Feminist Power & Spirituality

Part 1: 2002-2007

For background information, see Our Mother the Earth? and Mine is the Power?

Home ~ News Index ~  Articles (see Global Management System) 

September 2007

The Consequence of Role-Reversals in The Shack - Part 2: "...'husband' is a chief metaphor by which God explains His relationship to His people.... To invert the relationship creates a spiritual climate in which people can easily initiate creating their own gods and goddesses, and making their own rules... by which they, because of their actions, expect to control God and cause Him to react favorably to them....

      "Can the creation of a feminine-divine image as pictured in The Shack impede, even damage, the relational-potential between people and God, something polar opposite from what readers testify the book has done for them?Can this happen when the story invites people into a surreal-spiritual world? Yes it can, for that is how imagination and idolatry relate to each other. But.. how? ... By projecting femininity to the Trinity in a role-reversal that is opposite from what the Bible depicts the divine-human relationship to be." See Our Father in Heaven OR Our Mother the Earth? & The twisted "truths" of The Shack

The Consequence of Role-Reversals in The Shack: "The Shack is a work of fiction, a work of imagination. For reason of the caricature of God contained in it, does the 'it’s-only-fiction' excuse thereby exonerate the book from the charge of heresy? ... First, by their very definition, idols are but fictions. As the Apostle Paul warned, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables [Might we legitimately paraphrase, ‘fictions’?].” See Deceived by a counterfeit "Jesus"

July 2007

The New Age Comes to the Girl Scouts of the USA: "...a 12 page brochure for their upcoming annual National Council Session... states: 'Channel your inner being. Be one with your mind, body, and soul. Yoga for everyone!' Yet, on their website it states: 'Doxology is not an appropriate Girl Scout event song, as it is easily identified as a Christian church song.'... While these references and promotions of Yoga are disturbing to say the least, a recently formed partnership... will take Girl Scouts to a whole new level of New Age spirituality! ...The Ashland Institute... teaches Attunement (metaphysical energy healing) described as .Creative Energy Practice,. which .deepens. the .connection with the Source of Life.." See Mine is the Power!

 

Feminists Calling the Bible a 'Dead Book': "The Christian feminists obviously disdain the authority of the Bible...: 'Protestant fundamentalists, who so castigate Catholics for 'worship' of statues, fail to recognize their own idol, the one they’ve made of the bible. They’ve replaced the first commandment. Rather than listen to their God through the spirit, they 'listen' to the rustlings of a dead book, forcing God to 'come down' to their level through their magical thinking....'"

     That statement and the next two links give us a glimpse of (1) today's rejection of God's Word and (2).the cultural shift toward postmodern adaptations of pagan spirituality.

 

Paganism in Utah: "Many are attracted to paganism because it is a modern tradition with roots in the past. Most types of paganism practiced today are considered neo-paganism, because they're based on modern understanding of the past, yet they're adapted to meet the needs of people today. ... The group has also focused on revered female figures who aren't usually seen as deity, but who 'function as goddesses.'... Mary Magdelene, the LDS Mother in Heaven and even Lady Liberty (the Statue of Liberty) have all been the subject of worship services." See Our Mother the Earth

 

Scottish National Health Service gives its blessing to Paganism: "Pagan chaplains are, for the first time, to offer counselling and prayers to the sick in Scottish wards.... Pagan patients will also receive advice on getting well soon, including keeping a 'healing goddess' next to their bed." See My will be done

May 2007

Outcry as clergy say calling God 'He' or 'Lord' encourages wife-beating: "They also warned that clergy must reconsider the language they use in sermons and check the hymns they sing to remove signs of male oppression. The recommendation - fully endorsed by Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams - puts a question mark over huge swathes of Christian teaching and practice. It throws doubt on whether the principal Christian prayer should continue to be known as the Lord's Prayer and begin 'Our Father'. ...The rules also throw into question the role of the Bible by calling for reinterpretations of stories in which God uses violence." (10-3-06) See RE-IMAGINING GOD

April 2007

What’s Wrong With a “Female Adam” Anyway? "A 'Christian feminist' at Christians for Biblical Equality asks, 'How many of you know the name of the woman who lived in the Garden of Eden before the Fall? What was her name? Her name was Adam.'  The CBE lecturer then teaches that it was a sin on Adam’s part to give Eve a different name, calling it a 'hostile kind of act.'” Re-imagining God and women

March 2007

A Paucity of Sound Teaching in America Today: "Would anyone like to know what trouble I am having finding a good church in Manhattan? ...this came from a church with a reputation for being the most 'sound' church in Manhattan, a very large reformed PCA Presbyterian Church.... They were selling a biography of Julian of Norwich. And who was Julian of Norwich? She was a pantheist and revered goddess-worshiping 'mystic' by the feminists. To give you a taste of her beliefs here is a quote from her: 'Jesus Christ, who does well against evil, is our very mother.' I can thank the feminists over at Christians for Biblical Equality for that quote, which they feature with praise from Caroline W. Bynum’s book Jesus as Mother, Studies in the Spirituality of the Middle Ages." See The sacred feminine

Jobs divided by gender: "The nation could elect its first female president next year; even Harvard University will soon be headed by its first female chief. But when viewed across the full spectrum of the labor force, women and men still tend to be locked into traditional occupations. ... 'There continue to be stereotypical ideas about what is appropriate work for men and for women,' Jacobs said. 'We've accepted the idea that women can do this and men can do that."

      A caption under the picture illustrated Jacob's "problem" with this statement: "98% of plumbing jobs are filled by men.... 91% of registered nurses are female." Do you wonder what percentage of women would prefer to be plumbers? This issue reminds me of a trip to Russia decades ago where public squares featured statues of muscular working women lifting their hammers, proud to work with the men and let the government train their children to think like little Communists. Might America now share a similar goal? See Soviet Education under Lenin versus U.S. Education for the New millennium

February 2007

"Radical Feminism: The kiss of death: "Daughters and granddaughters of the women who started the sexual revolution of the 60s have tossed aside what remained of sexual taboos. Gloria Steinam must be tickled pink. Just check out what's going on with the younger generation. ...the picture is not a pretty one....

      "I'm not talking about body piercing, tattoos or electric pink and green hair fashions.... I'm talkin' knock down drag out hair pulling fisticuffs caught on cell phones and distributed on the Internet. (Watching girls' exchange body blows is not recommended for the feint of heart.) Standers by, both male and female, fervently root for their favorite girl to win. Most self-respecting females would find it humiliating to have their bruised and battered faces plastered all over the Internet. Oh contraire!....

     "At student dances all across America (including middle schools) kids are dirty dancing. Teens are simulating sex to the beat of the music. .... Sex Ed beginning in kindergarten.... No doubt sexual freedom is a dream come true for radical feminists. But it's a nightmare for loving, sensible parents." See Mine is the Power?

 

Harvard’s Faustian Bargain: "The feminist takeover of Harvard is imminent. ... Harvard’s Corporation... could not have more clearly repudiated Lawrence Summers’s all-too-brief reign of meritocracy and academic honesty, or more openly signaled that Harvard will now be the leader in politically correct victimology.... [Ms Drew Gilpin] Faust runs one of the most powerful incubators of feminist complaint and nonsensical academic theory in the country. You can count on the Radcliffe Institute’s fellows and invited lecturers to proclaim the 'constructed' nature of knowledge, gender, and race, and to decry endemic American sexism and racism.... With typical feminist hypocrisy, Faust has managed to wield massive power even as she rues female powerlessness." See Mine is the Power!

December 2006

GENDER-BASED CRIME: Victims Slain for Nonconformity: "An advocacy group for transgender people issued a report yesterday detailing deaths of 50 people across the country who they believe were targeted because they did not conform to gender norms....

      "Transgender is an umbrella term for people who do not conform to traditional notions of gender." See The Mainstream Media and the next link:

 

From A Twist of Faith. Mine is the Power? [click on "The new five genders"] "'We intend to fight like mad for all we want,' said Donna Shalala, US Secretary of Health and Human Services. 'There is extensive opposition to sexual orientation... but we shall overcome them."

     "Feminist leaders had planned their offensive long before they came to Beijing. ... 'Gender,' they said, 'indicates that sex roles and behaviors are artificially constructed and freely chosen.'... Some feminist leaders even wanted to promote 'an equality of five genders.' They would include 'male and female heterosexuals, male and female homosexuals, and trans or bisexuals.' Gone is God's view of gender: 'He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female.'" (Matthew 19:4)

November

The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman's Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine (by Sue Monk Kidd, who has been considered a Christian author): "Deity ... will also be right here, right now, in me, in the earth, in this river, and this rock, in excrement and roses alike ... The divine is in everything foaming around everywhere. We're all in connection with it ... As I grounded myself in feminine spiritual experience, that fall I was initiated into my body in a deeper way. I came to know myself as an embodiment of Goddess ... The day of my awakening was the day I saw and knew I saw all things in God, God in all things" pp. 160-163. See Celebrating the Goddess

June

Our Mother Jesus... a sermon by church's new head: "The Episcopal Church in America descended into chaos last night after leading bishops on both the liberal and conservative wings dissassociated themselves from a last-gasp effort to avert a schism with the worldwide Anglican Communion.... Just hours after its newly elected woman head preached a sermon in praise of 'our mother Jesus, the Episcopal Church agreed to 'exercise restraint' in appointing any more gay bishops.... The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.... said that actions by bishops and laity of the Episcopal Church yesterday showed 'how strong is their concern to seek reconciliation and conversation with the rest of the Communion.'... But this fragile consensus was immediately shattered....

     "[Many delegates wore] pink 'It’s a girl' badges in celebration of the Right Rev Katharine Schori’s election as the new presiding bishop.... Dr Schori signalled her feminist credentials in a sermon that drew on the writings of the 14th-century Julian of Norwich. She said, 'Mother Jesus gives birth to a new creation....'” 

      A similar message in was celebrated in another Episcopal church: Celebrating the goddess

April 2006

President... confronted with feminist agenda: "Assistant Education Secretary for Civil Rights Stephanie Monroe has announced that the administration of President George W. Bush is investigating universities that have fewer women in science and math programs than feminists would like....  The gender police have already ruined college sports for many men.... Fresh from that attack on masculinity, the new target is math and science departments." See Mine is the Power!

September - 2005

What happened to the Girl Scouts? "Next month, the Girl Scouts USA national convention will be held in Atlanta. It will be a gathering of radical feminists, lesbians, and cookie peddlers with an agenda far removed from the classical image of Girl Scouting and from many local Girl Scout troops. ...

    "Though self-esteem seems to be the obsession of most youth organizations with the notable exception of the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts are, according to James Davison Hunter, 'the ideal illustration of that obsession.' Rhetoric about service to others has been replaced with fluff about feelings and self-esteem. ...

    "Last year, Girl Scouts USA CEO Kathy Cloninger announced on the NBC 'Today Show' that local Girl Scout councils are at liberty to partner with Planned Parenthood....

    "The alternative to the Girl Scouts is a rapidly growing movement called the American Heritage Girls. American Heritage Girls is committed to 'Building women of integrity through service to God, family, community and country.'"

June

Pity Harvard’s Oppressed Women Profs: "A group of the most highly-paid, privileged, and honor-laden women in history officially launched their screed against gender bias at Harvard yesterday. Harvard’s Task Force on Women Faculty presented its report on the university’s sexism to an adoring gathering of the school’s Standing Committee on Women. The event was drenched in irony, but few of the participants noticed....

     "Harvard is creating a powerful new quota enforcer—the Senior Vice Provost for Diversity and Faculty Development—and giving her $50 million to throw at the cause of women’s equality.... After the meeting, participants returned to their lavish offices in the world’s most prestigious university, undoubtedly pleased with themselves for making sure that the next generation of women would enjoy the 'gender equity' for which they have so bravely fought." See Mine is the Power!

April

The Allure of the Goddess: "Goddess worship is alive and well.... Christianity isn’t immune to the allure of the goddess. In 1993, at the Re-Imaging Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2000 women from a variety of protestant denominations were introduced to Sophia, the goddess personification of 'Divine Wisdom.' Furthermore, this particular event, which included creating a 'sacred space' and Sophia invocations, received funding from a number of major protestant/evangelical church bodies.... But goddess influence within churches goes beyond Mother Earth and Sophia...." See Isis: Queen of Heaven and Welcoming the Goddess

March 2005

US Draws Jeers for Abortion Comments at UN: "Jeers and catcalls greeted the top U.S. delegate to a global women's conference on Friday as she stressed Washington's opposition to abortion and support for sexual abstinence and fidelity. After withdrawing an unpopular anti-abortion amendment from a key U.N. document, the United States joined in approving the declaration that reaffirmed a 150-page platform agreed 10 years ago at a landmark U.N. women's conference in Beijing." See Mine is the Power?

February 2005

Frag Dolls show video games aren't just for guys: ...these dolls aren't the cuddling kind -- 'fragging' is the term for killing other players in multiplayer games. With game names such as Katscratch, Jinx, Seppuku, Rhoulette, Eekers, Valkyrie and Brookelyn, they inflict serious damage to online enemies, who are usually trash-talking guys. The seven, who range in age from 22 to 30, want to encourage more women and girls to pick up game controllers and break down barriers in the male-dominated world of online gaming." See Twist of Faith: Deliver us from evil

March 2004

Pro-Abortion Feminist Scouts: "Since the 1970s, the Girl Scouts have been aligned with the radical feminist movement.... In the summer of 2001, Mountain Meadow Girl Scout Camp in New Jersey was advertised as a 'feminist camping experience [for] children of lesbian, gay, transgender... and other progressive families.'...

      "One might wonder why the Girl Scouts have been spared the painful attacks that have been launched upon the Boy Scouts by the Left in recent years. The reasons are simple: the Girl Scouts allow homosexuals and atheists to join their ranks, and they have become a pro-abortion, feminist training corps." A Twist of Faith, chapter 1

November 2002

A generation of skanks: "As I am returning the trashy magazine to the newsstand rack, my toddler chirps in again: 'Mama, where's her shirt?' I answer: 'Her mama forgot to tell her to put one on.' My daughter, naturally, has a follow-up question: 'Well, where's her mama?!'

       "That's exactly the question I ask myself .... Where were their mamas -- and dadas -- to teach them that slutty is not sexy? Gutter talk is for vagrants, not for young ladies who want respect from the world. Promiscuity isn't a sign of maturity. It's a sign of self-loathing. Being 'comfortable in your own skin' doesn't require having to bare every last inch of it in public....

      "This naked truth cannot be disguised: The era of radical feminist sexual liberation has produced a generation of shameless skanks."  See Sex Ed and Global Values, Isaiah 3:5-12 and Jer 6:13-15

August

True Confessions of a Women’s Studies Spy: "My first encounter with feminism in higher education came in the form of a class called 'Women, Power and Politics.' ...My professor... was discussing pregnancy and abortion. 'I hope if any of you ever have the misfortune of finding yourself pregnant, you would have the good sense to have an abortion rather than ruin your future.'...

      "I found comfort in the feminist way of thinking: no matter what unpleasant situations a woman finds herself in, they are not her fault. As I identified more and more with feminist theory, I was figuring out how NOT to take the blame for my current predicament.... The textbooks I was reading taught me that my 'own personal story' could be my own religion. And I was miserable....

      "Our professor spoke frequently about how every religion was ruled by men, oppressed women, and needed reformation.... I had absorbed all the feminist lingo, all the consequence-free sexuality and, most traumatically, the muting of my own conscience." See Temptation? I create my own values

The New Paganism - How Christianity is being replaced by 'green' religion, goddess worship, globalism: "Relentless attacks on America's Christian churches – not just from without, but from within – which are steadily remolding institutionalized Christianity to serve a new, non-Christian, globalist agenda.... For years, Christians have stood by helplessly as their once-dominant religion has been increasingly scoffed at, marginalized and demonized." Our Father in Heaven or Our Mother the Earth?

The worst mothers in America are at your local Cineplex: "What is it that women find so compelling about Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood? It's the story of three generations of women facing abuse, alcoholism, and mental illness, all of whom are made yet more miserable by toxic mother-daughter relationships. This has somehow resulted in Ya-Ya being considered a fun 'girls' night out' movie. In fact, there's been an epidemic of bad mothering on screen lately." Apparently, the notion that it's "cool" to be bad is now applied to mothers as well -- and the American entertainment industry is spreading that message around the world. How will those twisted values affect children and families everywhere? How do they serve the feminist agenda? Could such cultural exports help explain the world's growing hostility toward America? Isaiah 3:5-12

International treaty for women... Some fear it will boost feminist agenda: "The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, known as CEDAW, requires member nations to reduce barriers against women in housing, politics, employment, health care and legal systems.... Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed concerns about several reports issued by a committee created to monitor compliance with the treaty. One report criticized Belarus for establishing a Mother's Day." See A National Information System and Mine is the Power.

July

Women rule the schools: "More and more, women will be taking over the top jobs. They will increasingly be the lawyers, the doctors, the politicians, even the business executives.... Women now form the majority of students at most American colleges and universities.... 'There's been an absolutely amazing shift in the representation of men and women in our universities at same time that education is even more important to success,' said University of Arizona President Peter Likins. 'I think the consequences in the long term are really going to stretch the imagination.'" See Mine is the Power

 

Review to 'delay' women's treaty: "The 23-member CEDAW [Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women] committee, set up by the United Nations to oversee the treaty, has pushed quotas, abortion on demand and legalized prostitution in many of the 170 countries that have signed it, opponents say. It criticized Mexico in a May 1998 report for 'a lack of access to easy and swift abortion.'

       "In 1999, it advised China 'to decriminalize' prostitution and recommended that the Chinese government "take care of the prostitutes' sexual health.'

       "This year the CEDAW committee criticized Belgium for failing to achieve recommended political quotas for that country. In response, Belgian officials announced a new law reserving 50 percent of all candidate slots for women." Isaiah 3:5-12 and Feminism

 

Impact of Title IX hits home: "Scott Green was familiar with Title IX before receiving the March phone call that altered his collegiate future. The North Canton tennis star was aware that the federal statute -- prohibiting discrimination based on gender in academics and athletics -- had been linked to the reduction of many non-revenue men's college sports since it became law in 1972. When he was recruited by Bowling Green, he made certain to ask the coach if the Falcons' program was in danger of following the fate of several other Mid-American Conference tennis teams, including Akron's....

        "On March 20, Harris called the Green family with bad news: Bowling Green was dropping four men's sports -- swimming, tennis, and indoor and outdoor track....

        "The National Wrestling Coaches Association and other athletic organizations have brought suit against the federal Department of Education on grounds of reverse discrimination and charges that Title IX has led many schools to cut men's sports rather than add women's to achieve gender equity." Isaiah 3:5-12

June

U.N. Women's right treaty should be ignored: "CEDAW is the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. There's a good reason why the Senate has ignored it for a generation: It's an incredibly toxic document, the work of international bureaucrats determined to impose a worldwide makeover of family relations and 'gender roles.' CEDAW is a blueprint for foisting the West's radical feminism on every nation gullible enough to sign on....

      "CEDAW ferociously monitors every nation's compliance....It bristles with contempt for family, motherhood, religion and tradition....

      "One of the CEDAW committee's techniques is to use broad language, which is then tightened and given a radical interpretation after signatories have accepted it. CEDAW did not announce that women's "right to free choice of profession and employment" would turn out to mean (as the committee now says) that prostitution must be decriminalized around the world. Similarly, CEDAW'S ban on "any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex" seems to make legal approval of homosexual marriage mandatory. Some analysts think CEDAW'S ban on "orientation" bias will make pedophile sex legal, since some people are "oriented" toward children. ....

     "The World Bank now seems primed to serve as an enforcer for CEDAW.... No CEDAW compliance, no loan. Worse, CEDAW backers intend to use the new International Criminal Court as an enforcement tool." Mine is the Power (The 1995 Beijing Conference for Women)

 

How the CIA used feminism to destabilize socieity: "In 1958, Steinem was recruited by CIA’s Cord Meyers to direct an “informal group of activists” called the “Independent Research Service.” This was part of Meyer’s “Congress for Cultural Freedom,” which created magazines like “Encounter” and “Partisan Review” to promote a left-liberal chic to oppose Marxism. Steinem, attended Communist-sponsored youth festivals in Europe, published a newspaper, reported on other participants, and helped to provoke riots....

     "In 1979, Steinem and her powerful CIA-connected friends, Katharine Graham of the Washington Post and Ford Foundation President Franklin Thomas prevented Random House from publishing it in 'Feminist Revolution.'....

      "Feminism has done the most damage. There is no more fundamental yet delicate relationship in society than male and female. On it depends the family, the red blood cell of society. Nobody with the interests of society at heart would try to divide men and women. Yet the lie that men have exploited women has become the official orthodoxy....

      "Feminism is a grotesque fraud perpetrated on society by its governing elite. It is designed to weaken the American social and cultural fabric."

April

August 

Girls just want to be licensed: "Doe-eyed, big-headed girls with sassy names and no associated entertainment are shaking up the traditional licensing mix-proving brands' staying power and the market cachet of tween girl consumers.... The company's tween offering includes a sassy bad girl quartet called Mischievous Girls and the slightly more edgy Lil She Creatures, a collection of gothic butterflies, angels and she-devils with a 1920s sense of style....  'We see it fitting into a niche market and would like to see the line grow slowly-mass market is not ready for Lil She Creatures,'" says René Cigler....

       "'You can't just throw a bit of glitz and fluff over a bog-standard product and expect to wow the world,' says Santoro. 'In order to endure, [licensors must] constantly create new ideas to keep the brand fresh and desirable.' According to Bandai's Sherfey, tween consumers will determine the real winners at retail. 'Girls have value, they spend money - it's all about the power of spending,' says Sherfey. 'Girls are not just in the background anymore, they're at the forefront.'" Isaiah 3:5-12

July 2002 and earlier

Drugging children (Thomas Sowell): "The motto used to be: 'Boys will be boys.' Today, the motto seems to be: 'Boys will be medicated.' ...This is part of a growing tendency to treat boyhood as a pathological condition that requires a new three R's -- repression, re-education and Ritalin.

        "Some schools have gone to such extremes as banning recess, since boys tend to be boisterous at recess. Competitive sports are likewise banned or made non-competitive, sometimes by banning winning and losing. An aptly titled book, 'The War Against Boys' by Christina Hoff Sommers, catalogs the amazing array of things that schools do to keep boys from being boys. 

        "Some of this is being pushed by propaganda from radical feminists who want boys to be like girls. Their dogmas declare that the behavior usually seen in boys is a result of society's indoctrinating them with a male role stereotype." See Mine is the Power

New faces of compassion: "Can a statue that represents an Asian goddess of mercy and compassion really be a panacea for personal problems? Simone says yes. 'The energy of being around the statue and getting to know the essence of Quan Yin quieted me down.... A third of the planet prays to Quan Yin every day.'" Isaiah 19:2. See also A Twist of Faith - Chapter 1 and  Chapter 2

The Mists of Avalon "is a beautiful book," writes "Christian" author, Madeleine L'Engle. The New York Times calls it a "monumental re-imagining of the Arthurian legends... Reading it is a deeply moving and at times uncanny experience...An impressive achievement." 

       This dark, seductive book about Celtic spirituality, woman power, ritual sex and other pagan practices has found a huge market among feminist seekers. It disturbed me when I tried to read it years ago as part of my research  for Under the Spell of Mother Earth. I didn't finish it, but our nation's public schools tell our children to complete all kinds of reading assignments with similar occult images and suggestions.  For an illustration, click on Chapter 4 - Witchcraft and Ecology, then on The Dark is Rising.  

        A four-hour movie based on this story was recently featured on TNT:  

Women take over Camelot - TNT's 'Mists of Avalon' uses female touch to improve legend: "Allen plays the jealous, vengeance-seeking sister Morgause, whose plotting, in conjunction with that of Viviane, brings great tragedy to Morgaine, England and Avalon combined, in this tale of the Old Ways versus Christianity."  In popular neo-pagan fiction and fantasy, "the old ways" usually refer to Western forms of earth-centered spirituality such as European or Celtic witchcraft. It did this enticing televised feature. Isaiah 3:5-12  and  Chapter 7 - A Twist of Faith

 

Celtic Spirituality. In this article posted on the popular Women of Faith website, Lois Rabey shares her appreciation for Celtic Spirituality. She seems to be pointing to monastic Catholicism, not the Celtic witchcraft which preceded and later blended with Roman Catholicism and mysticism in Celtic lands. She writes, "I hope you will be intrigued enough to investigate Celtic spirituality further on your own" and suggests her readers follow a link to celtic.com. This page offers many options, including "Celtic Traditions" (in the box titled Celtic Websites). A click here brings a new list of choices, including Society of Celtic Shamans at http://www.faeryshaman.org. 

           Too long a stretch? Pleaser remember that for ancient Israel, the journey from the God who loved to them to the enticing gods of their pagan neighbors took less than a generation. With today's high tech media, the time is shortened. But the beginning of apostasy remains the same: we rebel against God's guidelines, ignore His Word, re-imagine God as permissive and delighted with our human feelings (a god more like us), and inflate our view of self.  Please pray for God's direction and protection before visiting this overtly pagan site. May He help us understand the nature of the current revival of Celtic spirituality and witchcraft. Psalm 50:21, 1 Sam 15:22-23 and Deut 18:9-12.  You can also read about the infamous re-imagining conference funded by primarily by Presbyterian, Lutheran and Methodist churches in A Twist of Faith - Chapter 2.

 

New and Alternative Religious Movements: (a thought-provoking commentary -- strange words and all) "... it is much more difficult to define the boundaries of evangelical orthodoxy and detect the marks of heterodoxy and heathenism today than it was thirty, forty or fifty years ago. Theological liberalism, philosophical relativism, religious pluralism, soteriological inclusivism, doctrinal obscurantism - all have conspired to chip away at the very foundations of a New Testament missionary faith.... 

         " If not abandoned, orthodoxy is often at least stretched to the breaking point. Ideas such as the wideness of God's mercy; the unreasonableness of a strict limitarianism; "no-fault" heathenism; the openness of God; transculturation of the gospel; moving boundaries of faith; radical holism-all of these and still other notions impact our view of both Christian distinctives and the very nature of Christian mission. ...it has become all too easy to set aside Jude's injunction to "contend for the faith once for all entrusted to the saints" (Jude 3). In fact, it has become all too easy to misconstrue what that faith is.

        "The Great Commission was given to all of us. It is to be carried out prayerfully, unitedly and wisely in obedience to the dictates of Scripture and in dependence upon the Holy Spirit. ... Perhaps this is one of those times when He is directing us who take biblical faith, biblical unity and biblical mission seriously to come together in new and exciting ways to the end that the world may know that Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father." Col 2:8 and Chapter 1 - A Twist of Faith

 

Women of Faith: Traveling conference caters food for the soul: "It's been called a 'spa for the spirit,' a 'spiritual makeover' and a gigantic Christian slumber party. The Women of Faith conference drew more than 11,000 women from a dozen states to Gaylord Entertainment Center Friday and yesterday for two days of music, prayer and a humorous look at the challenges women face.  " ...there is a man behind all those Women of Faith. Stephen Arterburn, a former Promise Keepers... founder of New Life Clinics, a chain of Christian mental health clinics."  

          The speakers I heard in 1999 often drew laughter by making husbands and children the target of their jokes. The balance was overwhelmingly in favor of fun, freedom (from traditional boundaries--Biblical as well as cultural) and feel-good affirmations rather than faith and faithfulness. Humor is great -- but not when it mocks God's ways or demeans the people He has put in our lives. 1 Peter 3:4 

How Do Women Rule? Just Like Men: "... folks who believe women rulers are nicer don't know their herstory.  ...Want to raze a village? Boadicea, England’s warrior queen, was just the gal to get the job done... [Her] brutality was noteworthy, even by the standards of her era. ... Nor did Boadicea’s distaff descendants shy away from violent displays of power. Mary Tudor, the daughter of Henry VIII, didn’t earn the sobriquet “Bloody Mary” by listening to conflicting views.... Women across the Channel were equally tough. Catherine de’ Medici, the queen consort of Henry II of France, helped plan, and convinced a reluctant Charles IX to carry out the bloody Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacre of France’s Protestants in 1572, an event that triggered a resumption of the Wars of Religion...." So much for compassionate authority. See Mine is the Power?

New faces of compassion: "Can a statue that represents an Asian goddess of mercy and compassion really be a panacea for personal problems? Simone says yes. 'The energy of being around the statue and getting to know the essence of Quan Yin quieted me down.... A third of the planet prays to Quan Yin every day.'" Isaiah 19:2. See also A Twist of Faith - Chapter 1 and  Chapter 2

'Female Liberalism' Pervades Girl Scouts, Says Ex-Scout: "...since the radical feminist movement, it seems to be more [of an] arena to recruit to that movement rather than to turn them to be good citizens," said Wendy Wright. "I think parents need to be cautious, because there can be agenda being promoted subtly." See A Twist of Faith - Chapter 1 and Chapter 7

'Mother God' worshipped at group's gathering for CBF annual meeting: "With songs and prayers to 'Mother God,' an auxiliary organization of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship opened its annual meeting at the CBF General Assembly Thursday with a clear message.... The group sang a hymn to 'strong mother God,' whom the song praised as 'working night and day, planning all the wonders of creation, setting each equation, genius at play.' The hymn went on to designate the Deity as the old aching God' and the 'young, growing God' who is 'eager, on the move.' ... Outgoing BWIM president Raye Nell Dyer said she dreamed that 'a new generation will have the freedom to come up with a variety of inclusive images for God.' Other 'dreams' included the hope that 'the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message was just a bad dream' and the hope for 'men who will marry Baptist women in ministry.' One participant noted that her dream was for Baptists to 'stop singing the hymns that make us second class citizens." This sounds like the notorious inter-faith Re-imagining conference. See the first 2 chapters in A Twist of Faith: How Feminst Spirituality is Changing the Church and Betraying the Women it Promised to Heal.

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