Before a packed auditorium at Warner Pacific College in Portland, Oregon, activist Shane Claiborne gave his message of peace, love, and brotherhood. An engaging speaker, and a man dedicated to his beliefs, Claiborne had the crowd laughing and reminiscing with him as he recounted past adventures and experiences. During the time he spoke he emphasized again and again our Christian duty to help the poor and the oppressed.
“God is creating a holy counter-culture,” said Claiborne, author of Jesus For President, The Irresistible Revolution, and several others.
I sat there in the crowd, taking notes, wanting to believe that Claiborne was truly a believer. I knew he was tight with contemplative Tony Campolo. In his interview with Campolo several years ago, Claiborne made a troubling statement:
Tony Campolo: We don’t have to give up trying to convert each other. What we have to do is show respect to one another. And to speak to each other with a sense that even if people don’t convert, they are God’s people, God loves them, and we do not make the judgment of who is going to heaven and who is going to hell. I think that what we all have to do is leave judgment up to God. The Muslim community is very evangelistic, however what Muslims will not do is condemn Jews and Christians to Hell if in fact they do not accept Islam. (Italics mine)
Shane Claiborne: That seems like a healthy distinction—between converting and condemning. One of the barriers seems to be the assumption that we have the truth and folks who experience things differently will all go to Hell. How do we unashamedly maintain a healthy desire for others to experience the love of God as we have experienced it without condemning others who experience God differently?[1] ( Italics mine)
Rather than correcting Campolo’s errant theology, Claiborne seemingly agreed with it. Biblically, if someone rejects Christ, they are in for a hellish eternity. It’s right there in the Book.
While the Warner Pacific audience heard much about being like Jesus, there was little (actually I don’t think there was any) reference to sin, or redemption, or the Blood. When the author spoke of reconciliation, he didn’t mean between God and man. If that had been my pastor speaking in a packed out place like that, he would have preached the gospel message. It wouldn’t have taken long. Claiborne did not do this, but spoke movingly of his time with Mother Teresa, his experience in Iraq, and his home in Philadelphia.
Claiborne at one point said, “That’s right, I still believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus,” and I began to get hopeful again.
In a few short sentences he seemingly dismissed the possibility of being in End Times, and also noted that some have “such obsession with evangelism.” His point was that we aren’t paying enough attention to the troubles of people in the here and now. Claiborne stated that “as missional Christians in the world,” we need to “live in proximity to those who are hurting in the world.”
The crowd thought he was cool. I thought he was cool. But the presentation lacked Biblical balance.
I had three copies of Castles in the Sand with me. The many readers of this blog (all six of you) know that I have been taking Carolyn Greene’s novel to unlikely places, often leaving it with people who are unfamiliar with the dark side of meditation. We (the novel and I) have been to an AA meeting, a labyrinth, the New Moon vampire movie, and many other places, handing out this book.
I highly recommend Castles in the Sand, particularly for young women, as they will easily relate to the heroine. It is good simply as an adventure story. Greene uncannily demonstrates the deceptive spirit that can entice a person during meditation, and she does it without preaching, without beating anyone over the head to make her point.
I believe much of the emergent church is under this contemplative deception. As Shane Claiborne stood outside the auditorium, I said, “Shane, my name is John, and my mission is to give you this book.”
Claiborne is a gracious guy, and he was dog-tired from all the travel and speaking engagements. But he took Castles in the Sand, and said, “Thank you, brother.” He peered intently at the cover.
I told him goodbye, and prayed for him as I drove home.
Some hours later, in the early dawn, I discovered where Claiborne is scheduled to speak in April. It is with the blasphemous Center for Action and Contemplation,[2] the organization founded by interspiritualist Richard Rohr. Father Rohr, at a Catholic service, prayed to “Father-Mother God.”[3]
In July, Fr. Rohr has a new set of blasphemies scheduled. This is the “Creation as the Body of God” Conference. According to the CAC website, “The whole of Creation, the Body of God, is suffering from oppression and disease.”[4]
On April 8, Claiborne will give a pre-conference workshop on “Sacred Activism,” with Rohr finishing up in the afternoon with his book, The Naked Now: Learning to see as the Mystics see.[5]
Then, beginning April 9, speakers will be author Diana Butler Bass, who also blogs on Jim Wallis’ “God’s Politics,” and Cynthia Borgeault, author of Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening.
Brian McLaren will be there as well, undoubtedly to promote his heretical book, A New Kind of Christianity. McLaren describes himself as a “contemplative-reflexive.”
The fact that Shane Claiborne is affiliating with this conference speaks volumes. He is not going there to preach Salvation, just as he did not give the gospel message at Warner Pacific College. Sadly, Claiborne lines up with the contemplatives.
As Ken Silva of the excellent www.apprising.org informed me, “Claiborne is one the liberal Red Letter Christians.[6] He’s literally aligned with his mentor Tony Campolo, Jim Wallis, Richard Rohr, Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, and Diana Butler Bass in that organization.”
Can two walk together except they be agreed? (Amos 3:3)
The charm and persuasion (and sincerity) of people like Shane Claiborne makes my quest to distribute Castles in the Sand all the more relevant. If I could, I would get this book in the hands of youth pastors, parents, and every young kid I could find. Once a person reads this, they may have a whole new perception of meditation–for it is in this meditative state, I believe, that many are being pulled deeper and deeper into deception.
Contemplative Spirituality is here. It is in our schools. It is in our churches. It is time to give warning, any kind of warning, even in the form of a novel.
Endnotes:
1. ON EVANGELICALS AND INTERFAITH COOPERATION http://www.crosscurrents.org/CompoloSpring2005.htm
2. Center for Action and Contemplation http://cacradicalgrace.org/conferences/2010/emerging-christianity/
3. CALIFORNIA CATHOLIC DAILY http://www.calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=b9f5f434-6ee1-4c6c-821a-cb2495d30ade
4. Creation as the Body of God http://www.cacradicalgrace.org/conferences/2010/creation/
5. Event info on web http://cacradicalgrace.org/conferences/2010/emerging-christianity/pages/workshop.php
6. What is a “Red Letter Christian“… ask Carla: http://morebooksandthings.blogspot.com/2010/03/red-letter-christians-or-communists.html
