Smoke, Mirrors and Disinformation…
THE SPIRITUAL COUNTERFEITS PROJECT
Part I
Excerpts from SCP Journals, newsletters and brochures give us an inside look at this organization.
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SCP JOURNAL - AUGUST 1978 The Marriage of Science and Religion––Holistic Health Issue
SCP Editors: Brooks Alexander David Fetcho
Board of Reference: David Adeney Lit-sen Chang Ronald EnrothOs Guiness Earl Palmer William E. Pannell William Peterson James W. Sire––InterVarsity Press Senior Editor |
William Pannell is a Corresponding Editor for Christianity Today [founder Billy Graham], a Fuller Theological Seminary faculty member and advisor to Fuller’s president Richard Mouw. He has worked for World Vision, which is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations. In 1978, one of the years he was listed on the SPC Board of Reference, Pannell participated with John Stott and others at Willowbank 1978—a meeting of the Lausanne Consultation’s Theology and Education Group. Willowbank 1978 included representation from: the World Council of Churches, United Bible Societies, World Vision, Wycliffe Hall/Oxford University, Fuller Theological Seminary and the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students [IFES].
John Stott is a Cambridge-educated Anglican minister and contributing editor to Christianity Today. Stott was the Rector of All Souls Church, London from 1950-75 and honorary chaplain to the Queen of England for 32 years. He also served as President of the Evangelical Alliance of England in 1973-74.
In 1951, John Stott helped to revive the old U.S. Evangelical Alliance with the support of the National Evangelical Alliance/NAE. The Evangelical Alliance would become the World Evangelical Fellowship, recently renamed the World Evangelical Alliance. [See: NAE/WEF/Lausanne Timeline] Stott was also the framer of the Lausanne Covenant (1974) which requires all who sign it to abandon Biblical doctrine for the sake of ecumenical unity. The origin of the World Evangelical Alliance as stated in the WEA history reads:
“A 19th century dream is realized in the 20th century with vision for the 21st
“London 1846. Christians from ten countries, 800 representatives in all, met for the purpose of launching, in their own words, ‘a new thing in church history, a definite organization for the expression of unity amongst Christian individuals belonging to different churches.’”
The WEA website
conveniently forgot to include the venue of the formation of the Evangelical
Alliance — Freemason Hall, the United Grand
Lodge of England in London. This
fact is documented in various historical accounts located in the Billy Graham
Archives. See:
Evangelical
Considering that John Stott is a leader of the Anglican Church, the following news report of an Anglican-Druid dialogue is revealing:
“SENIOR Church of England clergy are to join Druids and pagans at a controversial conference... The conference, Spirit of the Land 2000, is described as ‘a Christian-Druid dialogue and reconciliation meeting for the new Millennium’. It is being held against a background of growing interest in New Age religion and white magic. Organisers of the event include Emma Restall Orr, the joint chief of the British Druid Order, the Rev Marcus Small, a vicar in Hertfordshire, and the Dean of Guildford, the Very Rev Alexander Wedderspoon...a number of clergy already participated in joint Christian and pagan services, but there was still too much ignorance and hostility. Mark Graham, of the Pagan Federation, which represents Druidry, wicca and sharmanism, said: ‘Some pagans believe in magic, just like some Christians believe in the power of prayer and miracles.’ ‘We celebrate our connectedness to nature and I will sometimes dance naked around a fire. They aren't doing much dancing around a fire naked at matins or evensong but perhaps they should. Perhaps they will like it.’ ...The day-long conference at Amesbury, Wiltshire, in June, will be chaired by Rosemary Hartill, the former BBC religious affairs correspondent. Speakers include Martin Palmer, a former adviser to Prince Philip, and Ronald Hutton, a professor of history at Bristol University. The event will end with a Christian service and a Druid ceremony in which a green-robed priestess will make offerings of bread and mead...” [Source: “Alarm Over Church Talks With Druids,” Jonathan Petre, Sunday, May 21, 2000; Issue 1822, Electronic Telegraph]
As previously mentioned, John Stott was honorary chaplain to the Queen of England for 32 years. In their book, The Trojan Horse: How the New Age Infiltrates the Church, Brenda Scott and Samantha Smith associate both the Order of Freemasons and the British Royal Family with the Druid cult:
"Druid traditions were also preserved with Freemasonry, which is thought to have evolved from the Druids or at least alongside of them. This connection is addressed in Gould's History of Freemasonry. (James Bonwick, Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions, Salem N.H.: Ayer Co., 1984, p. 71) The three part structure of the masons is identical to the three offices of druidic priesthood: Ovates, Bards, and Druids. Also, ‘the secret teachings embodied therein are practically the same as the mysteries concealed under the allegories of Blue Lodge masonry.’ (Manly P. Hall, An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalist and Rosicrucian Symbolic Philosophy, Los Angeles: The Philosophical Research Soc., 1977, XXIII).
"Political and religious suppression forced the Druids to go underground. Many thought that the religion had disappeared, but it survived, handed down within families and villages to resurface again in the early eighteenth century. There are three main druidic colleges. . .In fact, druidism has become so accepted socially that Queen Elizabeth II and the Prince of Wales both accepted posts as honorary Druids in the Wales Gorsedd. (ff. “The Gnosis Interview,” Sophie Moore)… By 1988, there were estimated to be over one million adepts (spiritual masters) and the movement is growing." [The Trojan Horse, Huntington House Pub., 1993, pp. 59,60)
Editor’s Note: A Chronology of Major Movements: Oxford University documents the founding of Oxford University by the Ancient Order of Druids. Oxford University was also the origin of the Oxford Movement which launched the Counter-Reformation in England. Also at Oxford University, the elite of the English-speaking countries are trained to work toward the federation, expansion and consolidation of the British Empire with funding from the Cecil Rhodes Trust.
John Stott is also Vice President of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) [UK, 1947], which has offices in 140 countries. IFES serves as an umbrella to InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of Canada and to the U.S. InterVarsity which sponsors the Urbana conferences. Stott is also a contributing editor at Christianity Today along with two other IFES officers, IFES President Samuel Escobar and Rene Padilla the Latin American IFES representative, who is also on the World Evangelical Fellowship (WEF) International Council—the same WEF which Stott helped to re-ignite to be the behind-the-scenes directorate for the global, ecumenical Lausanne movement.
Lindsay Brown is the IFES General Secretary and was President of the Oxford Intercollegiate Christian Union. Lindsay Brown is also a personal friend of Tal Brooke, the President of Spiritual Counterfeits Project.
“When I spoke at Cambridge this time, sharing the weekend event with my old friend Lindsay Brown (a Welshman who went to Oxford, was Captain of the Oxford University rugby team, President of the Oxford Intercollegiate Christian Union and who is now general secretary of IFES.”
See photo of Lindsay Brown, Tal Brooke & George Verwer at Cambridge University––Scroll to bottom.
George Verwer is the founder and director of Operation Mobilization based in the UK, and a frequent InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/Urbana speaker. Verwer also chairs the Lausanne Consultation on World Evangelization’s Mission Mobilization Track—just as C. Peter Wagner, faculty member of Fuller Theological Seminary’s School of World Mission, is chair for the LCWE’s Prayer Track.
Ed Note:
Operation Mobilization is an associate member of the
World Evangelical Fellowship/WEF.
Mark Albrecht was a staff writer for Spiritual Counterfeits Project in 1978. Could he possibly be the same Mark Albrecht who now serves on the World Evangelical Alliance/WEA’s Religious Liberty Commission as special advisor? The Commission is an NGO to the United Nations: the United Religions Initiative/URI. Perhaps the URI’s Circle of Cooperation has drawn the WEA’s Religious Liberty Commission into its fold, since they must all agree to share the same goals as fellow NGOs. And all must share and promote the objectives of the U.N.
“The purpose of the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (RLC) is to promote freedom of religion for all faiths worldwide as defined by Article 18 of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights, and in accordance with Scripture.”
Is it too great a leap to theorize that the two Mark Albrechts may be one and the same person––that Albrecht could have moved from Spiritual Counterfeits Project to a lofty position in an organization with such a global reach as the World Evangelical Alliance? Not when one considers prominent Evangelical leaders that have been so closely involved with the Spiritual Counterfeits Project. According to Constance Cumbey, Spiritual Counterfeits Project has attempted to marginalize her and her exposure of the New Age:
Constance Cumbey threatened by James Sire, SCP Board of Reference
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New Age
Monitor, May 1991, page 2 of 4
…James Sire Sr., the Senior Editor of InterVarsity Publishing Company. Sire on March 20, 1983, threatened me with a character assassination at the hands of powerful Christian leaders, should I not back off the New Age Movement issues. I told him “Jim, I don’t care if nobody but God stands with me on this issue.” He said so sneeringly that I will never forget it until my dying day, “God may be all you have left.”
I said, “Well, Jim, would you like another handicap?”
After InterVarsity could no longer sweep the issue under the rug, they came out with their own version of “facts” on the New age Movement.
They published reconstructionist, Rushdoonyite Douglas Groothuis book, Unmasking the New Age. I found even the title an insult and I am sure it was intended to do just that. InterVarsity was founded by Norman Grubb, who has openly declared his fondness for the “great mystics” including Russian theosophist P. D. Ouspensky, a leading Gurdjieff disciple. The InterVarsity work dismissed my pioneering work in this area with one snippy paragraph in the back saying that I had erroneously equated the New Age Movement with fulfillment of biblical “prophesy” (the correct spelling would have be “prophecy”) and erroneously equated the New age Movement with Nazism and erroneously said the New Agers were following Alice Bailey. No substantiation whatsoever was offered for these remarks! The book was thereafter pushed as “the book” about the New Age Movement. In fact there was a rather obvious effort to write me out of the history books on the story of the exposure of the New Age Movement. Most of the books about the subject did not even mention me, although their use of my research was rather obvious. I understand from some sources that this occurred because their publishers in turn told them they could not mention me.
Oh well, I never thought it would be a picnic! It wasn’t. ~ Constance Cumbey
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This is the actual SCP endorsement of Jeremy Rifkin which Constance Cumbey talks about in her New Age Monitor [see below]. This SCP book review was written by Neil Duddy. Duddy would be the person named in the Witness Lee lawsuit––Lee v. Duddy–– an ongoing lawsuit during the early 80s, which forced SCP into bankruptcy.
SCP Newsletter February – March 1980 VI/1…
Article: Of Lakes and Lilies––Welcome to the 1980s by Mark Albrecht
Book Review
The Emerging Order: God in an Age of Scarcity by Jeremy Rifkin with Ted Howard (…1979) [by Neil Duddy]
…Rifkin and Howard (R & H) are members of the People’s Business Commission, a secular “think-tank” based in Washington, D.C. As an institution devoted to examining issues of importance to the future of American society, the Commission is concerned about the worldwide drain of natural resources and its impact on the economy. R and H launched a skeptical research project to evaluate the potential influence of the charismatic-evangelical movement on America’s misuses of nature’s resources. The result is a book that surprised even its authors. Without compromising their realistic assessment of our planetary crisis, Rifkin and Howard see real hope in a Christian spiritual renewal…
…To begin, the authors describe the impact of evangelical revival on American history and then broadly survey the charismatic-evangelical movement today…
…The Second great Awakening spawned “benevolence” societies, the abolitionist and feminist movements, and contributed heavily to the transition from an agrarian economy to an industrial one. Rifkin and Howard believe that a new charismatic-evangelical revival is in the beginning stages. They also perceive the rudiments of a new application of God’s cultural mandate –– “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion…” (Genesis 1:28). This new application teaches that “anything that exploits or harms God’s creation is sinful and an act of rebellion against God himself.” Righteousness, conversely, includes maintaining God’s ecology and conserving his creation. If this new application becomes a serious and active part of the charismatic-evangelical revival, it may spark a reformation strong enough to reorient our use of natural resources and usher in another economic transformation. Such a transformation can only occur if the cultural mandate is used to create the theological foundation for a “steady-state” world. This would be a world in which natural resources are used with discretion, coupled with social emphases on sharing, cooperation and sacrifice…
The last section of the book urges Christians to adopt a new application of the biblical notion of work and conservation of Cod’s creation. It seems to us here at SCP that the physical nature of the problem requires a Christian contribution of action, experimentation and even risk in the exercising authority over the “principalities and powers” that exploit out father’s creation.
A revival based on biblical stewardship may or may not occur. There are still choices to be made by the Christian community which will determine the answer to that question. Rifkin and Howard point out the sobering fact that the “totalitarian” scenario could still emerge within a pseudo-Christian framework. A quirky “revival” that attempted to baptize current producer/ consumer relationships and maintain an economically privileged status could easily become a breeding ground for fascism.
Rifkin and Howard are also our counselors. Their book seems to be an address to us as members of the charismatic-evangelical movement. It is telling us about ourselves and offering an agenda of doctrine and action for our consideration. For those who have already settled the question of Christianity’s truth-claims, much of The Emerging Order’s advice will be worth heeding. It is indeed rare for secular analysts to consider the contributions and potential of the Christian community with openness and respect. Rifkin and Howard have given us their honest-hearted regard; we should at least return the favor. ––Neil Duddy
For further information write to: the People’s Business Commission… |
“Richard Quebedeaux, an astute, albeit perhaps detached, observer of the Evangelical scene reported on the direction that certain Christian communities were taking in the late 70’s ––drastically to the left. In his book The Worldly Evangelicals, he named names and gave specifics. He wrote, ‘[T]hree distinctive communities––each with its own journal–– function as the most prominent collective expressions of the radical wing of the evangelical left.’
“Those three communities were, per Quebedeaux: (1) The People’s Christian Coalition in Washington, D.C., publisher of Sojourners (formerly the Post American) [Jim Wallis]; (2) Jubilee Fellowship in Philadelphia…; and, last but not least, (3) the Berkeley Christian Coalition, publisher of Right On ( later renamed Radix Magazine.)
“Theodore Roszak copyrighted Unfinished Animal: The Aquarian Frontier and the Evolution of Consciousness in 1977. A grand chart was presented on four successive pages in a subsection of the book entitled “The Whole Holy Works.’ Of his chart, Roszak said:
“‘The chart that follows on the next few pages offers some idea of the many portals, grand and humble, through which people currently invite the experience of transcendence [altered states] –– or some fleeting glimmer of it–– into their lives.’ The chart was titled ‘Aquarian Frontier: Points of Entry.’ One claimed point of entry was Judeo-Christian Revivals.’ The list included among the obvious eastern and Lucis Trust type entries the following:
“New Pentecostalism (Jesus Freak* sects and communes, Charismatic congregations in the mainstream churches, Right On (Christian [World] Liberation Front Journal). (This was the magazine of the Berkeley Christian Coalition. Christian World Liberation Front was the organization that spawned the Berkeley Christian Coalition and Spiritual Counterfeits Project.)”
Constance Cumbey also gives the following background on the close ties of RADIX, SCP and Norman Grubb, the founder of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship [IVCF]…
New Age Monitor ~ May 1989 ~ Constance Cumbey
SOJOUNERS’ JIM WALLIS PARTICIPATES IN NEW AGE CONFERENCE FOR A “POSTMODERN PRESIDENCY”
…“What! Isn’t Jim Wallis a leader of the “Christian” group Sojourners!
He must have gone there to “witness.” I had a private letter from Joe Roos, publisher of Sojourners (Roos is also a former InterVarsity man. The founder of InterVarsity, Norman Grubb has been into New Age philosophies from his own admission from the 1920’s. In 1962 Grubb was openly recommending Ouspensky’s book Tertium Organum.) January 10, 1984 protesting Sojourner’s innocence of New Age participation or intent (I didn’t believe it then and I especially don’t now!). Interestingly, Sojourners and the Berkeley Christian Coalition’s Radix Magazine (Parent group of SCP/Spiritual Counterfeits Project) have nearly interlocking editors with Sojourners Magazine. Wallis’ group has clearly been mainstream New Age from way back.”
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SCP Newsletter February – March 1980 VI/1 (cont’d.) ResourcesThe purpose of this column is to focus attention on current books, periodicals and films that feature material of concern to our readership. We encourage you to notify us of materials that have served as education resources for you, so that we can relay that information to the whole of our mailing list…
Recommended SCP resources… ~ edited for purposes of this report
Films“Cult explosion”…The film features commentary by Walter Martin and Brooks Alexander in addition to former members of the Worldwide Church of God, Mormonism, Christian Science, TM, Unification Church, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc. For details… write or phone: New Liberty Enterprises…attention Pat Matrisciana…
Editor’s Note: This is proof that Pat Matrisciana, who founded the Christian World Liberation Front/CWLF as a front for Campus Crusade in 1969 with Jack Sparks, continued to work with Spiritual Counterfeits Project into the 80s. Matrisciana is a member of the secretive Council for National Policy. Interestingly, Matrisciana claimed in an interview with Daniel Hopsicker to have “created Jesus Freaks” as an agent of the CIA assigned to Berkeley. [See: Another Jesus Revolution? CIA Connections.]
SCP recommended resources cont’d. PeriodicalsThe American Family Foundation’s Advisor is an indispensable resource for those who are active in researching or opposing aberrant religious movements…[summarizing] current news of cult activities…
Ed. Note: Here Spiritual Counterfeits is recommending the AFF publication as “indispensible.” The American Family Foundation and the Old Cult Awareness Network/CAN shared an overlapping directorate before Scientology sued CAN in the mid-90s, causing its bankruptcy. Scientology then took over the organization and today the New CAN is a Scientology front.
See: AFF/CAN for more information--
Smoke, Mirrors and Disinformation… The Compromised Ties of the Discernment MinistriesAmerican Family Foundation and Cult Awareness Network
“The Power abusers: When Follow-the-leader becomes a dangerous game,” by Ronald Enroth, Eternity , October 1979. Author Enroth is professor of Sociology at Westmont College and a member of the SCP’s Board of Reference…Write: Eternity…
Ed. Note: Constance Cumbey stated about Eternity Magazine, "ETERNITY Magazine…which had a vested interest (they were pro Jeremy Rifkin, sympathetic to New Age Movement) in silencing legitimate anti-New Age work." [Source: e-mail loop, September, 1999] The actual e-mail is posted later in this report; see Gordon Melton and EMNR/Evangelical Ministries to New Religions. See more about Eternity Magazine [editor’s note].
Cornerstone, Vol. 8, No. 47 (Jesus People USA, publishers). This issue contains information on the Hare Krishnas and Moonies…with an update on the Children of God… [EMNR’s board member Eric Pement is on staff at Cornerstone Magazine.]
Note: EMNR’s board member Eric Pement was senior editor at Cornerstone Magazine for over twenty years. Cornerstone is under the umbrella of the controversial and communal Jesus People USA/JPUSA part of the Evangelical Covenant Church denomination. Ronald Enroth wrote about JPUSA in his book Recovering From Churches That Abuse.
‘God in the Age of Scarcity: The Quiet Revolution in Christianity,’ Jeremy Rifkin, New Age, October 1979. Excellent interview with this former civil rights/antiwar activist who co-directs the People’s Business Commission… For a single copy write: New Age Communications…
RADIX*, a bimonthly journal, states, “In the questions we are called to raise and the issues we face, we realize that we are called to be a people radically set apart from the world system because of our rootedness in Christ. Jesus Christ is our base for analysis, our measure of truth, our hope for living.” In the July/August… issue, cult-watcher Theodore Roszak was interviewed by SCP’s Alexander and Albrecht regarding his latest book, Person/Planet…write:…
Quote from Person/Planet by Theodore Roszak: "...sometimes societies fall apart in ways that release life-affirming energies. And what may look like anarchy from the viewpoint of the established cultural center may be the troubled birth of a new, more humanly becoming social order. There are creative, as well as destructive, forms of disintegration."
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SCP Newsletter July-Sept. 1980 Vol. 6, No.3
Cover article Sometimes a Fine Line by Ronald Enroth
“New Religious movements tend to emerge and prosper whenever a society is experiencing upheaval, uncertainty and massive cultural shifts…”
[above article Reprinted by permission from United Evangelical Action (Spring1980), official publication of the National Association of Evangelicals.*]…
NAE / WEF / Lausanne Timeline––shows roots of NAE in United Grand Lodge of England
RESOURCES [recommended by SCP]Periodicals
“A critique of the Theology of the Unification Church as Set Forth in the Divine Principle” by the Commission on Faith and Order for the National Council of Churches…Order from: The National Council of the Churches of Christ…New York, NY…
Citizens Freedom Foundation Information Services (CFF-IS) News; a monthly periodical chock-full of news items related to contemporary religious movements. CFF-IS’s stated focus is “that our fight against destructive cults is a legal issue rather than a religious issue.” For a single issue or subscription write…
Citizens Freedom Foundation: See AFF-CAN --American Family Foundation/Cult Awareness Network/Citizens Freedom Foundation
Write: Christianity Today…[SCP recommending a subscription to CT.] View: Christianity Today Masthead with additional background information
Contemporary Christianity is a bimonthly newsletter published by the Institute of Contemporary Christianity (ICC). The Jan/Feb 1980 issue features [two articles written by]… ICC director/editor James Bjornstad [EMNR co-founder]…
Is Bjornstad’s ICC associated with John Stott’s London Institute of Contemporary Christianity? Bjornstad is one of the founders of Evangelical Ministries to New Religions/EMNR [1982] with Walter Martin, Vernon Grounds and Ronald Enroth. He is presently an EMNR board member. EMNR adheres to/requires members to sign on to the Lausanne Covenant authored by John Stott, Contributing Editor to Christianity Today]
Crux––“a quarterly journal of Christian thought and opinion”––is published by Regent College…contains an article by Irving Hexham …Order Crux…
[Hexham was previously a Regent College professor, and is now at the University of Calgary where he hosts the NU-REL [new religions] web site; see EMNR & Irving Hexham -- Evangelical Ministries to New Religions/EMNR 2002 conference and Irving Hexham]
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SCP CONNECTIONS TO J. I. PACKER, CNP & COR
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SCP Brochure written circa/after 1981:
TO EXAMINE, RESEARCH, INFORM & SHARE Concerning cults, Christian aberrations, and new age movements Spiritual Counterfeits Project
BOARD OF TRUSTEESRev. David Brooks ––Chairman of SCP Board of Trustees/Pastor of Evangelical Free Church* Vernon Grounds––Professor Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary [co-founder, Evangelical Ministries to New Religions / See EMNR’s Co-founder Chairs WEF Willowbank Conference] Dr. Ron Enroth––Professor Westmont College [co-founder, EMNR] Mr. Bill Lynch––Medical Sciences Associate, USV Laboratories Dr. Art Lindsley––Staff Specialist, Coalition for Christian Outreach
See Art Lindsley at the ‘Bridging Through Christ” Gold Lake Retreat 1987 and as Scholar-in-Residence at C. S. Lewis Institute; See: SCP & CS Lewis.
Quotes (endorsements found on SCP brochure)
J.I. Packer––Professor of Historical & Systematic Theology, Regent College
“…They (SCP) deserve all the help we can give them.”
Packer was also a signer of Evangelicals & Catholic Together Document [See: Biblical Discernment Ministries expose of J.I. Packer]
R.C. Sproul––President, Ligonier Valley Study Center
“…They render a valuable service to a society threatened by occult and cultic distortions.”
See: Biblical Discernment Ministries expose of R.C. Sproul
Josh McDowell––Ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ International
“The SCP is making one of the most valuable contributions to the cause of Christ in the United States…”
(brochure continues…) In 1981, after six years of growth and service, SCP formed an external Board of Trustees to direct the work of the organization. SCP is now a member of both the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) and the Evangelical Press Association (EPA).
*CWLF was an evangelistic outreach that began under the sponsorship of Campus Crusade for Christ in 1969. Its purpose was to communicate the gospel to the “counter culture”––street people, radical student, occultists, guru disciples, etc… SCP MINISTRIES–– Access
Access* is a telephone ministry that provides callers with information on various spiritual trends and over 200 specific religious groups. In addition, ACCESS operators provide a referral service that directs callers to counselors and sources of information in their own geographical area. ACCESS has over 250 counselors across North America who are ready to assist people who need help. This includes ex-members of groups, professional and lay counselors, and other researchers. * Formerly called I.R.S. (information and referral service)
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More info about ACCESS’ funding:
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Spiritual Counterfeits Newsletter ~ Vol.13, No. 1, 1988 [newsletter out of order] Upgrading SCP’s Information Service
ACCESS (telephone hotline) [is a] vital element of SCP’s ministry…
We have a comprehensive program for the expansion of our ACCESS… service… The goal of our ACCESS Development Program (ADP) is to have ACCESS available every day during business hours…
We All Have a Part in SCP’s Future
The basics of the ADP have been underwritten by a significant grant from Fieldstead and Co. [see note on Fieldstead below], and thus we are able to begin the project immediately. To complete it, however, will take the backing of the community we serve. Together, under God, we have what it takes to take what we have to the Church and to the World. Together, our resources are “more than sufficient” for the proclamation of the truth––our highest rallying banner of God’s people.
Announcement in this same issue… Dave Sheffel [photo] SCP Administrative Director
Dave has joined the staff as Administrator. He brings a wealth of valuable experience and administrative expertise to his new job. He served ten years with Youth for Christ, in both administration and evangelism…
Ed. Note: Youth for Christ was founded in 1944; Billy Graham became YFC's first full-time staff member. See BDM expose: Youth for Christ: Parachurch Ecumenism |
Note About Fieldstead and Co.…
Both the Fieldstead Institute [Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson] and the Ethics and Public Policy Center [Elliot Abrams, CFR member and former Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom/USCIRF] are credited by Amy Sherman for the funding of her book Restorers of Hope: …church-based ministries that work. The book was a promo for faith-based welfare reform/charitable choice. The federal welfare legislation passed in 1996. Sherman was the change-agent sent by Manhattan Institute and Hudson Institute to various gatherings of networked churches; advising them on compliance for becoming FBOs [faith-based organizations] to the 1996 Charitable Choice––Welfare Reform legislation.
Howard Ahmanson is a member of the secretive Council for National Policy [CNP] and is on the Claremont Institute Board of Directors
The Claremont Institute sponsored a trip to Rome in 2000 which featured, in the itinerary, "an audience with the Pope."
Evangelical Free Church––See Biblical discernment Ministries exposé of the Evangelical Free Church: A Smorgasbord of Heresy
Trinity International University, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School/TEDS and Trinity School of Law are affiliated with the Evangelical Free Church denomination. Trinity School of Law was founded as Simon Greenleaf School of Law by Christian Research Institute’s Walter Martin, James Warwick Montgomery and Harold Lindsell [Christianity Today], among others.
SCP BOARDS OF REFERENCE AND TRUSTEES
SCP Newsletter June-July 1982 Vol. 8, No. 4Arrivals and Departures at the SPC staff
Frances Adeney––
[Adeney was previously a writer at Radix [August, 1980; mentioned above]; is possibly the daughter/relation of David Adeney, SPC Board of Reference; same with Miriam Adeney, Christianity Today, Board of Directors and faculty Regent College.]
Marti Wiederholt–– Our new part-time secretary…Both Marti and her husband Marc worked on staff of the Navigators before moving to Berkeley and Marc is now beginning a Navigators ministry here at the University of California…
SCP Staff TravelIn December SCP staffers Rebecca Adams and Jan Badger attended the Inter-varsity Christian Fellowship National Staff Conference on Evangelism, which followed the Urbana Missions conference in Urbana, Illinois. Jan gave a short introduction to the ministry of SCP, and answered questions, and distributed our material to over 700 IV students. On SCP BoardFor a number of years SCP has had both a fine board of reference and a local board of directors to oversee the organization. Our board of reference represents us in this country and overseas. SCP’s recent growth, however, has been to occasion for replacing our local directors with a more formal board of trustees. While the members of our board of reference will continue to stand behind us as a Christian ministry, our board of trustees will work closely with us as a growing organization.
SCP Board of ReferenceArticle includes biographical notation on each member.
David Adeney–– Former missionary to China, Discipleship Training Center, Singapore Dr. Lit-sen Chang––Founder-president Kiang-nan University, delegate to National Assembly (Constitutional Convention), and deputy minister in the cabinet of the National Government, in China; former professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary* …;ex-Buddhist and student of Zen. Dr. Os Guiness––Scholar in the field of sociology of religion; lecturer; author of the Dust of Death (InterVarsity Press) Earl Palmer-- Senior pastor of University Presbyterian Church, Seattle, WA since 1991. Prior to that he served as senior minister at First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, 1970 to 1991. He is a member of the Board of Trustees at Princeton Theological Seminary, the Board of Governors at Regent College, Vancouver, B.C., and the Board of Trustees at New College Berkeley, Berkeley, CA; He is a speaker at the C.S. Lewis Foundation's Summer Institute. [Dr. Palmer is neo-orthodox in his theology and interpretation of Scripture. He lauds both Karl Barth and this theology and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.] Dr. William E. Pannell– Assistant professor of evangelism and director of theological studies for black pastors, Fuller Theological Seminary* CT… Dr. William J. Petersen– Editor, Eternity magazine… (See: SCP & Eternity Magazine)
SCP Board of Trustees
David Brooks–-President of the board, pastor of Evangelical Free Church… Denny Rydberg––Vice President of the SPC board. Co-founder and former editor of the Wittenburg Door/ Youth Specialties… William Lynch… Brooks Alexander–Co-founder, editor-in-chief, and senior researcher of SCP… Dr. Ronald Enroth––Chairperson, sociology department, Westmont College, Santa Barbara, CA; author of numerous books including Youth, Brainwashing and the Extremist Cults (Zondervan, 1977) and The Lure of the Cults (Christian Herald Books,1979) Dr. Vernon Grounds––President Emeritus, Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary Karen Hoyt–– Director if the administrative division, International Council of Biblical Inerrancy––affiliate of COR/ Coalition on Revival [see below] Dr. James Sire—Senior Editor, InterVarsity Press; author |
David Adeney—Missionary with China Inland Mission, renamed Overseas Missionary Fellowship/OMF; instrumental in establishing the IVCF groups at Harvard and Yale; 1954 Urbana missionary convention. In 1956, C. Stacey Woods on behalf of International Fellowship of Evangelical Students/IFES offered him a position in Hong Kong, working as Associate General Secretary for the Far East, which he continued until 1967; for a period he served as IFES president. [Lindsay Brown/IFES/umbrella to IVCF.] Adeney bio-info found in the Billy Graham Archives.
Dr. Os Guiness—Trinity Forum. He was the Executive Director of the Williamsburg Charter Foundation, Guest Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies and a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution (a CFR front). Bio-info previously found: C.S. Lewis Institute where Guiness is a frequent conference speaker. Art Lindsley, who was named as a Spiritual Counterfeits Trustee in the SCP brochure [circa 1981], above, is Scholar-in–Residence at the C.S. Lewis Institute and was a participant at the secret, New Age “Bridging Through Christ” Gold Lake Foundation retreat, 1987, a gathering of SCP/EMNR leadership with David Spangler, Barbara Marx Hubbard and other New Age leaders. [SEE SCP/EMNR at Goldlake Retreat.] Also a signer of the infamous Evangelicals & Catholics Together Document.
Earl Palmer—Regent College board of Governors 2001- 2002 with Rich Simons––member of the secretive Council for National Policy and [former?] Vice President of Focus on the Family. Young Life––staff member [See: Coalition on Revival]
Dr. William E. Pannell—Lausanne Willowbank Conference; see NOTES/Pannell, SCP JOURNAL ~ August 1978, above
Dr. William J. Petersen—Editor, Eternity magazine…see SCP & Eternity Magazine
SCP Board of Trustees
David Brooks—President of the board, pastor of Evangelical Free Church…
Denny Rydberg—Co-founder and former editor of the Wittenburg Door/ Youth Specialties…
Denny Rydberg—Vice President of the board. Co-founder and former editor, Wittenburg Door/Youth Specialties
Rydberg is now Young Life President and Board of Trustees
Young Life [founded in 1940]
YL’s founding influenced by: Dallas Theological Seminary/DTS’s Jim Rayburn who founded YL, Wheaton College and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
InterVarsity and Young Life Cooperative Agreements through North Park Theological Seminary
North Park Theological Seminary is a member of the Rockefeller-affiliated Association of Theological Schools [accrediting agency for seminaries].
EMNR board member Eric Pement is currently attending North Park Theological Seminary according to his bio on the EMNR web site. See: The Association of Theological Schools: Intersection of Religion, Science and Cloning
Dr. Ronald Enroth—Enroth’s connections are delineated throughout this report
Dr. Vernon Grounds—1989 Chair of the World Evangelical Fellowship consultation which produced the Willowbank Declaration––guidelines for Jewish evangelism. More info in the EMNR section of this report - EMNR’s Co-founder Chairs WEF Willowbank Conference].
Karen Hoyt—Note on Karen Hoyt found:
Spiritual Counterfeits Project NEWSLETTER July-August 1983 Vol. 9, No. 3
…Karen Hoyt’s involvement with SCP began in 1981 when we asked her to come on our board of trustees. In 1982, when I decided to step down [Bill Squires] she was selected by the board to be the SCP executive director.
Prior to her work with SCP Karen spent six years with the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy (ICBI). As executive director, she was responsible for ICBI’s successful “Congress on the Bible” attended by 2,500 evangelicals last March in San Diego.
The Coalition on Revival/COR was formed in the 1980s, and headed by Jay Grimstead. Dr. Grimstead received his doctorate of ministries at Fuller Theological Seminary and was an area director of Young Life (a neo-evangelical, psychologized ministry) from 1957 to 1977, when he helped to organize the now-defunct International Council on Biblical Inerrancy. He founded the COR in 1984, and the National Coordinating Council came into formal existence in January 1990…See Biblical Discernment Ministries exposé of the Coalition on Revival/COR
COR is committed to “world wide revival” < http://www.reformation.net/>
COR’s Grimstead & International Council on Biblical Inerrancy
Bible Study Fellowship: A Closer Look
“The dominionist roots of BSF [Bible Study Fellowship] are not hard to trace. Miss Johnson states in her autobiography that she attended the first International Congress on World Evangelization at Lausanne in 1975 [sic]. Additionally, she participated in the 1978 Summit Conference of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy in Chicago.17 After serving as Executive Director of this organization, Dr. Jay Grimstead then founded Coalition on Revival (COR) in 1984.18
18. Albert James Dager, Media Spotlight, Special Report, The Coalition on Revival, 1989.
Final note on SPC Trustees…
Dr. James Sire––See Constance Cumbey’s interactions with James Sire, in section above:
The Marriage of Science and Religion––Holistic Health Issue
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Spiritual Counterfeits Project, NEWSLETTER July-August 1983 Vol. 9, No. 3
The Changing Face
of SCP: An Update
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Editor’s notes:
Packer is Director of the Anglican Studies Program of Regent College; a signer of the Evangelicals and Catholics Together Documents I, co-author of ECT II and “Resolutions for Roman Catholic and Evangelical Dialogue”; Executive Editor of Christianity Today, a signer of the Evangelical Declaration on Care of Creation [Interfaith/Earth Summit]; a member of the Board of Reference of Renovaré, a mystical movement founded and directed by Quaker psychologist, Richard Foster. See: Dr. James I. Packer-Rediscovering Holiness; J.I. Packer: General Teachings/Activities]
The following course descriptions were found at the web site of Regent University where J.I. Packer is a faculty member:
2001 Regent College summer course taught by J.I. Packer and Thomas Howard:
Evangelicalism and Catholicism in Dialogue [page no longer available]
Controversy between Evangelicals and Roman Catholics has been constant since the sixteenth century. Controversy aims to refute, that is, to show that the positions opposed are wrong, and ought not to exist in their present form, and that those who support them need to change. This course is a venture not in controversy but in dialogue, that is, in the kind of exposition and interchange that enables those on both sides to map in depth the nature and range of their differences, and to see how it is that both bodies of opinion believe themselves to be discerning and obeying God’s truth revealed in Christ in those areas where they part company.
Topics for exploration include: the church, faith & assurance, priesthood & ministry, the sacramental system, the eucharist, the place of Mary & canonized saints, purgatory, indulgences, and prayers for the departed and what Evangelicals and Catholics may and should do together. [emphasis added]
1997 Regent College course taught by J.I. Packer and Bradley Nassif:
Eastern Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism in Dialogue
By virtually all accounts, J.I. Packer is one of this century's greatest Evangelical statesmen. As he reaches the golden years of his career we notice that he has begun to take a serious interest in conservative Christian dialogue with the hopes of forming a common agenda for the church' s unified witness in the modern world. His work in "Evangelical ecumenics" (to coin a phrase) began most visibly in his dialogue with Catholics in 1995 which led to his signing the document "Evangelicals and Catholics Together." Although his interest in Orthodoxy began much earlier, it was not until 1995 that it took concrete expression at a conservative ecumenical gathering of Catholics, Orthodox and Evangelicals called the "Rose Hill" conference. It was there that Dr. Packer and the present author worked as formal dialogue partners. At Rose Hill, Packer delivered a paper titled, "On from Orr: Cultural Crisis, Rational Realism and Incarnational Ontology," to which I responded with "An Eastern Orthodox Response to J.I. Packer." The dialogue was followed up in 1997 when Packer and the author [Bradley Nassif, Ph.D.] team-taught a course at Regent College titled, "Eastern Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism in Dialogue."
Ed. Note: Bradley Nassif is a corresponding editor of Christianity Today.
Spiritual Counterfeits Project NEWSLETTER ~ Winter 1984-85 Vol. 10, No. 5New Age Movement: Self-Deification in a Secular Culture… SCP report…
New Age Symposium
SCP founder Brooks Alexander and popular Christian author Dave Hunt participated in a symposium on the New Age Movement held at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco in October.
The title of the symposium was: “The Marriage of Eastern Religions and Christianity: The Coming New Age or the Great Deception.”
The other participants were: Paul Caspar, Dean of St. John’s Cathedral in Hong Kong and author of numerous books, including Eastern Paths and the Christian Way. Sam Keen, contributing editor to Psychology Today, New Age Journal, and American Health Magazine. Video and audio cassettes of the event are being prepared and will be available from Grace cathedral in the near future.
Spiritual Counterfeits Project LETTER [year-end fund raiser - end of 1989/ beginning of 1990]
Page one explains how SCP has been working internationally––Ireland, United Kingdom, and Sweden––to aid families who had family members involved in a cult. SCP had been able to put them in touch with SCP’s “European contacts.”
Spiritual Counterfeits Newsletter ~ October 1991 vol. 16: number 2 Shamans & Psychics & Greens—Oh My!SPC ADVISORY COMMITTEERabi Maharaj, ex-Hindu, author—with Dave Hunt, Death of a Guru Doug Groothuis, author, scholar—faculty Denver Seminary and Contributing Editor to the Christian Research Institute’s CRI Journal since as early as 1987 Hank Hanegraaff, President, CRI/Christian Research Institute SCP announcement…Brooke Selected for CFTC Position (with numerous CNP members…)
SCP President Tal Brooke has been selected to serve on the Board of Reference of the Christian Film and Television Commission [CFTC] by its Chairman, Dr. Theodore Baehr*, President of Good News Communications. Brooke won last year’s First Place award for Critical Review in the Evangelical Press Association’s competition… Among others on the CFTC Board of reference are Don Wildmon* of the American Family Assoc.; Beverly LaHaye* of Concerned Women for America; Tim LaHaye*; Dr. D. James Kennedy* and George Grant of Coral Ridge Ministries; John Ankerberg*; Bill Bright* of Campus Crusade; Larry Burkett* of Christian Financial Concepts; Hank Hanegraaff of C.R.I.; Michael Scanlan, Pres. Franciscan University of Steubenville; Jerry Rose, Pres. Of Chicago’s Channel 38; and David Clark, Pres. of National Religious Broadcasters [NRB is an affiliate of the Nat’l Evangelical Assn.]…
*Denotes membership in the secretive Council for National Policy |
Ted Baehr befriends secular media:
"REDEEMING THE VALUES OF THE MEDIA"
— NOT WITH HATE, BUT WITH LOVE AND LOGIC —
The Mission Of Dr. Ted Baehr Who Has Been Able to Strike Up Friendships
With Some Of The Top Leaders Of America's Mass Media
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Dr. Ted Baehr is an award-winning producer, writer, director, radio & TV personality, and scholar. With all these accomplishments, his one job is helping to redeem the values of the media while educating audiences on how to use discernment in selecting their entertainment.
Dr. Baehr is the Chairman of the Christian Film and Television Commission, a non-profit organization committed to educating the entertainment industry and the general public of the media’s impact on its audiences. He also serves as the publisher of
MOVIEGUIDE ®: A Family Guide to Entertainment based on biblical values, and he writes a syndicated column for 29 publications nationwide. Baehr’s radio and TV programs…
…Baehr decided to attend seminary at the Institute of Theology at the Cathedral of St. John The Divine. He accepted a position as the Director of the Television Center at the City University in New York, and started the Good News Communications Ministry. He also established the Episcopal ‘Communicate’ Workshops.
During his tenure at the University, Baehr worked closely on communications with academia, researching the impact of the media in education. The subject became a primary topic at the Annenberg Conference on Communication at Temple University, where Baehr received national recognition.
[Ed. Note: Annenberg Foundation money helped speed the process of the federal education program GOALS 2000––the globalization of education under corporate control.]
He was elected President of the Episcopal Radio & Television Foundation in 1979 and began conceptualizing what would later become the Christian Film and Television Commission. [Baehr’s org]
In 1983, while serving on the Communications Board of the National Council of Churches and the National Religious Broadcasters…
Dr. Baehr also presents the coveted $25,000 Epiphany Prizes for the Most Inspiring Movies and Television Programs. These are cash prizes granted by the Templeton Foundation for movies and television programs which help people to know and understand God and His love.
…Dr. Theodore Baehr is doing more than watching the world change - - he is using the media to change the media.
Copyright © 2000 The Christian Film and Television Commission
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More Smoke, Mirrors and Disinformation…