Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 22, 1991 TAG: 9102220387
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The Rev. Craig Wilson of Richmond asserts that religious leaders who take seriously the techniques of New Age self-improvement are in the same class with the Gnostics of First Century Christianity, whose teachings were decried by some biblical writers as heresy.
Wilson, director of Metropolitan Missions for the Baptist General Association of Virginia, addressed a total of 56 adults in two workshops at the annual Virginia Southern Baptist Evangelism Conference.
About 400 Baptists from throughout the state were at the two-day event late last month at Roanoke's Oakland Church.
Wilson's two workshops were the best attended, a Richmond headquarters staffer said. They revealed the concern many Baptists have about the ability of non-traditional groups to steal young adults from familiar Protestant churches.
New Age religion, Wilson said, is today's buzz word for what used to be called heresy and a variety of other belief systems that deny the orthodox Christian view that humanity's intrinsic flaws cannot be altered.
Instead of accepting this view of human weakness, which is bearable only through dependence on an all-loving, all-knowing, all-powerful God, New Agers expect to perfect themselves, Wilson said.
It's a short step from seeing God within oneself to having no need for him, the speaker asserted.
The evil is compounded, Wilson said, when the necessary knowledge for self-improvement is obtainable only through expensive materials or total allegiance to a leader who may or may not take the East Indian name of guru.
Gnostics, an early Christian group, claimed secret knowledge about Jesus' divinity and were picky about the people to whom this was imparted. But, Wilson said, there was just enough correct doctrine in their claims to fool many intelligent folk.
Those who see the Bible as affected by the times in which it was written have long recognized that much in both the Old and New Testament was set forth to sort out what the many authors saw as correct teachings from what was popular at the time.
Wilson tarred contemporary religion with a broad brush.
Even the highly influential Norman Vincent Peale and Robert Schuller were not exempt from Wilson's doubts about New Age self-improvement.
"I'm not into a conspiracy theory, but these popular guys bump up mighty close" to the New Age views, Wilson said.
So, he continued, do internationally known death researchers Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and Raymond Moody, along with the world brotherhood Baha'i Faith, the Virginia communities like Seven Oaks and Yogaville, Catholic theologian Matthew Fox, most holistic health-care centers, actress Shirley MacLaine and "a lot of radical feminists who write and speak about God being a woman.
"The basic idea of them all is that you change things yourself so you have no need for God . . . a lot of New Agers say they believe in Jesus, but to them he's another incarnation, not the same to them as to us."
Adults and youth into New Age groups meet to study the teachings of the founder rather than gathering into churches to study the Bible, Wilson said.
Questions from his audience showed the Baptists' knowledge of New Age as limited. Most movements and groups they mentioned Wilson classed as suspicious "gray areas."
He did shy away from labeling as false the "life after life" phenomenon, calling it one of the gray areas. "There is evidence that people do have warnings, but [in near-death accounts from survivors] they never go to a bad place."
Asked if he considers Mormons and Christian Scientists New Agers, Wilson pointed out that these groups developed in America in the 19th century and are not part of the current craze for individual religious experience appealing especially to the 35 to 55 age group.
Wilson broadened his alarm further when he said New Age teachings have infiltrated public education as well as human relations training for business and social work.
They stress, he said, that self-knowledge will ease decision-making and set the individual above the need for support in a group.
That, he said, undermines basic Judeo-Christian teaching about the need for others as well as relying on God.
In contrast to Wilson's workshops, Darrell Vandergriff taught less than a dozen - mostly women - in his sessions on "Children and Conversion."
Vandergriff, who came from Nashville, Tenn., and the Southern Baptist Sunday School Board, urged the teachers to be careful not to appear to be pushing children into making early professions of faith.
"Conversion is a life-long process of becoming more like Jesus. There's no set age. Most Southern Baptist churches don't teach that children are lost until they know what sin is," said Vandergriff, himself the father of a 4-year-old.
The peer pressure resulting from a week at camp or other fun activity often has caused elementary or junior high children to join the crowd in accepting Jesus, the leader noted.
It's more effective, he said, to pray privately with a child about her concerns, let her see the teacher using the Bible rather than lesson materials , and "to make a clear distinction among becoming a Christian, being baptized and joining a church."
by CNB