From the San Francisco "Chronicle" Wednesday, April 25, 1990

Chronicle Poll: Last of Two Parts

Warning of New Age 'Threat'

Traditional churches decry 'glorification of self, not God'

By Don Lattin

Chronicle Religion Writer

 

From the halls of the Vatican to radio stations across the Bible Belt,

Christian leaders are warning their flocks to stay away form forms of

mysticism, occultism and meditation that do not keep Jesus Christ as the

undiluted center of religious contemplation.

Last January, from the podium of the National Religious Broadcasters

convention in Washington, D.C., televangelist Pat Robertson stood before

1,500 leaders of the Christian Right, looked into the 1990s and issued a

dark prophecy.

"There is something coming from the East," said Robertson, lowering his

voice to a whispery warning. "It's a modified version of Hinduism. It's

called the New Age. It's seeping into American businesses, the

classrooms of American, infiltrating into Europe. It's even in the

Soviet Union."

Several months later, from the podium of the Bankers Club atop San

Francisco's Bank of America skyscraper, pollster George Gallup Jr. told

a "Business of God" luncheon that church leaders should be concerned

about the pervasiveness of New Age thinking in this part of the

country." He called it "a serious threat to Christianity."

"It appeals to those who have little religious grounding but are looking

for meaning in their lives," said Gallup, an evangelical Episcopalian

and longtime pulse-taker of the American religious scene. "Its methods

-- such as meditation -- are fine. But its ends are the glorification

of self, not God. Christianity and New Age cannot possibly exist

side-by-side."

According to a Chronicle Poll on changing religious beliefs, however,

Christianity and New Age _do_ exist side-by-side in Northern California.

In fact, they often exist side-by-side in the souls of individual

believers.

Although it is considered heresy by the their church, nearly 3 in 10

Roman Catholics believe in reincarnation, while nearly a third believe

in astrology. Overall, about 25 percent of Bay Area residents who

identify themselves as "Christian" believe in reincarnation -- roughly

the same as the general population.

More than a third of all residents of the nine-county Bay Area practice

some form of yoga or meditation at least weekly, and nearly four in 10

believe they can contact the spirits of the dead.

Northern Californians are just as "religious" as other Americans, the

Chronicle Poll found, but they ar more independent and open-minded about

matters of the spirit. Nearly nine in 10 of those surveyed "believe in

God or some transcendent spiritual force," but only 30 percent "attend

church or any organized spiritual service, seminar or workshop" on a

weekly basis. Forty-two percent of Americans surveyed in a 1988 Gallup

Poll said thy had attended church or synagogue within the previous week.

Almost eight in 10 Bay Area residents say religion or spirituality is an

important part of their lives. Thirty percent say its importance has

increased in the past five years. Only 7 percent say its importance has

declined.

While Bay Area residents are looking for new ways to explore their

spirituality, church officials are tightening the theological reins.

Resurrection and Reincarnation

------------------------------

During Easter week, for example, the National Association of

Evangelicals felt it necessary to issue a press release explaining the

difference between resurrection and reincarnation. The conservative

Christian organization blasted the New Age movement as a "shallow

pop-psychology of self-indulgent affirmations, a synthetic blending of

half-truths from a spirit world it doesn't understand."

Just before Christmas, the Vatican's Sacred Congregation for the

Doctrine of the Fath warned Catholics against practicing certain forms

of yoga, Zen Buddhism and Transcendental Meditation, saying they could

lead to "moral deviations, psychic disturbances and degenerate into a

cult of the body."

Evangelical publishing houses have issued a spate of books in recent

years calling the New Age movement everything from self-centered to

Satanic.

Outmoded, Paternalistic

-----------------------

Meanwhile, leading New Age personalities are becoming more pointed in

their critiques of the Judeo-Christian tradition, which they blast as

outmoded, paternalistic religion that oppresses women and provides

divine justification for ecological doom.

Much of what is now called "New Age" is actually an "archaic revival" of

shamanism, goddess worship and the polytheistic "mystery religions" of

ancient Greece and Rome. It is the same pagan, nature-based spirituality

the early Christian church battle against nearly 2,000 years ago.

"We have a different approach to nature," said Terence McKenna, an

outspoken New Age leader from Sonoma County. "The Judeo-Christian ethic

is that man is the lord of creation and can do as he wishes. The pagan,

archaic-revival point of view is biological, ecological and stresses

co-adaptive relations. We are in a global, suicidal crisis -- and

Christianity has a lot to answer for."

According to the Chronicle Poll, Bay Area residents are still making up

their minds about the New Age movement. Twenty percent have a favorable

view and 28 percent an unfavorable view, while the majority (52 percent)

said they "don't know."

Some 42 percent agree with the statement that "what is misguided about

the New Age movement and Eastern mysticism is that people worship

themselves rather than God." Disagreeing are 31 percent, while 27

percent "don't know."

Satan at Work

-------------

About one in four Bay Area residents say they believe that "Satan, or

some demonic power, is at work behind a lot of the New Age movement and

Eastern gurus." Sixty percent disagree with that statement.

The Chronicle Poll, a telephone survey of 600 Bay Area adults, was

conducted March 16-19 by Mark Baldassare and Associates. It has a margin

of error of 4 percent.

Robertson -- who mounted a failed bid for the 1988 Republican

presidential nomination and heads the influential Christian Broadcasting

Network -- condemns the New Age movement as "blatant demonism."

"Young people are the target," he told the National Religious

Broadcasters convention. "We can either give over them the crack

dealers, or give them over to the pornographers, or give them over to

the New Age -- or we can move in with the fresh power of the Holy Spirit

and win this world for Jesus Christ."

Robert Bellah, a University of California at Berkeley sociologist and

leading observer of American religion, said the New Age movement could

replace Communism and "secular humanism" as the great satan of the

Christian Right in the 1990s.

Fundamentalist Paranoia

-----------------------

"The fundamentalist mentality is prone to paranoia -- they have always

had a lot of enemies," said Bellah. "For 45 years we have been locked in

a struggle with the Evil Empire, and the collapse of that is really

something to think about. Now the worl d isn't doing too good, and we're

not sure who to blame."

Rather than condemning the New Age movement, Bellah said, mainline

churches should look at why Americans are gravitating toward meditation,

divination, Eastern mysticism, shamanism, mythology, humanistic

psychology and other spiritual practices outside the Judeo-Christian

mainstream.

"Mainline churches are bland," Bellah said. "People want something more

interesting -- like channeling or getting in touch with spirits."

Some mainline churches are trying to meet the challenge.

Churches across the spiritual spectrum are finding a place for ecology

in their theology. They are expanding their retreat programs and

weeknight workshops from traditional Bible studies and prayer groups to

encompass Zen meditation, dream analysis workshops and the teaching of

the late mythologist Joseph Campbell.

At Community Congregational Church, a Protestant church in Tiburon,

members praise Jesus on Sunday and get in touch with "the Tao" at

Saturday morning tai chi classes.

At Holy Names College, a Roman Catholic campus in the Oakland hills,

Native American spirituality, dance therapy, witchcraft, eco-feminism

and Christian mysticism all find a place in classes at the Institute in

Culture and Creation Spirituality.

At Grace Cathedral, the Episcopal Church has a program called "Quest,"

designed to cultivate " the art of living spiritually." This weekend,

Quest is offering a "pilgrimage" program with several leading

mythologists, an exploration of women's spirituality and "healing

arts," and a jazz concert to commemorate a 1965 Duke Ellington

appearance at the cathedral.

'Confused Revolt'

-----------------

"We are seeing a revival of the sacred, a recovery of something we have

lost," said the Rev. Alan Jones, dean of Grace Cathedral, the seat of

the Episcopal Diocese of California. "What seems 'New Age' is really a

new constellation of old things. It's all part of a confused revolt to

insist the world is a sacred place. Modernity defined the world as a

place that is not sacred, and that world view is being challenged."

Jones said Grace Cathedral is "trying to build a bridge" to the New Age

movement.

"What saddens me is the church's failure to share its own treasures and

mystical tradition," he said. "What are emerging as 'new myths' are

deeply rooted in the Judeo-Christian story. Americans have such an

impoverished view of what Christianity is all about."

Nevertheless, some the ideas behind "New Age" thought, humanistic

psychology and Eastern mysticism are at odds with orthodox

Judeo-Christian teaching. Many adherents of New Age spirituality see the

divine in their own "inner Self" or think of God as an amorphous energy

force buzzing about the universe -- not the Biblical God who issues

commandments and judges humankind.

Original Sin

------------

Most followers of the New Age and human potential movement have also

rejected or radically reinterpreted the Christian doctrine of original

sin, the idea that human kind has been in a fallen state since Adam and

Eve entered the world.

On perhaps the most basic test of Christian orthodoxy -- the divinity of

Christ -- the Chronicle Poll found Bay Area residents less orthodox than

other Americans.

Sixty-four percent of all respondents, and 82 percent of those calling

themselves "Christian," believe Jesus Christ is God, or the Son of God.

Some 25 percent -- and 12 percent of those identified as "Christian" --

prefer to think of Christ as "another religious leader like Mohammed or

Buddha."

Only 4 percent of Christians -- and 9 percent of all respondents --

surveyed in a recent national Gallup Poll put Jesus on the same level as

Mohammed and Buddha.

San Francisco Archbishop John Quinn said he is "very concerned" that

people calling themselves "Christians" would equate Christ with Buddha.

'Not the Real Christ'

---------------------

"You can't put them on the same level. That would be absolutely wrong

and reprehensible," Quinn said in an interview. "That is not the real

Christ -- the Christ of the gospels or the Christ of the church. It's a

false idea, without foundation."

Quinn agreed that the church "could always do more" to clarify its

doctrines and offer Roman Catholics more opportunities to explore the

mystical realms within their church.

"We have a long mystical tradition, spanning 20 centuries," said Quinn,

who recently completed his own 30-day silent retreat. "We have seen

phenomenal growth in the retreat movement in the United States. These

programs all have waiting lists, and there is a great proliferation of

prayer groups and programs of spiritual direction."

Some New age leaders say Christian doctrine has become irrelevant to the

needs and spiritual aspirations of men and women in the modern world and

closed off to science and other systems of thought.

'Mary's a Nice Girl'

--------------------

"Christian mythology is defective," said Robert Bly, the Minneapolis

poet and New Age workshop leader. "It provides no place for the divine

woman, other than Mary, who's a nice girl. That's very different from

the great female beings of India."

"I call myself a Christian, but it's as if I had to go to mythology to

find what really moved me and explained things to me," said Bly, who was

raised in the Lutheran church. "Your religion should be your mythology

and your cosmology."

Jones, the Grace Cathedral dean, separates himself from conservative

evangelicals who condemn New Age as satanic but nevertheless has his own

criticism of the movement.

"They are degenerating religion into a private, leisure-time pursuit of

the 90s," he said. "People into channeling, karma and reincarnation can

easily go of on private trips. People seem to use it in a way to be

indifferent to the poor and homeless. Those people are just working out

their own karma. They're all just following their own destiny."

* * * * *

The Chronicle Poll Results:

The Chronicle Poll was conducted by Mark Baldassare and Associates. The

survey of 600 Bay Area adults was conducted March 16 to 19 and has a

margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Bay Area regions

are: East Bay (Alameda, Contra Costa), North Bay (Marin, Napa, Solano,

Sonoma), San Francisco and South Bay (San Mateo, Santa Clara). Results

may not add up to 100 percent because of rounding. U.S. figures come

from various Gallup Polls conducted during the 1980s using identically

phrased questions.

# How important is religion in your life?

Very important................46%

Somewhat important............32%

Not important.................22%

 

# Compared to five years ago, how would you describe the importance of

religion or spirituality in your life today?

Stayed the same..............63%

Increased....................30%

Declined..................... 7%

 

# Which of these religions do you follow?

Protestant...................31%

Roman Catholic...............27%

No religion..................18%

Other Christian..............12%

Other religion............... 7%

Jewish....................... 3%

Orthodox..................... 2%

 

# How frequently do you attend church or any organized spiritual

service, seminar or workshop?

Weekly......................30%

Less than annually..........29%

Less than monthly...........25%

Monthly.....................16%

 

# Do you think Jesus Christ was God or the Son of God?

Bay Area....................64%

U.S. .......................84%

 

# Do you think Jesus Christ was just another religious leader like

Mohammed or Buddha?

Bay Area....................25%

U.S. ....................... 9%

 

# Do you think Jesus Christ never lived?

Bay Area.................... 2%

U.S. ....................... 1%

 

# How do you feel about the statement: 'There are clear guidelines about

what is good or evil that apply to everyone regardless of their

situation'?

Agree:

Bay Area.....................69%

U.S. ........................77%

Disagree:

Bay Area.....................27%

U.S. ........................18%

Don't know:

Bay Area..................... 4%

U.S. ........................ 4%

 

# Do you believe that what is misguided about the New Age movement and

Eastern mysticism is that people worship themselves, rather than God?

Agree........................42%

Disagree.....................31%

Don't know...................27%

 

# Do you believe Satan or some demonic power is at work behind a lot of

the New Age movement and Eastern gurus?

Disagree.....................60%

Agree........................26%

Don't know...................14%

* * * * *

(C) 1990 The San Francisco Chronicle


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