a Vigyázó 2009 / 5. száma letölthető innen
VIGYÁZÓ 2009 / 5.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Friday, September 4, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
CALVIN JEAN - 7 MYTHS
Faith
Seven myths about John Calvin
AFP/Getty Images
The 500th anniversary of the theologian's birth is a good time to set the record straight
By Peter Wyatt
This year in Geneva they are making special chocolates, brewing a new beer and venting a fresh wine. The reason: the 500th anniversary of the birth of their most famous adopted citizen, John Calvin. John Calvin is important to us in the United Church, too. He is one of our great spiritual forebears, a theologian who spawned an international movement in 16th-century Europe that laid the foundation for two of the churches — Presbyterian and Congregationalist — that evolved into The United Church of Canada in the 20th century.
But wait — wasn’t Calvin also the founder of a repressive form of Christianity?
True, with the bit in his teeth, Calvin was capable of intransigence and vindictiveness. But this is nowhere near the whole story. Beyond the distorting stereotypes, half-truths and just plain ignorance that fuel the image of a theocratic despot, Calvin waits to be discovered anew. This anniversary year is an apt occasion to do it.
Let’s examine some myths about the great reformer.
Myth: Calvin ruled Geneva as a theocracy.
In 1536, Calvin arrived in Geneva as a refugee from France after breaking with the Roman Catholic Church. Like other French refugees, he was always viewed as an outsider by establishment Genevans. Though Calvin possessed great influence through daily lecturing and weekly preaching, the only public office he ever held in Geneva was that of chief pastor. After serving for only two years in that role, he was dismissed by the state council, returning at its invitation in 1541. They could neither live with him nor without him.
The longer Calvin stayed in Geneva, the more his influence grew. He was a celebrity preacher whom travellers went out of their way to hear. His direct denunciations of the unethical behaviour of the good burghers and magistrates of Geneva sometimes resulted in fights breaking out on the church steps. His published writings, including the multi-edition Institutes of the Christian Religion and commentaries on most of the Bible’s books, earned him an international reputation. Young church leaders fleeing Catholic persecution came from all over Europe to study with him, and when they returned home, took his teachings with them.
Yet throughout most of his time in Geneva, political control of the city was in the hands of those opposed and even hostile to their chief minister. At his own request, Calvin was buried in an unmarked grave after he died in 1564.
Myth: Calvin believed goodness was alien to human nature.
Calvin certainly believed that sin profoundly affects all humans. “Total depravity” is the phrase that comes to mind. However, what he meant is that there is no aspect of human nature unaffected by sin. Medieval theologians usually taught that the tinder of sin is in our bodies and that the mind can rise above our carnal appetites. Calvin rejected this body-mind dualism, insisting that the human mental and imaginative faculties are as susceptible to sin as the body. The mind, he said, is a “factory of idols.”
Calvin interpreted Genesis 3 to mean that sin enters the world through human unfaithfulness to God. This unfaithfulness and falling away from God is first evident in human ingratitude for God’s gift of creation. As the eminent American theologian Brian Gerrish has observed, “Calvin’s disgust at human ingratitude, not disgust with humanity, lies behind his rhetoric of sin and depravity.”
Myth: Calvin was an unforgiving disciplinarian.
Calvin and his ministerial colleagues met weekly with selected magistrates in the consistory, a forerunner of the church Session, to deal with problems and offences related to moral life. The consistory minutes record interviews and actions dealing with matters ranging from domestic quarrels to continuing Catholic devotional practices to public drunkenness. What may come as a surprise is that they reveal consistory members to be more concerned with achieving understanding and healing than simply imposing punishments.
Myth: Calvin was obsessed with personal morality.
Calvin’s insistence on living the Christian life was directed at more than individual spiritual regeneration. He believed that the reign of God proclaimed by Jesus includes social well-being — Christ came as the transformer of both individuals and cultures. Calvin was an untiring advocate for the refugees and poor in Geneva throughout his ministry, teaching that social solidarity is an imperative of the image of God in humanity. We are bound together by a “sacred cord” and are responsible to one another for mutual aid and assistance.
Calvin saw not only the social implications of God’s redemptive work in Christ, but also the cosmic. He understood that the whole of creation was “bound for glory” and that even inanimate creatures would be perfected in God’s culminating work. Indeed, Calvin viewed the creation as a “dazzling theatre of God’s glory” and as “the garment in which God clothes himself.” While it is in Christ’s passion that we see God’s heart, it is in the works of creation that we see “God’s hands and feet.” We could use more of his ecstatic reverence for creation today.
Myth: Calvin was a champion of self-denial.
Calvin did have a great deal to say about self-denial, cross-bearing and “mortification of the flesh.” Yet this reputedly negative and narrow viewpoint had as its goal more than straitening discipline for the believer. It actually was aimed at generating support for the disadvantaged. In promoting an ethic of self-denial, Calvin was calling the relatively affluent to give up some of their substance for the benefit of others. Disturbed by the enduring co-existence of wealth and poverty, Calvin believed that the unequal distribution of goods in the world should provoke believers, especially well-off ones, to generosity toward the poor. The poor, he believed, are “God’s proxies,” sent “as agents to gather in what is God’s.”
Myth: Calvin was the spiritual father of capitalism.
Calvin was the first European theologian to defend the lending of money at interest and so incurred the Catholic criticism that “usury is the brat of heresy.” However, money was already being lent throughout Europe at rates of 12 and 14 percent by the Christian kings of England and France. (In Geneva, the rate was capped at five percent.) Living in the time of transition between the middle and modern ages, Calvin understood that a principled realism needed to replace an unsustainable idealism about “filthy lucre.” In the turbulent economy of 16th-century Europe, he discerned that businesses need credit to get started and thus provide employment for workers — among them Geneva’s many refugees. Calvin defended only those interest-bearing loans that would benefit lender and borrower alike.
Myth: Calvin was the source of a debilitating work ethic.
It is actually the market that defines the “work ethic,” by setting a value on one’s worth and achievements. Calvin did teach that prosperity achieved through honest effort can be a secondary sign of “election” — of being chosen by God for salvation. However, he never viewed human achievement and prosperity as the source of meaning in one’s life or as the cause of one’s salvation. Rather, we are saved by the gift of God’s mercy. The only work that “earns” salvation is work accomplished on our behalf by the ministry and self-offering of Jesus Christ. Christ is “the bright mirror of election,” and those in right relationship with him can be confident about their worth and destiny. If Christians do work hard and enjoy some achievement, especially in service of God’s reign, they do so in joyful freedom and in grateful response to God’s unfailing grace.
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ARTICLE FROM THE OBSERVER OF THE UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
http://www.canada.com/Global+documentary+looks+Christian+Right/1625392/story.html
Global documentary looks at Christian Right
By Larissa Liepins, Canwest News ServiceMay 23, 2009
With their showy megachurch services and socially conservative beliefs, American evangelicals are a large and visible part of the Christian Right, making up about a quarter of the U.S. population.
The Protestant Christian movement has never gripped Canadians with the same force, but as a Global TVdocumentary airing Monday reveals, evangelical Christian groups are emerging here in surprising places --and even more surprising numbers.
As traditional church attendance in Canada dwindles -- since the 1970s, the Presbyterian Church has lost 36 per cent of its members, the United Church, 20% -- the evangelical movement is experiencing double-digit growth, with 10 to 15% of Canadians calling themselves evangelical Christians.
Narrated by Global National anchor Kevin Newman, who also co-wrote and co-produced the documentary, Hip 2B Holy ventures inside Canada's evangelical underground to reveal its growing influence, supporters, and political aspirations.
"The growth and power of the evangelical movement is a fascinating part of Canada's current fabric," says Newman.
"But the mutual mistrust between journalists and followers has prevented a judgment-free examination.
"With our current prime minister among those who believe in this new version of church, we need to examine the evangelic movement for what it is, not what secular Canada assumes it is." (Non-Quebecers who attend regularly at evangelical churches are four times more likely to vote for the Conservatives than for Liberals or the NDP, according to an exit poll conducted by Ipsos-Reid after the January 2006 Canadian election.)
Aside from re-igniting discussions of morality and belief among predominantly young Canadians, the movement uses aggressive online proselytizing, dropping pop-culture references and making a concerted effort to be as accessible as possible.
For instance, the documentary introduces viewers to the Connexus Community Church, a church in Barrie, Ont., that holds its services in a local multiplex movie theatre, and uses the Internet and Video on Demand to reach its congregation.
The documentary also follows the stories of young people associated with the evangelical movement, including Nate, a charismatic youth pastor in Toronto who replaces hymns with hip hop, and Aaron, an atheist whose devout girlfriend hopes he will embrace her faith.
Conspicuously absent in the documentary, which was shot over a full year, is footage from what could be considered Canada's Bible Belt.
"There's nobody from western, rural Canada in this documentary,"Newman says. "This is now urban, suburban, small-town. It's everywhere -- and that's new."
Revealed: Hip 2B Holy airs nationally on Global on Monday, May 25 at 10 p.m.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
By Larissa Liepins, Canwest News ServiceMay 23, 2009
With their showy megachurch services and socially conservative beliefs, American evangelicals are a large and visible part of the Christian Right, making up about a quarter of the U.S. population.
The Protestant Christian movement has never gripped Canadians with the same force, but as a Global TVdocumentary airing Monday reveals, evangelical Christian groups are emerging here in surprising places --and even more surprising numbers.
As traditional church attendance in Canada dwindles -- since the 1970s, the Presbyterian Church has lost 36 per cent of its members, the United Church, 20% -- the evangelical movement is experiencing double-digit growth, with 10 to 15% of Canadians calling themselves evangelical Christians.
Narrated by Global National anchor Kevin Newman, who also co-wrote and co-produced the documentary, Hip 2B Holy ventures inside Canada's evangelical underground to reveal its growing influence, supporters, and political aspirations.
"The growth and power of the evangelical movement is a fascinating part of Canada's current fabric," says Newman.
"But the mutual mistrust between journalists and followers has prevented a judgment-free examination.
"With our current prime minister among those who believe in this new version of church, we need to examine the evangelic movement for what it is, not what secular Canada assumes it is." (Non-Quebecers who attend regularly at evangelical churches are four times more likely to vote for the Conservatives than for Liberals or the NDP, according to an exit poll conducted by Ipsos-Reid after the January 2006 Canadian election.)
Aside from re-igniting discussions of morality and belief among predominantly young Canadians, the movement uses aggressive online proselytizing, dropping pop-culture references and making a concerted effort to be as accessible as possible.
For instance, the documentary introduces viewers to the Connexus Community Church, a church in Barrie, Ont., that holds its services in a local multiplex movie theatre, and uses the Internet and Video on Demand to reach its congregation.
The documentary also follows the stories of young people associated with the evangelical movement, including Nate, a charismatic youth pastor in Toronto who replaces hymns with hip hop, and Aaron, an atheist whose devout girlfriend hopes he will embrace her faith.
Conspicuously absent in the documentary, which was shot over a full year, is footage from what could be considered Canada's Bible Belt.
"There's nobody from western, rural Canada in this documentary,"Newman says. "This is now urban, suburban, small-town. It's everywhere -- and that's new."
Revealed: Hip 2B Holy airs nationally on Global on Monday, May 25 at 10 p.m.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
Friday, May 15, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
NEW AGISM from Native View
“NEW AGE” PSYCHOBABBLE BEING SWALLOWED BY A FEW
www.mohawknationnews.com
MNN. May 3, 2009. A near death experience can cause tremendous fear and trauma and could overrule a person’s will. Such pressure is part of a colonial strategy to break us down. Most resist. A few give in.
The NAFTA Super Highway from Mexico is coming through the Mohawk community of Akwesasne. In June 2009 non-native guards, who have shown hatred for Mohawks, are being handed guns to intimidate and try to exercise absolute power over us in the middle of our community. RCMP, OPP, military and para military agencies are building huge facilities nearby. Cornwall Ontario will be a center for police activity. Nullifying resistance by Mohawks has been a longtime target.
Over the last couple of decades a new age ideology has beset Onowaregeh, Great Turtle Island. This new age movement is a tool to bring in one world religion for expediency’s sake. It’s a mishmash of Hinduism, Buddhism, Ghandi, Kabbalah, Scientology, crystals, reincarnation, Raelians, channeling, fortune tellers, seers and whatever else can be thrown into the pot. It’s sprinkled with Indigenous philosophy to give it credibility. This new age religion with feathers, beads and buckskins is being made palpable to Indigenous and others.
This false ideology is geared to direct the masses into the new age of one world government, one religion and one economic system to be run by war lords and their criminal handlers. People have to be indoctrinated to become obedient and to subdue their reasoning faculties.
The Kaianerehkowa, the Great Law of the Indigenous people is opposite to the new age doctrine. Our philosophy is based on a powerful relationship with the natural world. It strengthens our will, which is the watch dog of humanity. Nothing is supposed to enter that can harm, mislead or control us. This is the basis of democracy and can head off fascism. True democracy is equality and everyone has a voice.
To disarm the will, drugs, alcohol, hypnosis, incantations, spells, rituals, seances and trances help nullify the ability to say “no”. Eventually we can lose charge over our “doorkeeper”, our will, so that another mental process can be inserted inside us. It tells us, “I am your friend, your spirit guide, your master. Follow me and I can make you immortal”. It is disempowering. An undercurrent is the message, “I am strong and I can kill you”.
U.S. President Thomas Jefferson got the Quakers to help Handsome Lake whose will was overrun by alcoholism and visions. He started a revitalization movement based on these principles to mess up the Rotino’shonni:onwe, Iroquois.
Indigenous history and traditions have been cleverly mixed with new age concepts. We are told that other people inhabited Great Turtle Island before us, that some of us are extra terrestrials, that everybody should be vegetarians, that one world government is necessary and that, if we want peace, we shouldn’t be critical.
The Raelians say that our human creators from space brought love and peace through a combination of spirituality, sensuality and science. Scientists from another planet created all life on earth using DNA!! The extra-terrestrials will come back to check on us.
We are being told to forgive no matter how bad it is. They don’t suggest change. The victims become confused and weak so that all political, economic, social and military levers of power controlling society can be overtaken.
During the time of the drug culture, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau brought in new agers to run Indian Affairs in Canada. He had visited eastern mystics for enlightenment. Indigenous organizations were infiltrated. Healers and Elders were trained and sent among us and even among the non-native youth. It died out for a while.
After the 1990 Mohawk Oka crisis Indian Affairs set up the Kumik Lodge to train and certify a new slew of healers. It taught Pan-Indian cleansing, healing circles, sweat lodges and confessions. They went into our communities and jails to learn more about us.
Today new age covens are being formed in some of our communities. Ceremonies and meetings are frequently held. CDs on universal teachings are watched, studied and distributed. Some followers say they can’t move products or travel unless the stars are in the right place. The adherents call themselves “universal” persons, humans of another time or reality. Some have given up all their documents like driver’s licenses, birth certificates, Indian cards, medical cards, membership in their community, nation and confederacy. Psyches are being diverted. Their will has been weakened. We don’t know if they are giving up their properties or bank accounts.
Background: The new age movement ensnares susceptible people that are attracted by false spirituality, becoming “ascended masters” and speaking with “spirit guides”. Critic, Lee Penn, says: “New age is a pot pourri of beliefs and practices that fall outside of all faiths”. [www.leepenn.org/LP-NewAgeIndex]
According to astrology, crystals, weird workshops and psycho babble, the earth will be cleansed of those who refuse to evolve. Traditional morality and families will disappear.
See list of big shots in the movement. At Maurice Strong’s Manitou retreat in Colorado, treatment includes everything being taken away from the follower to suck out the core of their being. Under the guise of meditation and sensory deprivation, they are confined into a small space to strip their identity. A low protein diet is part of this.
Barbara Hubbard says: “Your highest spiritual beings are telling you to access to an inner teacher… that through “initiation” you can transform yourself into an “ascended master”. Once our bodies, minds and souls are drained dry by free sex and trafficking with the spirit world, we ought to chose to die. In fact, it seems unethical and foolish to live on”.
These new age charismatic movements can affect participants in adverse ways. Intensely held religious or quasi-religious beliefs and ideology are imposed on members. They are promised emotional well-being and a sense of direction. They can’t make a free choice to leave the group. They are pressured to recruit new members, break with families and friends and to socialize mainly with the group.
On March 28, 1997, in Rancho Santa Fe, California, thirty-nine young men and women of Heaven’s Gate killed themselves. They believed that their human bodies were physical containers that had to be discarded so that their souls could be transported to a new level of being. Their souls were to meet up with a UFO that was trailing the Hale-Bopp comet passing Earth at that time. In their new plane of existence, they would inhabit new bodies and travel through different galaxies. The charismatic leader was an ex-minister who called himself Bo after Bo-peep who shepherded sheep. He was seen as an omnipotent godlike authority that diminished their anxiety, depression and alienation. Members were recruited personally or through the internet.
The Kaianerehkowa goes back to the beginning of time when we started thinking. We have our own stories about our origins here on Onowaregeh. We should remain with our own principles. This new age has nothing to do with us. We sent away our younger brothers because of their insane behavior and they came back worse than before. Some of us may drift away for a time from what a true human being is. For most of us, our will is our plan for survival. Everything goes back to our connection with the natural world.
Kahentinetha & Karakwine, MNN Mohawk Nation News, www.mohawknationnews.com kahentinetha2@yahoo.com
www.mohawknationnews.com
MNN. May 3, 2009. A near death experience can cause tremendous fear and trauma and could overrule a person’s will. Such pressure is part of a colonial strategy to break us down. Most resist. A few give in.
The NAFTA Super Highway from Mexico is coming through the Mohawk community of Akwesasne. In June 2009 non-native guards, who have shown hatred for Mohawks, are being handed guns to intimidate and try to exercise absolute power over us in the middle of our community. RCMP, OPP, military and para military agencies are building huge facilities nearby. Cornwall Ontario will be a center for police activity. Nullifying resistance by Mohawks has been a longtime target.
Over the last couple of decades a new age ideology has beset Onowaregeh, Great Turtle Island. This new age movement is a tool to bring in one world religion for expediency’s sake. It’s a mishmash of Hinduism, Buddhism, Ghandi, Kabbalah, Scientology, crystals, reincarnation, Raelians, channeling, fortune tellers, seers and whatever else can be thrown into the pot. It’s sprinkled with Indigenous philosophy to give it credibility. This new age religion with feathers, beads and buckskins is being made palpable to Indigenous and others.
This false ideology is geared to direct the masses into the new age of one world government, one religion and one economic system to be run by war lords and their criminal handlers. People have to be indoctrinated to become obedient and to subdue their reasoning faculties.
The Kaianerehkowa, the Great Law of the Indigenous people is opposite to the new age doctrine. Our philosophy is based on a powerful relationship with the natural world. It strengthens our will, which is the watch dog of humanity. Nothing is supposed to enter that can harm, mislead or control us. This is the basis of democracy and can head off fascism. True democracy is equality and everyone has a voice.
To disarm the will, drugs, alcohol, hypnosis, incantations, spells, rituals, seances and trances help nullify the ability to say “no”. Eventually we can lose charge over our “doorkeeper”, our will, so that another mental process can be inserted inside us. It tells us, “I am your friend, your spirit guide, your master. Follow me and I can make you immortal”. It is disempowering. An undercurrent is the message, “I am strong and I can kill you”.
U.S. President Thomas Jefferson got the Quakers to help Handsome Lake whose will was overrun by alcoholism and visions. He started a revitalization movement based on these principles to mess up the Rotino’shonni:onwe, Iroquois.
Indigenous history and traditions have been cleverly mixed with new age concepts. We are told that other people inhabited Great Turtle Island before us, that some of us are extra terrestrials, that everybody should be vegetarians, that one world government is necessary and that, if we want peace, we shouldn’t be critical.
The Raelians say that our human creators from space brought love and peace through a combination of spirituality, sensuality and science. Scientists from another planet created all life on earth using DNA!! The extra-terrestrials will come back to check on us.
We are being told to forgive no matter how bad it is. They don’t suggest change. The victims become confused and weak so that all political, economic, social and military levers of power controlling society can be overtaken.
During the time of the drug culture, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau brought in new agers to run Indian Affairs in Canada. He had visited eastern mystics for enlightenment. Indigenous organizations were infiltrated. Healers and Elders were trained and sent among us and even among the non-native youth. It died out for a while.
After the 1990 Mohawk Oka crisis Indian Affairs set up the Kumik Lodge to train and certify a new slew of healers. It taught Pan-Indian cleansing, healing circles, sweat lodges and confessions. They went into our communities and jails to learn more about us.
Today new age covens are being formed in some of our communities. Ceremonies and meetings are frequently held. CDs on universal teachings are watched, studied and distributed. Some followers say they can’t move products or travel unless the stars are in the right place. The adherents call themselves “universal” persons, humans of another time or reality. Some have given up all their documents like driver’s licenses, birth certificates, Indian cards, medical cards, membership in their community, nation and confederacy. Psyches are being diverted. Their will has been weakened. We don’t know if they are giving up their properties or bank accounts.
Background: The new age movement ensnares susceptible people that are attracted by false spirituality, becoming “ascended masters” and speaking with “spirit guides”. Critic, Lee Penn, says: “New age is a pot pourri of beliefs and practices that fall outside of all faiths”. [www.leepenn.org/LP-NewAgeIndex]
According to astrology, crystals, weird workshops and psycho babble, the earth will be cleansed of those who refuse to evolve. Traditional morality and families will disappear.
See list of big shots in the movement. At Maurice Strong’s Manitou retreat in Colorado, treatment includes everything being taken away from the follower to suck out the core of their being. Under the guise of meditation and sensory deprivation, they are confined into a small space to strip their identity. A low protein diet is part of this.
Barbara Hubbard says: “Your highest spiritual beings are telling you to access to an inner teacher… that through “initiation” you can transform yourself into an “ascended master”. Once our bodies, minds and souls are drained dry by free sex and trafficking with the spirit world, we ought to chose to die. In fact, it seems unethical and foolish to live on”.
These new age charismatic movements can affect participants in adverse ways. Intensely held religious or quasi-religious beliefs and ideology are imposed on members. They are promised emotional well-being and a sense of direction. They can’t make a free choice to leave the group. They are pressured to recruit new members, break with families and friends and to socialize mainly with the group.
On March 28, 1997, in Rancho Santa Fe, California, thirty-nine young men and women of Heaven’s Gate killed themselves. They believed that their human bodies were physical containers that had to be discarded so that their souls could be transported to a new level of being. Their souls were to meet up with a UFO that was trailing the Hale-Bopp comet passing Earth at that time. In their new plane of existence, they would inhabit new bodies and travel through different galaxies. The charismatic leader was an ex-minister who called himself Bo after Bo-peep who shepherded sheep. He was seen as an omnipotent godlike authority that diminished their anxiety, depression and alienation. Members were recruited personally or through the internet.
The Kaianerehkowa goes back to the beginning of time when we started thinking. We have our own stories about our origins here on Onowaregeh. We should remain with our own principles. This new age has nothing to do with us. We sent away our younger brothers because of their insane behavior and they came back worse than before. Some of us may drift away for a time from what a true human being is. For most of us, our will is our plan for survival. Everything goes back to our connection with the natural world.
Kahentinetha & Karakwine, MNN Mohawk Nation News, www.mohawknationnews.com kahentinetha2@yahoo.com
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