Goddess Worship in America “

“‘Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they
are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their Glory for
worthless idols. Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great
horror,’ declares the LORD. ‘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 2:11-13

“And they shall turn away their ears from the
truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

2 Timothy 4:4

The novel
The Shack
portrays God as being a woman. However, Jesus consistently called God,
“Father.” When His disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray, Jesus
taught them to address God as “Our Father which art in Heaven…”
And when God
Almighty became incarnate as a human being, God became a man — not a woman.

The Bible warns us
not to add to Scripture
or take away from it. Yet, today’s so-called “gender neutral Bibles” both
add to new words and notions to Scripture and take away from Scripture. They remove references that
are clearly male, and they add statements that imply a “father/mother” God.
Do the publishers simply ignore Scriptures such as these:

“Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto
them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he
reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.”

(Proverbs 30:5-6)

“For I testify unto every man that heareth the
words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these
things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this
book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this
prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out
of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”

Revelation 22:18-19

In spite of those warnings, many Christians accept the
female “God” of
The Shack. Some pastors are preaching from the book, and some church
study groups are based on it. As a result, many Christians have become used
to thinking of God as being a woman. This is being done primarily through
their imagination rather than their intellect.

Since those images are implanted in the mind and
memory, reading novels and watching movies can change a person’s worldview.
(See “Movie Magic
& Unconscious Learning.”)

How could so many Christians accept The Shack in
spite of its portrayal of God as a woman? One reason is the
prevalence of goddess-related themes in entertainment, the media, and
video games. Images of goddesses permeate our culture. (We even have
“goddess dresses” for sale in department stores.) In addition, some people
literally worship goddesses.

Goddess worship is most apparent among “neo-pagans.” However, it is also common in universities and nursing
schools. It is promoted by the media and is a component of New Age feminism.
It has infiltrated main-line denominational churches, and its influence can
be felt throughout our society.

The “Age of Enlightenment” gave birth to rationalist
materialism. In reaction against this denial of the importance of emotions,
a generation of Romantic poets, novelists, artists, musicians and
philosophers developed. Many of them were involved with drugs, the occult,
Rosicrucianism, or Freemasonry. Following Darwin’s theory of evolution, they
speculated wildly about the evolution of society. Nationalism became a
romantic search for pagan roots, as seen in Wagner’s operas and the fairy
tales researched by the Brothers Grimm. Womanhood was idealized. The myth of
a past utopian matriarchy was developed. Psychologist Carl Jung idealized
the concept of the “anima,” the feminine side of man.

Romanticism even invaded history and archaeology.
Bachoven developed a theory of matriarchy which was openly based on
imagination, and not on searching for hard facts. Feminist scholars followed
Bachoven’s lead. A historic myth was developed in which an ideal,
matriarchal, goddess-worshipping society was destroyed by patriarchal
invaders who brought with them all the ills of modern society.

The scholarship involved in these studies of history
and archaeology is so faulty that Prof. Davis says:

“An important lesson of this book is the ease with
which patent falsehoods may clothe themselves in the garb of scholarship
and masquerade as truth.”[1,p.ix]

Feminist scholars and other academic radicals say that
objective facts and historical accuracy are not even a valid goal.

“A feminist scholar told her audience that it is
indeed ‘ethical’ for an historian to ignore historical evidence in order
to construct a narrative which would prove fruitful in dealing with
contemporary political situations, while still presenting it as
history.”[1,p.360]

“[M]any of today’s academic radicals explicitly
reject the quest for objective truth; they claim that objectivity is not
only impossible to achieve in pure form, but actually illegitimate in
the first place because it expresses a patriarchal, oppressive
mentality. They argue that all human beings see the world in terms of a
subjective ‘perspective’ which is irrevocably shaped by the group to
which the individual belongs: race, sex, or social class. Most
scholarship, therefore, is simply the narcissistic exploration of one’s
own perspective.”[1,p.

Before the revival of goddess worship in the
1950s, American art showed that popular imagination was being prepared for
it. For example, the Statue of Liberty looks like a Greek goddess and is
over three hundred feet high. The inscription presents the statue as
speaking, and she calls herself “Mother of Exiles.”

“I am the Red Cross of Peace. I heal the wounds of
war. I am a refuge from fire, flood and pestilence. The love of little
children is mine. I am the Red Cross of Peace.”

The National Academy of Sciences has several
buildings, one of which is called a Temple of Science.[4]
This NAS building has a Great Hall with a large room with a cathedral
ceiling. It looks like a Christian cathedral, but instead of having art work
related to Christianity, the ceiling is covered with mosaics of Greek gods
and goddesses. There is a series of personifications of various branches of
science showing them in the form of gods and goddesses. In addition, there
are also pictures of some traditional Greek gods and goddesses on the
ceiling, as well as statues of them. The library is dedicated to Diana, the
goddess of wisdom. Its door knobs are engraved with pictures of her.[5]

Modern Wicca was developed in England by Gerald B. Gardner,
who was the first fully public witch of modern times. He was a spiritualist,
a Freemason, and a Rosicrucian, with an extensive background in the occult.
He was a member of the Golden Dawn. Aleister Crowley (a satanist) initiated
Gardner into the fourth degree of the O.T.O. (Ordo
Templi Orientis). Gardner was acquainted with a witch named “old Dorothy
Fordham” and claimed to have been initiated into a coven. He used various
occult texts in developing his rituals, including texts by Aleister Crowley.[1,p.3

Aiden Kelley, a Wiccan trained in biblical criticism,
applied his critical skills to Gardner’s archive. Based on Kelley’s
findings, Philip Davis concludes that:

“First, [Kelly’s] identification of Gardner’s literary
sources leaves little doubt that Gardner’s own witchcraft texts were his
personal creation and not something handed on to him from an ancient
tradition; paradoxically, then, Wicca is not a revival of an old pagan
religion, but a modern paganization of materials which originated within the
Judeo-christian tradition (the Kabbalah)[6] or in direct reaction to it
(Crowley).”[1,p.334]

Therefore, it is difficult to know how much Gardner’s
Wicca resembles ancient witchcraft.

Doreen Valiente was Gardner’s High Priestess. She was
informed enough to spot the passages from Crowley in the rituals, and she
rewrote them so that Crowley’s name wouldn’t discourage potential inquirers.

Initially, the male, horned god and the High Priest
were pre-eminent. By the mid-1960s, the goddess was the supreme deity in
Wicca, and ritual authority was vested in the High Priestess.[1,p.33

Through Wicca, goddess worship has infiltrated
American culture.

“Gardnerian Wicca was the first modern Western
Goddess religion. The appearance of the Goddess in other radical
feminist circles, and then in churches and universities, did not occur
until after the establishment of modern witchcraft as a viable new
religion.”[1,p.341]

“The modern Goddess religion is another
manifestation of the European neopagan counterculture… Partly because
of its alliance with and usefulness to a vocal and visible political
movement, gender feminism, Goddess spirituality seems well on the way to
becoming the most successful of all these neopagan manifestations in the
English-speaking world.”[1,p.3

In November 1993, a Re-imagining Conference was held
in Minneapolis. Most of the 2,000 participants at this ecumenical gathering
were women. They invoked Sophia, the goddess of Wisdom, calling her their
Creator. Prayers and liturgies were addressed to this goddess. One
participant said, “I found god in myself, and I loved her, I loved her
fiercely.” (For information about this conference, see
Chapter 2 of A Twist
of Faith.)

Neopagan and Wiccan themes have become amazingly
prominent within older religious establishments. One reason for this is the
quest for “inclusive” language and the attempt to apply more female imagery
to God. Liturgy reform and revised hymnals have featured feminine imagery
and metaphors for God the Mother.[1,p.24-25,27]

The Unitarian-Universalist church developed a
ten-session workshop on feminism which encourages goddess worship and even
endorses witchcraft. This workshop is called Cakes for the Queen of Heaven.
It has been circulated through the major denominations and adopted for use
in many mainstream churches.[1,p.24-25]
The following quotation from Jeremiah gives God’s perspective on this.

“Do you not see what they are doing in the towns
of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, the
fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes of
bread for the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other
gods to provoke me to anger.” (Jeremiah 7:16-18.)

A Canadian television station ran a five-part series
entitled Return of the Goddess, which introduced many people to goddess
worship. The National Film Board of Canada produced Goddess Remembered,
which became one of their most popular productions ever, being featured by
public broadcasting TV stations in the United States as well as in Canada.
Cakes for the Queen of Heaven and Goddess Remembered have become staples for
study groups in some major denominations.[1,p.

The credibility of goddess worship has been increased
by its acceptance by university professors and its incorporation into
textbooks.[1,p.

“This little-noticed event is actually a striking
development: after the long modern struggle to free higher education from
church control, the doctrines of a new religion are being packaged and
promoted as factual material for use in publicly funded and accredited
institutions of higher education.”[1,p.31]

The broader plans of gender feminism seem to have been
most fully articulated, promoted and implemented among academics. Some
feminists have even demanded that the goddess be given parity with the God
of the Bible in university religion programs. This will impact our entire
society because universities and colleges are training most of our future
leaders, including government, health care, and the clergy.[1,p.3

“Repudiating the quest for objective truth and
arguing that all teaching is therefore indoctrination, radical
professors are increasingly open about using the classroom for
recruitment, turning students into political activists. The campus,
therefore, is a natural place to look for signs of the radical feminist
New Age as it emerges.”[1,p.3

Goddess worship has become strong in the field of
health care, particularly nursing. Health care professionals are actively
promoting New Age practices. For example, “therapeutic touch” (passing one’s
hands above a patient’s body in order to manipulate auras and energy-fields)
has reportedly been taught to thousands of nurses in eighty North American
nursing programs.[1,p.31-33].
Goddess worship has been overtly promoted, as can be seen from the following
quotation from the National League for Nursing, which is an accrediting
agency for nursing schools.

“Women’s wisdom is ageless and timeless, and passes
from generation to generation primarily by oral tradition. Women’s wisdom is
all too often the hidden foundation of patriarchal scholarship throughout
academic, religious, and philosophic literature–without credit to the
origins of the ideas. These origins are grounded in women’s experiences,
female symbolism, and the spiritual roots of the Triple Goddess.”[7]

We need to be informed so that we can help people we
know who have become confused by these things. God may show us practical
things that we can do. Above all, we need to take the following Scripture
seriously, and apply it to our daily lives.

“If my people, who are called by my name, will
humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked
ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will
heal their land.”

2 Chronicles 7:14

For more information, read

ENDNOTES

1. Philip G. Davis, Goddess Unmasked: The Rise of Neopagan
Feminist Spirituality (Dallas, Texas: Spence Publishing Company, 1998).
(chapters 2 through 12)

2. Information obtained by phone from the Public
Information Office of the Statue of Liberty.

3. This poster is in the Valentine Museum in Richmond,
Virginia.

4. The NAS Building, a “Temple of Science.”

5. Years ago, I toured the Great Hall at the National
Academy of Sciences, and I saw everything that I have described in this
article. The ceiling appears to be a mosaic, but actually it was created by
a special painting technique that makes things look like mosaics. You can
see pictures of the ceiling at the following link.


http://www.nasonline.org/site/DocServer/020777.pdf?docID=52101

6. The Kabbalah (which can also be spelled “Cabala”)
is: “A kind or system of occult theosophy or mystical interpretation of the
Scriptures among Jewish rabbis and certain medieval Christians.” (Webster’s
Collegiate Dictionary, 5th edition) See also
The mystical
Kabbalah at
http://www.crossroad.to/Quotes/occult/kabbalah.htm

7. Charlene E. Wheeler and Peggy L. Chinn, Peace and
Power: A Handbook of Feminist Process, 3rd ed. (New York: National League
for Nursing), pp. xi-xii. Quoted in Goddess Unmasked, p. 32.

See also
God’s Warnings for
our Times

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