Spiritualism, the Highway to Hell

Before I start slashing and tearing at the Spiritualist Church I would like to point out that I speak from personal experience. A few years ago, during a period of loneliness and vulnerability, I attended one of these churches (can’t remember the name but they are all pretty similar; Church of the White Light, The Shining Star etc. All names meant to convey something uplifting, healing and mystical). I went back more than once; simply because I have always lived by the philosophy of a fair go.

My initial impression was that here was a decent, friendly and accepting bunch of people. They were definitely not mainstream society. I shared a coffee and a chat before the service commenced.

These folk were the proverbial square pegs. Sorry. I am not being judgmental that’s just the way it was. I have spent my life as something of an almost square peg, hexagonal perhaps, and have overcome many of the obstacles I faced, so I know one when I see one. Just imagine any fringe society group and then imagine a sub-group who wouldn’t even fit in there.

Still, they were friendly and they welcomed me and that is what I needed most at the time.

A bunch of New Age magazines were on a table and in a quiet moment I leafed through these.

Wow! Accepting was an understatement. Everything was okay by these guys. It didn’t matter if you were Hindu, Buddhist, into Mind Control, Meditation, chakras, you name it. Anything but Christianity.

Why the bias against Christianity? I soon learned.

The service started pleasantly. Everyone sat on chairs in a circle, someone put on a cassette and we sang a few songs. Innocent enough. The songs were all selected to validate this atmosphere of brotherly love.

The service consisted of a meditation session (which I found enjoyable), a visit from a clairvoyant (which I am too cynical to be bothered with), and a talk by one of the elders.

Here it was. You have never sinned so feel no guilt. Everything is okay. You are loved. Love. You can be whatever you want to be, do whatever you want to do, live however you want to live. You can justify this knowing that if it makes you happy it must be God’s will; because God loves you and wants you to be happy.

Okay, I thought I had heard reason for their grudge against Christianity; everything they taught was opposing the basic Christian tenets. For instance…

To be told you have never sinned is very appealing. Especially if one has spent their life feeling guilty over their behavior. A whole world of religious guilt can fall off one’s shoulders with this little snippet. Shame it is not true. The Bible tells us all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

But even if you can’t buy that, and the concept of sin is too much for you, consider this; guilt is a human emotion that tells us when we have done the wrong thing. We don’t always pay for our mistakes and guilt is there to clip us around the heart when there is no-one to clip us around the ear. Appropriate guilt is one of the fundamental tools of spiritual growth. When guilt gets excessive or misplaced it should be dealt with by professionals and not some spiritual airhead.

Lifestyle. Live how you want to live. This isn’t true either. Many lifestyles are condemned by the Bible and it is easy to see why some people would rather embrace a church which condones anything than make difficult and painful changes. Any religion, however, which does not require a person to change, to turn away from inappropriate lifestyles (those lifestyles which cause you guilt), isn’t a religion at all but a social club.

It is possible to live free of guilt. This is accomplished by turning away from practices that make a person feel guilty.

Here was a church that lets you worship whatever you want, Buddha, Mother Earth, Krishnamurti, you name it. How can this be? I can’t accept that we were thrown together on an assembly line with a multitude of creators. The argument that there can be more than one Supreme Being does not stand up to logic. How can there be more than one tallest mountain, fastest animal, hottest day? This all embracing attitude looks very attractive.

Someone told me that they had had a wonderful morning observing a spiritual sunrise. Huh? Get with it! There is nothing spiritual about a sunrise. Spirituality is a measure of the Godliness in a person, or a measure of that thirst, that desire for Godliness. Sorry, a sunrise, a walk on the beach, dolphins dancing in the rain, these don’t fit. But apparently it is okay to believe this.

What then, if anything goes, is the problem with Christianity? My question was not answered until I read the book Dark Secrets of the New Age by Texe Marrs.

When I first encountered this book I was skeptical to say the least. I am a card-carrying cynic so it was awfully difficult to get my head around Texe’s concept of a new world order with Satan at its head. But the more I thought about it, the more I looked around, the more I realized that it is the only explanation that fits.

All these spiritualist movements, new age nuthouses, crystal gazing idiots, are united in their common goal; to stamp out Christianity. And the really big con is that few of the participants even know it. Most sincerely think that their bumper sticker Practice Random Acts of Kindness, or I Believe in Angels, is somehow a force for good in an otherwise crappy world. This is the saddest part.

Walk into any bookstore and see how many New Age titles are on display. Now compare this with the number of Christian titles on display.

Open any Women’s magazine (I haven’t worked out why this rarely occurs in men’s magazines) and see how many ads there are for psychics and clairvoyants. Many even have columns dedicated to these twits. Now see if you can find an article by a priest or pastor in the same magazine.

All this stuff is designed to get people to look anywhere rather than to God for the answers to their problems.

Have a think about this. Don’t discard this message because of preconceived notions or prejudices. Above all don’t go near the spiritualist church. It is a train wreck waiting to happen.