Today, Lighthouse Trails received the following letter from a Wheaton College graduate. Wheaton has become a strong proponent of contemplative spirituality, which explains how a graduate could come away with the following beliefs:
The Letter
I myself am a graduate of Wheaton College.
Your criticism of focusing on breathing is, quite simply, ridiculous and you are doing a disservice to the cause of Christianity.
Certainly, one is following the example of Christ when they sit and breathe — “be still”; to know God’s presence certainly involves sitting still and allow your thoughts/your ego/your self-importance to be of no importance, even for five minutes. This is to die to one’s self, as Paul, a follower of Christ advocated.
But instead, you seem to have a need to villify a fellow Christian for the primary reason that he doesn’t talk and think like the American-culture Christianity you advocate. It is not a sin to compare and contrast the universality of human experience. After all, God is not an American. And God existed long before America. And, believe it or not, God will continue to exist long after America is no more. It is, however, a sin to believe you have a lock on Christianity — while God is of absolute Truths, it is shameful and sinful to believe you have a corner on the market of Truth.
Shame on you. Your website is a push for hatred and intolerance of fellow Christians. Is your drive to criticize sitting still because of a need to find a demon behind every rock?
I strongly encourage you to consider what prayer is, if not sitting still and breathing. You do know there is more to prayer than the ego-based petition prayer of asking God for one thing after another. Certainly there is more often occasion to give thanks, such as thanking God that all of your daily needs will be met.
C’mon, help yourself — let go of whatever anger it is that compels you to hate Christians that don’t think or talk like you do — a follower of Christ is more often tolerant than not. Still, like Christ, I consider your website comparable to the moneychangers in the Temple, and have strongly beaten you with criticism.
It is my hope that you would re-focus your anger to compassion. I have been challenged by your website to practice compassionate meditation daily; fundamentalist intolerance is anti-democracy, and is worse for America than the Taliban. (end of letter)
It is the desire of Lighthouse Trails to speak the truth in love regarding contemplative spirituality. We have offered to send this person a complimentary copy of A Time of Departing and Running Against the Wind. For more information on Wheaton’s contemplative proclivities, click here.
