Alchemy in the Academy

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JosephWright-Alchemist-CroppedSomething dangerous and scary is probably occurring right now at a university or college near you.  It may be disguised as a seminar on wellness, a class on well-being, or a conference on integrative health.  You might find it listed in the college catalog in courses labeled “Mindfulness Training” or “Contemplative Learning.”  It could more blatantly be offered as a program for student/faculty that utilizes yoga, Tai Chi, or meditation as an aid to mental and physical health.  And usually somewhere in the literature for this seminar, class or program you will find references to the “wealth” of scientific evidence that proves that mindfulness (or yoga, or contemplation, or whatever) is proven to be the panacea for all ills in body and soul. Continue reading →

Pray!

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On this site I have often addressed current trends in our culture.  Reviewing many of them presents a rather bleak picture of our society.  Morally and spiritually America is on the skids, it seems.  Is there any hope at all?  Yes.  We still have hope that God can send another Great Awakening to this land.  He has done it before, several times.  He can do it again.  The key to such an awakening is for the church to humble itself before God and enter into a season of fervent prayer.  Prayer is the key.  Recently I was part of a three week prayer effort in my local church.  As part of this effort, I prepared a series of devotional reflections about the importance of prayer.  Many of these offered practical instruction on how to pray more effectively.  If you would like a copy of this 21 Days of Prayer then you can download it from here.  Just click on 21 Days of Prayer.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster

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Ever hear of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster?  Believe it or not, it is real organization.  It has been recognized as legitimate by various government agencies.  For example, followers of this group sometimes wear a colander as a sign of allegiance to the church.  So in numerous states they have demanded the right to have their driver’s license photos taken with a colander on their heads.  A couple of years ago a man elected to local government in New York state took his oath of office while wearing a colander. Continue reading →

The Monistic Occult Worldview

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You don’t have to do an in-depth study of popular culture to see how prevalent the occult is today.  From Vampire Diaries and Goosebumps to newspaper horoscopes and Ouija boards, magic and sorcery are all around us.  Usually presentations of the occult in TV, movies, comic books, novels and the like are presented as simple, innocent entertainment.  The dangers inherent in the genre are dismissed and denied.  However, the danger is still there.  One of the greatest concerns, often unrecognized, is that when a person views a horror movie or a TV show with a paranormal theme, reads a supernatural thriller, or plays at having a séance, that person exposes himself to an entire worldview.  There is an occult paradigm present, whether recognized or not.  This is true because the world of the occult does indeed embody a particular belief system, a specific perspective on reality.  To give but one example, the worldview of the occult is monistic in its view of ultimate existence.  Let us take a moment and examine this. Continue reading →

Raindrops Keep Falling On Our Heads

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One of the premier events for Christian young people in this country is the Urbana conference.  This event is sponsored by Intervarsity Christian ministries and is held every three years.  It is one of the largest Christian youth events in the world.  The most recent conference was December 27-31, 2015 and was held in St. Louis, MO.  Advancing Native Missions had a display there, with a number of staff representing ANM.

Back in our offices in Virginia, we received regular reports about what was happening at the conference.  One of these reports noted that social media from the conference was very interesting.  There were a number of posts to Facebook and Twitter commenting on the fact that the LGBT community was not represented at the conference.  Fascinating.  Would you really expect the Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender community to be a part of this conference?  For some, apparently yes. Continue reading →