On April 26th, Lighthouse Trails Publishing contacted Focus on the Family, via telephone, sharing concerns about FOF's recent promotion of contemplative author Gary Thomas. On May 5th, Lighthouse Trails received a letter from Timothy Masters of Focus on the Family's "Office of the Chairman." Masters responded to Lighthouse Trails with the following:

[D]ue to the unusual nature of your inquiry, our phone representative has taken the liberty of forwarding your message to the staff here in Dr. Dobson's office for special handling.

While we are pleased that our phone call has received attention from Dr. Dobson's personal office, statements made in the letter by Masters have left us concerned and disheartened. Masters said that the staff:

... found nothing within the pages of Sacred Parenting [by Gary Thomas] that contradicts the Christian faith or Dr. Dobson's philosophy ... we are not in a position to address the contents of Mr. Thomas's other writings ... but this much we can tell you: there is and always has been a strong tradition of contemplative prayer in the Christian church that has nothing to do with mantras and Eastern meditation. To confuse the two, as you have done, is to jump to an unwarranted conclusion based on a misunderstanding of certain features they appear to share in common.

In light of Master's apparent conviction that the two camps (Christian and Eastern contemplative) are distinct and unrelated, it is important to note here that Tilden Edwards, the founder of the largest and most influential contemplative school in the US, would disagree that the two are indeed different. Edwards revealed that contemplative prayer is the Western bridge to Far Eastern spirituality in his book, Spiritual Friend (of which Richard Foster endorsed, calling it an excellent spiritual book).

While FOF states they are "not in a position to address" Gary Thomas' other books (which clearly promote contemplative), the book that FOF does promote, Sacred Parenting, devotes an entire chapter to contemplative spirituality, calling it the "active discipline" of "true listening," and saying it is the way we can "seize heaven and invite God's presence into our lives" (pp. 58-59). In that chapter, Thomas names two people who had a major impact in his prayer life: contemplative/mystic Teresa of Avila and Frank Buchman, initiator of Moral Re-Armament, now called Initiatives of Change, an inter-faith organization working towards globalization. Buchman was a controversial figure, partly due to his 1930s public statements showing admiration for Adolph Hitler. And according to cult expert Dave Hunt, Buchman was involved in both mysticism and the occult:

MRA founder Frank Buchman ... embraced new revelations through occult guidance [and]helped to set the stage for the New Age movement.... He inspired thousands on all continents to meditate ... decades before Maharishi Mahesh Yogi left India. (Hunt, Adaptation of Occult Invasion, 1998)

Gary Thomas devoted three entire pages to Buchman in Sacred Parenting. All things considered, this book hardly seems like it will be a "tremendous help and a great inspiration to those moms and dads who choose to take advantage of its message." On the contrary.

The question must be asked, when Masters states that "there is and always has been a strong tradition of contemplative prayer in the Christian church that has nothing to do with mantras and Eastern meditation," which authors have or do teach contemplative prayer excluding the mantra and Eastern-like meditation? Richard Foster, whom Focus on the Family now promotes? Gary Thomas? Thomas Merton? Brennan Manning? Henri Nouwen? (All of whom can be found on FOF websites and all of whom teach mantra-style meditation)

We must also ask, can Focus on the Family rightfully disregard the contents of Gary Thomas' other writings, writings in which he tells readers to repeat a word or phrase for 20 minutes until the "word becomes part of you." Did the Apostle Paul, or the Psalmist or Jesus Christ ever give such instructions? Of course not. Gary Thomas' website clearly promotes practices such as lectio divina and centering prayer all the while encouraging visitors to read the works of Thomas Merton and Basil Pennington, both of whom wholeheartedly and without reservation embraced Eastern mysticism. Incidentally, Thomas teaches Spiritual Formation at Western Seminary. By promoting one of Thomas' books, FOF is directly promoting contemplative prayer.

Focus on the Family has entered into an unbiblical territory that can spiritually harm many people, including children. It is our prayer that Dr. Dobson and other Christian leaders will look at the facts fairly before proceeding any further down this path.

Other Focus on the Family connections to
Contemplative Spirituality:

• Focus on the Family and Spiritual Formation (H.B. London)
• FOF Boundless Magazine
• FOF Promoting Celebration of Discipline (Richard Foster)
• FOF and Lectio Divina
• Brio Magazine and Thomas Merton
• FOF, Dallas Willard, Henri Nouwen and the Silence
• Brennan Manning(listed many times in FOF)

Various quotes by the above- mentioned contemplatives:

"Mystics throughout the ages have sought to reach this destination, a quiet spiritual refuge" —Gary Thomas, Sacred Parenting

"Asia, Zen, Islam, etc., all these things come together in my life. It would be madness for me to attempt to create a monastic life for myself by excluding all these. I would be less a monk."—Thomas Merton, quoted in A Time of Departing, 2nd ed., p. 60)

It is my sense, from having meditated with persons from many different [non-Christian] traditions, that in the silence we experience a deep unity. When we go beyond the portals of the rational mind into the experience, there is only one God to be experienced."—Basil Pennington, Centered Living, p. 192

"The quiet repetition of a single word can help us to descend with the mind into the heart."—Henri Nouwen

"Choose a word (Jesus or Father, for example) as a focus for contemplative prayer. Repeat the word silently in your mind for a set amount of time (say, twenty minutes) until your heart seems to be repeating the word by itself, just as naturally and involuntarily as breathing."—Gary Thomas, Sacred Pathways, p. 185

"We should all without shame enroll as students in the school of contemplative prayer."—Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, 1978

"[T]he first step in faith is to stop thinking about God at the time of prayer. Choose a single, sacred word or phrase that captures something of the flavor of your intimate relationship with God. A word such as Jesus, Abba, Peace, God or a phrase such as 'Abba, I belong to you.' ... repeat the sacred word inwardly, slowly, and often. When distractions come, ... simply return to listening to your sacred word.... [G]ently return [your mind] to your sacred word."—Brennan Manning

To read an important account of Gary Thomas' connection with Rick Warren, see chapter 8 of A Time of Departing, 2nd ed.