All Religions are Not the Same

I'm currently reading "Reason to Believe," by Dr. Dr. R.C. Sproul.

I'd planned to review it anyways, but because of my last posts, I decided to move my schedule up by a week. I'm going to take license and post some quotes of Dr Sproul's because they're too profound to summarize. I hope you get a copy of this book. It's a unique book that deals with the common objections to the Christian Faith. The foward is by Lee Strobel, author of "A Case for Christ."

"Under the principle of religious tolerance, all religious systems are guaranteed freedom of expression and equal treatment under the law. No one religion has exclusive claim to legal rights and government establishment.

"With the principle of equal toleration has come the idea that no religion has exclusive claims to Truth...many have drawn the implication that equal toleration means equal validity.

When Christians...or any religions make claims of exclusivity, their claims are met with shock and anger at such narrow minded posture."

Dr. R.C.Sproul

According to Dr. Sproul, we struggle with this (narrow-mindedness) due to the impact of comparative religions that came into the colleges in the 19th century. Scholars began to study the similar characteristics of the major religions. Books began to be published in an attempt to get to the basic core of religious truth, that which founded is in a all religions.

It became that at the heart of their studies all were working, toward the God experience, their goals were the same. "Then came the famous mountain anthology." God is at the peak and man at the base. The story of religion was man's effort to get to the top.

The mountain has many roads, etc.

"There are only two possible ways to maintain the equal validity of all religions. One is by ignoring the clear contradictions between them by a flight into irrationality; the other is by assigning these contradictions to the level of insignificant nonessential. The latter approach involves us in a systematic process of reductionism. Reductionism strips each religion of elements considered vital by the adherents of religion themselves and reduces the religion to its lowest common denominator. The distinctives of each religion are obscured and waterd down to accommodate religious peace." Dr. R.C. Sproul, Reason to Believe.

In today's society people who know absolutely nothing about Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduisum, etc., declare these religions as all leading to God, and they are the same the one caviate that their road is the golden road and everyone else is diluted. They have a highway to heaven...no the supper jumbo jet and everyone else is pushing a bullcart! When I came to Christ I had to get that bullchart out of my head!

Now, that is other religions perogative to believe what they believe, but for the sake of education all sides should be reviewed with a critical and objective eye.

It's important to understand that each person is responsible for knowing God, and whorshiping God. No religion, culture, person, or guru is responsible for the individual soul. But when people are told not to seek out other answers, that's a problem for weak minded people, of which I was one.

Now, when Christians make claims of exclusivity, their claims are often met with shock or anger at such a narrow mind...

It is pointed out in the New Testament that Christ is "the ONLY--begotten of the Father, and that there is no other name under heave which men must be saved." Dr. R.C. Sproul

A church shouldn't hijack Jesus Christ and claim the Bible is not authentic, but written by corrupted men when they have no bases for the claim. This phony Jesus is seen in other religions.

Hundreds of thousands of theologists have studied and still study every word in he Bible, compare it to historical fact of that time, and have never been able to make such claims that it's not true.

There is not one single piece of evidence that Jesus went to India to learn Kriya. He was a Jew! He practiced and preached Judaism of his time! Whether someone believes he was resurrected or not is one thing, but you can't dispute his Jewishness or the references he himself makes from the Old Testament! There are historians of Jesus' time that were not part of his movement who documented his being in Judah, just as the Bible claims.

Jesus preached from the Old Testament not from the Vedas.

New Testament: "But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." (Matthew 22:31-32, cf.Mark 12:26, 27, Luke 20:37-38)

Old Testament: Moreover He said, "I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God." (Exodus 3:6)

New Testament: "It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me." (John 6:45)

Old Testament: "All your children shall be taught by the LORD, and great shall be the peace of your children." (Isaiah 54:13)

How many people would take the time to refute the claims that Jesus is just a guru who taught Yoga when his biographies of the gosples there is no reference? The Bible is not written in hidden language. Because of better translations we know now what each word really meant. Jesus didn't say one thing, then, wink wink, give secrets to others. The claims are outrageous and absurd!

Jesus tells us in the Bible who he was, and I encourage you to read the Bible and books like "Reason to Believe." Get a good study Bible, such as the new English Standard Version.

Jesus did not become the Christ as an adult but rather was the one and only Christ from the very beginning. Christ did not say to people, "You too can have Christ within." *

*ESV Study Bible

One God -- One Son of Man

I've been very honest about my past religious experience simply to share how difficult some religions can make knowing God. There is no special "anything" to know God other than pray to him. We don't have to get into positions, do weird breathing, take lessons, be involved in secret ceremonies, or chant. No human man can tell us that we will be lost to God if we leave their teachings. That is a lie.

It is possible to leave the idea of pantheistic belief and turn to Jesus Christ, but those believers are rare because they'll find transition into One God, and salvation through Jesus Christ, the only son of God, to be a step backwards. And you can see why.

But it's not hopeless. It does take time and some willingness to be patient. Patience means willingness to let God heal us, and forgiveness of ourselves and others who led us astray. Make a habit of reading the Bible and praying for understanding. Remember what dangers awaited Jesus Christ, even in his birth to save us from our sins.

Remember we can't change anyone, but we can educate those who haven't yet gotten involved. Jesus said, "Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you." NIV Matthew 7:6-7

We must be at peace no matter where we've been. My only objective was to bring secret teachings into the light for better understanding of what Turtle-Dove is about, and how it got started.

Going forward, I am going to be writing about my personal restoration through Jesus Christ, and how other religions have hijacked Jesus Christ.

So stay tuned for some wonderful messages. There are many other sites on the Internet that address cults and manipulative emotional teachings and you can further your own personal research.

The purpose of this blog is to share my own personal testimony.

In the meantime, my advice to everyone is read the Bible. Find out for yourself, and don't go by what a guru tells you. There are many easy to read interpretations. Ask God to reveal the Truth to you. You don't need a middle-man, or a middle-guru.

Cult? Who, me? No way!

A cult is any group that holds you mentally and spiritually hostage and lies to you about truth. That truth doesn't just mean spiritual Truths. It can be anything, from diet, to marriage to how you raise your children.



The first sign you’re in a cult is when you’re told (quite often) you’re not part of a cult, and they usually have a darn good argument to prove their point. Cults work hard to debunk the theory that they aren't a cult or a sect. Since there are so many kinds of cults out there, I'm not going to start a list. There are many websites out there with suspected cult lists. The religion I belonged to for many years fell beneath that radar. You can dig deeper into this blog for more about that experience. A cult does not have to be media mainstream consciousness to be a cult.

Ironically, even after you leave a cult, you might continue to deny you were ever in a cult. Admitting the "cult" part is really, really hard to accept. Especially if you’ve defended your cult for years, lost friends, family members over it, created strife for your children who were marginalized for being “different, or even satanic for your beliefs,” and the list goes on. It’s hard to reconcile one had a serious relationship with a cult and their cannons. That’s scary stuff. Of course, it's scary, or it wouldn't be a cult.

Frankly I’m surprised there aren’t more suicides by people who leave cults. When you leave you leave community. You leave the fabric of your life. It’s an isolating experience because you have no where to go, no one to talk to, no one who'll understand the gravity of your situation. The last thing many ex-cult members can accept is another teaching, church or philosophy. Everyone becomes suspect. They can roam around for years in a state of denial. Some people might become atheists because they just don’t want to take a chance that they’ll get it wrong again.

You have to understand that part of being in a cult is watching out for the kooks in Christianity who come around with their Bibles. You also know, and sometimes memorize all the gruesome suffering that’s come in the name of Jesus Christ. Christians call it apologetics, cults call it TRUTH, and they are masters of it because it's part of the brainwashing.

Their ego is always gigantic, but they deny the ego in their teachings. They think they're God, and well, what can you do with that?

The minute someone utters the word "cult" people in them tend to shut down, turn off, walk out and disassociate with the word. They can't hear CULT. Part of the brainwashing is to block that word from their minds. You might stop reading right HERE. That’s because the word CULT immediately brings to mind Charlie Manson and Jones Town, and, well, you’re certainly are not part of something so evil. That’s front page news evil. That kind of evil isn’t so insidious. It takes out a few people and it’s over.

Savvy cults aren’t run by psychotics; they’re run by ordinary folks. Nice folks. Good looking people with pleasant homes and nice cars. They live next door. They take care of your cat when you’re on vacation and bring you casseroles when you’re sick. They’re your friend, your brother, your mother. They could be just about anyone, and that’s really daunting.

Being a writer, I've never had a problem telling my stories, but this wasn't something I could so easily write about. I had to face some truths that were painful. One doesn’t just walk away from a belief system without some serious scars. When you’re taught something, study, mediate, focus on something for years, it takes root. You might cut the weeds by no longer attending, but the roots are still down in the dirt and it doesn’t take much water to sprout doubts.

Cult members are brainwashed into thinking they're special and chosen. That's a powerful, euphoric emotion. The road to Damascus for cult members isn't usually a revelation through Jesus Christ.

(Reprint from original TD 2007)

Damage Control

Throughout the world our Christian image is in the toilet, thanks, in part, to G.W. latching onto various Christian leaders and proclaiming that God chose him to rule the country, and look at our country today. Few US Presidents have been as openly religious as Bush, but this didn’t help the Christian populace when he couldn’t justify the Iraq war or explain our current economy. But this isn’t a political site, and we continue to pray for our leaders.

A year ago the Barna Group did a survey showing that 16-to 29-year-olds were more skeptical of and resistant to Christianity than were people of the same age just a decade ago. They also do not believe that there's one moral objective truth. The same report indicates more and more people view Christianity negatively and with out-right hostility. Don’t think this viewpoint just happened. There’s an agenda at work to tear down Christianity. It’s never been more urgent that Christians act like Christians.

High profile evangelical leaders have damaged our credibility, too, leaving us to hold the explanation bag when they fall off their holier than thou bandwagons. Thanks to the lightening fast media, Blogs, chat rooms and bulletin boards, everyone has a good laugh, and these fallen preachers are representatives of all Christians.

Todd Bentley for example, the tattooed healing preacher from Florida was recently caught having an affair with one of his parishioners, and people are having a good “I told you he was a fake” moment. Ted Haggard founded one of the most successful mega churches in the country, yet was having a homosexual relationship with a male prostitute while furiously preaching against homosexuality.

There is a large and growing body of Americans who believe that Christians are armed with ignorance and hate and they're waiting for the "old guard" to die so new ideas can flourish. These new ideas include new age, eastern religions, wiccan, astrology, and atheism, to name a few.

If we’re doing the works of the righteous, we must be righteous. We must forsake sin even in the presence of adversities and popularity. We must spread the message that God is the creator, the ruler, judge, savior, father, preserver, and benefactor. We must grow in God’s Word, in Grace, and pray without ceasing.

Fact: I get more hits when I write about atheism than when I write about Christianity.

Bad Vibrations - More on Love

Much of what I've shared on this blog relates to the stark contrasts between my life in eastern religion and conversion into Christianity.

If I can't take 30 years of striving for perfection in a yogic life, and the pitfalls I encountered with eastern religious logic, and share this with others heading "east," and warn them, then those 30 years were a waste. But we know that's not true, right? Nothing is a waste if we glorify it in Christ. We are the sum-total of our experiences. Jesus told me not to "hate" any part of my life. That's how most of us live. Denying big chunks of self and trying to do something with the part we like. We run very fast from our sins, bury them as deeply as we can so they remain hidden, lest we have to face them again and again. Horror of horrors.

The Bible's message will set us free, even though some Christians struggle with believing God hates sinners, and is angry with them. The Bible plainly explains we're not perfect, we're not going to be perfect, so stop trying. Jesus loves every single hair on our heads. Jesus wants us to embrace our true selves.

Eastern religion does not teach that there is a savior who loves us and wants to redeem us. Instead their message is that only through yogic works can we be "free" of the ego and attain a state of enlightenment, or oneness with God.

As I've shared before, leaving my eastern religion was extremely difficult simply because I'd been such good devotee of the program. My unending quest to connect with God, to seek that eternal joy within, kept me attuned with Indian philosophy and the striving for perfection. That eternal joy I embraced wasn't eternal, I eventually learned those moments of peace were as long as the meditation.

I struggled for many years with a "holy" life or "holier-than-hell" life. Eastern religion is more attuned to isolation, meaning that though Hinduism is ancient, it does not have a blueprint for those living in a modern world.

Now, where does love fit in? Being a yogi requires intellectual study and meditation, not the cultivation of relationships, which is where you'll find love.

Because karma can't be forgiven, you work out your karma through yoga, but yoga is a means not an end. There are many disciplines in yoga. I followed Raja Yoga, a "royal yoga" that is, a highway to self realization and enlightenment. The royal highway means you have work to do; you have to transform and purify yourself until all karma is burned, releasing you from the chains of this world. The ordinary man could not conceive the absolute spirit, only a self-realized yogi.

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Meditation was the place to seek wisdom, yoga postures is a way to attain the discipline of body, Bakti yoga is a way to attain devotion. Many practices but no official word from God. They often use the Bhagavad Gita as God's word, there's nothing in the document that can be verified as an actuality. It's a wonderful poem about man doing his duty, but it's not the word of God.

The Bible is roughly ignored in eastern religion. Because the church I belonged to referred to Biblical scripture on Sundays and limited it to an interpretation by their founder, no one considered reading the Bible on their own. Often we were told that it took a "master" to understand a "master," and therefore we would not understand the Bible without the guru's interpretation. I honestly didn't realize the Bible was God's word, or that it's alive. It's called a living Bible. There are over 37,000 promises to be found in the Bible, as well as history, prophecy, wisdom literature, letters and instructions.

Okay, so, again, where was the love in eastern religion? Did God love us when we went to that temple? How did we love God if we were bungee corded to the earth in a dreadful karmic cycle?

What I came to learn was God wasn't the image of man, rather we were told he was a vibration and was part of everything, including this computer screen. It was the vibration of God we loved and were to mold the vibration into an image we could understand and desire. To love God we were to cultivate the desire for God by coming up with a concept such as a guru or a statue of Krishna or a picture of a God, even the picture of Jesus. We were taught that ordinary love is selfish and rooted in desire, so we did not love in an ordinary way. We were told to talk to God in the language of our hearts, that "wanting to love God--was loving God." God would not deny anyone his love if we made a sincere effort. We were told there is no sin, and no Satan, that the world is made up of light and darkness. Good and bad. That the laws were universal and applied to everyone.

When did the holes get poked in my eastern religion faith?

The night my mother died. Sitting in a stairwell at Long Beach Memorial hospital, clutching my cellphone, having just hung up with an arrogant monk, I knew my guru was a god impostor. Sometimes life changes in a stairwell.

My eastern religion leaders told me my mother deserved to die a horrible cancer death, and that she really didn't mind dying in this way, that her soul understood. She had done something to someone, somewhere and she was paying her karmic dues. After she suffered and died, her soul would be whisked off to be reborn again in the body of her choosing. I would never see my mother again. While I sobbed on the phone, the monk told me to be happy for her. Her soul was going to be released. He felt he could do more by meditating in the Pasadena hills, where the ashram resided, than coming down to the hospital.

None of the devotees knew how to comfort me, for to show grief was to show ego earth-binding inclinations. They almost seemed afraid of me, as if I had seen what was in store for them.

No, I was to pick up and carry on in my quest to find God and let the dead bury the dead.

All those years, I'd believed dying to be part of the karmic wheel. Well, here was death. I can say I lived in shock for a good long time after mom passed. The one person I needed to accept me, died, and her last word to me was "shit." I was trying to make her more comfortable, telling her it was okay to pass, to let her pain go, and she jerked her hand from mine and said, "shit," and then she lapsed into her final coma.

I found a bathroom and vomited. I heard someone tell my father of my state and I heard him say in an angry voice, "she'll be fine." I was not fine. There was no way out. There was nothing I could do. It was absurd. 30 years of meditation was not going to save my mother nor give me an ounce of grace. I was on my own. The pain was so unbearable that I was chewing pain pills and Xanax.

It was my inability to reconcile mom's death--or find peace about it, that eventually, though not entirely at once, turned me toward Christ. Because I had been so completely brain washed about the nature of God, when I first began reading the Bible I couldn't grasp the message. In talk therapy I learned I'd formed a religious addiction. Through meditation I sought escape, and so did everyone else I knew that was striving for this oneness, perfection with God. Within their lives, broken marriages, alcohol, drugs, affairs, deceptions, continued but while in they meditated they could numb out, and all these other problems would go away--but they don't go away. They cling to you like tar and feathers.

We would escape into this unreal mythical world where a guru, his monks and nuns, along with rules and regulations put a divide between us and God. There was so much perfectionism running amok that it became alarmingly difficult to do anything within this church without someone pointing out that it wasn't good enough. Silly things like using a ruler to measure the exact location a plastic spoon and fork should be set on a table. The devotees used this perfection system to humiliate and wound "lesser" devotees and to pump their egos. These helpers would be reduce to tears and told they were ego bound, and that "master used to upbraid his devotees," and they were only doing what the master would do. Or, "they were doing (fill in the blanks of abuse) because they loved the master, and we should be more understanding if we loved him.

My eastern religion prescribed to toxic shame in the name of God. They severed my soul. They brought me feelings of distrust, worthlessness, inferiority. Because I came from a shameless home, where abandonment, ridicule, abuse, neglect and perfectionism existed, eastern religion became my new family. Many devotees were from similar abusive families and they passed it on to others through control, perfectionism, contempt, criticism, blame, envy, judgment, power and rage.

When I began to seriously question the flaws of the teachings, I was excommunicated. They excommunicated me by abandonment. I was so wounded I wasn't aware I was being excommunicated. They didn't need me. Not really, there was another putz who'd just joined. Why keep the trouble makers? Hadn't they been really good at getting rid of them? What about those mysteriously missing monks who quit? Where'd they go? Where do people go when they are excommunicated? Don't think we didn't ask! We lost many monks to mystery. The really good ones never stayed.

Spiritually, I was a zombie. I could not pray, nor meditate. I drifted. I tried to read the Bible.

Everything I'd studied was now in direct conflict with the God of the Bible. The Bible was telling me I didn't have to do anything but accept Jesus Christ, that Jesus loved me. He loved me so much that he died for me. I didn't understand this kind of love. I didn't believe it. The Bible is just something made up, I told myself because that's what my church told me. They said Jesus orchestrated his Crucifixion, like a play, that he cast his own characters, that it was just done as an example of how much one could be devoted to God. We could all be Christ-like, or attain Christ consciousness. Jesus Christ had gone to India and had learned Kriya Yoga and that's what he'd taught his disciples, but the secret teachings were written out of the Bible, don't you know? And now Jesus was working with an Indian Avatar named Babaji, and together they were running the World. They were the CEO's. I believed this remake, and so does thousands of world wide devotees, even still, if not more.

The Bible says love compensates for our sin. Eastern religion says you have to work off karma to know God. There's no hall passes. The guru can not release of the work you must do; he's more of an adviser.

While I was in spiritual recovery, I came across this poem, and it seemed to be Jesus speaking to me.

Welcome to the world, I've been waiting for you.
I'm so glad you're here.
I've prepared a special place for you to live.
I like you just the way you are.
I will not leave you no matter what.
Your needs are okay with me.
I'll give you all the time you need to get your needs met.
I'm so glad you're a girl.
I want to take care of you, and I'm prepared to do that.
I like feeding you, bathing you, changing you, and spending time with you.
In all the world, there has never been another like you.
God smiled when you were born.

(John Bradshaw, Home Coming, Bantam Books)

When I began to do inner child work, I began to develop a new relationship with God. It didn't come quick, and God dropped a few wake-up calls into my life to move things along. Jesus' warnings about false teachers hit me hardest. The closer I examined the Bible the more I realized that though some eastern religion has nice-sounding messages, they do not agree with God's message in the Bible. I learned God's love is truly complete. How great is the love of the father! Never had I read so much about love, or how it could change my life. In just a few years as a believer my life is completely changed.

Now I know I will see my mother again. She believed in Jesus Christ. She is already glorified in heaven.

The Lord our God is a merciful God. 2 Sm 24:14

Kundalini - Fashion or Foe?

People Magazine has an article this week about a young actress who overcame an eating disorder and now draws her strength from Kundalini yoga. What concerned me most about this story is Kundalini is described as simply meditation and chanting. This lack of information is typical of our culture.

We’re obsessed with eastern religion, and if you read much of my Blog you’ll see I’m quick to point out the erroneous mistake in promoting it so blatantly.

Even more ironic is the message from this story is to go from one addiction to another. Yoga can be an addiction.The writer of the People Magazine article didn’t consider a common thread that yoga has with addictions. Control. Eating disorders are about control, and so is yoga, especially Kundalini yoga, which is a meditative discipline. The addicts I knew who clung to yoga as their means of recovery, failed and are now dead. 30 years in an Eastern Church gives me some authority on the subject, and a bird’s eye view of the wreckage that a yogic life can leave behind.

Here’s what People Magazine didn’t tell you.

Kundalini yoga focuses on moving energy through the spine, or what yogi’s call the chakra system. How do they do that? They imagine moving energy around the chakras (spine), and this is done in conjunction with certain breathing exercises. It is done in repetitions, usually starting out with a small number and increasing as you practice.There is an additional concern for addicts. Self-hypnosis is very addicting. It produces endorphins that mimic the same kind of high that cocaine can produce and stopping it suddenly can cause withdrawals. Practicing yoga can become an emotional obligation, something yogi’s might feel forced to practice, and when oneness is never found, depression can follow. Finally, the yogi self-hypnotizes isolates and disconnects from their world in the same way addicts isolate and disconnect. It’s important to remember that the word yoga is “union,” meaning one. Kundalini yoga is said to enable the person to merge with or "yoke" the universal Self, resulting in union with the Divine.

All yoga classes introduce meditation in some form. Breath control, affirmations and incense are often included. These caveats are part of Hindu mysticism. Christians especially should know that any form of pagan rituals, dressed up in cultural style and paraded by Hollywood is a dangerous message. This lovely actress founded a national eating disorder association and I wonder how much of Kundalini yoga will be introduced to other young women struggling with this cultural disease, or those reading People Magazine. Recovery requires something yoga can’t offer: Grace. Forgiveness.

Yoga is not just exercises; it’s a life-style, a practiced and believed philosophy. In the end, yoga can alienate people from the God of the Bible. It might not happen overnight, but it can change beliefs through hypnotic states. Repetitive yoga techniques interspersed with chanting, mantras or affirmations, has direct access to the subconscious mind without any interference from the conscious mind.“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” Proverbs 11:17

(This is a reprint from the old TD 8/23/07)

Atheism and The Cross

Our Christian God, our God of Moses, Abraham and Jesus Christ is being portrayed as an intolerant evil SOB who cracks a whip of hate, intolerance, violence, fanaticism and zealotry. His followers are automatically gay haters, contemptuous of the environment, anti-abortionists (which means we abhor woman’s-rights), reject same sex marriage, and if you say “out loud” you love Jesus, you’re automatically classified as a fundamentalist–or worse.

The day I was dunked into the Pacific Ocean and accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior, I stopped and at the shore and picked up my Cross.

Being a Christian is a hostel place, it was 2000 years ago and it is today.

I generally write about my experiences with a church in America that blended Christanity and Hinduisum, and I’m in the middle of a series, but I had to weigh in on atheism. One of the reasons I’m interested in this subject is I’ve had a few strange conversations with people who are parroting high profile atheists who are pumping out propaganda through publishing houses, media, colleges, and the internet. In particular best sellers, Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything and Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation, have started a buzz, and it’s spreading.

Approximately 1/3rd of the population of the earth carries the Cross and believes Jesus Christ is their Savior. There’s roughly 7 billion people on the planet, and that makes about 2.3 believers, according to one current atheist speaker, as suffering from a “kind of mental illness.” 2.3 billion people, according to another ashiest, have “blind faith.” Even if you take out the people who are uneducated and illiterate (97% of Americans are literate), you still have billions of people sized by a few popular atheists as having a defect in their emotional state.

Though this list is a few years old, here’s some stats on where Christians call home:

1. USA 224,457,000 85%
2. Brazil 139,000,000 93%
3. Mexico 86,120,000 99%
4. Russia 80,000,000 60%
5. China 70,000,000 5.7%
6. Germany 67,000,000 83%
7. Philippines 63,470,000 93%
8. United Kingdom 51,060,000 88%
9. Italy 47,690,000 90%
10. France 44,150,000 98%
11. Nigeria 38,180,000 45%

Apparently all of these people, in all these countries, are out of their minds, especially those who live in the first country to reach and walk on the moon. Oh, I forgot, some people don’t believe that, either.

Since becoming a Christian, I’ve learned there’s way more to being a Christian than believing in Christ and being saved. I truly, really, thought that Christians were that shallow. My thinking was in line with the atheism, only I pushed eastern thought in its stead.

In David Marshall’s book, The Truth behind the New Atheism, quotes Blaise Pascal (French mathematician, scientist and philosopher) as saying, “...Faith must not be lightly given, for “reason is a thing of God...”

When I accepted Christ, I had no clue the responsibility, and perhaps had taken it too lightly. To be honest, I was looking around at the bikini clad women thinking I looked fat in my shorts and T-shirt. When I had accepted Jesus as my savior that summer afternoon, I was a little naive walking into the waves, but God has changed all that. In here lies the testimony of a Christian, and every Christian converted at an age old enough to remember. Our stories of how Jesus Christ changed our lives can’t be harnessed in a test tube. Atheists try to retaliate by throwing facts and figures that, amazingly can't out number the sheer testimony of the human voice.

“But by any secular standard, Jesus is also the dominant figure of Western culture...much of what we now think of as Western ideas, inventions and values finds its source or inspiration in the religion that worships God in his name. Art and science, the self and society, politics and economics, marriage and the family, right and wrong, body and soul - all have been touched and often radically transformed by Christian influence. Seldom all at once, of course - and not always for the better....the same gospel he proclaimed has underwritten both democracy... Often persecuted - even today--” Newsweek 1999. 2000 Years of Jesus

When Atheists offend Christians, they offend our Western culture, our arts and science, the self and society, politics and economics and democracy.

While researching atheism in America, I came across a powerful article by George F Will:

“Modern science is about the strangeness of things: solid objects are mostly space; the experience of time is a function of speed; gravity bends light. The human mind no longer seems to be a sovereign "ghost in the machine"; it seems tied in unexplained ways to our physical selves, and to nature. The philosopher's question ("I can do what I want, but can I want what I want?") has become a general anxiety. We are born without intending to be, we die without intending to, and perhaps our intentions don't matter much in between. If neither reason nor passion makes the world go round, what does?

“...Science and religion seem, to many, less competitive than complementary because science deepens, rather than diminishes, the sense of life's mysteriousness, and religion speaks to anxieties science stirs.

“...But Christianity is a religion of unadjusted people whose obligation is to adjust to something that transcends the culture of the day, any day. That is why, 70 (99) years ago, Charles Peguy said that this century's real revolutionaries would be the parents of Christian families." Newsweek, October 15, 1979; George F. Will

And here we are, some raised in Christian families, some not, but all grown up, the largest diverse society known to humankind, and yet a small group of vocal atheists are trying to silence our voices, and so far, doing a remarkable job at getting their word out.

Selling Green in Religions

"Finish your outdoor work and get your fields ready; after that build your house." Proverbs 24:27

I had some ideas of my own based on simple observation of ecological dialog that things in the "green zone" were leaning heavily toward eastern philosophy.

But it wasn't until I stumbled upon the writings of Lynn Townsend White, Jr. (April 29, 1907 – March 30, 1987) a professor of medieval history who wrote, The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis (Published in 1967), did I see the post-modernism link with ecology and religion. According to White, Judea-Christian theology was fundamentally exploitative of the natural world because the Bible asserts man's dominion over nature and establishes a trend of anthropocentrism. Or, Christianity makes a distinction between man (formed in God's image) and the rest of creation, which has no "soul" or "reason" and is thus inferior--Christ followers don't care for anything but themselves.

The jest of his theory, which is spreading, is western Christianity literally separated humans from nature in the garden of Eden and created dualism, but other religions saw the divine in every tree, river, animal and bird, and therefore, are more environmentally friendly. Before you point out that Prof. White wrote the article back in 1967, his philosophy is currently in vogue, and eastern religions now enjoy a "superior," attitude toward Christians in the Green Zone of marketing pagan ideas.

There have been signs for sometime time that east beats west in environmental issues. As far back as 2001, USA Today featured an article by Micheal J.Strada, a political science professor and author of, "The tenets of Eastern religion are more compatible with nature than their Western counterparts." I encourage you to read this entire article and see how some of the earlier points made in this series are brought up, and how as Christians we need ready explanations for the accusations against the Christian God. The Dalai Lama said that the need for environmental responsibility dovetails with Buddhist teachings on valuing human life, whether that is one person or the world's entire population.

Statements like these are like car wrecks, you can't look away without wondering how it happened that western Christianity is viewed as the exploiter to everything BAD that's happened to the environment. Volcanoes release more than 120 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year! Why isn't that in the news?

A full scale marketing campaign is ensuing as a guilt trip, a burden for Christians to bear--that the only answer out there is to reform the entire kit-and-caboodle known as Christianity, and get a composter! Or convert to Hinduism or Buddhism if you give a fig about the environment!

To many young Christians, reform is the answer, rather than education, especially when it comes to the environment and truth. Satan pushes his agenda. Don't forget that!

As a Christian we can end the discourse by mentioning, India has one of the ten most polluted areas in the world, and so does China.

Linfen, China, where residents say they literally choke on coal dust in the evenings, exemplifies many Chinese cities. Ranipet, India, where leather tanning wastes contaminate groundwater with hexavalent chromium, made famous by Erin Brockovich, resulting in water that apparently stings like an insect bite. What is the Hindu government doing about pollution? The Ganges River, the Hindu's most sacred place is filled with tons of chemicals, sewage waste and other filth which is dumped into the Gangels daily, by Hindus, spreading disease among the 350 million who live along its shores.

Ask those who preach their eco-friendly eastern message why the Western USA is not listed in the top ten?

People who believe that Christians are polluters are going to tell you that the Hebrew Yahweh, tends to denigrate ecology, since most of the values associated with modern environmentalism were considered feminine traits in Biblical times. Eastern religions embrace both mother and father in God. "If you're closer to the Mother than to the Father, address God as Mother." There's something appealing to a female God, and you'll find some evidence of this in Catholicism, where Christ's mother is an intercessor to her Son.

God of the Bible created this world with all its beauty and perfection. It was called the Garden of Eden. There is no scientific evidence that those practicing eastern religions are happier, healthier, or more earth friendlier than Christians--the total opposite! Don’t be too easily fooled no matter how many degrees (or IMDb credits) are attached to the person’s name pushing the idea that Christians don't care about the environment. Research where these “new ideas” originated from, and who they benefit.

"You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace, and the mountains and the hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of thorn-bush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord's renown, for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed." Isaiah 56:3

When Our Bible Isn’t Enough

Today I was introduced to the practice of Lectio Divina in a Christian church. When I asked our group leader what Lectio Divina meant, and its origins, she couldn’t say with any certainty, suggesting I research it later. She then led the group in a modified ancient spiritual discipline. I read the Bible instead, since I practice nothing without knowledge of what I’m practicing before God. Having spent 30 years seeking God through disciplines, I’m of a discerning mind.

Paul addresses worshiping without knowledge of Christ in Acts 17:22-25. He understood that God works in all peoples, and it’s important to build off their existing beliefs and longings rather than assuming they know nothing of value [1] but that doesn’t mean we practice their beliefs.

Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” (John 14:6) Not one of the ways, but the only way. This is the idea that marks the Christian faith. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:10,12). [2]

I’m sure I’m the only person today who went home and researched Lectio Divina, and that kind of acceptance—the willingness to try something else without stopping to ask for the reference to it in our Bible, is a short coming of current modern Christians.

There’s nothing wrong with reading philosophical or inspirational books, but Christians need some discretion when practices are transposed into their churches by lay people, and in some instances, by ministers. If we don’t believe the Bible is the final word, then we’re sure to seek answers from other sources. There’s nothing Satan loves more than Christians looking for Truth elsewhere. “Is there an underlying message being delivered that the average Christian can’t interpret the Bible and we must go outside the source and seek interpretation?" [3]

But I bring to the table 30 years of experience in spiritual disciplines, and know the dangers and damage inflected when told we should incorporate a discipline into our prayer life. Having found glorious freedom in Christ, I now stand firm in Biblical Truths and must point out possible deviations that can lead to problematic dogmas, even though it won’t leave me very popular in today’s emergence culture. “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” (Romans 1:16)

Lecto Divina was presented to us as a way to deepen our study of the Word. If we repeated phrases in the Bible, and meditated on those phrases, we would get greater insight into the meaning of God’s word by allowing God into our beings. What I later learned is Lectio Divina is rooted in early Catholicism, practiced by monks, and considered a Stairway to Heaven -- a 4-runged ladder to Heaven, each rung being one of the four steps in a method of Bible reading. [4]

Hinduism also practices a step-by-step path to God, Patanjali’s Eight Fold Path. [5]

Having studied and practiced eastern philosophies, I’m well acquainted to the devotion of meditative disciplines as a means of seeking God and salvation, and the entanglements.

Most people aren’t familiar with meditation, beyond knowing it lowers blood pressure. Years ago, Christians were highly suspect of meditation, linking it to eastern religion, and rightly so. Our current media has defused the practice by promising better health by way of yoga and meditation. Physical changes do occur during meditation by affecting the brain, which in turns controls the body. Deep and continued meditation releases dolophine endorphins (natural body pain killers) giving us a “feel good” emotion that, when incorporated into a prayer life, can be misunderstood as connecting with God. Because these endorphins relax us and are a pleasing sensation (blissful), we’re apt to seek that experience rather than our study of God’s Word. Like mood-altering drugs, meditation is addictive and why monks have been known to do it for 10,000 to 50,000 hours, over time periods of 15 to 40 years. [6] But there’s more, and that reality is the danger we must question.

Its hypothesized that the mental states commonly referred to as altered states of consciousness seen during certain spiritual/ religious practices are principally due to transient prefrontal cortex deregulation. [7]

A Washington Post article reported on a study by the University of Wisconsin: “It (meditation) demonstrates…that the brain is capable of being trained and physically modified in ways few people can imagine…meditation not only changes the workings of the brain in the short term, but also quite possibly produces permanent changes." [8]

Most of us want to change something about ourselves, and the “idea” sounds great. But if meditation through repetitive prayer is introduced as a means to become closer to God, then we’re essentially saying that it is through this discipline we know God, not through Grace. Even more damaging, and an often over looked aspect of meditation, is the door being opened to hypnotic suggestion, or brainwashing. Participants while under group meditation can be influenced by their moderator’s ideas, or in a church setting, their theologies.

Repetitive praying can produce a hypnotic state, and that can produce the feeling of well-being and misunderstood to be something divine. Remember, repeating a Biblical phrase will produce the same mood-altering effect as repeating a Hindu phrase, or a transcendental meditation mantra.

Those who’ve practiced meditation with religiosity find it nearly impossible to believe anything but what they’re involved with, such as eastern philosophies. The depth of their convictions is literally ingrained into their brains by way of a physical change.

Deprogramming is difficult and current Christian apologetics aren’t able to reach into their subconscious and undo years of damage. Reasoning, rationalizing, even proof of Christ’s salvation will not unhinge their beliefs. Hence, it’s imperative to be vigilant when introduced to any techniques that use repetitive prayer or meditations as a mean to higher God awareness or consciousness.

One could assume I’m just biased because I once practiced meditation, similar to an ex smoker railing against tobacco companies. However, my concern for practicing ancient rituals is justifiable, and no compromising should be made regarding our Christian faith.

Practicing techniques of prayer from other religions in a Christian church is in essence, saying that there’s a kernel of truth in all religions and we can take some of other teachings and integrate it—or blend it into our Christian religious life to give us something fuller than what’s promised in the Bible. All the while congregants aren’t told where these methods are originating.

The concept of “blending” religions is not new, only given a different title within the Christian community. Churches of “all religions,” have existed in America since the early 20’s when eastern gurus came ashore and taught the concept that God is within all teaching. [9] They boondoggled the American public, so desperate were they for mystical experiences, and robbed them blind to support their own lavish lifestyles. Though the 1960’s generation wants to take credit for introducing eastern religions to America, it’s been around for a long time. The flower children didn’t do their homework, and neither are some of our Christian brother’s and sisters today. Deception is everywhere. The packages are very pretty, disguised as deeper understandings of the Bible.

Why shouldn’t it be okay to take a little of this, and a little of that, and make it our own walk? Because Jesus said, “I am the way,” and for a Christian that should be enough.

Nor should we limit God’s power to change us in his way, or seek other sources for revelations. That’s not to mean we’re to be closed minded, it means we’re discretionary. There’s a difference.

Christ is superior to anyone or anything we might come across in our studies. Faith pleases God, and seeking other sources questions our faith. If “doing something” is going to make us holy and closer to God, then we’ve just set a limit on God’s glorious power.

Had God waited for Rahab (Joshua 2:1) to become holy, he would not have used her to welcome the Israelite spies, nor spared her life when Jericho fell.There’s one final aspect to this discussion. If Christians are told to do “something like Lectio Divina” by someone perceived with authority, then without discretion, without praying to God about the matter at hand, one might believe they’re failing God if they question the practice, or aren’t comfortable doing it. I heard one woman say about Lectio Divina, “but I don’t feel comfortable or understand this,” and she was told, “don’t worry, you’ll get it,” in other words, she hadn’t gotten it yet even though she was saved by Jesus Christ, by the blood he shed.

Sadly, not everyone questions what they're told to do (especially by someone they hold in authority), nor seek the Bible’s wisdom or even God’s. Without proper understanding and discretion Christians can be led to shame for not practicing something their church is pushing, and shame puts distance between us and God. Maybe that’s the most important message I can share.

God wants us to question everything. God wants to talk directly to you. You don’t have to do anything but talk to him. God made us in his image. If my daughter sat before me repeating phrases I’d be bored to tears! That isn’t communicating with God and it’s putting a limit on his glorious power.

For further reading, you might check out Please Contemplate This, an extensive article about programs and practices rife with occult methodologies and techniques at work in churches and youth ministries around the country: Taizé, Lectio Divina, The Labyrinth (prayer walk), Renovaré, guided imagery, Walk to Emmaus, Cursillo, Centering Prayer, Ignatian Awareness Examen, The Jesus Prayer, and The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, to name but a handful. [10]

[1] Faith in Action Bible NIV

[2] Crossroads Church

[3] Debra Twardowski – Jesus Psychology

[4] Lectio Divina

[5] Patanjali’s Eight Fold Path

[6] Washington Post

[7] Neurobiology of spirituality

[8] Washington Post

[9] Gurus In America - Wikipedia

[10] Apologetics Coordination Team