08AR13-19

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Apologia Report 13:19

May 16, 2008

Subject: The "Queen of the New Age"

In this issue:

MORMONISM - New York Times minimizes difference between polygamous LDS splinter groups and main body

NEW AGE MOVEMENT - secular profile among the best ever

NEW TESTAMENT CRITICISM - This Tragic Gospel, briefly reviewed

POSTMODERNISM - "the freshest theological voice of the emerging church movement"

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MORMONISM

"Faith of Our Fathers" by Timothy Egan -- citing LDS "historical baggage," Egan is concerned about "the sexual manipulation of children by early Mormons and their latter-day sects" - while not finding a great difference between the these entities and the LDS church overall. (We wonder what greater atrocity would be necessary for the word "cult" to find media currency in place of "sect," given the context. - RP)

"For a long time ... the church was at odds with basic American ideals, and not just because old guys sanctioned marital sex with dozens of teenage girls. What you see in Texas - in small part - is a look back at some of the behavior of Mormonism's founding fathers. ...

"It would have been just another Christian faith had not [founder Joseph] Smith let his libido lead him into trouble. Before he died at the hands of a mob, he married at least 33 women and girls; the youngest was 14, and was told she had to become Smith's bedmate or risk eternal damnation.

"Smith was fortunate to find a religious cover for his desire. His polygamy 'revelation' was put into The Doctrine and Covenants, one of three sacred texts of Mormonism. It's still there - the word of God. And that's why, to the people in the compound at Eldorado, the real heretics are in Salt Lake City.

"As his biographer, Fawn Brodie, wrote, Joseph Smith 'could not rest until he had redefined the nature of sin and erected a stupendous theological edifice to support his new theories on marriage.'

"Smith was also a commander-in-chief of his own militia, and a candidate for President, running on a platform of 'bringing the dominion of the Kingdom of God' over the United States. His successor, Brigham Young, married 57 women - a harem that attracted curious libertines like Sir Richard Burton to study the American social experiment.

"And when the church set up a huge polygamous theocracy in the West, President James Buchanan was forced in the 1850s to send an army of 2,500 - nearly one-sixth of American forces - to uphold the law.

"The church did not give up its sexual practices without a long fight. As late as 1880, as Jon Krakauer notes in his book Under the Banner of Heaven [1], Mormon leaders preached that polygamy was above the laws of the land. The church's then-supreme leader, John Taylor, said that polygamy 'has been handed down directly from God. The United States cannot abolish it.' ...

"And despite the best efforts of the wealthy, modern Mormon church to leave a big part of its past behind, some Mormons still support the defiance of modern-day polygamist leaders, judging by the comments of Saints who are appalled by the breakup of the compound in Texas.

"'Back then, we were the ones in the compound,' wrote Guy Murray, a Mormon lawyer who writes a blog on his faith. He should be applauded for his honesty. But I'm not sure I'd want to be holding that baton of belief, passed through years. Sometimes, the faith of our fathers is better left to the revisionists." New York Times, Apr 23 '08, <http://egan.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/faith-of-our-fathers>

One of the interesting things about the influence of blogs on newspapers is energy that can be captured immediately after publication. This Op-Ed piece touched off hundreds of blog entries which begin with a response from LDS church historian Marlin K. Jensen.

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NEW AGE MOVEMENT

"The Queen of the New Age" by Mark Oppenheimer -- this profile of Louise Hay and her $100m/year retail empire captures the popular spirit of the New Age better than anything we've seen in a long, long time. Hay, "81 years old, thin, blond and ebullient," having sold 35 million books herself according to Oppenheimer, is "one of the best-selling authors in history."

This lengthy story offers insightful surprises about the lives and relationships between Hay, her business - Hay House (founded in 1987) - and many New Age luminaries including Wayne Dyer, Esther and Jerry Hicks, Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Sylvia Browne, and Doreen Virtue.

Perhaps most significant is Oppenheimer's candid portrayal of the pop New Age mindset. "Hay House has created enthusiasm for ... disparate authors not just by identifying a unified audience but also by creating one. Different New Age movements have had vague affinities for 100 years now; the descendants of New Thought, Theosophy and other metaphysical movements are today distant cousins, but cousins nonetheless. Hay House is hosting regular family reunions, helping to renew ties among the relatives. 'Interested in buying our book on psychic power?' they're saying. 'Then do we have a book on holistic medicine for you.'

"Louise Hay's famous list of negative thoughts that cause diseases has expanded with time. The original list does not, for example, give the causes of carpal tunnel syndrome or cellulite, but the 1999 edition of You Can Heal Your Life [2] does (anger is a cause of both). I was curious what sort of research Hay does before adding new items to her list. 'I seem to do my best channeling on the computer,' she told me. 'People would write me letters: "What about this?" "What about that?" I'd just type and send it off and people would write me back and say, "How did you know?"'

"That technique - it was once called channeling, although the term fell away as New Age became more mainstream - is still a favorite in the Hay House family. Wayne Dyer has written 33 books by going where his pen is led. 'I write them by hand and without an outline,' he says, 'and I have written them by just letting it come. I know about automatic writing. I don't know where it comes from. ... I am just an instrument, and it keeps flowing.'

"Hay House has a complicated relationship with traditional scholarly credentials. The company's literature never fails to mention Wayne Dyer's or Joan Borysenko's doctorates, nor the medical degrees earned by Christiane Northrup, David Hawkins and Mona Lisa Schulz.

"On the other hand, nothing would be worse for a writer like Wayne Dyer than to suggest that his insights derive only from the latest in scholarly research. A major premise of Hay House wisdom is that it can be gleaned by anyone with the time and desire to connect to other levels of reality. And a minor premise is that traditional Western learning, as codified by universities that bestow fancy degrees, is woefully incomplete, sometimes harmful, and must be supplemented by other ways of knowing. ...

"This ambivalence about credentials shades into an ambivalence about what most of us would call truth. Nobody at Hay House, including the founder, says that they endorse everything each author writes. I asked Louise Hay if she likes the work of Doreen Virtue, and her answer was very telling: 'People love her,' she exclaimed. What about the TV psychic Sylvia Browne? 'Now don't ask me that,' Hay replied. 'She's one of our most popular authors.' ...

"It's a wonderful world, this world in which, to quote [Hay House joint owner and company president] Reid Tracy, 'who decides' authors are experts are 'the people who read their books.' Legitimacy is conferred by sales, and sales are earned by seeming intuitive, connected and wise - legitimate. Louise Hay is thus a wise woman for the ages, because 35 million readers literally cannot be wrong. Is this circular logic? Yes, but Hay's readers prefer it to the logic of the experts who, for all their remarkable scientific advances, still have not found a way to make every last person healthy and happy." New York Times Magazine,ÊMay 4 '08, <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/magazine/04Hay-t.html>

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NEW TESTAMENT CRITICISM

This Tragic Gospel: How John Corrupted the Heart of Christianity, by Louis Ruprecht [3] - "Despite the subtitle of this book, which some general readers may find alarming, Ruprecht's argument is well reasoned and reflects concerns not new to scholars and Bible translators. The author, who teaches religious studies at Georgia State University, places in juxtaposition the gospels of Mark and John, suggesting that John was written not to supplement Mark's book, but rather to replace it and create a more strident, less human portrait of Jesus. Ruprecht dissects the two gospels and shows how the Johannine influence has prevailed in Christian history, in particular with reformers like Martin Luther. He also explores how John's gospel may have fed into the centuries-old plague of anti-Semitism in the church and beyond. In contrast to the self-assured Jesus described in John, Mark's Jesus is conflicted and ambiguous, working miracles but commanding those he healed not to tell anyone. And where (in Ruprecht's view) Mark sees Jesus' suffering as without purpose, in John suffering was itself the purpose. Although Ruprecht's ideas may surprise and discomfit nonspecialists, they deserve a read and are accessibly presented." Publishers Weekly, Apr 28 '08, p130.

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POSTMODERNISM

The Fidelity of Betrayal: The Ir/Religious Heart of Christianity, by Peter Rollins [4] -- "Rollins possesses the freshest theological voice of the emerging church movement. The leader of an ecclesial community called Ikon that meets in pubs in his native Northern Ireland came out of nowhere with his How (Not) to Speak of God [5] in 2006, where he made the tools of postmodern philosophy accessible to nonspecialists. That book's virtues are again on display: clarity (rare enough for an academically trained philosopher), wit and playful, counterintuitive readings of Christian scripture. He argues that the most faithful response to Christianity may be Judas's betrayal of Jesus over against fundamentalists who would violently defend Jesus and academics who would imprison Jesus. ... Rollins puts postmodern philosophy to work for those trying to rethink their faith for a new day without stifling modern categories. Even those who disagree will find the pages turning themselves." Publishers Weekly, Apr 21 '08, p54.

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Sources, Monographs:

1 - Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, by Jon Krakauer (Doubleday, 2003, hardcover, 400 pages, ISBN 0-3855-0951-0)

<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385509510/apologiareport>

2 - You Can Heal Your Life, by Louise Hay (Hay House, 2nd ed., 1984, paperback, 251 pages)

<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0937611018/apologiareport>

3 - This Tragic Gospel: How John Corrupted the Heart of Christianity, by Louis A. Ruprecht (Jossey-Bass, August 2008, hardcover, 256 pages)

<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0787987786/apologiareport>

4 - Fidelity of Betrayal: The Ir/Religious Heart of Christianity (alternately subtitled "Towards a Church Beyond Belief"), by Peter Rollins (Paraclete, 2008, paperback, 164 pages)

<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1557255601/apologiareport>

5 - How (Not) to Speak of God, by Peter Rollins (Paraclete, 2006, paperback, 144 pages)

<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1557255059/apologiareport>

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