By Berit Kjos (1997)
“God is going to change. We women . . . will change the world so much that He won’t fit anymore.”1
Naomi Goldenberg in Changing of the Gods: Feminism and the End of Traditional Religions
“I am the Goddess! We are the Goddess!” 2
About 700 women dancing around a totem pole in Mankato, Minnesota
“While women sleep the earth shall sleep. But listen! We
are waking up and rising, and soon our sister will know her
strength. The earth-moving day is here.”3
Alla Bozareth-Campbell, Episcopal priest, 1974
Berit Kjos, a Presbyterian, is the author of several books
including: Brave New Schools, Your Child and the New
Age, Under the Spell of Mother Earth. Mrs. Kjos’ newest
book which this article is adapted from is A Twist of Faith,
published in 1997 by New Leaf Press. It is available at
Christian book stores or by calling, 1-800-643-9535.
- Editor’s note: While Mrs. Kjos emphasizes the
ways in which radical feminism is promoting neopaganism, her writing applies to men, as well as
women, who are accepting neo-pagan beliefs as they
deconstruct Christian faith.
“Religion and culture are ever changing, ever
transforming. . . . We are the transformer, maker and
creator of our own religious and cultural traditions.”4
“Women, Religion, and Culture” seminar, Beijing
Conference
“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken
me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own
cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”
Jeremiah 2:13
Peggy’s struggles seemed endless. She wanted to be close
to God, but she rarely felt His presence. She wanted her
teenage son to love Him, but the occult posters in his room
became daily reminders of unanswered prayer. She joined
a Christian ministry, but satisfying fellowship with God
kept eluding her. Eventually she left the ministry to return
to college.
She called me a few years later. She had begun to find
herself, she said. Her search had led her beyond the
familiar voices that had provided “pat answers” to her
spiritual questions. The biblical God no longer seemed
relevant or benevolent. A college teacher had been
especially helpful in her journey toward self-discovery.
This teacher-counselor called herself a witch—one who
believes in the power of magic formulas and rituals to
invoke power from spiritual forces.
Page 2 Theology Matters • Sep/Oct 1997
Some years passed. When she called again, she had left
her husband and moved away. “I had to find me,” she
explained. “My spiritual journey has opened my eyes to a
whole new paradigm. . . .”
“A new paradigm?”
“Yes. A brand new way of seeing God and myself—and
everything else. It’s like being born again.”
“Who is Jesus Christ to you now?” I asked.
“He is a symbol of redemption,” she answered. “But I
haven’t rejected the Bible. I’m only trying to make my
spiritual experience my own. I have to hear my own voice
and not let someone else choose for me. Meanwhile, I’m
willing to live with confusion and mystery, and I feel like
I’m in God’s hands whether God is He, She, or It.”
“Do you have friends or relatives on similar journeys?”
Like millions of other seekers, Peggy longs for practical
spirituality, a sense of identity, a community of like-minded
seekers, and a God she can feel. She remembers
meaningful Bible verses, but they have lost their authority
as guidelines.
She wonders why God isn’t more tolerant and broadminded. After all, He is the God of love, isn’t He? Maybe a
feminine deity would be more compassionate,
understanding, and relevant to women. Perhaps it’s time to
move beyond the old boundaries of biblical truth into the
boundless realms of dreams, visions, and self-discovery?
Multitudes have. What used to be sparsely traveled
sideroads to New Age experiences have become cultural
freeways to self-made spirituality. Masses of church
women drift onto these mystical superhighways where they
adapt their former beliefs to today’s more “inclusive”
views. After all, they are told, peace in a pluralistic world
demands a more open-minded look at all religions and
cultures.
Those who agree are finding countless paths to selfdiscovery and personal empowerment through books,
magazines, and new kinds of women’s group. They meet in
traditional churches, at the YWCA, at retreat centers, living
rooms . . . anywhere. Here, strange new words and ideas—
such as “enneagrams,” re-imagining, Sophia Circles, global
consciousness, and “critical mass”—offer modern formulas
for spiritual transformation. Therapists, spiritual directors,
and others promise “safe places” where seekers can
discover their own truth, learn new rituals, affirm each
other’s experiences, and free themselves from old rules and
limitations.
This new movement is transforming our churches as well as
our culture. It touches every family that reads newspapers,
watches television, and sends children to community
schools. It is fast driving our society beyond Christianity,
beyond humanism—even beyond relativism—toward new
global beliefs and values. No one is immune to its subtle
pressures and silent promptings. That it parallels other
social changes and global movements only speeds the
transformation. Yet, most Christians—like the proverbial
frog—have barely noticed.
This spiritual movement demands new deities or a rethinking of the old ones. The transformation starts with self,
some say, and women can’t re-invent themselves until they
shed the old shackles. So the search for a “more relevant”
religion requires new visions of God: images that trade
holiness for tolerance, the heavenly for the earthly, and the
God who is above us for a god who is us.
The most seductive images are feminine. They may look
like postcard angels, fairy godmothers, Greek earth
goddesses, radiant New Age priestesses, or even a mythical
Mary, but they all promise unconditional love, peace,
power and personal transcendence. To many, they seem too
good to refuse.
The Masks of the Feminine Gods
You probably wouldn’t expect to find goddesses in a
conservative farming community in North Dakota. I didn’t.
But one day when visiting my husband’s rural hometown, a
neighbor told us that a new bookstore had just opened in the
parsonage of the old Lutheran Church. “You should go see
it,” she urged.
I agreed, so I drove to a stately white church, walked to the
parsonage next door, and rang the bell. The pastor’s wife
opened the door and led me into a large room she had
changed into a bookstore, leaving me to browse. Scanning
the shelves along the walls, I noticed familiar authors such
as Lynn Andrews who freely blends witchcraft with Native
American rituals, New Age self-empowerment, and other
occult traditions to form her own spirituality.
Among the multicultural books in the children’s section,
one caught my attention. Called Many Faces of the Great
Goddess, it was a “coloring book for all ages.” Page after
page sported voluptuous drawings of famed goddesses.
Nude, bare-breasted, pregnant, or draped in serpents, they
would surely open the minds of young artists to the lure of
“sacred” sex and ancient myths.
Driving home, I pondered today’s fast-spreading shift from
Christianity to paganism. Apparently, myths and
spiritualized sensuality sound good to those who seek new
revelations and “higher” truths. Many of the modern myths
picture deities that fit somewhere between a feminine
version of God and the timeless goddesses pictured in
earth-centered stories and cultures. Yet, each can be tailormade to fit the diverse tastes and demands of today’s
searching women: - Angels. Terry wears an angel pin on her jacket. She
believes that today’s popular angels offer all kinds of
personal help, guidance and encouragement. While God
seems distant and impersonal to her, she counts on her
personal angel to help and love her. She showed me a set of
angel cards on a rack in her gift store. “May this Guardian
Angel . . . give you hope and strength to meet each new
Presbyterians for Faith, Family and Ministry Page 3
tomorrow,” suggested a sympathy card, complete with a
tiny golden angel pin. - Sophia. “Sophia, Creator God, let your milk and
honey flow. . . . Shower us with your love. . . .” chanted
more than 2000 women gathered at the 1993 Re-Imagining
Conference in Minnesota. “We celebrate the sensual life
you give us. . . . We celebrate our bodiliness. . . . the
sensations of pleasure, our oneness with earth and water,” 5
continued one of the leaders. Representing main-line
denominations, the women had come from the Presbyterian
Church (USA) (about 400), the United Methodist Church
(about 400), the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America
(313), the United Church of Christ (144), and Baptist,
Episcopal, Church of the Brethren about (150). About 230
were Roman Catholics. To most of these worshippers,
Sophia symbolized inner wisdom and “the feminine image
of the Divine.” Playful, permissive, and sensuous, she has
“become the latest rage among progressive church
women.”6 - Mother Earth. Tracy is a regional Girl Scout leader in
Santa Clara County, California. To prepare young girls for
an “Initiation into Adulthood” ceremony, she uses guided
imagery to alter their consciousness and help them visualize
a “beautiful woman”—a personalized expression of Mother
Earth—who will be their spirit guide for life. Each girl is
free to imagine the spiritual manifestation of her choice or
to welcome whichever spirit appears. - A goddess. Sharon grew up in a Christian home.
Disappointed with her church’s chilly response to her
environmental concerns, she turned to witchcraft. Since her
coven accepts any pantheistic expression, Sharon simply
transferred what she liked about God to her self-made
image of the goddess. She describes her feminine
substitute for God as a loving, non-judgmental being who
fills all of creation with her sacred life. Sometimes this
goddess appears to Sharon, bathing her in bright light and a
loving presence.
These and countless other women share two radical views:
traditional Christianity with its biblical boundaries are out,
and boundless new vistas of spiritual thrills and skills are
in. Anything goes—except biblical monotheism, belief in
one God. The broad umbrella of feminist spirituality covers
all of the world’s pagan religions—and many of today’s
popular distortions of Christianity. Most seekers simply
pick and mix the “best parts” of several traditions. Someone
might start with Buddhist meditation, then add Chinese
medicine, Hindu yoga, and a Native American wilderness
initiation called “Spirit Quest.” Some of these combinations
match today’s feminist visions better than others, but most
involve— - Pantheism: All is god. A spirit, force, energy or god(dess)
permeates everything, infusing all parts of creation with its
spiritual life. - Monism: All is one. Since the pantheistic god is
everything and in everyone, all things are connected. - Polytheism: Many gods. Since the pantheistic force or
god(dess) makes everything sacred, anything can be
worshipped: the sun, trees, mountains and eagles—even
ourselves. - Paganism: Trusting occult wisdom and powers.
Throughout history, tribal shamans, medicine men,
witchdoctors, or priests have contacted the spirit world
using timeless rituals and formulas which are surprisingly
similar in all the world’s pagan cultures. - Neopaganism: New idealized blends of old pagan
religions. To make paganism attractive in today’s selffocused atmosphere, its promoters idealize tribal cultures
and pagan religions. Instead of telling the whole truth and
nothing but, they tell us that spiritual forces link each
person to every other part of nature. Anyone, not just
spiritual leaders, can now function as priestess, contact the
spirit world, manipulate spiritual forces, and help create
worldwide peace and spiritual oneness.
Gateways to the Goddess
Like most Neopagans, Diane believes that earth-centered
spirituality brings peace and personal empowerment. A
pretty young woman with long black hair and the slender
look of a vegetarian, she is a local hairdresser. She is also
married, looking forward to starting a family, and a member
of the Bay Area Pagan Assemblies. While cutting my hair
one day, she told me how she discovered the goddess.
“I always liked to read,” she said,”especially books about
magic and witchcraft.”
“Which was your favorite?” I asked.
“Margot Adler’s book, Drawing Down the Moon.”
“That’s almost an encyclopedia on witchcraft. How old
were you?”
“A senior in high school.”
“How did you find it?”
“Browsing around in the library. But I had already read
some other books, like Medicine Woman by Lynn Andrews.
My thoughts drifted to another young woman who read
Medicine Woman some years ago. Lori’s high school
teacher had encouraged her to explore various spiritual
traditions—even create her own religion. Fascinated with
Lynn Andrews’ blend of Native American shamanism and
goddess spirituality, Lori ordered a Native American tipi
from a catalog, set it up in her backyard, and used it for
candle-lit rituals inspired by Wiccan magic (witchcraft).
Like most contemporary pagans, she had learned to mix
various traditions into a personal expression that fit her own
quest for power and “wisdom from within.”
Some months before Diane first cut my hair, I had met a
charming Stanford University student who also called
Page 4 Theology Matters • Sep/Oct 1997
herself pagan. Beth, an education and philosophy major,
had read my book about environmental spirituality and
wanted to discuss it with me. While we ate lunch together
at the college cafeteria, she shared her beliefs.
“Who introduced you to witchcraft and lesbianism?” I
asked after a while.
“Two of my high school teachers,” she answered.
I wasn’t surprised. By then I knew that an inordinate
number of pagan women have chosen the classroom as their
platform for spreading their faith and transforming our
culture.7
Like the rest of us, they want to build a better
world—one that reflects their beliefs and values.
While Beth talked, I glanced at her jewelry. The golden
pentagram and voluptuous little goddess dangling from a
chain around her neck spoke volumes about her values. So
did her earrings: two large pink triangles pointing down, an
ancient symbol of the goddess as well as a modern symbol
of lesbianism.
“What about your jewelry?” I asked. “Do people know
what the pentagram and triangles symbolize? Do they
criticize you for wearing the little goddess?”
She smiled. “No. Everybody here is supposed to be tolerant
of each other’s lifestyles. Nobody would dare say
anything.”
I pondered her statement. What does it mean to be
tolerant—or intolerant—these days? If intolerance is the
self-righteous attitude that despises people with “different”
values, it would be wrong. Jesus always demonstrated love
and compassion toward the excluded and hurting women of
His times. Yet, He never condoned destructive lifestyles or
actions that harmed others. What would happen in a culture
that tolerates everything?
One result is obvious. The last three decades have produced
an unprecedented openness to what used to be forbidden
realms. Fortune telling, occult board games, and Native
American rituals, along with countless other doorways to
paganism, have spread from the hidden chambers of
professional occultists and tribal shamans to our nation’s
classrooms, environmental programs, Girl Scout camps,
and churches.
Leading “Christian” theologians no longer hide their
spiritual preference. “The deconstruction of patriarchal
religion—in bland terms, the assisted suicide of God the
Father—left many of us bereft of divinity,” explains
feminist theologian Mary Hunt. “But the human hunger for
meaning and value . . . finds new expression in goddess
worship.”8
This human hunger for meaning was designed to draw
people to God. He created us to need Him, not man-made
counterfeits. As the 17th-century philosopher Blaise Pascal
wrote, “There’s a God-shaped vacuum in every heart.” But,
like Beth, Diane and Peggy, an astounding number of
women try to fill that void with alluring counterfeits. In the
process, they are shifting the foundations of our nation from
biblical truth to pagan myths.
The Paradigm Shift
“I was raised in a no-you-don’t world,” sang Streisand,
dramatizing her disdain for traditional values. But “you and
I are changing our tune. We’re learning new rhythms from
that woman. I said, the woman in the moon. . . . O ye-ah,
ye-ah!”9
Women everywhere are learning follow the rhythms of that
“Woman in the Moon,” a song that helped Shawntell Smith
win the 1995 Miss America contest. Despising God’s
standard for holiness, they create their own. To leading
feminist theologian Mary Daly that “involves breaking
taboos,” being “wicked women,” “riding the rhythms of . . .
rage,” and “seeking sister vibrations.”10 For “sisterhood
means revolution” 11—a rising revolt against biblical beliefs
and values that is proving the timeless allure of pagan
spirituality.
As many of you know, that allure drew over 2000 women
from mainline churches in 49 states and 27 countries to
Minneapolis in 1993.12 They came together to re-imagine
Jesus, themselves, their sexuality, and their world. Funded
in part by their Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist and
Lutheran denominations,13 the four-day conference sent
shock waves across our nation that are still shaking the
Church.
At this Re-Imagining conference, Cuban theologian Ada
Maria Isasi-Diaz called for “a new Pentecost”—a new way
of seeing reality. “We need to develop . . . a lens . . . to
understand that the way things are is not natural,” she
explained, “[so that] we can change them radically.”14
Ms. Isasi-Diaz was talking about a paradigm shift. Her
“lens” is like a mental filter that narrows her vision of the
world to fit her new convictions. Like the popular Native
American fetish called a dreamcatcher, it permits only ideas
that support the “right” beliefs to settle in the mind. It rules
out all contrary ideas. This new view of “reality” looks
something like this: - Everything is connected to the same god or goddess.
- Therefore everything is naturally sacred and good.
- Therefore insights from my “inner Self” are true and the
biblical view of sin is merely a patriarchal club for
controlling women. - Therefore the Church, the cross, and male authority
obstruct spiritual progress. - Therefore biblical Christianity doesn’t fit.
To establish this new paradigm, the old biblical “lens” must
be altered or replaced with a new feminist lens. The ReImagining Conference, like our changing schools, used
guided imagery and pagan rituals to accomplish the shift.
Those new experiences—whether imagined or acted out—
desensitized participants to biblical taboos and made
paganism seem as normal as Christianity. It also helped
them “discover” and define their own truth.
Presbyterians for Faith, Family and Ministry Page 5
Kathleen Fischer summarizes the process in her book,
Women at the Well:
Attentiveness to a person’s experience is, of course,
central. . . . What a feminist perspective adds to this
emphasis is belief in the authority of women’s
experience, confidence that we are engaged in a new
encounter with the divine through that experience, and
the conviction that it is a norm for the truthfulness of the
tradition.15
In other words, a woman’s experience, not God’s own
revelation, determines the truthfulness of the new beliefs.
If something feels good, sounds loving, and seems
empowering, it must be right. Few seekers heed the
warning in Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all
things. . . . Who can know it?”
“We can!” say feminist leaders. Though most of the women
at the Re-Imagining conference belonged to mainline
churches, they had little resistance to the kinds of occult
suggestions that beckoned them. Told to ignore the “inner
voice” of their Bible-trained conscience, they embraced
new “truths” designed to confirm feminist visions.
BASIS FOR FAITH IN THE:
CHRISTIAN
PARADIGM
FEMINIST PARADIGM
- The Bible 1. Imagination (or
experience) - Spirit-given insights
into truth - Experience (or
imagination - Experiences that
affirm Scriptures - Preferred Bible verses
that affirm experience
Sex and Feminist Spirituality
The new truths came with built-in values made to sound
and feel good. Who wouldn’t want love, peace, justice and
unity? But in today’s climate of politically correct
tolerance, the loftiest values often fade in the light of
earthier wants such as clothes, sex, fame, and power.
It’s easy to hide human lusts behind noble dreams and
earth-centered spirituality. That’s what psychotherapist
Deena Metzger did in her article, “Re-Vamping the World:
On the Return of the Holy Prostitute:”
Once upon a time, in Sumeria, in Mesopotamia, in
Egypt, in Greece, there were no whorehouses, no
brothels. . . . There were instead the Temples of the
Sacred Prostitutes. In these temples, men were cleansed,
not sullied, morality was restored, not desecrated,
sexuality was not perverted, but divine.
The original whore was a priestess, the conduit to the
Divine, the one through whose body one entered the
sacred arena and was restored. . . .
It is no wonder that . . . the prophets of Jehovah all
condemned the Holy Prostitute and the worship of
Asherah, Astarte, Anath and the other goddesses. Until
the time of these priests the women were the one
doorway to God.
Do you see the two paradigms? One sees reality through
the filter of biblical truth; the other looks through the lens
of feeling-based paganism.
From Ms. Metzger’s new-paradigm perspective, the sex
rites of ancient Middle Eastern paganism sound great. To
the Old Testament prophets, they looked bad. Ms. Metzger
needed a story that would tell her side, so she used her
imagination. It filtered out facts that clashed with her vision
and embellished those that fit. She understood the process
well:
Whatever rites we imagine took place . . . [depends on]
whether we elevate them as do neopagans or condemn
them as do Judeo-Christians.
Today, some link the ancient prostitutes to “orgies and
debauchery.” Others link them to cleansing and divinity.
Most choose something in between.
Some of Ms. Metzger’s feminist sisters would probably
disagree that the ancient practice of “sacred” and
compulsory prostitution is good for the soul, but that
doesn’t matter. Women don’t have to agree. Today, each
woman may claim the right to stand unchallenged on her
own truth and values, and Metzger’s “truth” sounds good to
those who prefer to cloak sex with spirituality.
Janie Spahr, co-founder of CLOUT (Christian Lesbians Out
Together), links sex to sacredness. “Sexuality and
spirituality have come together, and Church, we’re going to
teach you!”16 she announced at the Re-Imagining
conference. Her theology, she explained, is first of all
informed by “making love with Coni,” her lesbian lover.
Was she implying, as modern pagans do, that sex is a
channel for spiritual energy?
“Sexuality is a sacrament,” writes Starhawk, a Wiccan
author. “Religion is a matter of relinking, with the divine
within and with her outer manifestation in all of the human
and natural world.”17
“In a sacred universe,” continued Ms. Metzger, “the
prostitute is a holy woman, a priestess. In a secular
universe, the prostitute is a whore. . . . The question is: how
do we relate to this today, as women, as feminists? Is there
a way we can resanctify society, become the priestesses
again, put ourselves in the service of the gods and Eros? As
we re-vision, can we re-vamp as well?”
The answer is a resounding “yes.” People have already revisioned sex. The “vamping” process is well under way.
Just look at television and newspaper ads. Our Sunday
morning papers as well as contemporary women’s
magazines parade the same titillating pictures once hidden
in private pin-up calendars. That the feminist movement
Page 6 Theology Matters • Sep/Oct 1997
flows in the same direction as other pagan blends makes it
all the more acceptable. Anything goes—except biblical
intolerance—the refusal to accept what God forbids.
Unholy Tolerance
Life has changed at St. Olaf College since I was a student
there. Years ago, Minnesota’s venerable “college on the
hill” seemed the ultimate in both Christian and Lutheran
education. But multicultural education has replaced biblical
integrity, and a new global emphasis has opened the door to
professors who promote Hindu and other “mind-body”
beliefs instead of biblical truth.18 The chapel, once a sacred
sanctuary for worshipping God, has become a moral
battleground.
One spring morning in 1989, English teacher Rebecca Mark
gave the chapel talk. She first introduced the point of her
message:
To speak the words, ‘I am gay. I am proud to be gay,’ at
this place where silence has reigned too long, is not
enough. I am not alone. . . . I am called upon to be the
voice of many who have been silent. . . .
As a gay woman I speak through the earth. The word
gay comes from the goddess Gaia, the Greek earth
mother goddess. I speak not as a sinner, but as the
Mojave shaman. . . . I speak from the voice of thousands
of gay spirit leaders, healers and teachers in Indian
culture. . . . I speak as . . . those who have known death
and rebirth. And I too mourn. . . .
Ms. Mark mourned the cruel slurs and spiteful rejection
suffered by gay students, and she was right to do so. God
calls us to love, not hate those who miss the mark. His love
reaches out to all who hurt, including those who yield their
bodies to promiscuous lifestyles, whether homosexual or
heterosexual. But her call reached far beyond a
condemnation of cruelty. It sent a vision of multicultural
solidarity that demands a radical change in the very heart of
Christianity. It summoned God’s people to not only
approve promiscuous and destructive lifestyles,19 but also
embrace the pagan spirituality that sacrilizes sex.
She ended her talk with a sensual poem by an American
Indian women who blended lesbian love with a
spiritualized earth mother. Then she invited the students
and faculty—all who “can wear the pink triangle proudly”
—to come forward as a “sign of community and
liberation.” Singing “We are gay and straight together,”
they streamed to the front of the church to claim the badge
of their new identity.
The enthusiastic response was no surprise, for our today’s
culture prefers tolerance to truth. So did ancient Israel.
“Why do you tolerate wrong?”20 God asked the people He
loved, knowing that their presumptuous tolerance would
lead to violence and destruction. They didn’t listen. Neither
does our culture today. (Look up tolerance in your Bible
concordance and see what God says about it.) Instead, we
excuse what He calls sin and mock the peace He longs to
give. The results are devastating.
Read what He says about sex outside marriage.
Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is
outside the body, but he who commits sexual
immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not
know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit
who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are
not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore
glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are
God’s. (1 Corinthians 6:18-20)
The Nature of Temptation
God shows us that sexual sins are especially damaging to us
both physically and spiritually. Yet, neopagans tout the
healing and cleansing effects of “sacred” promiscuity.
Interesting twist, isn’t it?
Those who tolerate sin become blind to its danger. Women
cannot maintain utopian illusions unless they hide opposing
truths. They can’t trust their sacred self without
rationalizing away its unholy bent. So they shift God’s
label for sin away from the things they want and attach it to
the things they despise: Promiscuity? That comes from loss
of self-esteem caused by the guilt feelings stirred up by
Christians who criticize my lifestyle. Anger? Try the same
reasoning.
Do you see how easy it is to be “good” if you use the
“right” reasoning? Just re-imagine the old values. Base
your beliefs on your momentary feelings, not on God’s
time-tested Word. Look at the difference a paradigm shift
makes.
SIN IS . . .
BIBLICAL PARADIGM FEMINIST PARADIGM
separation from God separation from nature
rebelling against God ignoring the god(dess) in
self
self-centeredness not loving self first or
enough
pride lack of pride
lack of self-discipline limiting self-fulfillment
disobeying God submitting to a patriarchal
god
tolerating sin not tolerating sin
Tolerating sin destroys shame. Some years ago, I watched
the pastor’s wife in a Presbyterian (USA) church teach a
Sunday school class called “Women at the Well.” She first
“centered” the class with a chant by medieval mystic
Hildegaard of Bingen whose pantheistic images sounded
more Buddhist than Christian. Then she read a quote by
Thomas Merton, the Catholic mystic who embraced
Tibetan Buddhism. Finally she gave us a two-page handout
from a book called Soul Friend: An Invitation to Spiritual
Direction.21 It told me that today’s mysticism, which
Presbyterians for Faith, Family and Ministry Page 7
blends acceptance of sin with a permissive feminine God,
isn’t all that new:
In the fourteenth century in Europe there was a great
flowering of mysticism, and out of this period came
some of the greatest spiritual guides of all time whose
writings are highly relevant today. . . .
Julian of Norwich. . . . claims that ‘God showed me that
sin need be no shame to man but can even be
worthwhile.’ She seems to mean by this that sins are
disguised virtues, for ‘in heaven what sin typifies is
turned into a thing of honour.’22
. . . In Julian’s theology, we find the fullest expression
of the concept of the femininity of God. ‘God is as
really our Mother as he is Father,’ she says. ‘Our
precious Mother Jesus brings us to supernatural birth,
nourishes and cherishes us by dying for us.’23
It’s true that our sins show us our need for Christ’s
redemption, but they are not “disguised virtues.” They
don’t typify something of honor, nor can they be softened
by putting a feminine face on God. We can live without
shame only because God has forgiven us, not because sin
has lost its sting. If I condone my own sins, I will neither
come to the cross nor appreciate God’s wonderful mercy.
Nor would I fight the seductive pull of Satan’s temptations
—especially those that look almost too good to resist.
Satan can only pervert God’s good. Our Father invented
delightful food, human affection, sexual pleasure, satisfying
work, spiritual insights . . . Everything good came from
Him. Satan can only distort and imitate God’s precious
gifts, or tempt us to grasp too much or too little, or take it at
the wrong time, or in the wrong place. You know the
results: pain, confusion, anger, addiction, broken
relationships, decaying culture and much more (see the rest
in Galatians 5:19-25).
The things God labels as sinful lust, the world now sees as
normal behavior or psychological addiction or obsession for
which a person is not responsible. 24 Decades of sex
education promoting promiscuity and perversion in our
schools have accomplished just what feminist leaders
demanded: a cultural acceptance of their own radical
values. Listen to the philosophy behind the sex education
promoted by SIECUS (Sex Information and Education
Council of the United States):
The purpose of sex education is not . . . to control and
suppress sex expression, as in the past. . . .The
individual must be given sufficient understanding to
incorporate sex most fruitfully and most responsibly
into his present and future life.25
SIECUS has been working with Planned Parenthood to
bring social change. The behavior inspired by their
irresponsible agenda has brought devastating results.
Consider these statistics:
Every 24 hours in this nation more than 12,000
teenagers contract a sexually transmitted disease. Thirty
percent of all STD’s contracted are incurable.26 Each
year 1.3 million new cases of gonorrhea are reported27
One million teenage girls, nearly one in 10, become
pregnant each year.28 About one and a half million
unborn babies are aborted each year.
“Current sex education programs are designed to destroy
the normal embarrassment and modesty of children,” writes
Stanley Monteith, M.D., author of AIDS: the Unnecessary
Epidemic, in his informative newsletter, “yet it is that
modesty that has traditionally been a barrier to early sexual
experimentation and promiscuity.”29
The root problem isn’t homosexuality or promiscuity or
even paganism. It is the loss of truth as our moral standard.
When school teachers blur the line between right and
wrong, why should students say “no” to temptation? Why
not try all the “new” sensations that beckon? Young people
do—and face cravings they can’t control. Unlike biblical
love, lust will not wait; and obsessive lust has a way of
displacing God’s kind and patient love.
Bondage can follow any repeated sin. “Therefore do not let
sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its
lusts,”30 warns Paul. But many feminist who claim control
over their bodies have already yielded that control to a
stronger force.
It doesn’t take long to see results. We have become a
society obsessed with sex, food, looks, shopping, drugs,
gambling, and coddling our feelings. But we feel no shame,
because we dare not name sin. As a schoolgirl said when
her 15-year-old classmate stabbed another student in the
back. “What’s the big deal? People die all the time. So
what?”31
From Tolerance to Truth
Any sin is a big deal. Even the smallest ones will separate
us from God if we don’t follow His way back to peace.
Neopagans may deny sin’s power, Buddhism may offer
noble alternatives, and the New Age movement may inspire
a massive leap in consciousness, but they all miss the point.
Humanity can never evolve beyond its need for the cross.
The root problem is as old as history: rebellion against God.
Human nature doesn’t change, that’s why history keeps
repeating itself. In Old Testament days, it didn’t take more
than a generation for Israel to shift its loyalties from the
Shepherd who protected the people to “other gods” who
destroyed them. As faithful Samuel told Saul, the first king
of ancient Israel,
. . . rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,
And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
He also has rejected you from being king.
(1 Samuel 15:23)
Page 8 Theology Matters • Sep/Oct 1997
Saul had followed his feelings rather than truth, therefore
God could no longer use him as a leader. Soon an unholy,
“distressing spirit” began to torment him, driving him to
murderous fury. Only the sweet music played by the
shepherd-boy David could soothe his troubled mind.
Having rejected God’s gentle guidance, Saul faced the
terrors of a demonic substitute.
Romans 1:18-32 shows what happens when we ignore
God’s protective boundaries and “suppress the truth in
unrighteousness.” First, when people hide the truth, they
are left without a standard or reference point. Now they
have no way of knowing whether they are taking the right
or the wrong way. They become “unrighteous”—they don’t
do right—and they despise the standard that proves them
wrong. All the more, they mock God’s truth and vilify His
way. Look what happens next:
- “they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but
became futile in their thoughts. . . . ” (v. 21) - “their foolish hearts were darkened.” (v. 21)
- “Professing to be wise, they became fools. . . . ” (v. 22)
- They “changed the glory of the incorruptible God into
an image made like corruptible man—and birds and
four-footed animals and creeping things.” (v.23)
The last point was the purpose of the Re-Imagining
conference. The leaders tried to change the eternal God into
mental images of created beings that decay and die. The
result is a fixation on corruptible things—including self—
that decay and die, followed by an endless stream of
disappointment and grief.
The downward progression doesn’t stop here. Three more
devastating consequences follow, each starting with the
words:”God gave them up (or over) to. . . . ” indicating that
God pulled back His needed resources and left them—both
individually and collectively—to face their capricious
human nature:
- Therefore GOD ALSO GAVE THEM UP to
uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their
bodies among themselves. . . . (Romans 1:24-25) - GOD GAVE THEM UP to vile passions. For even their
women exchanged the natural use for what is against
nature. Likewise also the men . . . burned in their lust for
one another, men with men committing what is shameful,
and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which
was due. (Romans 1:26-27) - GOD GAVE THEM OVER to a depraved mind, to do
what ought not to be done. They have become filled with
every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. . . .
They disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless,
heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous
decree that those who do such things deserve death, they
not only continue to do these very things but also approve
of those who practice them. (Romans 1:28-32)
All kinds of personal struggles, obsessions, addictions, and
misery can be explained simply by understanding what
happens when people turn from God to the seductions of
popular paganism. Unlike God who loves us, Satan loves
no one, nor does he hesitate to inspire and energize the
worst in human nature.
When people reject God, He “gives them over” to who they
really are. Left to their own resources and Satan’s schemes,
they face the driving force of their own desires. The more
they feed their wants, the more cravings increase.
Following that insatiable nature, they violate the natural
order established by God. Deep inside, they know they are
“unclean,” but in their struggle to accept themselves, they
blame others and run further away from the only source of
lasting help.
There is no freedom for those who follow the flesh and
ignore God’s truth. Those who have struggled with
addictions to alcohol, to drugs, to food or even shopping
can testify to our human resistance to doing right. No one
described that struggle better than Paul. “What I am doing,
I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not
practice; but what I hate, that I do. . . . ” (Romans 7:15)
Everything changed when Paul surrender His life to Jesus
Christ and joined his inadequate will to God’s perfect will.
His desire became Paul’s desire, and God’s strength
became Paul’s strength. Now he could exult with all God’s
followers who have discovered the freedom of the cross,
the wonders of God’s love, and the victory of the
exchanged life:
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who
live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live
in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved
me and gave Himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
- Naomi R. Goldenberg, Changing of the Gods: Feminism & the End of
Traditional Religions (Boston: Beacon Press, 1979), 3. - Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, “Every witch way to the Goddess,” The
Sunday Telegraph, October 17, 1993. - Alla Bozarth-Campbell, Womanpriest: A Personal Odyssey (North
Carolina State Press, 1978), back cover. - Nancy Smith and Donna Maxfield, “Spiritual Quest in Beijing,” Good
News (November/December 1995); 34. - Re-Imagining Conference Tape 12-1, Side B.
- Mark Tooley, “Great Goddess Almighty,” Heterodoxy (October 1995);
6. - In The Aquarian Conspiracy, New Age leader Marilyn Ferguson wrote:
“Of the Aquarian Conspirators surveyed, more were involved in
education than in any other single category of work. They were teachers,
administrators, policymakers, educational psychologists. . . .” (page 280)
My own observations confirm Ms. Ferguson’s assertion. Since I wrote
Under the Spell of Mother Earth, I have received reports from parents
across the country documenting the use of Native American or Wiccan
rituals by enthusiastic female teachers as part of environmental, global,
or multicultural education. - Mary Hunt is co-director of WATER (Women’s Alliance for Theology,
Ethics and Ritual) in Silver Springs, MD. “Mary Hunt: Goddess Equals
diversity, Pluralism,” Religious News Service, July 16, 1993. - A Star is Born (Producer: Barbra Streisand), Warner Brothers, 1976.
- Mary Daly, Beyond God the Father (Boston: Beacon Press, 1973),
xxv. - Ibid. 59.
- Katherine Kersten, “God in Your Mirror?” The Lutheran Commentator
(May/June 1994); 1.
Presbyterians for Faith, Family and Ministry Page 9 - All funders were listed in the Re-Imagining program booklet, p 66.
The largest single contributor was the Presbyterian Church (USA) which
gave $66,000 from their Bicentennial Fund. An additional $20,000
covered staff expenses to attend and scholarships for Presbyterians.
Other contributors included the ELCA (Lutheran), Baptists, and United
Methodist. - Ibid., Tape 5-1, Side A.
- Kathleen Fischer, Women at the Well (New York: Paulist Press, 1988),
- The words deleted in the first sentence were:”to any spiritual
direction context.” You can check the meaning in the glossary. - Re-Imagining Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 4-7,
1993. - Starhawk, The Spiral Dance (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1979), 23.
- Among the books authored by St. Olaf College faculty and endorsed
and reviewed on page 5 in St.Olaf (November/December 1994), were
The Limits of Scripture: Vivekananda’s Reinterpretation of the Vedas by
Anantanand Rambachan, a religion faculty member, and Consciousness
and the Mind of God by Charles Taliaferro, which offers “a holistic
understanding of the dualist person-body relationship.” Rambachan
leads a weekly Hindu fellowship for Hindu students and others
interested in Eastern spirituality. - Romans 1:32.
- Habakkuk 1:3. See also Habakkuk 1:13; Revelation 2:2, 2:20 (NIV)
- Cited by class “hand-out” from Richard J. Foster, Renovare:
Devotional Readings (Vol. 1, no. 43, 1991), no page number shown. - Kenneth Leech, Soul Friend: An Invitation to Spiritual Direction (San
Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1992), 146. Leech cites Julian’s
Revelations of Divine Love, 35, 37-39. These pages don’t match the
translations I have examined. The closest translation I could find was
Julian of Norwich: Showings (New York: Paulist Press, 1978) translated
by Edmund Colledge, page 154: “God also showed me that sin is no
shame, but honour to man. . . . It is to them no shame that they have
sinned—shame is not more in the bliss of heaven—for there the tokens
of sin are turned into honours.” These words are taken out of context;
they do not reflect Julian’s overall view of sin. However they do show
how certain passages are being used to validate the feminist concept of
sin. - Ibid., 147. Leech cites pages 59-61 in Divine Revelations, but again,
these page numbers do not match the translations I found. Instead, I
would like to cite a few similar quotes from Julian of Norwich:
Showings (detailed above): “As truly as God is our Father, so truly is
God our Mother, and he revealed that in everything, and especially in
these sweet words where he says, ‘I am he . . .the power and goodness of
fatherhood; I am he, the wisdom and the lovingkindness of motherhood.
. . I am he, the Trinity; I am he, the unity; I am he, the great supreme
goodness of every kind of thing. . . . As truly as God is our Father, so
truly is God our Mother. Our Father wills, our Mother works, our good
Lord the Holy Spirit confirms.” (pages 295-6) Julian also wrote, “The
second person of the Trinity is our Mother in nature. . . in whom we are
founded and rooted, and he is our Mother of mercy in taking our
sensuality. . . . So our Mother works in mercy on all his beloved children
who are docile and obedient to him.” (page 294)”So our Lady is our
mother, in whom we are all enclosed and born of her in Christ, for she
who is mother of our saviour is mother of all who are saved in our
saviour; and our saviour is our true Mother, in whom we are endlessly
born and out of whom we shall never come.” (p. 292) - Romans 6:11-23.
- Lester Kirkendall, in his article included in Sexuality And Man, a
collection of articles written and compiled by SIECUS board members. - Haven Bradford Gow,”Consequences of Sexual Revolution,” Christian
News, July 3, 1995. - Ibid. (Haven)
- Associated Press,”Experts Say New Generation Is in Trouble
Already,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 9, 1990. - Stanley K. Monteith, “Anticipated Worldwide Death Toll: 1 Billion
People,” HIV-Watch (Vol. II, No. 1); 7. - Romans 6:12.
- William K. Kilpatrick, “Turning Out Moral Illiterates,” Los Angeles
Times, July 20, 1993.