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catholicresistence
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« on: July 27, 2006, 08:27:AM » |
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MARCHING TOWARD GLOBAL SOLIDARITY By Berit Kjos July 27, 2006 NewsWithViews.com "The new generation...[has] a deeper sense of solidarity as people of the planet than any generation before them.... On that rests our hope for our global neighborhood."[1] Report of The UN Commission on Global Governance. "Welfare depends on the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind,"[2] Federico Mayor, then Director General of UNESCO During the 1996 UN Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II), I attended a day-long "Dialogue" on the meaning of "Solidarity" at Istanbul’s elegant Ciragan Palace. Registered as a reporter, I received a list of 21 panel members. It included UNESCO's Director General Federico Mayor, the now discredited UN leader Maurice Strong, World Bank Vice President Ismail Serageldin, and Millard Fuller who founded Habitat for Humanity. Together with other globalist dignitaries, they would explore the missing factor in the old Soviet version of dialectical materialism: a spiritual foundation for an evolving global ethic.[3] "To speak of solidarity is to speak of things of the spirit," began Habitat Secretary-General Wally N’Dow. "For we are well aware that the future of our human settlements... is not just a matter of bricks and mortar but equally a question of attitudes and determination to work for the common good.... This spiritual dimension is the only ingredient that can bind societies together."[4] N'Dow had chosen an American moderator who would add credibility to the discussion: Robert McNeil (of McNeil-Lehrer), "one of the gurus, the spiritual lights of the media industry today."[4] Moments later, McNeil introduced the panel of dignitaries ready to shape the new vision of oneness. "What’s needed is an interfaith center in every city of the globe," said James Morton, former dean of the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine. "The new interfaith centers will honor the rituals of every… faith tradition: Islam, Hinduism, Jain, Christian… and provide opportunity for sacred expression needed to bind the people of the planet into a viable, meaningful, and sustainable solidarity."[4] Dean Morton's version of "Christianity" is actually a universalized distortion of truth that fits easily into the new religious union. Anything less would be dismissed as fundamentalist extremism. Millard Fuller, President of Habitat for Humanity, fit right into this interfaith dialogue. Like other emerging leaders in the neo-Christian movement, he redefined Scriptures to "prove" his message: "When Jesus launched His ministry 2000 years ago, He said, 'We must repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.' In English, that sort of connotes feeling sorry for getting caught. But in the Greek, we read that what He really said was to metamorphose. Metamorphose is what a butterfly becomes when it metamorphoses out of a little fuzzy caterpillar.... Change your whole way of thinking, because the new order of the spirit is confronting and challenging you. ... The only way we will achieve human solidarity in dealing with it is to have a completely new way of thinking."[4] This "new way of thinking" has already permeated every segment of society: education, business, government, and the church growth movement, including Purpose-Driven churches. Pushing transformation in all these sectors are the leadership training programs that pursue the vision of management gurus such as Peter Drucker, Peter Senge, and Ken Blanchard. The core of their teaching is "general systems theory" or "systems thinking." In short, everything is interconnected, therefore all is One and all divisions and boundaries must be eliminated in order to establish the "Global Neighborhood," i.e. New World Order. Emerging Church leaders like Brian McLaren call it "The Kingdom of God." (This will be covered more thoroughly in Part 2: "SOLIDARITY versus CHRISTIANITY.") God makes us "one" in Christ when we respond to His gospel with faith and genuine repentance (acknowledging our sin and humbly turning to God). Millard's "new way of thinking" points people to the world's corrupt system, not to God and His ways. Let’s not forget that familiar words with strategic new meanings are likely to mislead the masses. For example, in Webster's Dictionary (1989) the familiar meaning of solidarity sounds perfectly safe: "common interest and active loyalty within a group." But contemporary change agents have infused that word with a far more revolutionary meaning. Let's take a closer look. THE NEW SOCIAL CONTRACT During a break, I asked moderator Robert McNeil to define solidarity for me. In his answer, he acknowledged that solidarity is strengthened by a common enemy as well as a "common good": "It means people with shared values or responsibilities cooperating or working together. In our culture, it was probably exemplified most often by the union movement. Industrial unions often used the phrase solidarity-- 'solidarity forever.' And in the socialist movement, of course, solidarity was a very strong word -- the solidarity of the workers against the employers, their oppressor, capitalists.... whatever it was...."[4] "Solidarity is like a social contract, like people agreeing that this is the way it should be. Whether I am poorer or richer than you are, we somehow agree that the way it is set up works best for all of us." What if we don't agree? Then we are vilified as divisive resisters -- excluded from the feel-good solidarity. Pastor Brian McLaren, an acknowledged leader in the Emerging Church movement, summarized it well: "...to be truly inclusive, the [earthly] kingdom must exclude exclusive people, to be truly reconciling, the kingdom must not reconcile with those who refuse reconciliation.'"[5] Social contracts hold people accountable to the new standard. It pushes people toward the planned conformity, whether the society is a church, a school, or the "global neighborhood." So it didn't surprise me to hear UNESCO's Federico Mayor make the same point. "The 21st Century city will be a city of social solidarity," he said. "We have to redefine the words... [and write a new] social contract."[4] This evolving "social contract" has been written into every UN treaty and declaration. And former President Clinton's Executive Order 1310 helped turn that UN "contract" into US policy. It is being implemented through government policies as well as laws whether the treaties were ratified by Congress or not. [See Trading U.S. Rights for UN Rules] This "social contract" guarantees "freedom from want," from fear, from hunger, and from offense by those who might voice contrary values. It also promises "freedom of thought and expression" -- but only to those who share the UN vision. Remember, Article 29 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "...these rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations."[6] Reflecting the same communitarian constraint, Ismail Serageldin, then Vice President of the World Bank, said: "We should stop bemoaning the growth of cities. It’s going to happen and it’s a good thing, because cities are the vectors of social change and transformation. Let’s just make sure that social change and transformation are going in the right direction.... The media must act as part of the education process that counters individualism."[4] BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION A cooperative media is essential to the planned change in public consciousness. As in totalitarian regimes, "voluntary" social transformation relies on effective propaganda. That's why our Education Department's Community Action Toolkit, The President's Council for Sustainable Development, and the UN's Local Agenda 21 all call for partnerships between educators and the news and entertainment media in every community. The public must be persuaded to give its consent; the people must learn to feel so uncomfortable with dissent that contrary voices would be silenced. The masses must never notice that this manipulative process is changing their minds and actions. Since few people do notice, Professor Raymond Houghton's triumphant promise in a 1970 NEA publication is becoming an alarming reality: "...absolute behavior control is imminent. ... The critical point of behavior control, in effect, is sneaking up on mankind without his self-conscious realization that a crisis is at hand. Man will never self-consciously know that it has happened."[7] This plan for "behavior control" would include three essentials steps: (1) a supportive news and entertainment media willing to disseminate politically correct information and inspire values that erode the old boundaries, (2) a management system for measuring and monitoring change, and (3) universal participation in the dialectic (consensus) process. The latter has become the norm in US schools, corporations, government agencies, and communities. The dialectic process used to control the masses in the former Soviet Union has invaded every corner of U.S. society – even churches. The goal is to involve every human resource (human capital) in the UNESCO program of lifelong learning -- a continual process of training and immersion in the new way of thinking and relating to others. To succeed, every level of this hierarchical management system (marketed as "local control) must continually assess change, monitor compliance, and remediate the non-compliant.[8] We shouldn't be surprised. God warned us long ago that the world's ways would lead to corruption and tyranny, not peace and love. His lasting peace is reserved for those who will face the rising hostility with faith and love: "... in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.... And from such people turn away!" 2 Timothy 3:1-13 “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
Footnotes: 1, Our Global Neighborhood, "UN Report of The Commission on Global Governance" (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995); 357.
2, Forum Discusses Ways in Which To "Humanize" The City.
3, Maurice Strong didn't come to the Dialogue as scheduled.
4, I taped and transcribed this part of the "Dialogue" at the UN Conference on Human Settlements in Istanbul, 1996.
5, Brian McLaren, The Secret Message of Jesus: Uncovering the Truth that could change everything (Nashville: Thomas Nelson's W Publishing Group, 1006), page 169-170.
6, Trading US Rights For UN Rules
7, Raymond Houghton, To Nurture Humaneness: Commitment for the '70's (The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development of the NEA, 1970).
8, Brainwashing in America and Moulding Human Resources For The Global Workforce
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catholicresistence
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« Reply #1 on: July 27, 2006, 08:29:AM » |
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EMERGING "CHRISTIANITY"
BREAKING OUT OF THE BOX
PART 2 By Berit Kjos March 12, 2006 NewsWithViews.com "Warren predicts that fundamentalism, of all varieties, will be 'one of the big enemies of the 21st century.'"[1] --The purpose-driven pastor Brian McLaren, the pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church in the Washington-Baltimore area, may not be speaking at the UN, consulting at the White House, or addressing the Council of Foreign Relations as does Rick Warren.[2] But his influence among evangelical pastors and postmodern seekers is soaring. According to www.pastors.com, one of Warren's websites, McLaren is "a key figure in the 'emerging church."[3] His books are converting countless pastors and skeptics to a revolutionary worldview. And his popular semi-fictional novel, A New Kind of Christian, promises to "open the way for an exciting spiritual adventure into new territory and new ways of believing, belonging and becoming."[4] Believing what? Belonging to what? Becoming what? Those questions need answers, for McLaren's emerging Christianity is turning Biblical truth and faith upside down. BELIEVING Those who read A New Kind of Christian and its popular sequel will be caught up in an unusual dialogue. Identifying with the "Christian" teacher Neo and others who model the "new" Christian beliefs, readers are encouraged to challenge God, question His commands, twist disturbing truths, and pursue visions that fit contemporary culture. Notice how its introduction provokes doubt about Biblical faith: "I realize, as I read and reread the Bible, that many passages don't fit any of the theological systems I have inherited or adapted. Sure, they can be squeezed in, but after a while my theology looks like a high school class trip's luggage--shoestrings hanging out here, zippers splitting apart there.... "I meet people along the way who model for me, each in a different way, what a new kind of Christian might look like. They differ in many ways, but they generally agree that the old show is over, the modern jig is up, and it's time for something radically new...."[4] "...if we have a new world, we will need a new church. We won't need a new religion per se, but a new framework for our theology. Not a new Spirit, but a new spirituality."[4] Emphasis added A new spirituality! That's an ongoing quest in emerging churches. The old Gospel clashes with new dreams and lifestyles. People forget that true fulfillment comes, not through human ingenuity or experimentation, but from the Holy Spirit who breathes new life into seeking hearts through God's treasured old Word. [See Psalm 119:11] "As you have... received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith.... Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ." --Colossians 2:6-9 "Interdependence, though imbedded in nature, is foreign to the Western individualism.... That's why McLaren's 'new kind of Christian' often uses words like 'journey' and 'conversation' to describe Christian life beyond the postmodern divide. Conversation implies Christians can learn a lot by interacting with - and listening to - the world, especially non-Christians. 'Their questions are an essential facet of our discipleship,' McLaren says. 'They change us.'"[3] Of course! Such "conversation" with the world will quickly erode the old truths that block universal interdependence. This mind-changing dialectic process involves (1) "open-minded" dialogue among diverse people, (2) identification with all contrary views, (3) a common quest for "common ground," and (4) willingness to trade personal convictions for group consensus. In other words, the person "belongs" primarily to the group or community, not to God. [See Three kinds of groups] But God never called His people to oneness with the world. While He sends us into the world as His ambassadors, we are not of the world. "Therefore 'Come out from among them and be separate,' says the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 6:18 Unlike McLaren's quest for interdependence, Biblical oneness is based on faith in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. Those who have been joined to Him through the cross belong to God, even as they serve Him in the world. "For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s." (1 Corinthians 6:20) BECOMING Since McLaren's postmodern "Christians" would continually be part of group "conversations," they would fit right into the UN agenda designed to mold and manage global citizens. Today's world leaders envision compliant "Global Citizens" who are adept at "thinking outside the box" of all contrary doctrines or convictions. Through cradle-to-grave "lifelong learning," everyone would be subjected to a repetitious three-step process: unfreezing (old truths and certainties), instilling new beliefs, and refreezing (confirming and solidifying). Eventually, each "trained" thinker would automatically reject factual obstacles to the new worldview. A New Kind of Christian illustrates this mind-change well. "Neo's thinking is really infecting me," reports Pastor Dan in the story. "I feel like I've been invaded by a computer virus that's corrupting all my data...."[5] This "new Christian" must become open-minded to everything but the certainty of God's Word and promises. "Certainty is overrated,"[3] declared McLaren. It simply doesn't fit the envisioned utopia. But God's ways are not like our ways! "For as the heavens are higher than the earth," He tells us, "so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55: No wonder Rick "Warren predicts that fundamentalism, of all varieties, will be 'one of the big enemies of the 21st century." In a world that demands "lifelong learning" in dialogue and compromise, Biblical fundamentalism becomes a threat to unity.'"[1] As Jesus told His disciples the night before His crucifixion, "If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.... If they persecuted Me they will persecute you... for they do not know the One who sent Me." John 15:19-21
Click here for part -----> 2, 3, Footnotes: 1, "The purpose-driven pastor"
2, "Warren's P.E.A.C.E. Plan and UN Goals - Part 2"
3, Greg Warner, "Brian McLaren: the story we find ourselves in"
4, Brian D. McLaren, A New Kind of Christian, (Jossey-Bass; 1st edition (March 28, 2001), backflap and pages xiv-xv, xvi.
5, Ibid., page 24.
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