On Saturday, October 4th, 1997, over half a million men converged on the Washington Monument in the federal district for a day-long rally sponsored by Promise Keepers, the largest and fastest growing ecumenical men's group in American history. During the six-hour service Bill McCartney, the group's founder, told the cheering crowd, "You should be able to say you do not have a racist church and you should not speak against other denominations.... Our destination is brotherhood in concert -- true biblical oneness." The "brotherhood" that was the theme of this event not only highlighted the male-centric version espoused by McCartney, but also the broader, ecumenical kind that is merging all religions into one primordial soup of spiritual belief.
Because Promise Keepers is associated with religious conservatives and has raised the hackles of feminist and homosexual groups, it is easy to miss the common thread that runs between them. A book called The Masculine Journey: Understanding the Six Stages of Manhood by Robert Hicks was handed out to every man attending the Promise Keepers convention in Boulder, Colorado in 1993. It would be fair to state that this book defines the philosophy behind the Promise Keeper movement. In his book Hicks refers to a "phallic Jesus" and uses motifs such as "warriors", "sages" and "rites of passage." (Source: The Men's Movement - Resurrecting Pagan Rites- Part I, by Lynn and Sarah Leslie).
The Masculine Journey is a "Christianized" version of other books that have helped define the "secular" modern men's movement -- books such as Iron John and The Seasons of a Man's Life, the latter of which Hicks cites as the inspiration for his book. Hicks follows the psychoanalytical model of male progress through certain stages of development and includes the pagan concepts of initiation, physical mutilation, blood ritual, and references to the male "phallus" - the final stage of development being "sage", or "zaken" - the fulfilled man. Even though Hicks substitutes some mythology with biblical illustration, his theories are based not on Christian principles, but on the neo-canaanite dogmas of the men's movement of today. The Masculine Journey is the book that Promise Keepers handed out at their convention in '93 and it is a book they continue to endorse. (ibid). Hicks' book gives a new meaning to the "brotherhood" McCartney spoke about October 4th and also reveals how appropriately located was the largest Promise Keepers rally ever - in the shadow of the world's largest phallic symbol - the Washington Monument.
Promise Keepers is the "Christianized" faction of the pagan masculine movement which is the counterpart to the pagan feminist movement. Because Promise Keepers is so successful in terms of numbers and finances, and feminism is so widely disdained among professed Christians, most denominational leaders have chosen to overlook Robert Hicks' book and other evidences of male centrism in the PK movement - perhaps viewing it as a needed counterbalance in a feminist ravaged culture. What most professed Christians fail or refuse to see is that the modern men's movement is doing to men what feminism has done to women - directed them to a worship of their sexuality rather than their Maker, thereby preventing them from ever realizing their true potential as beings created in the image of God. What's more, the cultish, separatist mentality instilled into male and female centrics will further serve to alienate and promote a power struggle between the two, resulting in continued social friction and disintegration.
Promise Keepers is an ecumenical movement and accepts members from many different Christian churches, mostly evangelical. Its stated purpose is to make men better Christians, husbands and fathers, which, in itself, is a goal most would deem worthy. This goal will prove very illusive, however, as it is the very nature of ecumenicals to compromise truth in the name of unity and, without truth, religion is a lost cause. This is what has happened to mainstream "Christianity" as it has failed to grasp hold of and deal with the trends that have paganized its institutions - a failure which shall ultimately cause its return to the horror of the Dark Ages.
On the flip side of his male centric gospel, Bill McCartney admonished his audience not to "speak against other denominations." This is now the hue and cry being sounded all over the world, not just by Christian leaders, but by leaders from across a broad spectrum of religions and politics. "Ecumenical" used to mean that all the preachers in town would get together once a month and have a prayer breakfast, but now the entire world is being swept by an ecumenical movement that promises not to stop until all religious and sectarian divisions are torn down. While this may be good news for many, the more thoughtful may recognize the approaching storm for what it is.
Enter the United Religions initiative. The same year Promise Keepers handed out The Masculine Journey in Boulder, over six thousand religious leaders from around the world gathered at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago where Swiss theologian Hans Küng presented his "Declaration of a Global Ethic." This "ethic" describes itself as "an irrevocable, unconditional norm for all areas of life, for families and communities, for nations and religion" and all who will be considered "authentically human" must accept its tenets. The document makes no mention of man's duties to God, and the word "God" doesn't even appear in it. It does, however, spell out one's "global responsibility", that is, "responsibility for fellow humans and for the planet earth." (Source: Wm. Grigg, The New American , August 18, 1997).
The Global Ethic also deals with the problems presented by those who hold fundamental beliefs. It says that religious leaders who "stir up prejudice, hatred, and enmity toward those of different belief ... deserve the condemnation of humankind and the loss of their adherents." (ibid). While most would agree that "prejudice, hatred, and enmity" is morally wrong, these definitions will be applied to religions and individuals who condemn sexual sins and other forms of moral corruption. Those who are outspoken against the crimes of this age will be condemned as "hate criminals."
Two years before presenting his "Declaration of a Global Ethic", Mr. Küng stated in his book, Global Responsibility: In Search of a New World Ethic (1991) that "any form of ... church conservatism is to be rejected .... To put it bluntly: no regressive or repressive religion -- whether Christian, Islamic, Jewish, or of whatever provenance -- has a long-term future." Participation in the religion replacing it will not be optional. "If ethics is to function for the wellbeing of all, it must be indivisible. The undivided world increasingly needs an undivided ethic. Post modern men and women need common values, goals, ideals, visions. But the great question in dispute is: does not all this presuppose a religions faith?.... What we need is an ecumenical world order!" (ibid).
In his speech before the Parliament of the World's Religions, Dr. Robert Muller, Former Assistant Secretary-General of the U.N. reaffirmed the absolute inclusiveness of the new world religion. He said, "...do not worry if not all religions will join the United Religions organization. Many nations did not join the UN at its beginning, but later regretted it and made every effort to join. It was the same with the European Community and it will be the case with the world's religions because whoever stays out or aloof will sooner or later regret it."
Midway through this bloodiest of all centuries, after surveying the horrific failures of their communist and fascist experiments, globalists began to promote a spiritualistic world view to replace the atheistic dogmas of the old socialism. Sir Francis Younghusband, who established the World Congress of Faiths in the 1930's once wrote, " A religious basis is essential for the new world order." In The Humanist, Vol. Xll, 5, 1952, Julian Huxley predicted, "The theistic concepts are bound to disappear in the future development of humanity....A new religion will develop...the most important feature of such a religion would be its universalistic character...it would embrace the humanistic teachings common to all great religions of the East and of the West...."
Mikhail Gorbechev is busy framing an "Earth Charter" that he plans to present before the United Nations General Assembly by the year 2000. This document will define the way humans must relate to their "mother earth". Humanity must adopt "a new environmental legal code rooted in an Earth Charter ... a kind of Ten Commandments, a 'sermon on the mount' that provides a guide for human behavior toward the environment in the next century and beyond," Gorbechev said in an interview published in the May 8th Los Angeles Times. He foresees a "new synthesis" of world views that mix "democratic, Christian, and Buddhist values ... which affirm such moral principles as social responsibility and the sense of oneness with nature and with each other." (Source: Wm. Grigg, The New American , August 18, 1997).
Many professed Christians may flatter themselves that they will not participate in the emerging world religion of pagan earth worship and eastern mysticism. Like world government, however, the world religion is not a frontal attack, but an end run around fundamental beliefs, eroding them piece by piece. In 1992 AID Chairman J. Brian Atwood told the U.N. population control conference in Cairo, "We will all be changed by this global discussion. In time, individuals will change their outlook. Societies will change their mores. Religions will interpret their beliefs differently...." (or else).
Regionalism is practiced on the sectarian level as well as the political. For example, a July 21st article in the San Francisco Chronicle headlined, "U.S. Protestants Leap Toward Unity" details a "new era of cooperation" between the Lutheran and Episcopal churches, as well as "Lutheran, Presbyterian and two other denominations...." "It's not really changing anything," Episcopal Bishop William Swing of San Francisco told the Chronicle. "It's legislating the reality of what has already happened out there."
The "reality" Bishop Swing speaks of is not the reunification of all Christian denominations and an end to sectarianism, but the gradual merging of all religions into an unchristian global faith. He is well positioned to implement that goal as the one presiding over the United Religions initiative. Since the 1993 World Parliament of Religions he has been traveling the world doing "on-the-ground hard work" in bringing the world's religions into harmony with the initiative. The UR is currently developing a charter that will formally establish the organization on June 26, 2000 in San Francisco, which uncoincidentally is also the birthplace of the United Nations.
Bishop Swing's Episcopal Church seems to be the most "politically correct" and, hence, the most suitable "Christian" denomination to shepherd the UR initiative into finalization. At a July 19 conference in Philadelphia church representatives let stand a church decision that uncelibate gay and lesbian priests were not violating the "core doctrine" of the church. Also considered was a liturgy of blessing for same sex couples. The presiding bishop was replaced "after a difficult term" which included a sensational account in a major magazine of sex orgies at a Brooklyn church attended by cross-dressing priests. (Source: San Francisco Chronicle - July 22, 1997).
Such developments hint at the debauchery that is now entering the churches. As "cooperation" increases between the denominations, churches that once preached against sexual sins are now made party to acts that were state crimes as late as the 1960's. As the year 2000 approaches and ecumenical fervor increases, all churches, denominations and religious sects will be pressured to accept the "new morality" that encourages all manner of vice but makes speaking against it a capital crime. For a time worshipers may still attend the church of their choice, but the same message will be heard from each pulpit -- the "smile, be nice, and don't rock the boat" gospel that already is heard throughout the land.
Global religionists look forward to the end of the "Christian interlude", this 2000 year detour humanity took out of the groves of idol worship, depraved pagan ritual and human sacrifice, and into the worship of a personal God outside and above ourselves -- the God of righteous judgment. They see the year 2000 as an end to this "detour". We may all be sure that the one world religion will not rest until every reminder of this "interlude" has been burned and that no true righteousness or judgment remains.
When President Clinton signed the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) bill, threatening anti-abortion protesters with stiff prison sentences, the activities of the Christian group, Operation Rescue, withered in the heat. Now they work to "win the hearts", according to their web site. This is a revelation of what the future holds for today's so-called Christianity in the near future. Threats from a corrupt government will be all that is required to change the convictions of many professors of this age.
In the early centuries the Christian religion was paganized in order to leaven her power and strength. Today the church has been further paganized. While many Christians, as has been mentioned, look forward to this as a new dawn and a new awakening of Christian brotherhood, we may read from the Scriptures what is actually happening.
"And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the harlot [paganized Christianity] and will make her desolate, and they will strip her and eat up her flesh and utterly consume her with fire." Revelation 17:16.
AND SO IT IS!
Written 10/9/97