NEW BOOKLET: Richard Rohr: A Catholic New Age Priest, His Cosmic Christ, and Young Evangelicals

Richard Rohr: A Catholic New Age Priest, His Cosmic Christ, and Young Evangelicals is our newest Lighthouse Trails Booklet. The booklet is 18 pages long and sells for $1.95 for single copies. Quantity discounts are available. Our booklets are designed to give away to others or for your own personal use. Below is the content of this new booklet. To order copies of Richard Rohr: A Catholic New Age Priest, His Cosmic Christ, and Young Evangelicals click here.

Richard Rohr: A Catholic New Age Priest, His Cosmic Christ, and Young Evangelicals

A Lighthouse Trails Publication

There is one outstanding reason why Lighthouse Trails is compelled to devote a booklet to the Catholic mystic and universalist Richard Rohr—because one of his publishers told him that his biggest readership is young evangelical men.*

[*The exact statement Rohr made in an interview was “One of my publishers told me that my single biggest demographic was young evangelical males.”¹ Another time, Rohr said: “[O]ne of my publishers . . . told me that right now my single biggest demographic is young evangelicals—young evangelicals.”²]

That statement alone should be alarming and send shudders to any Bible-believing Christian and pastor; and it means that many of the sons and grandsons of evangelicals are under the influence of a man who is panentheistic, New Age-sympathizing, and a leader in today’s emphasis on occultic New Age mystical spirituality.

But in spite of the fact that Lighthouse Trails has tried to warn the church and its leaders for years about the dangers of Richard Rohr’s influence, that influence has only grown exponentially.

An April 2019 Religion News Service article titled, “For Millennial’s, Mysticism Shows a Path to Their Home Faiths” reveals how young (millennial) evangelicals are “[d]iscovering the Christian mystical tradition through the work of Franciscan friar Richard Rohr.”³ The article also states:

[Anthony] Graffagnino [28 yrs] was one of a number of millennials drawn to The Universal Christ—a four-day conference in New Mexico’s capital last month led by Rohr, one of the preeminent Christian contemplatives of the last century. . . . millennials are increasingly finding contemplative spirituality appealing.

Whether it’s in the stillness of silent meditation, walking a labyrinth, or centering prayer; the practice of engaging with scripture through Lectio Divina, the Ignatian tradition’s Daily Examen; or a combination of Buddhist mindfulness, Kundalini breath work and Taizé prayer, many young adults are happy (to borrow a line from Van Morrison) to sail into the mystic. . . . The contemplative tradition is “expansive enough . . . that it leaves room as you grow,” he said. “To be Christian is to see Christ in everything.”⁴

Research analyst Ray Yungen, who studied and wrote about New Age/contemplative meditation and its influence in the church, understood Rohr’s significant role in using mysticism to bring about global religious unity under a false “universal” christ. Yungen states:

Rohr is a prominent champion for the idea of a global religion that would unify the world. He says that “religion needs a new language.”⁵ And that language to bring about this one-world religion is mysticism (i.e., contemplative prayer)! The following two quotes by Rohr do well to illustrate the core of Rohr’s beliefs:

“Right now there is an emergence . . . it’s coming from so many different traditions and sources and parts of the world. Maybe it’s an example of the globalization of spirituality.”⁶

“God’s hope for humanity is that one day we will all recognize that the divine dwelling place is all of creation. Christ comes again whenever we see that matter and spirit co-exist. This truly deserves to be called good news.”⁷

In dispelling any confusion about what Rohr is saying, Yungen explains:

[Rohr] makes it clear in the same paragraph what he means by God dwelling in all creation. He uses a term that one finds throughout contemplative literature, which signifies that Christ is more of an energy than a personal being. Rohr explains the term “cosmic Christ,” telling readers that everything and everyone belongs to God’s kingdom.⁸ That’s even the name of one of his books, Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer.⁹

Yungen concludes:

If these things are true, then there was no need for Jesus Christ to die on the Cross for the sins of mankind. We would not need a Savior because we would already be divine ourselves. In truth, contemplative spirituality is the antithesis of the Gospel. That is why there are countless mystics who claim to know God (or Jesus) but will have nothing to do with the Cross.¹⁰

With these things in mind, what a tragedy that so many young evangelical men (some to surely become pastors and church leaders) are drawn to Richard Rohr.

Christian Leaders Promoting Richard Rohr

In the midst of a current crisis where young people raised in Christian homes are leaving the faith of their childhoods and becoming New Agers, atheists, emergent, or Catholic, highly popular seasoned evangelical leaders have helped to escalate the crisis rather than help alleviate it. In a 2018 article, Lighthouse Trails wrote about one of these “seasoned” evangelical Rohr endorsers:

In an interview between Gloria Gaither and Catholic mystic monk, Richard Rohr, Gaither said, “First of all, I want to say thank you to you [Richard Rohr] because so many of your books have been impacting my life, especially Falling Upward. I think that changed my thinking about . . . just about everything. We have studied that book in our Monday night Bible study.”¹¹

In Falling Upward, Rohr (who is the founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation—CAC) expresses his interspiritual, universalist sentiments when he says that we (humanity) are all an “immaculate conception” (p. ix). Did Gloria Gaither even understand what Rohr’s message really is?

Gaither isn’t the only popular evangelical prominent figure to pay homage to Rohr. Eugene Peterson (author of The Message) and William Paul Young (author of The Shack) both also promote Richard Rohr as is pointed out in Lois Putnam’s article, “William Paul Young & His Connection With Panentheist Richard Rohr.”¹²

Another person who has embraced Rohr is contemplative spirituality pioneer Richard Foster. Foster had Rohr on an advisory board for a 2010 book Foster compiled and edited titled 25 Books Every Christian Should Read: A Guide to the Essential Devotional Classics.¹³ A more appropriate title for Foster’s book would be How to Become a Catholic Mystic!

Adele Ahlberg Calhoun also promotes Rohr in at least two of her books, (Invitations From God and The Spiritual Disciplines Handbook—both published by InterVarsity Press, the latter of which many evangelical groups have turned to, including Saddleback Church at one time, even though it is packed heavily with the contemplative/emergent element). If you know someone or a church who is reading Calhoun’s books, you can be sure they are getting a dose of Richard Rohr. And in case anyone reading this booklet thinks that Calhoun is not popular in mainstream Christianity, a good indicator is the books high rating on Amazon. The Kindle edition is #10 in “Christian Meditation Worship and Devotion.”

Elisa Morgan, the founder and former director of MOPS International (a very popular organization geared toward young Christian moms), quotes Rohr favorably in her book The Beauty of Broken.¹⁴

The highly influential author and “spiritual director” Ruth Haley Barton is a Shalem-Institute trained contemplative teacher and has been the topic of several Lighthouse Trails articles. In her book, Invitation to Retreat, she favorably quotes Richard Rohr, specifically regarding his breath prayers and the Enneagram. Barton spent several years at Willow Creek Church, teaching contemplative spirituality (i.e., Spiritual Formation) with John Ortberg to congregants before launching out on her own Transforming Center where she trains thousands of Christian pastors in Spiritual Formation.

We will close this section with the Enneagram, which has become very popular among many evangelical Christians. Rohr and a few of his mystic companions are mainly responsible for this surge of interest in this occult-rooted activity (we’ll get more into the Enneagram later).

Are we saying all of these Rohr-endorsers or everyone who uses the Enneagram believe in all of Rohr’s New Ageism? Not necessarily, but we are showing how much Rohr has influenced Protestant and evangelical Christianity.

You see, Rohr—though a Catholic, a New Ager, a panentheist, and a mystic—has found his way into the deepest veins of the Christian church.

Rohr’s Cosmic Christ

It is completely accurate to put Rohr’s spirituality in the same camp as someone like Episcopalian panentheist Matthew Fox (author of The Coming of the Cosmic Christ). Rohr wrote the foreword to a 2007 book called How Big is Your God? by Jesuit priest (from India) Paul Coutinho. In the book, Coutinho describes an interspiritual community where people of all religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity) worship the same God. For Rohr to write the foreword to such a book, he would have to agree with Coutinho’s views. And on Rohr’s website, he has an article titled “The Cosmic Christ.”¹⁵ One need not look too far into Rohr’s teachings, books, and website to see he is indeed promoting the same cosmic christ as Matthew Fox—this is the “cosmic christ” whose being, they say, lives in every human; this, of course, would nullify the need for atonement by a savior if God was already in everyone. Rohr’s book, The Universal Christ is the same as Matthew Fox’s cosmic christ. On Rohr’s website next to the title of this book, it states: “Another Name for Every Thing.”

To further understand what (or who) the “cosmic christ” is, former New Age follower Warren B. Smith discusses this universal christ in his book False Christ Coming: Does Anybody Care? Smith states:

According to the New Age/New Gospel, Christ is not a person. It is an office. This New Age Gospel teaches that while Jesus of Nazareth occupied the office during His active ministry, He no longer holds that same position. Today, the office of “Christ” is occupied by someone else. And this “someone else” is presently in the process of establishing contact with humanity. This “Christ” intimates that he is already in the world awaiting mankind’s call.

Warning that humanity is in peril and facing possible extinction, this “Christ” explains that his New Age/New Spirituality will unify the world’s major religions and bring peace to the world. He has communicated these teachings to his designated teachers, who in turn are now conveying these same teachings to the rest of the world.

This “reinvented” Christ teaches that all humanity is the body of Christ. He, as the “Christ,” is the head. This “Christ” states humanity’s dilemma is that we have forgotten who we are. We are not “sinners” separate from God. We are all part of the one body of Christ and the one body of God. Salvation does not come by grace from accepting Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Rather it is achieved—when we accept ourselves as Christ and when we accept ourselves as God.¹⁶

Clearly, the cosmic christ stands against and contradicts in the most extreme manner Jesus Christ of the Bible, who offers salvation and eternal life through His death on the Cross and His resurrection from the dead to all who put their trust in Him and in no other.

A Diminished View of the Bible

In a March 14, 2019 Facebook entry, Dallas Jenkins (creator of the highly popular TV series, The Chosen) posted an excerpt of Richard Rohr’s book, What Do We Do With the Bible? Jenkins stated that Rohr’s quote was “rocking my world.”¹⁷ In Jenkins’ Facebook entry, he quotes Rohr:

Just because you use Scripture, even in a God-affirming way, does not mean you’re using Scripture for life and love, growth and wisdom—and for the sake of God or others. Many of the worst genocides and atrocities in history have been supported by Scripture quotes in the mouths of selfish and scared people. Excessive God talk and quoting of Scripture are the best cover possible for a narcissistic personality. In fact, sometimes it seems to me that the churches that go on and on about “the greatness of God”—in both their sermons and their music—are often filled with the very groups and individuals that most want that greatness for themselves. I doubt if God needs us to be saying how great God is, as Satan does here with Jesus. Yes, religion is the best thing in the world and also the worst thing in the world—and so is Holy Scripture.¹⁸

In this quote, Rohr tries to attribute genocides and atrocities to the quoting of Scripture;¹⁹ but atrocities and genocides are committed by people who do not care to follow Scripture. They are committed when people add to Scripture that which does not belong there and by people who take away from Scripture that which should be there. Scripture shines a light on evilness and is the beacon that is a light unto our path. Thus, it reveals the secrets of the heart and exposes darkness.

In this and other quotes by Rohr, he expresses his lowly view of God’s Word. For example, in What Do We Do With the Bible?, he states:

The Bible is an anthology of many books. It is a record of people’s experience of God’s self-revelation. It is an account of our very human experience of the divine intrusion into history. The book did not fall from heaven in a pretty package. It was written by people trying to listen to God. I believe that the Spirit was guiding the listening and writing process. We must also know that humans always see “through a glass darkly . . . and all knowledge is imperfect” (1 Corinthians 13:12).²⁰ (emphasis added)

Just as the Bible takes us through many stages of consciousness and history, it takes us individually a long time to move beyond our need to be dualistic. judgmental, accusatory, fearful, blaming, egocentric, and earning—and to see as Jesus sees.²¹

And in Falling Upward, Rohr states:

[T]he Jewish Scriptures, which are full of anecdotes of destiny, failure, sin, and grace, offer almost no self-evident philosophical or theological conclusions that are always true. . . . We even have four, often conflicting versions of the life of Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. There is not one clear theology of God, Jesus, or history presented, despite our attempt to pretend there is.²² {emphasis in original)

In his book, The Divine Dance, Rohr states:

The text [of the Bible] moves inexorably toward inclusivity, mercy, unconditional love, and forgiveness. I call it the “Jesus Hermeneutic.” Just interpret Scripture the way Jesus did! He ignores, denies, or openly opposes his own Scriptures whenever they are imperialistic, punitive, exclusionary, or tribal.²³

The deeper one digs into Rohr’s writings, the worse it gets. In his book The Universal Christ, he expresses his disdain for substitutionary atonement:

I believe that Jesus’ death on the cross is a revelation of the infinite and participatory love of God, not some bloody payment required by God’s offended justice to rectify the problem of sin. Such a story line is way too small and problem-oriented.²⁴

Rohr is certainly not the first New Age-sympathizing mystic who has rejected the idea that Jesus Christ died a violent death because that was God’s way to atone for man’s sin, and through the Cross, He provided His Son to be a substitute for us. In other words, He took our place. Brennan Manning (a Catholic mystic and also a big favorite among young evangelicals) said that such a God “does not exist.”²⁵ Ex-evangelical Brian McLaren said that the doctrines of the Cross and Hell are “false advertising for God.”²⁶** And over the course of many years, we have documented the rejection of the atonement by numerous “Christian” contemplatives. You see in order to apprehend the mystical/occultic view that the cosmic universal christ (i.e., christ consciousness) exists in everyone, the Cross has to be thrown out.

The demeaning manner in which Rohr speaks of God’s Word (and of those who talk about it and quote it a lot) and the atonement is typical for Rohr and other popular figures today who resist the truth of the Bible. It is disturbing that Dallas Jenkins resonates with and is “rocked” by statements such as Rohr’s, especially in light of how little scriptural content Jenkins uses in The Chosen (by his own admission²⁷) and considering the tens of millions of people around the world who are watching the series. Incidentally, Dan Hasseltine, one of the main music composers for The Chosen, is also an advocate for Rohr.²⁸

Richard Rohr and the Enneagram

In 2019, Lighthouse Trails and author Lois Putnam wrote a booklet called The Enneagram: An Enlightening Tool or an Enticing Deception? This next section of our booklet on Richard Rohr is from that booklet.

A 2017 Religion News Service article states:

In 1990, Franciscan Fr. Richard Rohr effectively Christianized the [Enneagram] system for Americans when he published The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective in English. This sparked a growing interest that slowly crept into church pulpits and small groups. In 2016, Christianity Today published “An Evangelical’s Guide to the Enneagram” after InterVarsity Press became the first evangelical publisher to release a book on the topic.²⁹

Richard Rohr is at the very epicenter of today’s Enneagram movement. Rohr’s website states:

Seven of the nine Enneagram types are associated with the “capital” or “deadly” sins which originated with the Desert Fathers. But it was not until the late 1960s that Oscar Ichazo began teaching the Enneagram as we know it today. From Ichazo’s school in South America, a group of Jesuits learned the system and brought it back with them to the United States. Richard Rohr learned about the Enneagram from this group and was one of the first people to publish a book about it in English.³⁰

After Rohr learned about the Enneagram in the 1970s, he shared his Enneagram teaching on ten tapes, later writing his now classic best-selling book, Discovering the Enneagram: An Ancient Tool for a New Spiritual Journey (now titled The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective).

In Rohr’s book, he explains that the underlying premise behind the Enneagram is that each person has a “true self and a “false self,” and with the help of the Enneagram, we can identify our true selves, and thus having identified it, we can now be spiritually transformed to live in that true self. Rohr explains:

[Co-author] Andreas Ebert and I again offer the Enneagram as a very ancient Christian tool for the discernment of spirits, the struggle with our capital sin, our “false self,” and the encounter with our True Self in God.³¹

When Rohr says “True Self in God,” he is referring to his belief that the true self is the “God” within every human being. In echoing the Catholic mystics Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen, Rohr advocates the concept of dharmakaya when he stated that “God’s hope for humanity is that one day we will all recognize that the divine dwelling place is all of creation.”³²

To further understand what Rohr’s message is, we need to understand his views about Jesus Christ. In an article on Rohr’s website titled, “The Cosmic Christ,” he says:

Christ is not Jesus’ last name, but the title of his historical and cosmic purpose. Jesus presents himself as the “Anointed” or Christened One who was human and divine united in one human body—as our model and exemplar. . . . This Christ is much bigger and older than either Jesus of Nazareth or the Christian religion, because the Christ is whenever the material and the divine co-exist—which is always and everywhere. . . . The coming of the Cosmic Christ is not the same as the growth of the Christian religion. It is the unification of all things.³³

For Rohr, Christ and humanity are not separate because Christ is not a person (or God come in the flesh to save man from his sins) but is an energy that exists in everyone and everything. Man’s only problem isn’t that he is sinful; rather, it is that he doesn’t realize he already has divinity within him. This is where the Enneagram comes in, for according to Rohr the Enneagram is a “key to self-knowledge,”³⁴ and the goal for using the Enneagram is “an awakening of true self-love [i.e., the divinity within].”³⁵

In the foreword of Mindful Silence: The Heart of Christian Contemplation by Phileena Heuertz, Rohr praises how quickly “contemplative teaching is occurring in our time.” He then says that “we are building on the Perennial Tradition.” Rohr describes what he means by “Perennial Tradition” in a 2015 article on his website:

The things I teach come from a combination of inner and outer authority, drawn from personal experience and a long lineage of the “perennial tradition” . . . The Perennial Tradition points to recurring themes and truths within all of the world’s religions.³⁶ (emphasis added)

The Perennial Tradition (or Perennial Wisdom as it is also called) is the belief that all the different religions in the world are interconnected through metaphysics (mysticism). The fact that the “father” of today’s Enneagram movement (Rohr) promotes the Perennial Tradition in a book written by one of his foremost disciples—openly welcomed in mainstream evangelicalism—should not be overlooked or dismissed as irrelevant; nor should the Enneagram’s compatibility and connection with contemplative prayer and mysticism.

Summation: Stealing God’s Glory

In 2016, Richard Rohr participated in an event called SAND16 US (standing for Science and Nonduality).³⁷ Nonduality is a New Age term basically meaning there is no good and evil, no right or wrong, and no separation between God and man—thus, all is one, all is God (which is why New Ager Neale Donald Walsch said that even Hitler will go to Heaven³⁸). Rohr was invited to speak at SAND 16 US because New Agers resonate with him. Sharing the platform with Rohr were over one hundred other New Agers including Matthew Fox, Deepak Chopra, Ken Wilber, and Larry Dossey.

It’s important to understand the concept of nonduality because it is at the heart of the New Age movement, and it greatly diminishes the view of God being greater and set apart from man.

Contrary to what New Agers and contemplative mystics teach, there is duality, and the Bible teaches it; there are the sheep and the goats, the wheat and the tares, the saved and the unsaved, truth and error, darkness and light, and the righteous and the unrighteous. New Age thinkers would reject this because they believe all is God. In the contemplative camp, when Richard Rohr says everything belongs, this is what makes it New Age. The golden calf and Yahweh are not the same “God.” It was the cause for God’s anger. Simply put, everything does not belong! Ray Yungen explains:

Virtually everyone in Christendom equates the term, satanic, with things dark and sinister. However, the Bible paints a far different picture of Satan—one that fits the New Age movement perfectly. Satan said, “I will be like the most High” (Isaiah 14:14). He did not say he would be the most High; he said he would be like the most High. The word “like” here means to correspond to. How could Satan accomplish this mission?

It is important to understand that Satan is not simply trying to draw people to the dark side of a good versus evil conflict. Actually, he is trying to eradicate the gap between himself and God, between good and evil, altogether. When we understand this approach, it helps us see why Thomas Merton*** said everyone is already united with God or why Jack Canfield [of Chicken Soup for the Soul] said he felt God flowing through all things. All means all—nothing left out. Such reasoning implies that God is sharing His glory with all creation; since Satan is part of creation, then he too shares in this glory, and thus is “like the most High.”³⁹

The New Age esotericist Benjamin Creme said:

The Christ is the Embodiment of the energy we call the Christ Consciousness or Principle, the energy of the Cosmic Christ. It is released into the world for us by Maitreya, the Christ, and to the degree that it manifests in us, we will recognise Him.⁴⁰

You see, for those who believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God, we know that one day the Antichrist (meaning pseudo christ) will make himself known to the world and will proclaim his equalness to God. But he will be an agent of our adversary Satan who will someday deceive the whole world (Revelation 12:9).
But in order for this Antichrist to fulfill his mission, he first must convince man that he (man) is already divine and has the christ consciousness within him.

When you put this into perspective and consider the detriment of Richard Rohr’s “gospel” message of the cosmic universal christ, it should, as we stated earlier, make any Bible-believing Christian or pastor shudder, knowing that young evangelical men are being rapidly drawn to Rohr. In his book, The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See, Rohr openly describes his distorted view of God:

The most amazing fact about Jesus, unlike almost any other religious founder, is that he found God in disorder and imperfection—and told us that we must do the same or we would never be content on this earth.⁴¹ (emphasis added)

Is Rohr right? That Jesus found God to be in disorder and imperfection and told us we must see God this way too? No! And to say such is blasphemous against the living and true God. Ray Yungen once told the editors at Lighthouse Trails that Rohr has essentially become today’s Thomas Merton.

It’s worth noting as we wrap up this booklet that Richard Rohr seems to be getting a “pass” from the Catholic Church hierarchy. What do we mean by that? Two other Catholic priests, Matthew Fox (b. 1940) and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), both openly embraced New Age ideology. In fact, Teilhard is sometimes referred to as the “father of the New Age movement.” He was severely and publicly condemned by Catholic Church leadership over the span of several decades for his beliefs; and Matthew Fox (a “giant” in the New Age movement) was defrocked because of his beliefs. During Fox’s time as a Catholic priest, he wrote a book titled The Coming of the Cosmic Christ. Later, after leaving the Catholic Church, he became an Episcopal priest and to this day holds to his New Age beliefs. And yet, Rohr, who identifies with the same cosmic christ as Teilhard and Fox and is a New Ager in every sense does not seem to receive the same condemnation that his co-New Age priests did. Perhaps Catholic leadership knows he has a huge following of young evangelicals and see Rohr’s “evangelistic” maneuvers too important to throw away. Or, maybe it is a reflection of the Catholic Church’s readiness to absorb New Age beliefs. Whatever the case is, it’s certainly indicative of the mystical/New Age paradigm shift the world itself has gone through in the last few decades.

As for the evangelicals, perhaps many Christian leaders and pastors feel they don’t need to be aware of false and dangerous teachings in the church as long as they teach the Word and preach the Gospel. Or as one pastor told us once, “I don’t know about all those things. I am in a bubble.” But we told this pastor, “Pastor, you may be in a bubble, but your congregation is not.” What these silent pastors don’t seem to understand is that their congregations are being introduced to New Age mystical spirituality at every turn—through popular podcasts, books, college classes, and even many church settings such as retreats and book studies. In the case of Richard Rohr, it’s particularly the young people who are being drawn in. And if pastors and leaders continue ignoring what is taking place, the faith of countless numbers of young people (many raised in Christian homes) will be turned upside down; they will reject biblical Christianity and embrace the teachings of a false cosmic christ. The apostle Paul revealed very exactly his own attitude when it came to false teachings that had entered the church:

[O]f your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. (Acts 20:30-31; emphasis added)

In considering the ramifications of following a “cosmic christ,” we’ll leave you with these words by Ray Yungen:

Contrary to this belief of good and evil merging and man or creation becoming “like the most High,” man and God can only be brought together through the Cross. If the all-is-one view were true, then salvation through a Redeemer would become unnecessary and Jesus’ death on the Cross would be rendered altogether futile and pointless. In order for the Cross to make any sense, there must be a separation between God’s perfect nature and man’s sin nature. We know Satan has only one enemy—the Cross; he knows that without it no human being can be restored to God.

The Bible says the message of the Cross is the power of God, and while there are two opposing spiritual realms, God has always and will always, prevail. Satan can never thwart God’s ultimate plan. And yet, today’s Western society is enticed by practical mystics who deny, by their own proclamations, God’s plan of eternal salvation. Will the majority of mankind come to believe that all is one and there is no line to be drawn in the sand regarding good and evil? The Bible admonishes, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20).⁴²

“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” (1 Corinthians 1:18-19)

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**In 2019, Brian McLaren became a teacher at Rohr’s organization, Center for Action and Contemplation. Rohr is now in his 80s, and the CAC website lists McLaren as the Dean of CAC. His view that the Cross and Hell are false advertising for God shows that he is a perfect fit for Rohr’s universal cosmic christ.

***Thomas Merton was a Catholic panentheistic priest (who greatly influenced Richard Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline). Foster is first most responsible for bringing Merton’s mystical spirituality into the Protestant church via the contemplative prayer (i.e., Spiritual Formation) movement. To gain a good understanding of Merton’s spirituality and the influence he’s had in today’s evangelical church, read A Time of Departing by Yungen. (If you would like to read a copy of this book and cannot afford it, please e-mail us at editors@lighthousetrails, and we will be happy to send you a free copy; please include your mailing address).

To order copies of Richard Rohr: A Catholic New Age Priest, His Cosmic Christ, and Young Evangelicals click here.

Endnotes:

1. Kristen Hobby, “What Happens When Religion Isn’t Doing Its Job: An interview with Richard Rohr, OFM” (Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction, Volume 20, No. 1, March 2014), pp. 6-11.
2. Kathy Falsani, “For Millennial’s, Mysticism Shows a Path to Their Home Faiths” (Religious News Service, April 16, 2019, https://religionnews.com/2019/04/16/for-millennials-mysticism-shows-a-path-to-their-home-faiths).
3. Richard Rohr, The Cosmic Christ (The Liturgists Podcast, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f7w2YxxhwA), 26.40 mm.
4. Kathy Falsani, “For Millennial’s, Mysticism Shows a Path to Their Home Faiths,” op. cit.
5. Kristen Hobby interview with Richard Rohr, op. cit. , p. 6
6. Ibid.
7. Quote by Rich Heffern, “The Eternal Christ in the Cosmic Story” (National Catholic Reporter, December 11, 2009, http://ncronline.org/news/spirituality/eternal-christ-cosmic-story). These three paragraphs are taken from Ray Yungen’s booklet, A Serious Look at Richard Foster’s “School” of Contemplative Prayer (Roseburg, OR: Lighthouse Trails Publishing, 2015, https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/new-booklet-tract-provides-irrefutable-evidence-a-serious-look-at-richard-fosters-school-of-contemplative-prayer).
8. Rich Heffern, “The Eternal Christ in the Cosmic Story,” op. cit.
9. Ray Yungen, A Serious Look at Richard Foster’s “School” of Contemplative Prayer, op. cit.
10. Ibid.
11. Gloria Gaither, “Richard Rohr: An Invitation to the Divine Dance” (Homecoming Magazine, October 1, 2016, https://web.archive.org/web/20170606185238/http://www.homecomingmagazine.com/article/richard-rohr-an-invitation-to-the-divine-dance). Homecoming Magazine is part of Salem Publishing produced in association with gospel music legends Bill and Gloria Gaither.
12. Lois Putnam, “William Paul Young (The Shack Author) & His Connection With Panentheist Richard Rohr” (February 28, 2017, https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/william-paul-young-the-shack-author-his-connection-with-panentheist-richard-rohr.)
13. “Richard Foster’s 25 Books Every Christian Should Read Turns to Panentheist Mystic Richard Rohr” (September 14, 2010, https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/richard-fosters-renovare-turns-to-panentheist-mystic-richard-rohr-and-emerging-darling-phyllis-tickle-for-new-book-project).
14. See pages 64, 66, and 229 of Alisa Morgan’s book (Kindle edition).
15. “The Cosmic Christ” (CAC, November 5, 2015, https://cac.org/daily-meditations/the-cosmic-christ-2015-11-05).
16. Warren B. Smith, False Christ Coming: Does Anybody Care? (Mountain Stream Press, 2011), p. 13.
17. The Chosen Exposen—The Full Documentary (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LI484mywHU), minute mark: 244.00.
18. Richard Rohr, What Do We Do With the Bible? (Albuquerque, NM: CAC, 2018, 2019) pp. 69-70.
19. Read Carl Teichrib booklet, Is Religion to Blame?—War, Religion, and the Interfaith Global Peace Agenda (https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=15995).
20. Richard Rohr, What Do We Do With the Bible? Daily Meditations online (CAC, January 6, 2019 entry, https://cac.org/daily-meditations/what-do-we-do-with-the-bible-2019-01-06).
21. Ibid.
22. Richard Rohr, Falling Upward (New York, NY: Wiley & Sons, 2011 edition), pp. 62-63.
23. Richard Rohr, The Divine Dance (New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 2016, Kindle edition ) p. 137.
24. Richard Rohr, “Substitutionary Atonement”(Center for Action and Contemplation, Daily Meditations, February 3, 2019, https://cac.org/substitutionary-atonement-2019-02-03).
25. Brennan Manning, Above All (Brentwood, TN: Integrity Publishers, 2003), pp. 58-59, as quoted from Roger Oakland in Faith Undone, p. 195.
26. Brian McLaren said this in a 2006 interview with Bleeding Purple Podcast (transcript: https://web.archive.org/web/20070806231227/http://www.understandthetimes.org/mclarentrans.shtml; audio: https://web.archive.org/web/20060306130332/http://www.enteuxis.org/leifh/bleedingpurple21b.mp3.)
27. The Chosen Series: 10 Critical Concerns: See point 4 at https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/new-booklet-the-chosen-series-10-critical-concerns.
28. Two examples: Matthew S. Nelson and Dan Hasseltine Facebook page: November 28, 2021, https://www.facebook.com/TheOrbitAroundMattandDan/posts/141366854908486 and March 13, 2022, https://www.facebook.com/TheOrbitAroundMattandDan/posts/i-love-the-way-richard-rohr-brings-history-culture-religion-and-spirituality-tog/163576679354170.
29. Jonathan Merritt, “What is the ‘Enneagram,’ and Why are Christians Suddenly So Enamored by It?” (Religion News Service, September 5, 2017, https://religionnews.com/2017/09/05/what-is-the-enneagram-and-why-are-christians-suddenly-so-enamored-by-it).
30. “The Enneagram: An Introduction” (https://cac.org/the-enneagram-an-introduction).
31. Richard Rohr and Andreas Ebert, Discovering the Enneagram: An Ancient Tool for a New Spiritual Journey (now titled The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective) (Chestnut Ridge, NY: Crossroad Publishing, 2016 Kindle edition), Kindle location 239.
32. Rich Heffern, “The Eternal Christ in the Cosmic Story,” op. cit., quoting Richard Rohr.
33. Richard Rohr, “The Cosmic Christ” (https://cac.org/the-cosmic-christ-2015-11-05).
34. Richard Rohr and Andreas Ebert, The Enneagram, op. cit., Kindle location 5200, p. 228.
35. Ibid., Kindle location 5760, p. 256.
36. Richard Rohr, “The Perennial Tradition” (December 20, 2015, https://cac.org/the-perennial-tradition-2015-12-20).
37. Speakers for Sand16: https://web.archive.org/web/20160406202046/http://www.scienceandnonduality.com/speakers-category/speakers-sand16-us.
38. Said in Conversations With God, Book 1, p. 61; also see Warren B. Smith’s article, “If Neale Donald Walsch (Conversations With God) and the New Agers Are Right, Then Hitler Will Be in Heaven!” (https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/if-rob-bell-and-neale-donald-walsch-are-right-then-hitler-will-be-in-heaven). The article is an excerpt of Smith’s book, False Christ Coming: Does Anybody Care?, chapter 3.
39. Ray Yungen, A Time of Departing (Roseburg, OR: Lighthouse Trails Publishing, 2nd edition, 2006), p. 108.
40. Benjamin Creme, The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom (North Hollywood, CA: The Tara Press, 1980), pp. 48-49.
41. Richard Rohr, The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See (New York NY: Crossroad Publishing, 2009), p. 16.
42. Ray Yungen, A Time of Departing, op. cit., p. 109.

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