08AR13-15

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Apologia Report 13:15

April 18, 2008

Subject: United Nations called upon to help defend Islam

In this issue:

CHURCH OF RELIGIOUS SCIENCE - relocation, name change

HAGEE, JOHN - obfuscation, conflict of interest

ISLAM - global Muslim lobby influencing United Nations policy against criticism of Islam

+ English translations of classic "turning-point texts in Islam," a "critical bibliographical survey"

LIBERALISM - "a deeper insight into the meaning and truth of Christian faith for today than all the other options"?

PSYCHOLOGY - new secular exorcism therapy "works better" than what professionals learned in medical or graduate school

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CHURCH OF RELIGIOUS SCIENCE

"Spiritual Living headquarters moving to Genesee" by Jean Torkelson -- "The headquarters of a spiritual movement that draws from an array of religious traditions is pulling up stakes in Los Angeles to settle in the Denver area.

"The United Centers for Spiritual Living, which until recently was known as the Church of Religious Science, is moving its international organization to a two-story building in a Genesee office park. ...

"The United Centers' largest member congregation is in Lakewood [a Denver suburb]. Mile Hi Church has more than 5,500 members, said Karen Thomas, Mile Hi's marketing director. On April 6 it will unveil a new, $10 million-plus sanctuary.

"The denomination is part of the New Thought movement popularized in the 1930s by Ernest Holmes. The spiritual author wrote The Science of Mind and incorporated ideas from many of the world's religions.

"Hearn said the name change, which was made official two years ago, widens the denomination's appeal.

"The word 'church' can be off-putting to people because it's a very Christian word, and we have a spirituality that actually reaches out to all denominations and backgrounds," Hearn said. The name Religious Science was also getting people confused with Christian Science and Scientology, though it's not affiliated with either, she said. ...

"Under the leadership of the Rev. Roger Teel, it's grown 24 percent in three years and is recognized as a go-to venue for leaders in the spiritual self-help movement. Frequent speakers include Wayne Dyer, Marianne Williamson and Deepak Chopra. ...

"The headquarters will move to Genesee about the end of June with five staff members. Once here, it will hire up to 20 more people. Among the top administrators, only executive director Rev. Jerry Fetterly will move to Colorado. The others will commute, Hearn said." Rocky Mountain News March 25, 2008, <http://tinyurl.com/5nolk3>

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HAGEE, JOHN

The New York Times Magazine asks Hagee: "[S]ome are concerned that the Zionism of American evangelicals stems from self-interest. Isn't your involvement in Israel based on a desire to speed the second coming of Jesus?"

Hagee's reply: "Our support of Israel has nothing to do with any kind of 'end times' Bible scenario." This from the author of Final Dawn Over Jerusalem [2] and numerous other apocalyptic tomes. The Barnes & Noble synopsis [1] of Final Dawn includes: "In his dealings with the nation of Isreal, the true people of prophecy, [Hagee] has uncovered secret treasures of spiritual insights available to all believers ... and a blueprint for the rapidly approaching end times." (ellipsis in original) New York Times Magazine, Mar 23 '08, <http://tinyurl.com/5kkrvp>

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ISLAM

"OIC: Eliminating 'Defamation' of Islam" by Elizabeth Kendal, Principal Researcher and Writer for the Religious Liberty Commission of the World Evangelical Alliance -- describes the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) efforts at "getting the UN to 'adopt an international resolution on Islamophobia, and call on all States to enact laws to counter it, including deterrent punishments.' ...

"The OIC's anti-'defamation' resolutions have now passed in both the UNHRC and the UN General Assembly where it was adopted in December 2007...."

Kendal warns of possible confusion in two areas that may occur when studying the OIC resolution. First, "Islam and Muslims and race are not the same thing. It is wrong and misleading to freely interchange the terms as if they were." And second, "While the OIC freely employs the term 'defamation', the more correct word would be criticism." The idea being that the objective of the OIC appears to be opposition to criticism of Islam in general. News & Analysis, Mar 25 '08, <http://tinyurl.com/5oxcbc>

The Literature of Islam: A Guide to the Primary Sources in English Translation, by Paula Youngman Skreslet and Rebecca Skreslet [3] -- reviewer Mark N. Swanson sees this work as an essential companion for those who teach courses in Islamic studies at seminaries and church-related colleges. It is a "critical bibliographical survey of English translations of classic 'turning-point texts from the Islamic intellectual and spiritual traditions. [The authors'] survey is divided into eight chapters: Qur'an, Hadith, Qur'anic exegesis, law and legal theory, history and historiography, philosophy, theology, spirituality, and mysticism. Concise but informative introductions to each chapter and to major thinkers provide background for understanding the significance of the works surveyed, and each work is presented with meticulous attention to the quality of the translation, as well as introductions, annotations, indexes, and other appendices.

"The authors' critical judgments are presented with insight and verve." Concluding, Swanson cites several overlooked sources "that might merit some more attention" as well. Interpretation, Apr '08, pp203-204.

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LIBERALISM

Liberal Theology: A Radical Vision, by "the respected historical and constructive theologian" Peter C. Hodgson [4] -- reviewer Brent W. Sockness finds that this text is "a call for the revitalization of the tradition of post-Enlightenment liberal theology, an apologia for liberalism articulated against the background of a variety of arguably illiberal recent theological trends, and a concise introduction to Hodgson's own constructive theology." The book's thesis is that "a liberal theology, radically understood, is Christian theology's most promising form because 'it offers a deeper insight into the meaning and truth of Christian faith for today than all the other options.'" (So much for liberal relativism. - RP)

"Hodgson provides assessments of postliberalism and radical orthodoxy, and critiques of religious and scientific fundamentalisms. ...

"Granted, readers might rightly ... wonder whether the often fatuous, highly politicized, and all-too-easily won 'God-talk' found in much liberation, feminist, and ecological theology does not itself require more thoroughgoing criticism from the vantage point of the classical liberal thinkers whom Hodgson knows all too well (Kant, Schleiermacher, Baur, and Troeltsch, as well as Hegel)." Interpretation, Apr '08, p212.

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PSYCHOLOGY

"'Spirit release' is a different kind of therapy" by Stafford Betty, professor of religious studies at California State University, Bakersfield -- reading like tabloid news, the piece begins: "A new breed of therapist is healing the mentally ill not with talk and drug therapy but by releasing troublesome or malevolent spirits who have attached themselves to their victims. [These are] secular healers, some of them licensed psychiatrists or psychologists, who have discovered, often by accident, that this new therapy works better than what they learned in medical or graduate school. They tell us ... 'spirit release' [therapy] usually heals, often permanently. Not only does it heal the client; it heals the attached (or 'possessing') spirit."

The movement's genesis is linked to William Baldwin's 1995 book Spirit Releasement Therapy: A Technique Manual [5]. Betty continues: "The disciples of Dr. Baldwin, who died in 2004, deal with spirits, or 'entities,' as they are often called, in a manner very different from most church-based exorcists and deliverance ministers. Missing is the adversarial command to 'come out in the name of Jesus!' These alternative therapists treat the spirits with respect and compassion. To threaten anyone, living or dead, they say, only provokes an angry reaction, but a gentler, more rational approach is usually enough to coax the spirit out of its host and into the light of the afterworld, where it should have been all along.

"Spirits come in several varieties [which Betty describes briefly]. One might suspect a conspiracy except for the fact that the movement is so widespread, with practitioners ranging from Hindu babas living in Pune, India, to a Polish healer who describes herself as a 'therapist for ghosts as well as people, both needing the same love and care.'" National Catholic Reporter, Dec 28 '07 <http://natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2007d/122807/122807t.htm>

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Sources, Digital:

1 - http://tinyurl.com/3grgyy

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Sources, Monographs:

2 - Final Dawn Over Jerusalem, by John Hagee (Thomas Nelson, 1999, paperback, 224 pages)

<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0785275711/apologiareport>

3 - The Literature of Islam: A Guide to the Primary Sources in English Translation, by Paula Youngman Skreslet and Rebecca Skreslet (Scarecrow, 2006, paperback, 264 pages)

<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0810854082/apologiareport>

4 - Liberal Theology: A Radical Vision, by Peter C. Hodgson (Fortress, 2007, hardcover, 134 pages)

<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0800638980/apologiareport>

5 - Spirit Releasement Therapy: A Technique Manual, by William Baldwin (Headline, 1995, paperback, 480 pages)

<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/092991516X/apologiareport>

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