The New Spirituality is "neither an organized religion nor a
systematized philosophy but a group of ideas and a network of
communication." (1)
Such an innocuous description is still somewhat typical-the New
Spirituality is just one more option in modern day pluralism, about
which we should probably be somewhat informed.
I must disagree.
While
it is not an "organized religion," this spirituality is the
reappearance of the massive system of ancient world paganism and, as
such, represents the greatest threat to the church since the Greco-Roman
pagan empire. The situation is urgent.
The incredibly beautiful
"Temple of Humankind"-secretly under construction since 1978, 100 feet
below ground, inside a mountain near the northern Italian city of
Vidracco-provides the right terminology. Its builders say the temple is
not a place of prayer, but "a place for contemplation of the divine
within the self." Their work, they say, is not for a religion but for "a new civilization." (2)
Our culture is reaching a tipping point of momentous implications where the "New Spirituality" may well represent the next phase of the faith and practice of modern autonomous humanity, whose goal is nothing less than the construction of a new Sodom and Babel.
Few
were expecting this. Most merely saw a cloud the size of a man's hand
appearing on the Western horizon. That marginal "hippy" revolution of
spiritual and sexual experimentation would quickly dissipate. The real
threat was secular humanism. The fact is this New Age "cloud of
unknowing" has morphed into a perfect storm of latter rain that intends
to irrigate the entire planet with the Aquarian "living water" of
integrative monistic oneness.
Perhaps we are beginning to "get
it," especially when it affects our children. In 2007, California
governor Schwarzenegger signed SB 777 into law, making it illegal for
teachers and children to use terms like "mom" and "dad" and "husband"
and "wife" in public schools. Already in England using such terms is now
officially called "bullying." (3)
Montgomery County, Maryland, allows people to use public restrooms
based on who they think they are sexually; and in San Francisco, the
Board of Supervisors will now issue municipal identification cards
showing name, birth date, and photo, but no gender.
The cloud has become a tsunami; the Sixties' sexual liberation
was not a mere dream of hippies who had opted out of public life. In
fact, in a long march through the institutions, the "Flower Power"
children cleaned themselves up and became the "establishment"
them-selves. They have demonized the patriarchal society of Western and
biblical civilization as the greatest expression of human evil, and
replaced it with a radical egalitarianism that knows no gender roles and
believes that the murder of unborn babies is not only settled law but
vital to the emancipation of women. (4) In one generation, this sexual liberation has become public policy. The ideas behind these social changes are deeply and spiritually pagan-as even a cursory examination of Romans 1:18-28 will show. Continue at Peter R. Jones
