Published by - New Oxford Review, July-August 2000, pp. 19-31

Please Note: Although The M+G+R Foundation agrees with Mr. Penn about the dangers that lurk in the New Age Movement, we do not necessarily agree with each point and/or statement, written or implied, in Mr. Penn's document.



The Earth Charter is the brainchild of Gorbachev (acting as chairman of Green Cross International) and Maurice Strong, an adviser to the World Bank, a leader at UN environmental meetings, and a wealthy proponent of world government. (Ted Turner is also involved, as a member of the Green Cross International Board.) Gorbachev views the proposed Earth Charter as "a kind of Ten Commandments, a 'Sermon on the Mount,' that provides a guide for human behavior toward the environment in the next century and beyond." Strong says, "The real goal of the Earth Charter is that it will in fact become like the Ten Commandments, like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights." Gorbachev and Strong seem to view themselves as the lawgivers of the future, successors to Moses and Jesus.

Gorbachev and Strong hope to gain UN adoption of the Earth Charter. Once adopted, the Charter would be the basis for new global, national, and even local law. Steven Rockefeller, chairman of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, is coordinating the drafting of the Earth Charter, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund is supporting Earth Charter activities in 10 Third World countries. Global Education Associates, the Temple of Understanding, and the URI also promote the Earth Charter.

The basis of the Earth Charter is the belief that "Earth, our home, is alive with a unique community of life." The Charter states that "A dramatic rise in population has increased the pressures on ecological systems and has overburdened social systems" - the "Population Bomb" argument. Charter writers want to promote "equitable distribution of wealth" and to "promote gender equality."

We are called to "treat all living beings with compassion and protect them from cruelty and wanton destruction." (So far, so good.) However, unborn children are excluded from this compassion; the Charter supports "universal access to health care that fosters reproductive health and responsible reproduction." (In UN circles, "reproductive health" includes artificial contraception, abortion, and sterilization.)

"The Green Cross Earth Charter Philosophy," a document on the Earth Charter web site, takes a hard line about what the Earth Charter will mean for us. First comes the call for immediate "fundamental economic, social and cultural changes that address the root causes of poverty and environmental degradation." Then comes the call for "Stabilization of the World's Population," and "Zero-Growth of Material Economy"; the needs of the world's poor will be met by "reducing material over-consumption by the rich minority." To enforce all this, there must be "Global Sovereignty" with total power and universal jurisdiction: "The protection of the Biosphere, as the Common Interest of Humanity, must not be subservient to the rules of state sovereignty, demands of the free market or individual rights.... An international body for the Sustainability of Human Life on the Earth...must have the independence and power to facilitate agreement between all societal actors...." Democratic institutions must not delay the Earth Charter revolution; at the 1995 State of the World Forum, Strong said, "We shouldn't wait until political democracy paves the way. We must act now."

When Maurice Strong says such things, we must pay attention; he has powerful friends. Strong, Chairman of the Earth Council, is on the board of the World Economic Forum (WEF); Klaus Schwab, president and founder of the WEF, is a member of the Earth Council. The WEF, which meets annually in Switzerland, describes itself as "the most significant global business summit bringing together close to 2,000 business and political leaders, experts, academics, and members of the media, to set the global agenda for the coming year." Top executives of billion-dollar companies pay fees and travel costs of $30,000 to $250,000 each year for the privilege of schmoozing with presidents of many countries and of the world's largest corporations - including President Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bill Gates, Kofi Annan (UN Secretary General), the CEO of General Motors, the Chairman of Goldman Sachs, the Chairman of Daewoo Corporation, the Chairman of Daimler-Benz, and George Soros.

In their pride, the New Age teachers and their financiers plan for a global utopia. The greater the pride of people or movements, the greater their rage when they encounter opposition. Pride and rage are the spiritual precursors of cruelty and murder.

To understand this, we need to take another look at the Theosophist mentors of the radical New Age teachers. These Theosophical leaders believed that the two World Wars were necessary for human evolution, and that the birth pangs of the New Age began with the atomic explosions in 1945. They advocated sending those who are unwilling to enter the New Age into oblivion. Such is the blood lust of the "compassionate."

The New Age avatars have embraced a brutal version of spiritual Darwinism, rooted in the Gnostic belief expressed by Alice Bailey: "Death is not a disaster to be feared; the work of the Destroyer is not really cruel or undesirable." As Hubbard says, "Nature is less concerned about individual survival, than with the evolution of the whole...." Spangler's channeled spirit "John" says that suffering is merely part of "a world of form" that "has little meaning"; the spirit is "concerned with that which is the eternal life of you, the Divine Presence which I nourish and embrace. If forms must be destroyed that this Presence be released, then so be it." This spirit speaks like someone in charge of targeting nuclear weapons.

From the start of World War II until her death, Bailey wrote that the war was necessary for the New Age to come. She believed that the New Age would be preceded by a "destructive cycle, wherein the old order passes away" and "human civilization with its accompanying institutions - is destroyed." She gave credit to the "Hierarchy" of ascended spiritual masters for "their decision, taken early in this century, which precipitated...that major destructive agency, the world war (1914-1945)." In 1943 Bailey said, "One of the purposes lying behind the present holocaust [World War II] has been the necessity for the destruction of inadequate forms.... The Law of destruction was permitted to work through humanity itself, and men are now destroying the forms through which many masses of men are functioning." ("Destroying forms" does not mean shredding IRS paperwork; it is the Theosophist code word for death.) After the war, Bailey wrote that "the Custodians of God's Plan" viewed World War II as a "major surgical operation" that had been "largely successful" in removing "a violent streptococcic germ" that had "menaced the life of humanity." She warned that this would be only the beginning of sorrows: "The germ, to be sure, is not eradicated and makes its presence felt in infected areas of the body of humanity. Another surgical operation may be necessary."

Bailey viewed the atomic incineration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as an "inevitable and desirable" manifestation of the "saving force," since "the wrecking and disappearance of that which is bad and undesirable must ever precede the building of the good and desirable." For Hubbard, the nuclear explosions of 1945 were a turning point for humanity, "the beginning of our collective labor pains. It was the signal that the Cosmic Child, humanity, could either kill itself by remaining in self-centered consciousness in the womb of Earth, or instead emancipate itself for universal consciousness." The spirit that spoke to Spangler in "the transmissions of limitless love and truth" said, "Should nuclear devices be used, the energies will be the revelation of me. All that will remain is of what I am and all that is not of me shall disappear, to follow another law and another destiny." In 1946, after the U.S. nuclear tests in the Pacific Ocean, Teilhard closed a paean to the Bomb by saying, "For all their military trappings, the recent explosions at Bikini herald the birth into the world of a Mankind both inwardly and outwardly pacified. They proclaim the coming of the Spirit of the Earth."

For the New Age soothsayers, the "end times" are now. Bailey, Hubbard, Spangler, and Walsch have predicted that the transition to the New Age would happen between 2000 and 2010. As Walsch's "God" said, "Yours is a race awakening. Your time of fulfillment is at hand." Gordon Davidson, the Theosophist who praised the URI as an example of the emergence of the "Avatar of Synthesis," says that in the year 2000, humanity faces "the impending descent of the Shamballa energy." This would not be a joyful event; Davidson's mentor, Alice Bailey, said that the European dictators of the 1930s were "all expressions of the Shamballa force." New Age fortunetellers whose writings span the last sixty years all agree that the arrival of the New Age is imminent and will be apocalyptic. We can expect New Age devotees to be busy with mischief, doing their utmost to fulfill their own prophecies.

Other New Age avatars view the possibility of human extinction with Earth-centered, reptilian calm. Jean Houston, spiritual mentor of Lauren Artress (the Episcopal priest who runs the Labyrinth Project at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco) announces the choice facing humanity: "It could be that the human race will end as a vast, failed experiment.... And the planet will shake its shoulders, let 'em slide off and the dolphins will inherit the earth." William Irwin Thompson, a New Age associate of Morton and Spangler, said: "We might even end it for human beings and not be able to keep the experiment going, but the biosphere will not cease to evolve. If you're mystical, you don't necessarily identify just with a momentary piece of meat called hominoids." Muller also thinks that we may become extinct: "The Earth will take revenge against her most advanced species which has begun to destroy her.... God will not allow us to destroy His Creation and to put an end to the Earth's careful, miraculous evolution over billions of years. He is more likely to let humanity be destroyed."





Bibliography for SECTION 5

NOTE: Internet document citations are based on research done between September 1997 and January 2000. Web citations were accurate as of the time that each Web page was accessed. However, some documents may since have been moved to a different Web site, or they may have been removed entirely from the Web.

(175) The Earth Charter Campaign, "Historical Overview: II. The Earth Charter Project, 1994-2000," Internet document, http://www.earthcharter.org/welcome/overview2.htm, p. 1; "Maurice Strong," Internet document, http://www.elsevier.com/inca/homepage/sag/iep/biogms.htm

(176) Green Cross International, "Board of Directors," Internet document, http://www.globalgreen.org/bios.html, p. 3

(177) Green Cross International, "Interview," Los Angeles Times, May 8, 1997, Internet document, http://www4.gve.ch/gci/GreenCrossFamily/gorby/newspeeches/interviews/laTimes.html, p. 4

(178) The Earth Charter Campaign, "Interview: Maurice Strong on a 'People's Earth Charter'," March 5, 1998, Internet document, http://www.earthcharter.org/welcome/mstrong.htm, p. 3

(179) The Earth Charter Campaign, "Historical Overview: I. Historical Background, 1945-1992," Internet document, http://www.earthcharter.org/welcome/overview.htm, p. 2

(180) The Earth Charter Campaign, "Program for the Earth Charter Millennium Campaign," Internet document, http://www.earthcharter.org/millennium/index.htm, p. 3

(181) State of the World Forum, "People," Internet document, http://www.worldforum98.org/people/letter_R.html, p. 4; The Earth Charter Campaign, "Program for the Earth Charter Millennium Campaign," Internet document, http://www.earthcharter.org/millennium/index.htm, p. 3

(182) The Earth Charter Campaign, "Annex 1 - Millennium Campaign: Mapping of the Target Countries to be Involved with the Earth Charter by the end of 1999," Internet document, http://www.earthcharter.org/millennium/annex1.htm, p. 1

(183) Bahá'í International Community, photograph of Earth Charter supporters, Internet document, http://www.onecountry.org/oc84/oc8407cp.html

(184) The Earth Charter Campaign, "The Earth Charter - Benchmark Draft II, April 1999," Internet document, http://www.earthcharter.org/draft/, p. 1

(185) The Earth Charter Campaign, "The Earth Charter - Benchmark Draft II, April 1999," Internet document, http://www.earthcharter.org/draft/, p. 1

(186) The Earth Charter Campaign, "The Earth Charter - Benchmark Draft II, April 1999," Internet document, http://www.earthcharter.org/draft/, p. 4

(187) The Earth Charter Campaign, "The Earth Charter - Benchmark Draft II, April 1999," Internet document, http://www.earthcharter.org/draft/, p. 6

(188) The Earth Charter Campaign, "The Earth Charter - Benchmark Draft II, April 1999," Internet document, http://www.earthcharter.org/draft/, p. 3

(189) The Earth Charter Campaign, "The Earth Charter - Benchmark Draft II, April 1999," Internet document, http://www.earthcharter.org/draft/, p. 4

(190) The Earth Charter Campaign, "The Earth Charter: The Green Cross Philosophy," Internet document, http://www.earthcharter.org/report/special/greencross.htm, p. 2

(191) The Earth Charter Campaign, "The Earth Charter: The Green Cross Philosophy," Internet document, http://www.earthcharter.org/report/special/greencross.htm, p. 3

(192) The Earth Charter Campaign, "The Earth Charter: The Green Cross Philosophy," Internet document, http://www.earthcharter.org/report/special/greencross.htm, p. 5

(193) Anita Coolidge, "Ecology: The ultimate democracy - A report from the State of the World Forum," San Diego Earth Times, November 1995, Internet document, http://www.sdearthtimes.com/et1195/et1195s3.html, p. 3

(194) Pranay Gupte, "Maurice Strong: Reaching out to broad range of constituencies for millennium," Earth Times News Service; Internet document, http://www.earthtimes.org/trustees21/trustees21mauricestrongfeb21_98.htm, p. 4

(195) World Economic Forum, 1997 press release number 5, "Business leaders, politicians, and opinion makers gather in Davos to set global agenda;" Internet document, http://www.weforum.org/basic/press/am97/97ampr20.htm, p. 3

(196) Tad Szulc, "One of the greatest shows on earth," Forbes, December 2, 1996, p. 79l Anne Swardson, "The Cost of Doing Business Extends to Davos," Washington Post, January 24, 2000, p. A15

(197) World Economic Forum, 1997 press release number 5, "Business leaders, politicians, and opinion makers gather in Davos to set global agenda;" Internet document, http://www.weforum.org/basic/press/am97/97ampr20.htm, pp. 1-3

(198) Tad Szulc, "One of the greatest shows on earth," Forbes, December 2, 1996, p. 68

(199) Alice A. Bailey, Education in the New Age, 1954, Lucis Publishing Company, New York, ISBN 0-85330-105-0, pp. 111-112

(200) Barbara Marx Hubbard, Happy Birth Day Planet Earth: The Instant of Co-Operation, Ocean Tree Books, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1986; ISBN 0-943734-08-8, pp. 26-27

(201) David Spangler, Revelation: The Birth of a New Age, Lorian Press, 1976 (fifth Lorian Press printing 1984), ISBN 0-936878-00-2, p. 89

(202) Alice A. Bailey, The Rays and the Initiations: Volume V, A Treatise on the Seven Rays, 1960, Lucis Publishing Company, New York, ISBN 0-85330-122-0, pp. 553-554

(203) Alice A. Bailey, The Rays and the Initiations: Volume V, A Treatise on the Seven Rays, 1960, Lucis Publishing Company, New York, ISBN 0-85330-122-0, pp. 553-554

(204) Alice A. Bailey, The Rays and the Initiations: Volume V, A Treatise on the Seven Rays, 1960, Lucis Publishing Company, New York, ISBN 0-85330-122-0, pp. 75-76

(205) Alice A. Bailey, Education in the New Age, 1954, Lucis Publishing Company, New York, ISBN 0-85330-105-0, pp. 111-112

(206) Alice A. Bailey, Education in the New Age, 1954, Lucis Publishing Company, New York, ISBN 0-85330-105-0, pp. 111-112

(207) Alice A. Bailey, The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, 1957, Lucis Publishing Company, New York, ISBN 0-85330-106-9, pp. 497-498

(208) Barbara Marx Hubbard, The Revelation: A Message of Hope for the New Millennium, Nataraj Publishing, Novato, CA, 1995, ISBN 1-882591-21-6, p. 43

(209) David Spangler, Revelation: The Birth of a New Age, Lorian Press, 1976 (fifth Lorian Press printing 1984), ISBN 0-936878-00-2, p. 136

(210) David Spangler, Revelation: The Birth of a New Age, Lorian Press, 1976 (fifth Lorian Press printing 1984), ISBN 0-936878-00-2, p. 74

(211) Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, "Some Reflections on the Spiritual Repercussions of the Atom Bomb," The Future of Man, translated by Norman Denny, Harper & Row, New York and Evanston, 1964, p. 147

(212) Bishop William Swing, "Opening Address" to the 1997 URI summit conference; Internet document, http://www.united-religions.org/youth/welcome/swingspeech.htm, p. 2

(213) Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue, Book 3, Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc., 1998; ISBN 1-57174-103-8; p. 340

(214) Gordon Davidson, "The Significance of Intergroup Work for the Externalization of the Hierarchy," Internet document, http://web.ukonline.co.uk/bristol.goodwill/intwork.htm, p. 1

(215) Gordon Davidson, "The Significance of Intergroup Work for the Externalization of the Hierarchy," Internet document, http://web.ukonline.co.uk/bristol.goodwill/intwork.htm, p. 5

(216) Alice A. Bailey, The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, 1957, Lucis Publishing Company, New York, ISBN 0-85330-106-9, p. 133

(217) Kristen Fairchild, "A Passion for the Possible: An Interview with Jean Houston," The Spire, Textures 11/04/97, Internet document, http://www.gracecathedral.org/enrichment, p. 4

(218) "Jean Houston On-Line, CountryLiving's Article - Genius Jean Houston," Internet document, http://www.jeanhouston.org/articles/genius.jean.html, p. 4

(219) Barbara Marx Hubbard, Conscious Evolution: Awakening the Power of Our Social Potential, New World Library, Novato, California, 1998, ISBN 1-57731-016-0, p. 60

(220) "Interview with William Irwin Thompson," Internet document, http://www.levity.com/mavericks/thomson.htm, p. 2

(221) "Interview with William Irwin Thompson," Internet document, http://www.levity.com/mavericks/thomson.htm, pp. 12, 14, 15-16

(222) Robert Muller, 2000 Ideas And Dreams For A Better World, Idea 1294, 25 January 1998, Internet document, http://www.lsw.org/ideas/RMideas.html

END NOTES



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