Hello,
I am a Christian and I love the Lord with all my heart. I may not be a biblical scholar but I'm learning more every day. I have a problem that I'm hoping you could help me with. I have encountered something recently that just doesn't feel right but wanted some advice or input from some forum viewers? Without trying to "poison" the topic or conversation, I'll give you a VERY brief background. My daughter is at school at UNC - Chapel Hill and was on track for a certain career path and has always been self driven. She was Valedictorian of her high school class and has a 4 yr scholarship at the university. She recently came home with a complete change of mind about her future and some fundamental questions about careers / paths / intentions of her schooling and job outlook post college. The majority of this comes from a book she read by Shane Claiborne called the Irresistible Revolution.
Please understand that I love my daughter and I support her no matter what she does with her life as she is a christian and loves our LORD. Something just feels wrong about this. The book, the author, and the ideas I'm hearing about. Without going into details, can anyone give me some input / advice as to what they might know? I've looked online and I see some radicalism but I see a lot of biblical references to his writings. I am frustrated about this sense of distrust I have towards this book, but I cannot ignore this creepy feeling I have of a possible cultish thing going on?
Love ya'll for listening and I'd love to hear what you have to say.
Scott
Hello brother Scott.
It is awesome to know that you love the Lord with all your heart and though not a biblical scholar (me neither) you continue to grow in His Word daily! Alleluia!
What I am about to do, I do with a heavy heart. This is a subject that for years has caused me much suffering, conflict, of heart, mind, and spirit. So do not continue to read this, without understanding the ramifications that delving into this may cause you or others. Namely your daughter. Thread carefully, and do not do so, without much prayer, and continued study on the players/subject involved and most importantly within the context of the Word of God.
Always remembering that all that you do, must, I repeat must be done with Love. (1 John 4:7-21) To do otherwise negates any perceived good you feel you have done. Your daughter is of age, that she must make decisions on her own. The best you can do is offer advice, and normally the most you wind up doing is just listening. Loving her and being scared for her at the same time. This is a parents burden. I have no idea how non-believing parents handle this, but as a believing parent, turning it over to our Lord Jesus Christ in supplication in prayer works! Just remember, that it requires great patience regardless of what seems to be currently transpiring. One suggestion I do have for you. Pray with your daughter. Find the opportunity to Hold her hand and pray with and for her. Do it over the phone, that too will work. The more you do it, the better you get!
Always end it with I love you daughter, pumpkin, or whatever name of endearment you have for her.
Selah
Now to attempt to tackle something that clearly will have me in the minority here, but which needs to be presented, so that not only you but others may come to understand that all is not what it appears to be. Each must tackle this subject individually with much prayer and study. Sadly, your "doesn't feel right", "radicalism", "creepy feeling about cultish thing going on" is to be blunt not a unique feeling to have when confronted with ideas that are both old/new in origin, and feelings that I too have experienced.
I've cut and pasted below an article that you might find interesting and enlightening. Sadly, I've had to delete the links, or you would have been able to follow them to the locations where the notes originated from, confirming their authenticity. Some are research sites, others are from quotes made by the individuals from their own sites. Realize that this article is but one of many that I've come across over the years. I've read books, articles, on the subject matter that have left me in dispair and with the heavy heart I mentioned earlier. At least until I had to turn it over to our God. He has brought you here to TJ Scott, in search of what He has allowed me to know and understand through the Holy Spirit, and which I share with great love for you and yours and understanding as well. I will end this with a quote that has become dear to me, when trying to discern right from wrong. "
Discernment is not simply a matter of telling the difference between what is right and wrong; rather it is the difference between right and almost right."
YBIC
Nick
Castles in the Sand visits Shane Claiborne
Before a packed auditorium at Warner Pacific College in Portland, Oregon, activist Shane Claiborne gave his message of peace, love, and brotherhood. An engaging speaker, and a man dedicated to his beliefs, Claiborne had the crowd laughing and reminiscing with him as he recounted past adventures and experiences. During the time he spoke he emphasized again and again our Christian duty to help the poor and the oppressed.
“God is creating a holy counter-culture,” said Claiborne, author of
Jesus For President, The Irresistible Revolution, and several others.
I sat there in the crowd, taking notes, wanting to believe that Claiborne was truly a believer. I knew he was tight with contemplative Tony Campolo. In his interview with Campolo several years ago, Claiborne made a troubling statement:
Tony Campolo: We don’t have to give up trying to convert each other. What we have to do is show respect to one another. And to speak to each other with a sense that even if people don’t convert, they are God’s people, God loves them, and
we do not make the judgment of who is going to heaven and who is going to hell. I think that what we all have to do is leave judgment up to God. The Muslim community is very evangelistic, however what Muslims will not do is condemn Jews and Christians to Hell if in fact they do not accept Islam. (Italics mine)
Shane Claiborne: That seems like a healthy distinction—between converting and condemning. One of the barriers seems to be the
assumption that we have the truth and folks who experience things differently will all go to Hell. How do we unashamedly maintain a healthy desire for others to experience the love of God as we have experienced it without condemning others who experience God differently?[1] ( Italics mine)
Rather than correcting Campolo’s errant theology, Claiborne seemingly agreed with it. Biblically, if someone rejects Christ, they are in for a hellish eternity. It’s right there in the Book.
While the Warner Pacific audience heard much about being like Jesus, there was little (actually I don’t think there was any) reference to sin, or redemption, or the Blood. When the author spoke of reconciliation, he didn’t mean between God and man. If that had been my pastor speaking in a packed out place like that, he would have preached the gospel message. It wouldn’t have taken long. Claiborne did not do this, but spoke movingly of his time with Mother Teresa, his experience in Iraq, and his home in Philadelphia.
Claiborne at one point said, “That’s right, I still believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus,” and I began to get hopeful again.
In a few short sentences he seemingly dismissed the possibility of being in End Times, and also noted that some have “such obsession with evangelism.” His point was that we aren’t paying enough attention to the troubles of people in the here and now. Claiborne stated that “as missional Christians in the world,” we need to “live in proximity to those who are hurting in the world.”
The crowd thought he was cool. I thought he was cool. But the presentation lacked Biblical balance.
I had three copies of
Castles in the Sand with me. The many readers of this blog (all six of you) know that I have been taking Carolyn Greene’s novel to unlikely places, often leaving it with people who are unfamiliar with the dark side of meditation. We (the novel and I) have been to an AA meeting, a labyrinth, the New Moon vampire movie, and many other places, handing out this book.
I highly recommend
Castles in the Sand, particularly for young women, as they will easily relate to the heroine. It is good simply as an adventure story. Greene uncannily demonstrates the deceptive spirit that can entice a person during meditation, and she does it without preaching, without beating anyone over the head to make her point.
I believe much of the emergent church is under this contemplative deception. As Shane Claiborne stood outside the auditorium, I said, “Shane, my name is John, and my mission is to give you this book.”
Claiborne is a gracious guy, and he was dog-tired from all the travel and speaking engagements. But he took
Castles in the Sand, and said, “Thank you, brother.” He peered intently at the cover.
I told him goodbye, and prayed for him as I drove home.
Some hours later, in the early dawn, I discovered where Claiborne is scheduled to speak in April. It is with the blasphemous Center for Action and Contemplation,[2] the organization founded by interspiritualist Richard Rohr. Father Rohr, at a Catholic service, prayed to “Father-Mother God.”[3]
In July, Fr. Rohr has a new set of blasphemies scheduled. This is the “Creation as the Body of God” Conference. According to the CAC website, “The whole of Creation, the Body of God, is suffering from oppression and disease.”[4]
On April 8, Claiborne will give a pre-conference workshop on “Sacred Activism,” with Rohr finishing up in the afternoon with his book,
The Naked Now: Learning to see as the Mystics see.[5]
Then, beginning April 9, speakers will be author Diana Butler Bass, who also blogs on Jim Wallis’ “God’s Politics,” and Cynthia Borgeault, author of C
entering Prayer and Inner Awakening.
Brian McLaren will be there as well, undoubtedly to promote his heretical book,
A New Kind of Christianity. McLaren describes himself as a “contemplative-reflexive.”
The fact that Shane Claiborne is affiliating with this conference speaks volumes. He is not going there to preach Salvation, just as he did not give the gospel message at Warner Pacific College. Sadly, Claiborne lines up with the contemplatives.
As Ken Silva of the excellent apprising.org informed me, “Claiborne is one the liberal Red Letter Christians.[6] He’s literally aligned with his mentor Tony Campolo, Jim Wallis, Richard Rohr, Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, and Diana Butler Bass in that organization.”
Can two walk together except they be agreed? (Amos 3:3)
The charm and persuasion (and sincerity) of people like Shane Claiborne makes my quest to distribute
Castles in the Sand all the more relevant
. If I could, I would get this book in the hands of youth pastors, parents, and every young kid I could find. Once a person reads this, they may have a whole new perception of meditation–for it is in this meditative state, I believe, that many are being pulled deeper and deeper into deception.
Contemplative Spirituality is here. It is in our schools. It is in our churches. It is time to give warning, any kind of warning, even in the form of a novel.
Endnotes:
1. ON EVANGELICALS AND INTERFAITH COOPERATION (Link deleted)
2. Center for Action and Contemplation (Link deleted)
3. CALIFORNIA CATHOLIC DAILY (Link deleted)
4. Creation as the Body of God (Link deleted)
5. Event info on web (Link deleted)
6. What is a “
Red Letter Christian“… ask Carla: (Link deleted)
