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Apologia Report 12:7
February 24, 2007
Subject: Wall Street Journal explains New Age "Secret"
In this issue:
HOMOSEXUALITY - replying to three central arguments
MORMONISM - impressive response to Richard Mouw's LDS Tabernacle apology over so-called "false witness" of evangelicals
NEW AGE MOVEMENT - new film gaining popularity -- what's "The Secret"?
SCIENTOLOGY - Narconon's effort to "Infiltrate Britain's Schools"
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HOMOSEXUALITY
"Speaking of Homosexuality: A Christian Response to the Arguments of the Gay Rights Movement" by Joe Dallas -- notes that the primary pro-homosexual arguments have changed little in decades. Dallas identifies the three main gay arguments and suggests ways to reply. These are:
1) The born-gay or innateness argument (Reply: It is the *act* that matters for moral responsibility)
2) The insignificance argument which says that gays are good people - not significantly bad (Reply: Any sin has serious consequences)
3) The intolerance argument implying that objections to homosexuality are ignorant and dangerous (Reply: Disagreement does not necessarily imply attack or justify fear as a reaction)
Christian Research Journal, 29:6 - 2006, pp12-21.
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MORMONISM
"Lorenzo Snow's Couplet: 'As Man Now Is, God Once Was; As God Now Is, Man May Be': 'No Functioning Place in Present-Day Mormon Doctrine?' A Response to Richard Mouw" (president of Fuller Seminary) by Ronald V. Huggins, associate professor of historical and theological studies at Salt Lake Theological Seminary -- objects to Mouw's apology "on behalf of evangelicals for 'bearing false witness' against Mormons" and addresses Mouw's defense of these remarks. (Mouw uttered his apology during an appearance with Ravi Zacharias who gave an address in the Mormon Tabernacle on November 14, 2004. [1])
Huggins begins with the background behind the LDS Tabernacle incident, the history of the Snow couplet, and its ongoing significance within Mormonism (e.g., how it holds a "continuing functioning place as a lynch-pin doctrine of the LDS Church"). Huggins also discusses severe inconsistency problems with remarks made by LDS president Gordon B. Hinckley and LDS academic Robert L. Millet in relation to the couplet. Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 49:3 - 2006, pp549-568.
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NEW AGE MOVEMENT
"A Self-Help Conspiracy" by Camille Ricketts -- "Take some fairly standard self-help advice about focusing on your goals. Add Da Vinci Code-style mysticism and conspiracy theory, along with a dose of Hollywood special effects. Use word-of-mouth and the Internet to bypass traditional film marketing, and get the stars to participate for free.
"The result is 'The Secret' [2], a movie that's emerging as one of the year's most successful multimedia franchises - and shaking up the self-help category. The DVD is the No. 5 top-seller on Amazon. A tie-in book is No. 6 on The Wall Street Journal's nonfiction best-seller list, where it has been for the last four weeks....
"So what exactly is the 'Secret'? Simply stated: Envision what you want, and it will come to you. The message is elaborated on by the film's cast of 24 advice experts of varying levels of fame, most notably Jack Canfield, author of the best-selling 'Chicken Soup for the Soul' series. The ensemble approach marks another departure for self-help projects, which usually promote a single guru. ...
"The enlightainment genre will get another boost this spring when 20th Century Fox releases 'Seven Spiritual Laws of Success,' a Deepak Chopra film that co-stars Olivia Newton-John and is loaded with special effects, including a sandcastle that is transformed into a tower to illustrate the power of the mind." Wall Street Journal, Jan 27 '07, pp1, 5. <http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB116986059209389783.html>
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SCIENTOLOGY
"How Scientologists Infiltrated Britain's Schools" (no byline) -- subtitled "Drugs charity is front for 'dangerous' organisation.
"Devotees of the Church of Scientology have gained access to thousands of British children through a charity that visits schools to lecture on the dangers of drugs. ...
"Critics of the charity, Narconon, say it is a front to promote the teaching of Scientology Ñ the controversial 'religion' founded by L. Ron Hubbard, the science fiction writer.
"Schools contacted last week said they knew nothing about the charity's links with Scientology. There is no apparent reference to the church in its drugs education literature. ...
"Narconon promotes a number of unorthodox theories and treatments Ñ based on Hubbard's work Ñ which experts say are not backed by scientific evidence. In California, where Narconon has its international headquarters, the state department of education has advised schools against using the charity.
"The UK prisons ombudsman has warned governors to ban it from jails because of its Scientology association. Narconon's international website claims: 'The ministry of health in England (sic) has also directly funded Narconon residential rehabilitation.' But the Department of Health denies any knowledge of this. ...
"John Gummer, the former cabinet minister, said: 'Scientology is a dangerous organisation. It doesn't stand up intellectually and scientifically.'"
[T]he charity's philosophy appears in more detail on the Narconon website. Here it claims that drugs stay in a user's fatty tissue for years but can be flushed away using a regime of vitamins and saunas. This is derived from the works of Hubbard and is hotly disputed by mainstream drug therapists and scientists. ...
"Andreas Heldal-Lund, who has researched Scientology and runs Operation Clambake [xenu.net], a website critical of the organisation, said: 'Most people might see them as a bit of a joke because of their beliefs and teachings. But they are in fact the most controversial and dangerous cult in the western world today, and pose a real threat to free speech.' ...
"Tower Hamlets council in east London advises its schools against using Narconon. DrugScope, one of the UK's main drug charities, said: 'We feel that the quality of Narconon's information is not objective and non-judgmental. It does not have any credibility.'"
Scientology "asserts that 75m years ago an evil galactic warlord called Xenu rounded up 13.5 trillion beings from an overpopulated corner of the galaxy, flew them to Earth and dumped them in volcanoes and vaporised them with nuclear bombs.
"This scattered their radioactive souls, or thetans, which were then trapped and implanted with a number of false ideas Ñ including the concepts of God, Christ and organised religion.
"These entities attached themselves to human beings and are at the root of our personal and global problems today. ...
"In the 1960s Hubbard issued a policy known as Fair Game, which said that all who opposed Scientology could be 'tricked, sued or lied to and destroyed'."
At the conclusion, it appears that this story's author was intentionally unidentified. It continues: "Eight weeks ago I was sent undercover to investigate the Scientologists at their new headquarters near St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London, writes a Sunday Times reporter.
"My experience shook me. What I had expected to find was an eccentric but largely harmless organisation. What I discovered was a paranoid and dogmatic group which Ñ through a mixture of pyramid selling techniques and subtle intimidation Ñ preys on the vulnerable to expand and enrich itself. (London) Sunday Times, Jan 7 '07, n.p. <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2535187,00.html>
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Sources, Digital:
1 - For a description of the event, see: <http://ctlibrary.com/12016>, and <http://www.standingtogether.org/itn_111604.html>
For an evaluation of the event, see: <http://ctlibrary.com/34048>, and <http://www.standingtogether.org/itn_011505.html>
For Mouw's apology and defense, see: <http://www.standingtogether.org/Responses_mouw.doc>
2 - The Secret (Extended Edition) with Rhonda Byrne, Paul Harrington, and Rev. Dr. Michael Beckwith (Rating: None; Director: Drew Heriot; Studio: TS Production, LLC; DVD Release Date: October 1, 2006; Run Time: 92 minutes)
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000K8LV1O/apologiareport>
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