Printer Friendly Version (click here)  March 2, 2009

In This Issue -

New Age Department of Peace Bill Introduced to Congress One Week After Inauguration.

ACSI Chooses New President - Former One Promoted Contemplative

Rick Warren/Reader's Digest Partnership Targets New Multi-Million Member Audience

Ancient-Future Spirituality

Keri Wyatt Kent Continues Leading Women Toward Contemplative - Moody Bible Institute Helps

Driscoll's Vulgarity Draws Media Attention

Two New YouTube Clips - Roger Oakland on the Emerging Church

Faith-based Partnerships: Selling our souls in the name of service?

Did Rick Warren Pray to Allah in the Name of a Muslim Prophet?

Obama Makes Promises and Changes at National Prayer Breakfast

Silencing the Watchmen

The Extent of Contemplative Spirituality

Obama Appoints "Faith-Based" Advisory Council

Trevecca Nazarene University Promoting Contemplative Spirituality in No Small Way

WorldNetDaily: "Bill creates detention camps in US for 'emergencies.'"

Baptist Unity Effort in Progress

Lighthouse Trails Survey Results

Spanish Edition of Faith Undone Gone to Press!

New DVD - God of Wonders - Refuting the New Spirituality

To Forward Newsletter

New Age Department of Peace Bill Introduced to Congress One Week After Inauguration

On February 3, 2009, the Department of Peace bill HR 808 was updated and introduced to Congress by Congressman Dennis Kucinich. For those who are not familiar with the efforts by prolific New Age leaders to bring to reality a US Department of Peace, these efforts began several years ago at a grassroots level. Support for the new department grew and presently 66 members of Congress are supporting the effort. Just one week after the new president took office, the updated Department of Peace bill was introduced.

[O]ne of the obvious goals of the "new gospel" and of the Alliance organization is to completely "reinvent" (if it were possible) the traditional Gospel of Jesus Christ. While members teach that all paths lead to God, they know that there is no place in their new spiritual world order for those who insist that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior.

The Alliance presents itself as a "grassroots" organization of everyday folks, but it is important to remember that the Alliance is spearheaded by a high level group of "new gospel" advocates who appear to be operating from a general blueprint channeled from the spirit world years ago by esotericist and occultist, Alice Bailey, who is the author of many channeled works. Her blueprint is continually being affirmed and updated by the recent "new revelations" received by Schucman [A Course in Miracles], Hubbard, Walsch, [Benjamin] Creme and others.

Warren explains in his book how the Global Renaissance Alliance eventually changed its name to The Peace Alliance, which it is still called today and is the lobbying group and initiator for the Department of Peace.

While Barbara Marx Hubbard and some of the other high profile New Agers slowly faded from the forefront of The Peace Alliance, Marianne Williamson has remained a crucial influence. Up until recently, her name and photo were seen throughout the Peace Alliance website. And while her photo and name do not appear on the home page of the site presently, a simple search on the website shows she is still involved in the movement. Barbara Marx Hubbard and some of the other New Agers have remained involved to various degrees as well. In 2005 Marx Hubbard received a Peacebuilders award from the Peace Alliance. 1 But clearly, having the names of well-known New Agers in prominence would deter the efforts to convince Congress that this is a legitimate trustworthy organization that has an agenda of peace and not of a global change in consciousness for humanity as Marx Hubbard, Williamson, Dyer, Chopra, and others teach. This is where personalities like former anchor Walter Cronkite and Hollywood star Joaquin Phoenix, both DOP activists, have helped The Peace Alliance's agenda.

As we stated in an article titled The Election is Over - What About the Department of Peace?, the Department of Peace will be a means to enforce New Age-based hate-crime legislation. And such legislation will ultimately remove the freedom of speech with regard to declaring the biblical Gospel as the only means of salvation. It will also remove the freedom for public figures (including pastors) to say that the homosexual lifestyle is wrong and sinful (a freedom that has already been restricted in Canada). Also worked into the wording of the bill are restrictions on ownership of guns.2 Ultimately, though, this is a plan to silence the messengers of the true Gospel.
As Bible-believing Christians, let us continue defending the faith in the midst of a dark and lost world that has rejected God's Savior, Jesus Christ, as the only answer to man's lostness. While bills and laws will pass, continually changing the structure and functioning of our society, nothing can change the truth found in His Word.

Jesus said:

Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. Matthew 24: 4-6 

Lighthouse Trails has set up a research page for those who wish to track the "progress" of the Department of Peace.

ACSI Chooses New President - Former One Promoted Contemplative

According to a February 25th press release by the Association of Christian Schools International, ACSI has chosen a new president. Dr. Brian Simmons will be replacing the current president Dr. Kenneth Smitherman in August 2009.1

Brian Simmons is the vice president for university relations at Indiana Wesleyan University. ACSI Board Chair Beth Elder stated: "At the end of a thorough search and selection process ... Dr. Simmons clearly emerged as God's choice to lead ACSI in its next era of resourcing the Christian schooling movement worldwide."

Lighthouse Trails reported in September 2008 that ACSI had begun their search for a new president.2 ACSI has been the topic of at least two Lighthouse Trails reports over the last year because of President Smitherman's promotion of contemplative spirituality and emerging church writers (see report one) (see report two).

ACSI, a major resource organization for Christian schools, has 5300 member schools and represents 1.2 million students worldwide. It claims to be the world's largest association of Protestant schools.

As our previous reports have documented, through ACSI's Spiritual Formation program, contemplative advocates are being promoted. One of the books endorsed and recommended at ACSI is Cultivating Christian Character by Michael Zigarelli. The book gives many contemplative implications including a recommendation for David Steindl-Rast, a Zen-Buddhist trained monk and good friend of Thomas Merton (see A Time of Departing for more on Steindl-Rast). For ACSI to introduce Zigarelli's book to member schools is troubling.

The school where Simmons is currently working, Indiana Wesleyan University, is one of the schools listed on the Lighthouse Trails Contemplative Colleges page. In general, the Wesleyan denomination (as with many other denominations) has been influenced significantly by contemplative/emerging spirituality (see our 2006 report). As one example, Wesleyan Publishing released Wesleyan Keith Drury's book for the Lectio Divina Bible Studies. Drury is a contemplative proponent whose books are also used as textbooks in Nazarene Universities. At Indiana Wesleyan University, there is a strong emphasis on Spiritual Formation.

As for Brian Simmons, time will tell what influences he will bring to ACSI. Let us pray that he does not share Ken Smitherman's or Keith Drury's affinity for contemplative spirituality.

Ancient-Future Spirituality

In the emerging culture, darkness represents spirituality. We see this in Buddhist temples, as well as Catholic and Orthodox churches. Darkness communicates that something serious is happening.1--Dan Kimball, author of The Emerging Church (foreword by Rick Warren)

On October 12, 1998 in Glorieta, New Mexico, over 500 young leaders came together in what was called The National Reevaluation Forum. The objective was to train and listen to "leaders of the new millennium's emerging church."2 A Young Leaders Network article on the event described it as a time to "discuss everything from restoring arts in the church" to dialoguing about "worship, the use of story and the mystical, and the experiential aspects of faith."3 Plenary speakers included Stanley Grenz, Leonard Sweet, Brian McLaren, and Sally Morgenthaler. According to the article, Sweet told the group: "The primary challenge in this Postmodern transition is navigational tools."4

Over the years, since that 1998 meeting in New Mexico, the emerging church has defined many of these "navigational tools," and has implemented them within the structure of emerging worship. The late Robert Webber is recognized by many as one of the foremost authorities on worship renewal. He regularly conducted workshops for almost every major denomination in North America through the Institute of Worship Studies, which he founded in 1995.

Before his appointment to his position at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, Webber taught at Wheaton College for 32 years as Professor of Theology. He authored over forty books and was also a regular contributor to numerous magazines and newspapers including Worship Leader.

I first came across Webber's views when I read an article he had written titled "Wanted: Ancient Future Talent." In that article, Webber stated:

I am personally most gratified to see the shift toward a recovery of the ancient. While many good choruses have been produced over the past forty years, the rejection of the sources of hymnody and worship by the contemporary church has resulted in a faith that is an inch deep.5

Webber listed a number of things he believed were necessary for "talented workers" to become a successful part of this new movement. Some of these he listed are:

* Rediscovering how God acts through the sacred signs of water, bread and wine, oil and laying on of hands.

* Rediscovering the central nature of the table of the Lord in the Lord's Supper, breaking of bread, communion and Eucharist.

* Rediscovering congregational spirituality through the Christian celebration in Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter and Pentecost.6

Unfortunately, Webber's hope to return to "the ancient" was not limited to reintroducing the great hymns of the past. In fact, many of the practices he included in this call to "ancient-future worship talent" cannot be found in the Bible.

Like his emerging church colleagues, Robert Webber was convinced that Christianity needs to be revised for this new century. But in order to go ahead, we must go back (thus the term ancient-future) to the mystics and learn from them. While he acknowledged the Bible is an important book for the Christian faith, he also believed that it needed to be supplemented by the teachings of spiritual mystics from the past. He wrote:

The primary source of spiritual reading is the Bible. But we now recognize that in our love of Scripture we dare not avoid the mystics and the activists. Exposure to the great devotional literature of the church is essential. More and more people are turning to the great work of the mystics. Richard Foster has called us to recover Augustine's Confessions, Bernard of Clairvaux's The Steps of Humility, [etc.].7

Webber's list of recommended books written by mystics includes: Thomas a Kempis, Meister Eckhart, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Merton and numerous others.8 You may not be familiar with all these names, but they all have something in common--they are Catholic mystics. Webber made the following statement about them:

To immerse ourselves in these great works is to allow our vision to be expanded by a great treasure of spirituality.9

Webber was enamored by the writings of Catholic mystics, and he admonished his readers to embrace them as well:

The value of all these books as well as many not mentioned are indispensable to spirituality. Those who neglect these works do so to their harm, and those who read them do so for their inspiration and spiritual growth.10

This statement by Webber is quite strong: without the teachings of these former mystics, our spiritual lives will suffer. Webber explained that those willing to adhere to these ancient-future teachers do not have to leave their own religious tradition. He said:

A goal for evangelicals in the postmodern world is to accept diversity as a historical reality, but to seek unity in the midst of it. This perspective will allow us to see Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant churches as various forms of the one true church--all based on apostolic teaching and authority, finding common ground in the faith expressed by classical Christianity.11 ...

Going back to the past to find experiences that will attract the postmodern generation is one goal of the emerging church movement. However, a serious question needs to be asked at this point. Why only go back to the Middle Ages, the turn of the first millennium, or the third century? Wouldn't this open the door for some devious doctrines that may have crept into the church? Why not just stay with Scripture in order to remain in the truth?

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. (II Timothy 3:16)

Those convinced that great spiritual insight can be gleaned from church fathers and mystics often overlook such definitive, God-inspired instruction. The Bible is stable and eternal; thus the truths penned in it centuries ago are still relevant today. I propose it isn't biblical truths that emergents say we need to go hunting for in previous historical periods, but rather unscriptural methods, rituals, and mystical experiences to be gathered and brought into the present time.

Vintage spirituality proponents have an apologetic for those who question leaving scriptural doctrine behind for post-New Testament extra-biblical revelation. Robert Webber wrote:

I once believed that the church became apostate at the close of the first century and hadn't emerged again until the Reformation. I jokingly say to my students, "We Protestants act as though Pentecost occurred October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther tacked his 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenburg church." This attitude results in a negative view of the early church fathers and Christianity prior to the Reformation. The fact is that God's church has existed from the Pentecost described in Acts. We belong to the whole church and need, for our own spiritual health, to affirm every part of it.12

Webber recognized some are suspicious about taking instruction from the church fathers, especially when the church fathers are the fathers of the Catholic Church. In order to answer this concern, he wrote:

Because evangelicals fear that a respect for early church fathers will turn them into Roman Catholics, a distinction needs to be made between catholic and Roman Catholic. The early Fathers are catholic in the sense that they defined the classical Christian tradition for the whole church. This is a tradition, as I have been presenting, common to every branch of the church. Roman Catholicism, as such, is a tradition that has added to the common tradition. I believe in the common tradition and share that tradition with my Catholic brothers and sisters. But I do not believe in some of the added traditions of the Romanization of the church in the medieval era.13

Webber, like many emergent leaders, was trying to differentiate between Roman Catholic and catholic (as a universal body). However, the Roman Catholic Church does not make this distinction because they claim an apostolic succession of papacy (popes) beginning with the apostle Peter. Therefore, all of Catholicism is Roman Catholicism. Some in the emerging church do not show an attachment to the authority of the papacy but embrace the practices and early history of the Catholic Church as described above by Webber. But many Protestants who began by attaching themselves to the history, teachings, and practices of the early Catholic Church have now taken the natural next step of becoming Roman Catholic. (For more on this, see chapter 5, Faith Undone.)

Notes:
1. Dan Kimball, The Emerging Church, p. 136.
2. "The National Reevaluation Forum: The Story of the Gathering" (Youth Leader Networks - NEXT Special Edition, 1999), pp. 1-2.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Robert Webber, "Wanted: Ancient-Future Talent" (Worship Leader, May/June 2005), p. 10.
6. Ibid.
7. Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999), p. 135.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid., p. 85.
12. Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Faith, op. cit., pp. 88-89.
13. Ibid., p. 89.

Keri Wyatt Kent Continues Leading Women Toward Contemplative - Moody Bible Institute Helps

Keri Wyatt Kent is a popular speaker who has been promoted by many evangelical groups such as Moody Bible Institute (who interviewed her and promoted her work) and MOPS (Mothers of PreSchoolers). Unfortunately, she is a strong proponent of contemplative spirituality. In March of 2007, Lighthouse Trails wrote a book review of Wyatt Kent's book, Listen, revealing that MOPS CEO and President Elisa Morgan was backing the book. In our book review, we stated:

Wyatt Kent's book is filled with quotes and references by a literal who's who of the contemplative/mystical world. Some of these personalities include Richard Foster, Henri Nouwen, Dallas Willard, John Ortberg, Anne Lamott, Rick Warren and Ruth Haley Barton, all of whom have contemplative proclivities. Wyatt Kent has also included references by some with New Age affinities like Sue Monk Kidd (worships the goddess within) and M. Scott Peck.

Today, Wyatt Kent is continuing her promotion of contemplative spirituality, and Christian organizations are continuing to turn to her. On Wyatt Kent's website, her speaking schedule shows upcoming engagements with MOPS on three different occasions, as well as a number of women's conferences and retreats. According to her website, she is presently a contributing author for Moody Magazine. However, Lighthouse Trails spoke with Moody Bible Institute and learned that Moody Magazine is no longer an active publication. Wyatt Kent is still promoted by Moody though: on her website she says that she was on Midday Connection this past January and explains: "I've been on many times before and it was quite fun to talk with the show's host, Anita Lustrea, about my book Rest." This is a puzzle to Lighthouse Trails as Moody has insisted publicly that they are not promoting contemplative spirituality. They have defended themselves to the point of posting a statement on their website titled "Moody Responds to Lighthouse Trails", which incidentally still sits on their site today.

For those who question where Wyatt Kent's sympathies lie with regard to contemplative mysticism, on her own blog on February 10th, Wyatt Kent eagerly recommends an author by the name of Julia Cameron and her book The Artist's Way. Ray Yungen mentions Cameron in A Time of Departing (p. 19), saying that The Artist's Way is about the "spiritual path to higher creativity." According to Yungen, Cameron's book reflects other books such as Shakti Gawain's Creative Visualization in which "one could stay a Jew, Catholic, or Protestant and still practice the [meditative] teachings" of such books.1 Cameron's "path" to this "higher creativity," a creativity that Wyatt Kent makes reference to, is meditation techniques. Wyatt Kent resonates with Cameron, and that is clear to see from Wyatt Kent's own writings. She says she is "learning that certain practices have been helpful in enhancing and strengthening" her conversations with God (p. 6 of Listen). Wyatt Kent says she feels "a deep desire to provide encouragement, as Cameron does in her book, to fledgling creative types who may not have received it elsewhere" (pp. 59, 60).

For those who are skeptical, to gain some insight into the spirituality of Julia Cameron, read this interview on Shambhala Sun (a Eastern mysticism/New Age publication) with Cameron. In that interview, Cameron talks about "the essence" (divinity or God) that "each person" has within him or herself.

It is troubling to know that Christian women who turn to Moody and to MOPS will be getting a hearty dose of contemplative spirituality when they listen to or read about Keri Wyatt Kent. Wyatt Kent's 2007 book, Oxygen: Deep Breathing for the Soul, gives detailed instruction on breath prayers. As Lighthouse Trails has established in the past, breath prayers (of which Rick Warren also instructs upon in his book, The Purpose Driven Life ) are a form of contemplative meditation, similar to practicing a mantra, used for the purpose of stilling the mind, getting rid of distractions, and entering what contemplatives call the silence (i.e., an altered state). When Moody makes the pronouncement "Moody Bible Institute does not promote contemplative spirituality," clearly they have not taken their promotion of Keri Wyatt Kent into consideration. Interestingly, in their defense statement, she is not even mentioned. Be that as it may, they are placing Christian women in harm's way, as is Keri Wyatt Kent.

Notes:
1. Ray Yungen, A Time of Departing, 2nd ed.(Silverton, OR: Lighthouse Trails Publishing, 2006), p. 19.

Related Information:

Moody Bible Institute Recommends Richard Foster's Meditation! - Lighthouse Trails Challenges MBI

Rick Warren Points Network Followers to the Contemplative "Sabbath"

Our Response to Moody's Defense

Driscoll's Vulgarity Draws Media Attention

LTRP Note: Please keep in mind, while reading this article, that popular Christian figures like Erwin Lutzer, D.A. Carson, and John Piper will be sharing a platform with Mark Driscoll at the upcoming "Entrusted with the Gospel" 2009 National Conference. These teachers and pastors have been contacted about this situation, but to date Driscoll is still on the speaking schedule. See our article Evangelical Pastors Questioned for Highlighting Seattle's R-Rated Pastor at National Conference for further information. Also see our article links below to understand more about the "new sexual spirituality."

"Driscoll's vulgarity draws media attention"
Out-of-house source - Baptist Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--An in-depth New York Times Magazine feature on a controversial Seattle pastor has generated a new wave of debate about vulgarity in the pulpit.

"Who Would Jesus Smack Down," a 3,200-word profile of Mark Driscoll, founding pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Wash., focused on Driscoll's Calvinist theology but, like most secular reporting on the Seattle pastor, began with a vignette on his "racy" sermon topics and casual clothes.

Critics . . . however take Driscoll to task over his use of sexually explicit language and "purely gratuitous humor" they say degrades the Gospel and the pulpit....

On the heels of the New York Times profile, Christian talk show personality Ingrid Schleuter criticized Driscoll for a series of explicit "sex advice" posts on the Mars Hill Church blog -- material appropriate only for married couples but available to any visitor, including children. Schleuter also castigated Driscoll for linking the blog to a website, christiannymphos.org, "which features articles on how a Christian wife can turn herself into a dominatrix, the glories of an-l and or-l sex, and the use of sex toys."

"At a time when American young people are hit in the face with graphic sexuality in every facet of our culture, the church should be a safe haven where the sacredness and privacy of the act of marriage is respected by pastors," Schleuter said in a press release. "Those with sexual issues need to receive private counseling -- not sex seminars in a church auditorium.

"For generations, Christian pastors have managed to convey the Scripture's teachings on fornication, adultery and the beauty of sexuality within marriage without sullying and cheapening it" Schleuter added. "Mark Driscoll is a sad product of our times. While waving his orthodox doctrinal credentials, he has simultaneously embraced the spirit of the age when it comes to his treatment of sex. In the process, he is pornifying the church and only adding to the moral squalor of our culture." Click here to read this entire article.

Related Stories:

Evangelical Pastors Questioned for Highlighting Seattle's R-Rated Pastor at National Conference

Tantra Sex: Evangelicals Catching Up with New Agers?

A Pastor Speaks Up: Mark Driscoll and the New "Sexual Spirituality"

Two New YouTube Clips - Roger Oakland on the Emerging Church

Lighthouse Trails has now placed two 10 minute video clips of Roger Oakland on YouTube. They are portions of Roger's talks on the emerging church from his four-part DVD series. You may click here, which will take you to the Lighthouse Trails YouTube account. From there you may watch both clips on the emerging church as well as two clips from Warren Smith when he addressed 800 pastors in California in 2008. We will be adding two clips of Ray Yungen lectures in the near future.

All Lighthouse Trails YouTube video clips are edited and compiled by Luke to whom we are most grateful.

Faith-based Partnerships: Selling our souls in the name of service?

by Berit Kjos

On February 5, 2009, President Obama signed an Executive Order amending EO 13199 signed by George W. Bush and establishing the new White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. In Section 1 on Policy, it states:

"The American people are key drivers of fundamental change in our country, and few institutions are closer to the people than our faith-based and other neighborhood organizations. It is critical that the Federal Government strengthen the ability of such organizations ... to deliver services effectively in partnership with Federal, State, and local governments and with other private organizations, while ... forbidding the establishment of religion....

"Through rigorous evaluation, and by offering technical assistance, the Federal Government must ensure that organizations receiving Federal funds achieve measurable results in furtherance of valid public purposes."

Last summer, Obama gave us a specific outline of his planned "partnerships between government and faith-based and other nonprofit community groups." Much of it was based on the new interpretation of the First Amendment....

Obama's "faith-based partnerships" are not based on faith in our God! The phrase is designed to deceive Americans, eradicate "offensive" truths, replace Christian ministries with secular service, and silence the gospel among those who most need it. As Hilmar Von Campe warns us, it will instead "cut the connection of the American people to God..."[10]

"We must obey God rather than man," said the apostle Peter two thousand years ago. Committed Christians cannot yield to rules that would quench our freedom to share God's Word. [See God's guidelines for Christian service]
Meanwhile, we must prepare to face the kind of hostility that would have been unthinkable in this "land of the free" six decades ago -- even when it seemed normal in totalitarian parts of Europe. The pressure to compromise is spreading fast. How can we resist? Click here to read this entire article.

Related News:

Obama Makes Promises and Changes at National Prayer Breakfast Today

The Election is Over - What About the Department of Peace?

Did Rick Warren Pray to Allah in the Name of a Muslim Prophet?

by Pastor Joe Schimmel

Rick Warren--who is one of President Barack Obama's bridges to the evangelical church--managed to pray an inaugural prayer that made nearly everyone happy, with the exception, that is, of the one true God to whom the prayer was supposed to be addressed. While Warren began by quoting the Hebrew Schema, and addressing the biblical God of all creation, who warned, "You shall have no other gods before Me....for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God..." (Exodus 20:3, 5b), Warren went on to invoke the Muslim deity Allah. If that was not bad enough, Warren quoted both the Bible and the Koran, and he prayed in the names of Jesus Christ as well as the Muslim prophet Isa! I felt this perilous travesty needed to be addressed, especially since Time Magazine has dubbed Rick Warren "America's New People's Pastor," and he is influencing millions of people through his books and public persona.Click here to read more.

Obama Makes Promises and Changes at National Prayer Breakfast

"Obama to create faith-based office"
By PHILIP ELLIOTT
Associated Press

February 5, 2009 - WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama said Thursday he will establish a White House office of faith-based initiatives that will show no favoritism to any religious group and adhere to the strict separation of church and state.

Addressing the National Prayer Breakfast, Obama spoke of how faith has often been a divisive tool, responsible for war and prejudice. But, he said, "there is no religion whose central tenet is hate. There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being," and all religions teach people to love and care for one another. That is the common ground underlying his faith-based office, he said.

In personal terms, he talked about the role of faith in his life, from his Muslim-born father and a mother skeptical of organized religion to his own embrace of Christianity as a young man.

"In a world that grows smaller by the day, perhaps we can begin to crowd out the destructive forces of zealotry and make room for the healing power of understanding," Obama told the gathering of lawmakers, dignitaries and world leaders. "This is my hope. This is my prayer." ...

Obama planned to sign an executive order later in the day creating the White House Office on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. It would expand and refocus the faith-based office founded by former President George W. Bush.

Obama said the organization will not favor any one religious group over another, will work with communities and will act "without blurring the line that our founders wisely drew between church and state." Click here to read more.

Other Coverage of National Prayer Breakfast

USA Today Blog
"At Prayer Breakfast, Obama prays for 'God's grace' to fill the 'space between us'"

The annual National Prayer Breakfast was held this morning in Washington. As we've said, President Obama attended -- and he's using this day to make some faith-related announcements.

He's creating an Advisory Council on Faith, and he's naming Joshua DuBois (who ran candidate Obama's faith-based outreach efforts) to head a renamed White House Office for Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. The Associated Press adds that the president will also today "ask for a legal review of the White House faith-based office before deciding whether to allow federally funded religious groups to hire only their own." Click here to read more.

Also:

LDS Church unlikely to participate in Obama's faith-based initiatives

CNN: Controversy surrounds Obama's faith office

Silencing the Watchmen

by Jan Markell

America is changing at break-neck speed and many of the changes are not helpful! While Americans were eager for "change," it is doubtful they anticipated the loss of free speech.

So let me explain the unfair "Fairness Doctrine." My radio program, Understanding the Times, is in the target range.

The National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) met last weekend in Memphis and according to President Frank Wright, experienced an ominous shroud cast by the issue of the "Fairness Doctrine." They intend to fight this issue as much as that is possible. However, they may not even be given the opportunity to fight it as they would wish.

In an article posted online by Human Events on February 6, "Christian broadcasters say they will be targeted once President Obama's appointees gain control of the Federal Communications Commission."
Warren Kelley, president of Point of View, the first Christian talk show to go on the air via satellite 37 years ago, states, "The Left Wing will immediately start filing complaints, and it will in short order shut Christian broadcasting down." He concludes, "I think it will so limit what they say that, in essence, they will cease to be Christian broadcasters."Click here to read this entire article.

Related:
Read Anita Dittman's and Jan Markell's book, Trapped in Hitler's Hell, the true story of Germany during the Nazi Regime. Also read Things We Couldn't Say by Diet Eman, a Christian resistance worker in Holland during WWII. Two incredible stories of faith and courage.

Lighthouse Trails publishes both these books and have had the privilege of speaking on a number of occasions with both Diet Eman (89) and Anita Dittman (81). They are still sharing their stories with others. We offer a special book-set price when the two books are ordered together.

The Extent of Contemplative Spirituality

by Ray Yungen

While many Christians are still not even aware that a practical Christian mystical movement exists, momentum is picking up, and an obvious surge towards this contemplative spirituality has surfaced. Evidence regarding the magnitude of this mystical prayer movement is now within reach of the average person. In 1992, Newsweek magazine did a cover story called "Talking to God," which made a clear reference to it. The article disclosed:

[S]ilence, appropriate body posture and, above all, emptying the mind through repetition of prayer, have been the practices of mystics in all the great world religions. And they form the basis on which most modern spiritual directors guide those who want to draw closer to God.1

It is amazing to me how Newsweek clearly observed this shift in the spiritual paradigm over fifteen years ago, while many Christians (including most prominent leaders) still live in abject ignorance of this change. Are the teachings of the practical Christian mystic actually being assimilated so well that even our pastors are not discerning this shift?

In September 2005, Newsweek carried a special report called "Spirituality in America." The feature story, titled "In Search of the Spiritual," is seventeen pages long, and for anyone who thought that a Christian mystical movement did not exist, this article is all the proof needed to show it not only exists but is alive, well, and growing like you wouldn't believe.

The article begins by describing the origin of the contemporary contemplative prayer movement, which began largely with a Catholic monk named Thomas Keating:

To him [Keating], as a Trappist monk, meditation was second nature. He invited the great Zen master Roshi Sasaki to lead retreats at the abbey. And surely, he thought, there must be a precedent within the church for making such simple but powerful spiritual techniques available to laypeople. His Trappist brother Father William Meninger found it in one day in 1974, in a dusty copy of a 14th-century guide to contemplative meditation, "The Cloud of Unknowing."2

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:

But many 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.3

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.'"4 Backing him up, a major Catholic resource company stated, "Contemplative prayer has once again become commonplace in the Christian community."5

William Shannon [a mystic proponent and the biographer of Thomas Merton] went so far as to say contemplative spirituality has now widely replaced old-style Catholicism.6 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 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.7

Just look at the latest official catechism of the Catholic church to see contemplative prayer officially endorsed and promoted to the faithful by the powers that be. The new catechism firmly states: "Contemplative prayer is hearing the word of God ... Contemplative prayer is silence."8

I realized just how successfully Pope Paul's admonitions have been carried out when I discovered the following at one popular Catholic bookstore. Many shelves were marked as spirituality--the focal point of the entire store. Eighty to ninety percent of the books on those shelves were on mystical prayer. It was clearly the overriding theme....

Contemplative spirituality reaches far beyond the walls of the Catholic church. Mainline Protestant traditions (Episcopalians, United Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, United Church of Christ, etc.) have dived into the contemplative waters too. Their deep tradition of twentieth-century liberalism and sociopolitical activism has left them spiritually dry and thirsting for supernatural experiences. This school of practical mysticism gives them a sense of spirituality while still allowing them a liberal political correctness. Marcus Borg, professor of Religion and Culture at Oregon State University and someone who resonates with mystical spirituality understands the popularity of mystical prayer. He states:

In some mainline denominations, emerging-paradigm [contemplative] Christians are in the majority. Others are about equally divided between these two ways of being Christian.9

A sales person at a bookstore that caters to these denominations once told me the contemplative prayer view has found a large audience in the Protestant mainstream, and many pastors are very open to these practices. She added that some members of the clergy did show resistance, but a clear momentum towards the contemplative direction was nevertheless occurring. An article in Publisher's Weekly magazine addressing the move toward contemplative prayer in mainstream religious circles confirmed her observation. One woman in the publishing field was quoted as saying, "[M]any Protestants are looking to satisfy that yearning by a return to the Western contemplative tradition."10 Another college professor pointed out:

My students have been typically middle-aged and upper middle class Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Baptists, active in the lay leadership of their churches. To outward appearances, they are quite conventional people. Yet I have found that virtually every one of my students has encountered the new age in one of its many forms and has been attracted by its mystery.11

Contemplative spirituality provides a seemingly profound experience of God without having to adhere to a conservative social outlook. It also gives its practitioners comfort to know they draw on a so--called Christian well of tradition. This dilutes any reluctance some might have about the orthodoxy of these practices.

To underscore the scope and reach of the contemplative prayer movement let's look at the numbers put out by an organization called Spiritual Directors International (SDI). On their website this group gives ample evidence of what their practices are. In one national conference, the following was presented:

This workshop offers an opportunity to study and experience the [spiritual] director's role in a person's move into the beginning and early stages of contemplative prayer, silence, and openness to new sorts of praying.12

One of the objectives of SDI is "Tending the holy around the world and across traditions." A 2008 membership list showed 652 Episcopalians, 239 Presbyterians, 239 Methodists, 175 Lutherans, and a whopping 2,386 Roman Catholics; counting another forty or so "traditions," the total was 6648. To show the nature of just what they mean by "across traditions," the list included Buddhist, Gnostic Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Siddha Yoga, and even Pagan/Wiccan.* (see below) (for this and other information about contemplative spirituality, spiritual formation, and New Age mysticism coming into the church, read A Time of Departing.)

Notes:
1. Kenneth L. Woodward, "Talking to God" (Newsweek , January 6, 1992), p. 44.
2. Jerry Alder, "In Search of the Spiritual" (Newsweek, August/September 2005, Special Report: "Spirituality in America"), p. 48.
3. Michael Leach (America, May 2, 1992), p. 384.
4. M. Basil Pennington, Centered Living: The Way of Centering Prayer (New York, NY: Doubleday Publishing, Image Book edition, September 1988), p. 10.
5. Sheed & Ward Catalog, Winter/Lent, 1978, p. 12.
6. William Shannon, Seeds of Peace (New York, NY: Crossroad Publishing, 1996), p. 25.
7. Anne A. Simpson, "Resting in God" Common Boundary magazine, Sept./Oct. 1997, http://www.livingrosaries.org/interview.htm), p. 25.
8. Catechism of the Catholic Church (Urbi et Orbi Communications, 1994), p. 652.
9. Marcus Borg, The Heart of Christianity (San Francisco, CA: Harper, 2004), p. 7.
10. Kimberly Winston, "Get Thee to a Monastery" (Publisher's Weekly, April 10, 2000), p. 39.
11. Bruce Epperly, Crystal & Cross (Mystic, CT: Twenty-third Publishers, 1996), p. 14.
12. Spiritual Directors International, Conference Workshops: "Exile or Return? Accompanying the Journey into Contemplative Prayer" (http://www.sdiworld.org/conference_workshops.html).

*Note on Spiritual Directors International. Since 2005, there have been significant increases in the SDI's demographic statistics of spiritual director members. The overall increase went from around 5000 members in 2005 to 6648 in 2008 with new denominations and religious groups added.

Obama Appoints "Faith-Based" Advisory Council

February 8th, 2009 - LTRP Note: Frank S. Page, President emeritus, Southern Baptist Convention, emergent leader Jim Wallis (Sojourners), and Richard Stearns, President, World Vision are included in President's list for "faith-based" council. Both World Vision and Jim Wallis are supporters of Brian McLaren, one of the main teachers in the emerging church movement and also an advisor to President Obama.

Dallas Morning News

In conjunction with his renewal of the White House faith-based initiative, President Barack Obama yesterday appointed an interfaith group of clergy members, religion scholars, leaders of service organizations and others to a new President's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

The purpose of the advisory council, according to the executive order establishing it, is to:

bring together leaders and experts in fields related to the work of faith-based and neighborhood organizations in order to: identify best practices and successful modes of delivering social services; evaluate the need for improvements in the implementation and coordination of public policies relating to faith-based and other neighborhood organizations; and make recommendations to the President, through the Executive Director, for changes in policies, programs, and practices that affect the delivery of services by such organizations and the needs of low-income and other underserved persons in communities at home and around the world.

The White House says the council will consist of 25 members, but as of yesterday, only 15 appointees were identified. Click here to read more.

Trevecca Nazarene University Promoting Contemplative Spirituality in No Small Way

WorldNetDaily: "Bill creates detention camps in US for 'emergencies.'"

By Jerome R. Corsi
WorldNetDaily

Rep. Alcee L. Hastings, D-Fla.

Rep. Alcee L. Hastings, D-Fla., has introduced to the House of Representatives a new bill, H.R. 645, calling for the secretary of homeland security to establish no fewer than six national emergency centers for corralling civilians on military installations.

The proposed bill, which has received little mainstream media attention, appears designed to create the type of detention center that those concerned about use of the military in domestic affairs fear could be used as concentration camps for political dissidents, such as occurred in Nazi Germany.

Heed the warning of a former Hitler Youth who sees America on the same path as pre-Nazi Germany in "Defeating the Totalitarian Lie" from WND Books!

The bill also appears to expand the president's emergency power, much as the executive order signed by President Bush on May 9, 2007, that, as WND reported, gave the president the authority to declare an emergency and take over the direction of all federal, state, local, territorial and tribal governments without even consulting Congress.

As WND also reported, DHS has awarded a $385 million contract to Houston-based KBR, Halliburton's former engineering and construction subsidiary, to build temporary detention centers on an "as-needed" basis in national emergency situations. Click here to read more.

Baptist Unity Effort in Progress

By Lillian Kwon
Out-of-house source - Christian Post Reporter

A year after launching an initiative aimed at ending factions in the wide Baptist community, former president Jimmy Carter convened some 1,200 people over the weekend to build on the unity movement.

"Carter is a lifelong Southern Baptist who has lamented the divisiveness that's been present in the Baptist family," said Brent McDougal, coordinator for Alabama Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, according to Tuscaloosa News.

"Baptists celebrate freedom of consciousness, autonomy of the local church and the priesthood of all believers," McDougal noted. "Every Baptist stands before God a free person and that leads to a lot of differences--differences of opinions, worship styles and the way we believe church should function."

Hundreds had packed the historic Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., on Saturday for the first of five regional meetings of the New Baptist Covenant--an initiative launched early last year with the participation of nearly 15,000 Baptists who are aiming to get past the bickering and work together on such social issues as global warming, poverty and human rights.

"There's no way for us to avoid Jesus' emphasis on the poor, the broken-hearted, the captive, the blind and the bruised," Carter said. "We came together in Atlanta--black, white, Asian, Hispanic--to learn how better to serve ... and to inspire harmony among ourselves and others." Click here to read this entire article.

Related Information:

Jimmy Carter - A New Baptist Voice

San Diego Prayer Coordinator Promoting Event Featuring Anti-Israel President Jimmy Carter

Movie Alert: The [Global] Shift Movie - Peace Without Jesus Christ

Conference Alert: Al Gore and Tony Campolo to Address Baptist Organizations

The Global Elders (includes Jimmy Carter)

Lighthouse Trails Survey Results

Spanish Edition of Faith Undone

New DVD - God of Wonders - Refuting the New Spirituality