The short answer: No.

Conspiracies are usually secretive associations with illegal objectives. New Age leaders and their utopian, globalist allies are open about their aims, and their activities are legal. The goals of the present-day New Agers and utopians match what radicals have sought since the French Revolution. This is not because of an organized plot among men that spans nations and decades. Rather, it shows the permanent vulnerability of mankind to temptation and sin.

God remains forever. He does not change; nor do his commandments. Human nature does not change, since mankind is created in God's image. The devil does not change; nor do the temptations he offers mankind. From the Garden of Eden to the séances of the Theosophists and the meeting-halls of Davos and New York, the message is the same: you will not die, and you will be like god. Human response to temptation does not change, either; apart from God's grace, we sin. The New Age and globalist movements offer bait that tempts many - freedom from the restrictions imposed by traditional morality, the ability to use spiritual power to attain worldly goals, and the delight of being in the inner circle of those who will create a new civilization.

Therefore, human rebellion against God follows a consistent pattern. People who wish to rebel against God will find collaborators and mentors to assist them, and to affirm that their choices are right. (Also, the religious and governmental authorities, by their oft-repeated injustices, put the same temptations, scandals, and stumbling blocks before their people, again and yet again.) What some over-enthusiastic observers see as multi-generational, international conspiracies are really just successive groups of fallen men following temptation to its logical conclusion. If New Age, globalist, and utopian movements show unity and consistent purpose internationally or over many years, it derives from the dark spirit they follow, wittingly or unwittingly - rather than from their own human, conspiratorial aptitude.

The New Age and globalist movements are not conspiracies. However, they are bearers of a world-view that is altogether opposed to the Christian faith and to the Western tradition of human freedom.

Some of the causes that the New Age and globalist movements support (such as protection of the environment from pollution and an end to inter-religious violence) are praiseworthy. Some of what the New Age and globalist movements oppose (for example, racial discrimination and imperialism) deserves Christian opposition. Thus, a knee-jerk reaction (i.e., if the New Age and globalist movements are for "X," Christians must oppose "X") is unwise. Christian opponents of the New Age and globalist movements should consider what injustices and spiritual hungers lead people to follow these movements, so that they might answer these real, unmet needs of their fellow men.

The New Age and globalist movements testify to the human desire for unity and order. In principle, these are not evil motives. As Brooks Alexander, of the Spiritual Counterfeits Project, said in 1983:

"Evil mimics the kingdom of God in many of its external attributes, not the least of which is its cohesiveness. Human nature itself yearns for order and organization. As a race we bear the image of God, however distorted, and both unity and structure are among the deepest desires of the human heart. It is the intractable factor of fallenness that twists our best intended efforts at achievement. Under its influence our reach for totality inevitably becomes totalitarian."1

That's the problem with globalism; mankind's search for equity, order, and unity will most likely devolve into totalitarianism, if the lessons of history are any guide.

Benjamin Valentino, a political scientist who studied genocide in the 20th Century - including the crimes of the Nazis, the Communists, "ethnic cleansers," and combatants in guerrilla wars - said in 2004 that

"History's most savage ideologies have been those that called for the extremely rapid and radical transformation of society. Such transformations have almost always come about at great cost in human life. It is impossible to rule out the advent of completely novel belief systems, but few contemporary ideological contenders seem ready to rival the bloody utopias of radical communism in their desire to rebuild society from the ground up. ... One reason why radical communism became history's most deadly ideology was its contention that it could, indeed that it must, be applied to every society on earth."2

He also said,

"Future communist mass killings are highly unlikely given the declining appeal of communist ideology since the end of the cold war. Nevertheless, we should remain vigilant of groups espousing similarly radical social changes, as this form of mass killing can have the bloodiest consequences of all."3

Valentino also examined the record of various Communist regimes, contrasting the most radical of these (the USSR under Stalin, China under Mao, and Cambodia under Pol Pot) with Marxist states that avoided committing genocide. He found that

Communist mass killing is more likely
• the higher the priority the communist leaders assign to the radical transformation of society
• the more the communization of society results in the dispossession of large numbers of people
• the more rapidly communist leaders seek to implement dispossessive policies
• the greater the physical capabilities for mass killing possessed by the regime
• the fewer and more difficult the options for victims of communist policies to flee to safety."4

With Valentino's analysis in mind, review what the New Age theorists and some of the globalists have said about the "new civilization" that they wish to create. It would be a collectivist society, more dedicated to "protection of the Biosphere"5 than to "demands of the free market or individual rights."6 The utopians warn that humanity is on the verge of self-destruction if we do not make "fundamental economic, social, and cultural changes"7 everywhere, quickly. With a world government based on such principles, there would be nowhere for opponents and members of disfavored classes to flee to. If these globalist visionaries gain power, they may shed their professorial niceness and commit mass murder to attain their goals. (Does this seem impossible and unprecedented? Think again. Would anyone who attended the Sorbonne with the future leaders of the Khmer Rouge have predicted that they would take over their country a quarter-century later, and proceed to kill one-fifth of the population?)

Despite the fall of the Third Reich and the Soviet Empire, secular messianism is still with us. Some people with such radical goals have a powerful audience, via the State of the World Forum, the Earth Charter movement, the World Economic Forum, and similar globalist organizations. "Utopia in power" has happened several times before in the last century; with the installation of a New World Order, it could happen again. This time, the killing fields would encompass the planet.

Footnotes

1. Brooks Alexander, "The Coming World Religion," Spiritual Counterfeits Project, 1983 pamphlet, p. 2.

2. Benjamin A. Valentino, Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century, Cornell University Press, 2004, pp. 150-151.

3. Ibid., p. 240.

4. Ibid., p. 74.

5. The Earth Charter Initiative, "Essays and Papers," "The Earth Charter: The Green Cross Philosophy," principle 14 and "Implementation," point 1, http://www.earthcharter.org/files/resources/greencross.htm, printed 05/29/04.

6. Ibid, principle 14 and "Implementation," point 1.

7. Ibid., "Rationale," point 7.