Samantha Smith predicted it - now it's official: 'In Gaia We Trust'

In her excellent 1993 book, Goddess Earth, Exposing the Pagan Agenda in the Environmental Movement, Raiders News Update friend Samantha Smith warned that Gaia worship was at the very heart of today's environmental policy. Bluntly she decried, "The Endangered Species Act, the United Nation's Biodiversity Treaty and the Presidents Council on Sustainable Development are all offspring of the Gaia hypothesis of saving "Mother Earth."'

This week, in a National Review commentary, Christopher Horner conferred, saying, "...the environmental movement, now more than ever, does represent the American Left at worship. The green crusade is now crafting a new way for its own troubling religion to pervert traditional faith. Having fought in federal court to deny its religiosity — and thus continue its life-sustaining flow of taxpayer dollars — the Down With People machine is donning religious vestments and teaming up with the Bush administration to tap the president's faith-based initiative.

"CNSNews.com reports that 'EPA is informally seeking 'ideas' regarding how religious groups who promote green causes like climate change and pollution controls, can qualify for the White House's faith-based funds.' The very idea of green evangelizing infecting Bush's faith-based initiative should raise alarm, since the movement has far more in common with pagan themes than with traditional tenets of faith."

What's more worrisome is the goals of "greens" past, present, and future. Gaia-ism points to humanity - especially western civilization - as the world's great evil.

"Western Culture [is perceived as] the root of all evil," Smith observed. "These are some of the teachings of what is little more than the bastardized products of Eastern mysticism. Now called New Age religion, it culminates in deep ecology, eco-feminism and the worship of an ancient Greek God called Gaia - Mother Earth.

"Gaia teaches that man has damaged or destroyed the fragile balance of nature. Disciples of Gaia believe that all living things on earth are interconnected (except man) and to damage or destroy even a tiny insect is to damage whole ecological systems. Such a premise was the basis for Vice President Al Gore's book, "Earth in the Balance."'

So if man is the problem, what should be done about it? Horner reminds us that the faith-based funds-seeking environmental movement (a.k.a. EPA's Gaia worshippers) have a paper trail detailing their answer to the "people are pollution" quandary.

"To feed a starving child is to exacerbate the world population problem." Lamont Cole (as quoted by Elizabeth Whelan in her book Toxic Terror)

"This is as good a way to get rid of them as any." Charles Wursta, Chief Scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund, commenting on the likelihood of millions dying from a global ban on DDT (also quoted in Toxic Terror)

"I got the impression that instead of going out to shoot birds, I should go out and shoot the kids who shoot birds." Paul Watson, founder of Greenpeace (quoted in Access to Energy, vol. 10, no. 4, Dec. 1982)

"The right to have children should be a marketable commodity, bought and traded by individuals but absolutely limited by the state." Kenneth Boulding, originator of the "Spaceship Earth" concept (quoted by William Tucker in Progress and Privilege, 1982)

"The only real good technology is no technology at all. Technology is taxation without representation, imposed by our elitist species [man] upon the rest of the natural world." John Shuttleworth, Friends of the Earth manual writer

A prime spokesman for these Gaia-centered goals, according to Smith, is Father Thomas Berry, "a dissident Catholic priest and a leader of the Temple of Understanding, located in New York City. Father Berry contends that Christianity promotes 'deep cultural pathology of human greed and addiction.' He advocates that the earth is disintegrating and that Christianity is mostly to blame."

In his own words, "the world is being called to a new post-denominational, even post Christian, belief system that sees the earth as a living being - mythologically, as Gaia, Mother Earth - with mankind as her consciousness."

In an effort to make contact with Gaia's consciousness, a representative of The American Policy Center attended a meeting in Boulder (Colorado), called by Jose Arguelles (leader of PAN and New Age Transformation) where participants were presented with the idea that the earth is a living, spiritual being that can feel pain.

The group was asked to tune in to the crystal matrix frequency (Mother Earth's heartbeat) and to relax. Many went into trance-like states. As people felt they were being filled with the Earth's energy, they became vocal, with sounds rising and falling rhythmically. Some swayed and some fell down on the ground and began writhing. They were then 'brought to silence.'

Arguelles told the audience to concentrate on a cloud floating overhead, just drifting, and then told them to invite the cloud in to fill the empty spirit, the empty soul. He said to invite "PAN" in, accepting him as the leader and guide for their lives.

Jose explained that Pan was the first son of Mother Earth and used to live close to his mother in the primeval forest with his brothers and sisters, who went out and founded the temple-building societies (Aztecs, Egyptians, etc,). When Pan refused to join his siblings in the cities, they called him evil and Satan. They invented their own selfish religion, Christianity, which must be removed because it includes a vision of an Apocalypse.

The Boulder audience was told that 'right now Mother Earth is bringing Pan back to save us and lead us into the New Age. We can help by surrendering to him, tuning into the crystal matrix frequencies and carrying out the directions received while tuned in.' Arguelles explained this might include the physical removal of Christians, because they are the biggest obstacle to transformation."

(Pan, cloven-hoofed half man/half beast is one of the infernal names given to Satan in Anton LaVey's Satanic Bible.)

"But the green charade must be fought, for it is intolerable that taxpayers should be asked to fund such objectives under the guise of aiding the poor and disadvantaged. The greens' philosophy has nothing to do with Judeo-Christian — or even simply humanitarian — principles. Their projects have no place in President Bush's Faith Based and Community Initiative."

Who says these commentaries are correct?

Well certainly not Catholics:>).

There has been a substitution of Mary for Jesus, in the work of salvation, and to pray to in times of need. The impression is that Mary will listen, but God is cold and unapproachable. Mary will grant wishes, when God might reject them. That somehow God is bound by the will of Mary.

One gets the impression that salvation is obtained from Mary and God will rubberstamp her decisions.(co redeemer)

In the Catholic scripture the book of Baruch, , there is a description of the pagan practices of the Babylonians, who at the time held the Jews in captivity.

Baruch 6:3 But now, you shall see in Babylon gods of gold, and of silver, and of stone, and of wood borne upon the shoulders, causing fear to the Gentiles.
Baruch 6:4 Beware therefore that you imitate not the doings of others, and be afraid, and the fear of them should seize upon you.
Baruch 6:5 But when you see the multitude behind, and before, adoring them, say you in your hearts: Thou oughtest to be adored, O Lord.
Baruch 6:6 For my angel is with you: And I myself will demand an account of your souls.
Baruch 6:7 For their tongue that is polished by the craftsman, and themselves laid over with gold and silver, are false things, and they cannot speak.
Baruch 6:8 And as if it were for a maiden that loveth to go gay: so do they take gold and make them up.
Baruch 6:9 Their gods have golden crowns upon their heads; whereof the priests secretly convey away from them gold, and silver, and bestow it on themselves.

It was the practice of the pagan Babylonians to crown the statues of their gods.Note the crown on Mary's head

The picture shows John Paul II bowing down and paying homage to crowned statues of Mary, the "Queen of Heaven", in direct violation of the Commandments of God:

Exd 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness [of any thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth:
Exd 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God [am] a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me;

"Who says these commentaries are correct?" Well certainly not Catholics.

My point is that there is no Divine guarantee that the authors of these commentaries are infallible. They could well be teaching error.

There has been a substitution of Mary for Jesus, in the work of salvation,

Malarkey. The Church teaches no such thing.

.The impression is that Mary will listen, but God is cold and unapproachable. Mary will grant wishes, when God might reject them.

Those may be your "impressions", but the Church does not teach them. We do ask Our Lady and the saints (our other Christian brothers and sisters, both in Heaven and here on Earth) to pray for us.

That somehow God is bound by the will of Mary.

Nonsense. The Church follows the example of Mary, who turned her entire will over to God: "Be it unto me according to Thy word."

One gets the impression that salvation is obtained from Mary and God will rubberstamp her decisions.(co redeemer)

Impressions are meaningless. The Church neither teaches or holds that salvation is obtained from Mary, nor that God will rubberstamp her decisions. By the power of the Holy Spirit Our Lady surrendered her decision-making ability to God and conformed her will totally to His when she gave her fiat at the Incarnation of the Lord.

"Co-redemptrix" simply means that Our Lady co-operated in our redemption by bringing into the world the One Redeemer, her Son Jesus Christ.

In the Catholic scripture the book of Baruch, , there is a description of the pagan practices of the Babylonians, who at the time held the Jews in captivity.

Baruch 6:3 But now, you shall see in Babylon gods of gold, and of silver, and of stone, and of wood borne upon the shoulders, causing fear to the Gentiles.
Baruch 6:4 Beware therefore that you imitate not the doings of others, and be afraid, and the fear of them should seize upon you.
Baruch 6:5 But when you see the multitude behind, and before, adoring them, say you in your hearts: Thou oughtest to be adored, O Lord.

So what? We Catholics do not adore statues, blocks of wood, or anything else; the Church teaches that God alone is to be adored. We do respect and venerate symbols (ikonos, ikonos, "icons") of the Lord and His saints, much as Protestants respect and venerate their Bibles, but no good Catholic believes that such things have any divinity in and of themselves. Bowing to a statue of Our Lady is no more idolatrous than kissing a picture of one's spouse; in both cases, we express our love to the subject of the image, not the image itself.

Their gods have golden crowns upon their heads; whereof the priests secretly convey away from them gold, and silver, and bestow it on themselves. It was the practice of the pagan Babylonians to crown the statues of their gods.Note the crown on Mary's head

So crowns = evil?

The picture shows John Paul II bowing down and paying homage to crowned statues of Mary, the "Queen of Heaven", in direct violation of the Commandments of God:
Exd 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness [of any thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth:
Exd 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God [am] a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me

God forbade the worship of statues, but he did not forbid the religious use of statutes. Instead, he actually commanded their use in religious contexts!
People who oppose religious statuary forget about the many passages where the Lord commands the making of statues. For example: "And you shall make two cherubim of gold [i.e., two gold statues of angels]; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end; of one piece of the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be" (Ex. 25:18-20).
David gave Solomon the plan "for the altar of incense made of refined gold, and its weight; also his plan for the golden chariot of the cherubim that spread their wings and covered the ark of the covenant of the Lord. All this he made clear by the writing of the hand of the Lord concerning it all, all the work to be done according to the plan" (1 Chr. 28:18-19). David’s plan for the temple, which the biblical author tells us was "by the writing of the hand of the Lord concerning it all," included statues of angels.
Similarly Ezekiel 41:17-18 describes graven (carved) images in the idealized temple he was shown in a vision, for he writes, "On the walls round about in the inner room and [on] the nave were carved likenesses of cherubim."
During a plague of serpents sent to punish the Israelites during the exodus, God told Moses to "make [a statue of] a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent, and set it on a pole; and if a serpent bit any man, he would look at the bronze serpent and live" (Num. 21:8-9). One had to look at the bronze statue of the serpent to be healed, which shows that statues could be used ritually, not merely as religious decorations.
Catholics use statues, paintings, and other artistic devices to recall the person or thing depicted. Just as it helps to remember one’s mother by looking at her photograph, so it helps to recall the example of the saints by looking at pictures of them. Catholics also use statues as teaching tools. In the early Church they were especially useful for the instruction of the illiterate. Many Protestants have pictures of Jesus and other Bible pictures in Sunday school for teaching children. Catholics also use statues to commemorate certain people and events, much as Protestant churches have three-dimensional nativity scenes at Christmas.
If one measured Protestants by the same rule, then by using these "graven" images, they would be practicing the "idolatry" of which they accuse Catholics. But there’s no idolatry going on in these situations. God forbids the worship of images as gods, but he doesn’t ban the making of images. If he had, religious movies, videos, photographs, paintings, and all similar things would be banned. But, as the case of the bronze serpent shows, God does not even forbid the ritual use of religious images.
It is when people begin to adore a statue as a god that the Lord becomes angry. Thus when people did start to worship the bronze serpent as a snake-god (whom they named "Nehushtan"), the righteous king Hezekiah had it destroyed (2 Kgs. 18:4). [Source]

We know that Our Lady brings the problems of people to her Son because we see her do it in Scripture [John 2:1-5]. Far from bossing her Son around, Mary commands us all to obey him as she does. "Whatever He tells you to do, do it."

Yours in Christian fraternity,

B-chan

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