which has a stated goal of exterminating Western civilization and sabotaging our miserable house from within? Nope. From ISIS, which is actively recruiting jihadists in all 50 states? Nope. Jihadists who are sneaking into the United States disguised as Syrian refugees? Nope.”Blasting the “thoroughly discredited” SPLC, “which is so blatantly and maliciously biased against Christians that other parts of Obama's administration – the FBI, the Pentagon, and the U.S. Army – are getting as far away from the SPLC as they can,” Fischer said Obama and his “minions” consider the Family Research Council and the American Family Association to be the “real threat.” He also noted that the SPLC's “intelligence project director,” who teamed up with the DOJ, had admitted to a reporter that the SPLC classifies groups “on the basis of ideology.” “In other words, the SPLC will vilify groups because of what they believe, not because of what they do or because they have demonstrated any propensity toward violence,” Fischer noted, citing the SPLC operative's own admission that the groups demonized by the SPLC are not targeted based on whether they are violent or not, but “on the basis of ideology.”“Do we disagree with the homosexual lobby about homosexuality? Of course. Do we hate them? Absolutely not. Do we advocate violence against them? Never have, never will. We are simply determined to tell the moral, spiritual, and physical truth about non-normative sexual behavior,” Fischer continued, blasting the SPLC's attacks on pro-family groups based on the far-left outfit's own subjective hatred of what those groups say. “Bottom line: disagreement is not hatred, and the truth is not hate speech. Somebody needs to tell that to the president.” Of course, Obama already knows that, yet has demonstrated repeatedly his disdain for Christians — especially those who “bitterly” cling to their guns and Bibles.Indeed, so outrageous and brazen has the administration's anti-Christian bigotry become, that the Obama Defense Department was exposed teaching U.S. troops that Evangelical Christians, Catholics, and Orthodox Jews were “religious extremists” in the same category with Hamas and al-Qaeda. Just last week, Obama and the United Nations launched a global jihad against extremism, promising to stamp out “anti-Muslim bigotry” wherever it may be hiding. Also last week, Obama was again demonizing Christians, suggesting that the most devoted followers of Christ Jesus are actually xenophobes "suspicious of those not like them.”In its final year in office, the Obama administration seems to be becoming a caricature of itself — an angry, petulant, paranoid, anti-American spectacle that would almost appear to be a comedy act if the implications for liberty and constitutional government were not so extreme.Unsurprisingly, the new domestic terror czar announcement, and especially its links to the radical SPLC, has sparked a firestorm of outrage. However, the American people overwhelmingly elected Republicans to Congress so they could stop Obama and his “fundamental transformation” of America. A good place to start would be to examine the DOJ and its latest antics. If they are unconstitutional, or chill free speech in any way, they should be defunded immediately. If lawmakers find that the Justice Department is playing politics and demonizing, spying on, or threatening peaceful Americans for their political or religious views, Congress should start holding those responsible for the scheming accountable. Without congressional action, though, Americans can expect even more attacks on middle America in the coming months as Obama's “fundamental transformation” reaches its climax.Related articles:_____________________________________________________________SEE ALL OUR POSTS ABOUT THE SPLC BY ENTERING IT IN THE SEARCH TOOL
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NEW DOMESTIC TERRORIST CZAR BRINGS FEAR OF GESTAPO TO AMERICA
Published on Oct 18, 2015The Domestic Terrorism Counsel (DTC) will serve as the main point of contact for US attorney offices across the country, but also work at the headquarters to identify trends across cases, shape strategy, and “analyze legal gaps or enhancements” needed to combat threats, Carlin explained. Assistant Attorney-General John Carlin, head of the Department of Justice’s (DoJ) National Security division, announced the creation of the new post at an event co-sponsored by the George Washington University and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on Wednesday. Carlin’s announcement has prompted concerns that the US government may be using the cover of combating terrorism to go after political opponents. The Obama administration has been suspicious of veterans, gun owners and tea-party activists for years, Tom Fitton, president of the conservative Judicial Watch foundation, told WND.
HILLARY CLINTON’S RELENTLESS QUEST FOR YOUR GUNS EXPOSED~DRACONIAN COERCIVE CONFISCATIONS IN HER PLANS
http://www.infowars.com/hillary-clint…
http://www.infowars.com/clinton-news-…
http://www.infowars.com/hillary-cant-…
http://www.infowars.com/hillary-fakes…
Hillary Clinton says that banning all guns is
“worth considering”
Hillary Proves She’s a Gun Grabber
Published on Oct 19, 2015
Alex Jones plays a clip where Hillary Clinton damns herself with her own words and proves once and for all that she is a gun grabber who wants nothing more than disarm everyone except the people who answer directly to her.
POPE FRANCIS VISIT TO U.S-REPORTS BY FORDHAM UNIVERSITY PAINT SOCIALIST/COMMUNIST POPE IN GLOWING TERMS & PRAISE
Isaiah 5:21-“Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!”
NEW YORK’S EDUCATED CATHOLIC ELITE WORSHIP THE CREATURE FRANCIS & HIS COMMUNIST AGENDA
FORDHAM UNIVERSITY REFLECTS ON POPE’S CONFLATING OF ATHEIST SOCIALISM/COMMUNISM WITH APOSTATE CATHOLIC “CHRISTIANITY” & APPROVES WITH GLOWING ADORATION
“The Jesuit University of New York Celebrates Pope Francis’ Visit”
BELOW: See a gallery of images from the visit.Millions of eyes were on New York City last week as Pope Francis arrived for the second leg of his three-city visit to the United States. During his brief time in Manhattan the pontiff addressed a wide variety of audiences, ranging from United Nations representatives to third-graders in Harlem.
A live viewing at the Lincoln Center campus of the pope’s address to Congress
Joseph M. McShane, SJ, president of Fordham, was in Washington, D.C. and New York City for the papal events. Read his reflections on the events here.“She’s a fabulous lady, and around here she gets lots of credit because we have the Dorothy Day Center But I don’t know that she gets credit in enough areas of the Catholic world or in America in general,” she said.
Procession through Central Park
The Papal Mass at Madison Square Garden
Fordham Day of Service
“Papal Reflections-Joseph M. McShane, SJ, President of Fordham”
Reflections on this evening’s Vespers Service at the Cathedral. Father Scirghi [Thomas Scirghi, SJ, associate
Pope Paul VI was the first Pope to visit the United States and the first to address the General Assembly of the
Mass in The Garden | A Home Run on a Basketball Court
EXCERPT: “In 2009, the former Community Service Program assumed its current name of the Dorothy Day Center for Service and Justice. This name change was prompted by expansion in the scope of work the office was doing both within the University and the community. To better express its goals and mission, the program renamed itself in honor of Dorothy Day, one of American Catholicism’s foremost social justice leaders.”
THE CATHOLIC VIEW OF “RADICAL SOCIALIST” DOROTHY DAY
Vatican Insider Reveals Pope is A Communist, as well as Thomas Merton & Dorothy Day:
Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton Praised by Pope Francis During His Speech Before Congress
60 SCHOLARS CHALLENGE SUPREME COURT ON GAY MARRIAGE WITH STATEMENT CALLING FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RESISTANCE TO “OBERGEFELL V. HODGES”
Statement Calling for Constitutional Resistance to Obergefell v. Hodges
OBAMA SPENT $4.4 MILLION TAX DOLLARS ON GOLF AND PRIVATE FUNDRAISERS IN TWO MONTHS
OBAMA SPENT $4.4 MILLION TAX DOLLARS ON GOLF AND PRIVATE FUNDRAISERS IN TWO MONTHS
Documents show astounding cost to Americans of President’s jaunts
- Obama’s February 14, 2015, golf outing to Palm Springs required a five-hour flight, costing taxpayers a total of $1,031,685.
- Transportation for Obama’s February 19 day trip to Chicago cost taxpayers $619,011.00.
- Transportation for Obama’s March 2015 fundraising trip to Los Angeles cost taxpayers $1,980,835.20.
- Obama’s March 28, 2015, golf outing to Palm city required a 3.9-hour flight, costing taxpayers $804,870.30.
OBAMA: CHRISTIANS HAVE AN “US VERSUS THEM MINDSET”~WHAT ABOUT HIS “US VS. THEM” RELIGION OF DIVIDE & CONQUER THAT PERSECUTES CHRISTIANS & PATRIOTS?
BIBLICAL SEPARATION REQUIRES CHRISTIANS TO SEE EVIL, EXPOSE IT, AND TREAT IT AS AN ENEMY OF THE SOUL
ANDY STANLEY’S “PASTOR IN CHIEF” IMPOSTOR, POSING AS ALLEGED CHRISTIAN, BUT REALLY AN APOSTATE, NARCISSIST, LIAR, USER, MANIPULATOR, ISLAMIC TERRORIST, CHRISTIAN PERSECUTOR & AMERICA HATER
ISLAM DISPLAYS AN “US VERSUS THEM” MENTALITY, FREQUENTLY IN A VIOLENT WAY
“Us-versus-them” Obama
Again Slams Christianity
“Obama Calls Out ‘Serious’ Christians for
‘Us Versus Them’ Mentality”
Obama Asks Novelist About ‘Suspicious’ Christians with ‘Us Versus Them’ Mentality
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
DES MOINES, Iowa — Following release of interview footage with Barack Obama and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Marilynne Robinson, some are expressing concern about Obama’s remarks regarding those of the Christian faith.“Tell me a little bit about how your interest in Christianity converges with your concerns about democracy,” Obama asked Robinson, being the interviewer.“Well, I believe that people are images of God. There’s no alternative that is theologically respectable to treating people in terms of that understanding,” the novelist replied. “It seems to me as if democracy is the logical, the inevitable consequence of this kind of religious humanism at its highest level. And it [applies] to everyone. It’s the human image. It’s not any loyalty or tradition or anything else; it’s being human that enlists the respect, the love of God being implied in it.”Obama then cited some of Robinson’s concerns about Christians.“But you’ve struggled with the fact that here in the United States, sometimes Christian interpretation seems to posit an ‘us versus them,’ and those are sometimes the loudest voices,” he said. “But sometimes I think you also get frustrated with kind of the wishy-washy, more liberal versions where anything goes.”The president then asks a question regarding his view that those who take religion seriously are “suspicious” of those with different beliefs.“How do you reconcile the idea of faith being really important to you and you caring a lot about taking faith seriously with the fact that, at least in our democracy and our civic discourse, it seems as if folks who take religion the most seriously sometimes are also those who are suspicious of those not like them?” Obama asked.“Well, I don’t know how seriously they do take their Christianity, because if you take something seriously, you’re ready to encounter difficulty, run the risk, whatever. I mean, when people are turning in on themselves—and God knows, arming themselves and so on—against the imagined other, they’re not taking their Christianity seriously,” Robinson replied.Some note that Obama has made critical statements about Christians on a number of occasions during his presidency, including a comment during a prayer breakfast in April.“I do reflect on the fact that as a Christian, I am supposed to love. And I have to say that sometimes when I listen to less than loving expressions by Christians, I get concerned,” he said.“Lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ,” Obama also stated in February.“The Crusades were a defense against Islamic aggression and takeover of [Catholic]-held lands. These were bloody wars that went on for centuries, but not because the [Catholics] liked war—but because the Islamic aggressors would not stop waging war, much like they do today,” Martin Mawyer of Christian Action Network wrote in response at that time.“Did Obama mention the Islamic aggression during the Crusades during Ramadan? Did he ever take the opportunity at a Muslim holiday or gathering to chide the Muslims for getting up on their ‘high horse; about their religion?” he asked. “Of course not. He only tells it like (he thinks) it is when there is a Christian gathering, and only in strident anti-Christian tones.”______________________________________________________________
OBAMA SPENT $4.4 MILLION TAX DOLLARS ON GOLF AND PRIVATE FUNDRAISERS IN TWO MONTHS
Documents show astounding cost to Americans of President’s jaunts
- Obama’s February 14, 2015, golf outing to Palm Springs required a five-hour flight, costing taxpayers a total of $1,031,685.
- Transportation for Obama’s February 19 day trip to Chicago cost taxpayers $619,011.00.
- Transportation for Obama’s March 2015 fundraising trip to Los Angeles cost taxpayers $1,980,835.20.
- Obama’s March 28, 2015, golf outing to Palm city required a 3.9-hour flight, costing taxpayers $804,870.30.
New Obama Terror Czar Will Target Conservatives, Christians
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
The Obama administration's increasingly controversial Justice Department, in partnership with the ultra-leftist Southern Poverty Law Center, announced the creation of a new czar position to focus on “domestic terrorism” — especially the alleged threat from Christians and Americans with “anti-government” views. While ostensibly created to serve as a coordination office overseeing domestic terror cases, critics and analysts are sounding the alarm, warning that the administration is plotting to go after its political opponents with the full force of the federal government.The impetus for the Obama DOJ's new focus on conservatives, libertarians, Christians, and others appears to be the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), widely viewed as an “anti-Christian hate group” and strongly criticized even by mainstream voices on the Left. Civil rights attorney and Southern Center for Human Rights President Stephen Bright, citing investigations and even a federal judge, lambasted SPLC founder Morris Dees as a “con man and fraud” who takes advantage of “naive, well-meaning people.”Ironically, the SPLC was implicated in an actual domestic terrorism case, one of the few, just over two years ago. The attack involved a deranged homosexual activist, relying on the far-left group's “hate” propaganda, who tried to massacre employees of the Family Research Council, a pro-family group falsely characterized as a “hate group” by the SPLC. “We’ve been pushing for something like this for quite a few years,” declared SPLC mouthpiece Mark Potok about the new domestic terror czar. “We feel like it’s very much a step forward, although we’ll have to see how it plays out.”The announcement of the new domestic extremism czar position was made at George Washington University by Obama's Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin, a Harvard lawyer. “We need to make sure we have the mechanisms in place so that we can continue to remain just as focused on the domestic terrorism threat while addressing the international terrorism threat,” Carlin said in a question-and-answer session after his speech, which was co-hosted by the SPLC. “The new DT [Domestic Terror] Counsel will not only help ensure that DT cases are properly coordinated by will also play a key role in our headquarters-level efforts to identify trends to help shape our strategy, and to analyze legal gaps or enhancements required to ensure we can combat these threats.”What bureaucrat might fill the position was not immediately clear. But when it comes to what the Obama administration is looking for, Carlin offered more details. “Homegrown violent extremists can be motivated by any viewpoint on the full spectrum of hate — anti-government views, racism, bigotry, anarchy and other despicable beliefs,” Carlin explained, without explaining how being opposed to government was hateful or why people's views should concern the federal government. “When it comes to hate and intolerance, no single ideology governs.” But if Carlin's views on what constitutes “hate” and “anti-government” views are anything like the SPLC's, Americans should expect Obama's new terror czar to step up its escalating anti-constitutional attacks and intimidation against Christian groups, forces that stand for traditional (or biblical) marriage, pro-family organizations, pro-life groups, constitutionalist organizations, and more.The SPLC specializes in smearing conservatives and Christians by, among other tactics, sandwiching peaceful activists between National Socialists (Nazis) and Ku Klux Klan groups. The group refers to the John Birch Society, for example, the parent organization of this magazine, as “Chief among the Patriot groups,” with the word patriot, in SPLC-speak, used to connote something negative, namely "anti-government," though the JBS is not anti-government in the slightest, only anti-lawless or -tyrannical government. The SPLC also demonizes as “hate groups” everything from mainstream pro-family organizations to voices that criticize radical Islamism. On top of that, the SPLC has been widely ridiculed for wildly inflating its lists of both “hate” groups and “patriot” groups, even listing defunct websites run by a single person or the “Granny Warriors” as targets in its outlandish propaganda materials.But critics say it is the SPLC and its allies, in fact, that deserve more scrutiny — and not just because the group's hate propaganda inspired terrorist Floyd Corkins to buy a gun and try to murder as many innocent employees of a mainstream pro-family group as possible, and then shove Chi-fil-A sandwiches in his victims' mouths. In fact, the SPLC's views are so radical that the mainstream American Family Association, with millions of supporters, labels it an “anti-Christian hate group,” and numerous prominent voices on the Left have denounced the SPLC as well.While the SPLC's ramblings are occasionally taken seriously by anti-Christian bigots in government and the establishement media, most conservative and libertarian organizations and individuals consider it a badge of honor to be slandered by the SPLC. Still, its methodology has long been the subject of ridicule, and it has become increasingly marginalized as an extremist group among sensible Americans.Despite the stench of the SPLC's reputation — even prominent leftists have blasted the outfit and its founder as money-grubbing scam artists that bilk and terrorize donors while demonizing those whose views it disagrees with — Carlin had nothing but praise for the outfit. Groups like the SPLC, which has long been openly associated with communists, terrorists, and other radicals, “dedicate themselves to examining what the threat is, observing it, and reporting on it,” Carlin claimed, apparently with a straight face. Of course, in reality, the opposite is true, as even other arms of the Obama administration and growing swaths of the establishment media have slowly started to realize. “I can say, based on our briefings, that as I said in my opening remarks, we very much think that the domestic terrorism threat is a real and present threat that demands to be addressed in new, creative ways,” Carlin continued, adding that the “Southern Poverty Law Center and other groups in this space are very important.”Ironically, Carlin also discredited much of his argument about anti-government activists by touting a debunked “study” claiming that alleged “right-wing extremists,” apparently hiding under every bed, have become a bigger threat to America than Islamic terrorists — many of whom have been armed and openly supported by the Obama administration, prompting even retired U.S. generals to argue that Obama had “switched sides” in the terror war. The propaganda “study” in question, produced by the statist George Soros-funded New America Foundation (no link to this magazine), has been widely ridiculed as a pathetic attempt at propaganda on par with Obama administration efforts to demonize conservatives, libertarians, Ron Paul supporters, veterans, pro-life activists, liberty lovers, and more as potential terrorists and extremists in various official reports.A report on “right-wing extremism” produced by Obama's Department of Homeland Security warning of veterans and conservatives was eventually withdrawn after it went public. The DHS was subjected to merciless ridicule once the sources, many of which were known hoax websites, emerged. But other, similar propaganda continues to be pumped out, at taxpayer expense. And the New America report, while not directly affiliated with the administration, has been blasted for major flaws that provide evidence of deliberate manipulation to achieve the desired result — demonizing political opponents.A recent article on Obama's new czar hunting right-wing extremists by Leo Hohmann at WND, for example, pointed out that the New America study cited a mentally ill, drug-abusing, anti-Christian terrorist motivated by National Socialism as an example of “right-wing terrorism.” Other alleged examples of “right-wing terrorism” included a 2004 bank robbery, an armed home robbery in 2009, and a few non-political shootings of police. In all, the “study” managed to find or invent 48 victims of “right-wing terrorism” since the September 11 attacks killed 3,000 Americans. When it comes to Islamist terrorism, though, the “study” failed to include everything from Chattanooga shooter Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez's recent attack that killed five U.S. servicemen to John Muhammad's Washington, D.C., shooting spree that left 10 dead back in 2002. Despite being debunked, the pseudo-study was regurgitated by Carlin and some leftist media outlets without noting its obvious flaws.Critics, though, are already warning that Obama's new domestic terror czar is no joke. Bryan Fischer, writing on the pro-family One News Now site, blasted the president's “abiding hostility to people of Christian faith” — as exemplified most recently by the new terror czar position and Obama's apparent belief that Christians are a threat to national security. “If you are a sincerely devoted follower of Jesus Christ, your president believes you are a potential domestic terrorist,” Fischer wrote, pointing to Obama's new domestic terror czar job and the statements made by Carlin and the SPLC. “And where, pray tell, does this threat come from? From the Muslim Brotherhood, which has a stated goal of exterminating Western civilization and sabotaging our miserable house from within? Nope. From ISIS, which is actively recruiting jihadists in all 50 states? Nope. Jihadists who are sneaking into the United States disguised as Syrian refugees? Nope.”Blasting the “thoroughly discredited” SPLC, “which is so blatantly and maliciously biased against Christians that other parts of Obama's administration – the FBI, the Pentagon, and the U.S. Army – are getting as far away from the SPLC as they can,” Fischer said Obama and his “minions” consider the Family Research Council and the American Family Association to be the “real threat.” He also noted that the SPLC's “intelligence project director,” who teamed up with the DOJ, had admitted to a reporter that the SPLC classifies groups “on the basis of ideology.” “In other words, the SPLC will vilify groups because of what they believe, not because of what they do or because they have demonstrated any propensity toward violence,” Fischer noted, citing the SPLC operative's own admission that the groups demonized by the SPLC are not targeted based on whether they are violent or not, but “on the basis of ideology.”“Do we disagree with the homosexual lobby about homosexuality? Of course. Do we hate them? Absolutely not. Do we advocate violence against them? Never have, never will. We are simply determined to tell the moral, spiritual, and physical truth about non-normative sexual behavior,” Fischer continued, blasting the SPLC's attacks on pro-family groups based on the far-left outfit's own subjective hatred of what those groups say. “Bottom line: disagreement is not hatred, and the truth is not hate speech. Somebody needs to tell that to the president.” Of course, Obama already knows that, yet has demonstrated repeatedly his disdain for Christians — especially those who “bitterly” cling to their guns and Bibles.Indeed, so outrageous and brazen has the administration's anti-Christian bigotry become, that the Obama Defense Department was exposed teaching U.S. troops that Evangelical Christians, Catholics, and Orthodox Jews were “religious extremists” in the same category with Hamas and al-Qaeda. Just last week, Obama and the United Nations launched a global jihad against extremism, promising to stamp out “anti-Muslim bigotry” wherever it may be hiding. Also last week, Obama was again demonizing Christians, suggesting that the most devoted followers of Christ Jesus are actually xenophobes "suspicious of those not like them.”In its final year in office, the Obama administration seems to be becoming a caricature of itself — an angry, petulant, paranoid, anti-American spectacle that would almost appear to be a comedy act if the implications for liberty and constitutional government were not so extreme.Unsurprisingly, the new domestic terror czar announcement, and especially its links to the radical SPLC, has sparked a firestorm of outrage. However, the American people overwhelmingly elected Republicans to Congress so they could stop Obama and his “fundamental transformation” of America. A good place to start would be to examine the DOJ and its latest antics. If they are unconstitutional, or chill free speech in any way, they should be defunded immediately. If lawmakers find that the Justice Department is playing politics and demonizing, spying on, or threatening peaceful Americans for their political or religious views, Congress should start holding those responsible for the scheming accountable. Without congressional action, though, Americans can expect even more attacks on middle America in the coming months as Obama's “fundamental transformation” reaches its climax.Related articles:
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Ominous brain alteration might be mandated by evil governments in the same way as vaccines
Brain-damaging “treatment” might be mandated just like vaccines
3 NEW CATHOLIC SCANDALS~POPE: FORGIVENESS FOR SCANDAL, BUT NO REPENTANCE FROM ACTIONS
Meanwhile, the lead meteorologist in France has warned of the manipulative hysteria being cultivated around “climate change”, that the public are “hostage to a planetary scandal over climate change — a war machine whose aim is to keep us in fear.” In response, the French government took him off the air.
MERCK WHISTLE BLOWER DETAILS MANDATORY VACCINE PUSH & TOXIC ADDITIVES IN VACCINES
What’s Really Behind Mandatory Vaccines?
Published on Oct 17, 2015
Council for Vaccine Safety founder, Brandy Vaughn, joins the show to discuss what’s really behind the push for mandatory vaccinations. The pharmaceutical industry is set to make billions off of mandatory childhood vaccinations, and now both boys and girls will be pressured to take the highly controversial gardasil shot.
TRUMP CALLS SANDERS A MANIAC SOCIALIST/COMMUNIST AND HILLARY A FOLLOWER OF SANDERS
Trump Calls Sanders A Maniac Following Democrat Debate & Hillary a Follower
Published on Oct 14, 2015
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has a new target for his barbs: Democratic contender Bernie Sanders. Trump went after the senator while speaking in front of about 5,000 people at a rally in Virginia Wednesday evening. (Oct. 15)
FEDS BEGIN TAKEOVER OF LOCAL POLICE UNDER “STRONG CITIES NETWORK”, INSTITUTE FOR STRATEGIC DIALOGUE & U.N.
SPLC Minions Plot Police Takeover
Published on Oct 15, 2015
Alex Jones plays a video clip of an SPLC crony describing their plan to takeover the police and who their main enemies are.
DOJ OFFICIAL PRAISES THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER’S WORK IN COMBATTING DOMESTIC TERRORISM
SPLC says it places groups — including conservative, Christian groups — on its “Hate List” based on their beliefs
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
(CNSNews.com) – John Carlin, the assistant attorney general for national security, announced Wednesday that the Justice Department is creating the new position of domestic terrorism counsel to combat the “real and present threat” of domestic extremism. Carlin praised groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center “that dedicate themselves to examining what the threat is, observing it, and reporting on it,” adding that the work of the SPLC was “very important.” The SPLC says it places groups -- including conservative, Christian groups -- on its "Hate List" based on their beliefs, not their propensity for violence."Homegrown violent extremists can be motivated by any viewpoint on the full spectrum of hate — anti-government views, racism, bigotry, anarchy and other despicable beliefs," Carlin told a gathering at George Washington University. The discussion was co-hosted by SPLC. "When it comes to hate and intolerance, no single ideology governs."Carlin was asked about the value of SPLC’s work in helping DOJ deal with the threat of domestic terrorist extremism.“I can say, based on our briefings, that as I said in my opening remarks, we very much think that the domestic terrorism threat is a real and present threat that demands to be addressed in new, creative ways,” he replied emphasizing that “Southern Poverty Law Center and other groups in this space are very important.”The SPLC’s website features a “hate map” that lists the conservative. Christian Family Research Council (FRC) as a “hate group” because of its defense of traditional marriage. The “hate map” was cited by convicted domestic terrorist Floyd Lee Corkins in his decision to attack the FRC in 2012 when he shot and wounded a security guard before being subdued.“We recognize that, over the past few years, more people have died in this country in attacks by domestic extremists than in attacks associated with international terrorist groups,” Carlin said in his remarks.SPLC’s Intelligence Project Director Heidi Beirich participated with Carlin in Wednesday's discussion of domestic terrorism.CNSNews.com asked Beirich about their designation of the Family Research Council as a hate group.“I think there’s a common misunderstanding about the way you get on our Hate List. We post groups on the basis of ideology, not whether they’re violent or not,” she replied.“Of course some of the groups are particularly violent, the Skinheads, Neo-Nazis, and what not,” she continued. “Others are simply pushing propaganda that we consider hateful. For example, there’s an organization called American Renaissance, it puts out reams and reams of information about why black people are inferior, it lies basically, so black people are dumber, they’re psychopathic, they’re more violent. “In the same way groups like the Family Research Council and the American Family Association do that but what they’re putting out is anti-gay material so gay people are pedophiles, or molesters, or whatever the case may be, and that’s why they’re on the list and that’s the direct analogy.”“Look our list is, we’re a nonprofit, we put out a list every year, we have relationships with people in federal law enforcement, but we’re a completely separate entity and we put our material out to the entire public, right?” Beirich replied when CNSNews.com asked how these listings might affect SPLC aiding in domestic terrorism investigations.“So it’s there to be seen, so it’s not like we’re somehow, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s controlling domestic terrorism investigations. It’s clearly not the case. It’s public information, it’s our opinion that it’s hateful, and that’s basically it,” she concluded.The new Domestic Terrorism Counsel will serve as the main point of contact for U.S. Attorney offices nationwide and will work to identify trends across cases, help shape strategy and analyze legal gaps that need to be closed, the Associated Press reported. Also See: Conservatives to DOJ, FBI: Stop Advancing Southern Poverty Law Center’s Anti-Christian Agenda
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SEE THE LIST & MAP THAT THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER HAS COMPILED & TARGETEDhttps://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/groups
________________________________________________________Protecting Rights: Loyal Americans Targeted by the SPLC
Uploaded on Oct 28, 2011Bill Jasper presents how Americans are targeted by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Brought to you by Liberty News Network - a project of The John Birch SocietyDOJ CREATES “DOMESTIC TERRORISM” DIVISION, PREVIOUSLY LABELED LIBERTARIANS, CONSERVATIVES “DOMESTIC EXTREMISTS”
Given past history, DOJ's "domestic terrorism counsel" will politically persecute libertarians and conservatives
by KIT DANIELSrepublished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:The Justice Department has created a “domestic terrorism” division after previously labeling libertarians and conservatives as “domestic extremists.”
The DOJ announced it will appoint a “domestic terrorism counsel” to focus on who the Obama administration and the controversial Southern Poverty Law Center considers “extremists.”“Looking back over the past few years, it is clear that domestic terrorists and homegrown violent extremists remain a real and present danger to the United States,” the DOJ’s John Carlin said on Wednesday.But the Justice Dept. and the Department of Homeland Security previously characterized libertarians, conservatives and constitutionalists as militia-inspired “domestic extremists.”“Militia members most commonly associated with third-party political groups,” a 2009 Missouri Information Analysis Center report stated. “It is not uncommon for militia members to display Constitutional Party, Campaign for Liberty or libertarian material.”“These members are usually supporters of former presidential candidates Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin and Bob Barr.”Even more concerning, the MIAC report encouraged law enforcement to scrutinize Americans who oppose abortion, illegal immigration and the rapid growth of the government, all of which are views shared by a plurality of Donald Trump supporters.“The MIAC report is particularly pernicious because it indoctrinates Missouri law enforcement in the belief that people who oppose confiscatory taxation, believe in the well-documented existence of a New World Order and world government (a Google search of this phrase will pull up numerous references made by scores of establishment political leaders), and are opposed to the obvious expansion of the federal government at the expense of the states as violent extremists who are gunning for the police,” Kurt Nimmo pointed out. “It specifically targets supporters of mainstream political candidates and encourages police officers to consider them dangerous terrorists.”The report was compiled with input from the leftist SPLC which routinely smears well-known libertarian and conservative organizations by falsely conflating them with racist, extremist groups.“The SPLC, the well-heeled propaganda machine that smears conservatives for cash, is an integral part of the ongoing leftist effort to demonize and destroy legitimate conservative voices,” journalistRobert Spencer wrote, adding, “The SPLC turns a blind eye to the real hate that comes from the left and Islamic supremacists, and offers with its hate group listings not only an incitement to violence, but a handy tool that lazy, leftist mainstream media journalists use to try to intimidate people away from supporting … human rights.”It’s been reported that the SPLC has made over $150 million in the past 20 years from advising law enforcement on conservative and libertarian “extremism.”Local law enforcement officials have used SPLC reports to “justify” the deployment of former military equipment such as grenade launchers and MRAPs for domestic police use.“I mean, we’ve got a lot of constitutionalists and a lot of people that stockpile weapons, lots of ammunition,” a Washington state sheriff’s deputy proclaimed when asked why his department used a MRAP.And last week, a Georgia grand jury formally charged 15 Confederate flag supporters on terror charges.“Douglas County District Attorney Brian Fortner said members of the ‘Respect the Flag’ group violated the state’s Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act and made terroristic threats when their caravan of vehicles bearing the rebel flag drove past a neighborhood party,” Fox News reported.Similarly, the Justice Dept. has been pressuring banks to refuse service to businesses the DOJ is targeting politically, such as gun stores, in a program entitled Operation Choke Point.Under the program, the DOJ is attempting to shut down various legal businesses, including firearm dealers, dating services, purveyors of drug paraphernalia and pornography distributors, by coercing financial institutions to close the bank and merchant accounts associated with these businesses.And back in April the National Guard performed “civil unrest” drills in Richmond, Calif., which featured role players screaming right-wing rhetoric.“Why in the course of a drill for a dirty bomb, would an actor claim to be a sovereign citizen?” Keith Johnson asked, who filmed the footage. “The San Francisco Bay Area is not known for its sovereign citizen militia population and hearing this shouted during a mock terrorist scenario was disturbing.”
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DOJ Plots American Coup!
Published on Oct 16, 2015The Justice Department has created a “domestic terrorism” division after previously labeling libertarians and conservatives as “domestic extremists.” http://www.infowars.com/doj-creates-d... ** http://www.infowars.com/secret-state-... **SHOCKING STORY http://www.infowars.com/state-departm...Deadly Move That Will Usher The World Into Madness Has Just Arrived-“Global Citizenship"
OBAMA’S SANITY QUESTIONED BY EXPERTS & OTHERS
In fact the submissive domesticated Obama supporters at this point have to be suffering varying degrees of psychosis. You would have to be delusional to ignore Obama’s shrouded upbringing by communist muslims. His former identity as Barry Soetero, an Indonesian foreign exchange student with confidential college records that rose to prominence traversing marxist/socialist circles catapulted into the political landscape due to funds provided by unknown foreign backers and NWO strategist George Soros.
Obama has now shown almost all of the cards in his hand after decimating the U.S. military, aiding and abetting the assault of the U.S. constitution, increasing our national debt, creating a healthcare tax to destroy the middle class, engaging in divide and conquer leadership and overseeing the policies and trade deals that serve as a trojan horse for an emerging global Corporacratic Government.
You would have to be mentally ill to oppose prosperity. Humanity has an unlimited potential. Massively overshadowing the potential of the NWO beast’s technocratic eugenics plan. Our sovereign individual national identities have to be maintained and developed. It is only through this method of human innovation that all of our greatest and sanest achievements have been attained.
Related:
IS BARACK OBAMA ACTUALLY TRYING TO START WORLD WAR III? – http://www.infowars.com/is-barack-oba…
OBAMA: ‘AMERICANS’ SUSPICION OF GOVERNMENT IS PARALYZING’ – http://www.infowars.com/obama-america…
Is Obama Mentally Ill? Experts Weigh In
Published on Oct 15, 2015
Former NSA analyst says senior European official asked him how US President could be impeached.
Read more:
EU DIPLOMAT: MY GOVERNMENT ‘BELIEVES OBAMA IS QUITE MENTALLY UNWELL’ – http://www.infowars.com/eu-diplomat-m…
Read more:
EU DIPLOMAT: MY GOVERNMENT ‘BELIEVES OBAMA IS QUITE MENTALLY UNWELL’ – http://www.infowars.com/eu-diplomat-m…
BUREAUCRACIES NOW MILITARIZING TO TAKE PROPERTY & RIGHTS
BERNIE SANDERS WANTS A SOCIALIST DICTATORSHIP IN AMERICA, OR BETTER YET, MOB RULE BY “SOCIALIST DEMOCRACY” TO REPLACE OUR REPRESENTATIVE REPUBLIC
Socialist Sanders Wants to Give You “Free” Everything
by Increasing Taxes on the “Rich” 0.1% Who He Claims Owns 90% of the Wealth of the U.S.
FLORIDA SENATE CANDIDATE ADMITS TO SACRIFICING GOAT, DRINKING BLOOD IN PAGAN RITUAL
CHICAGO TEEN GIRL HAS BREASTS REMOVED TO BECOME TRANSGENDER MALE VIA CHICAGO CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL’S “TRANS” ACTIVISM
Threat of youth suicide drives radical, body-disfiguring “sex reassignment” surgeries on minor children–should this be legal?
“We don’t offer anything that would have any long-lasting negative or irreversible effect unless this is truly a kid who’s older, who can make a wise decision, whose family is supportive.”– Dr. Scott Leibowitz, child and adolescent psychiatrist with Lurie Children’s Hospital’s Gender and Sex Development program
Raising A Transgender Teen
Growing up transgender Bonus Clip. 09/24/15
SEE:
https://www.luriechildrens.org/en-us/care-services/find-a-doctor/Pages/Garofalo_Robert_1632.aspx;
Meet Dr. Rob Garofalo, Division Head,
Adolescent Medicine at Lurie Children’s
Published on Jul 30, 2013
Dr. Rob Garofalo is the Division Head of Adolescent Medicine at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. Dr. Garofalo’s special interests include adolescent HIV/AIDS issues; sexually transmitted diseases; gay, lesbian, transgendered youth issues.
EPISCOPAL & METHODIST CLERGY BLESS ABORTION CLINIC~”THANK GOD FOR ABORTION PROVIDERS” THEY CHANT & SING
APOSTATES GLORY IN MURDER & DEATH OF BABIES UNDER RELIGIOUS CLOAKS
Rev. Harry F. Knox | President/CEO
United Methodist Minister:
Abortion Clinic Shows “a Reverence for Life”
by Killing Babies
SEE: http://the-trumpet-online.com/thank-god-for-abortion-providers-episcopal-and-methodist-clergy-bless-abortion-clinic/; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Breitbart.com
Some ordained ministers are throwing their support behind abortion providers. Last week, for example, clergy for Episcopal and Methodist churches were among religious leaders who gathered in Cleveland to bless an abortion clinic.
- A model built on health, not sickness
- A place where women would receive affirmation and support, from both staff and each other
- A facility in which participating physicians could take pride
- A place where counseling would support and educate each patient
- A service that would be nonprofit, tax exempt, and inexpensive
- A center that would be ethical, caring and humane both for the patients and for the staff.
- 1974 Preterm successfully joined the ACLU and NOW as plaintiff against the State Auditor in order to force payment for abortion services for women on Medicaid.
- 1975 Research conducted with Preterm patients was written up by Dr. Sam Lane and Dr. John Wilson (CSU Psychology department) in “Conceptualizing the Abortion Decision and Moral Reasoning: Implications for Counseling.”
- 1976 Preterm and the ACLU successfully fought the first attempted Ohio parental consent law.
- 1983 After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the law requiring that second trimester abortions be performed in a hospital, Preterm began offering abortion services through 16 weeks; shortly thereafter through 17.5 weeks.
- 1989 Human chains kept clinic doors open and more than 100 people were arrested during the summer of “Operation Rescue.”
- 1992 Faced with losing our longtime lease, Preterm embarked on a major capital campaign and eventually purchased a derelict building on Shaker Blvd. (where we moved in 1994).
- 1995 & 1998 Preterm participated in clinical trials of RU486 & mifepristone, “the abortion pill.”
- 1997 Preterm established the Gerson-Britton endowment to guarantee funding for medically indigent patients.
- 2004 Preterm acted as a Cleveland co-sponsor of the March for Women’s Lives in Washington, DC. Ten buses from Cleveland, including half of Preterm’s staff, attended.
- 2006 “In Their Shoes,” dramatic readings from the journals kept in Preterm waiting rooms, performed by Dobama Theatre actors, premiered at a June fundraising event.
- 2007 Preterm launched a three-year “Act Boldly, Live Gently” plan to transform the clinic into an energy efficient, sustainable healthcare facility.
- 2009 To further assist women in need of pregnancy options, Preterm began offering open adoption services in partnership with the Spence-Chapin agency in New York.
- 2010 will be another big year … We are submitting application for LEED-EB (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Existing Buildings) certification, participating in important studies and education initiatives, and sponsoring an abortion speak-out to combat stigma, all while continuing to provide compassionate, high-quality abortion services.”
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