Holy Watergate! The Missing Eighteen and One Half Hour Tapes!
Gold Lake Secrecy Pact Discovered in Conversations with Doug Coe’s Secretary and Art Lindsley
A friend who also researches and writes about the New age Movement called me immediately after her July 8, 1988 conversations with Doug Coe’s secretary at the Fellowship Foundation (Washington Fellowship) and Art Lindsley of the C. S. Lewis Institute about the Gold Lake event. She made extensive notes of her conversations with Dr. Gordon Lewis (Denver Seminary); Molly, Doug Coe’s secretary at the Fellowship Foundation; and Dr. Art Lindsley (Spiritual Counterfeits Project and the C. S. Lewis Institute, Washington, D.C.) She shared her copious notes with me. We learned that the Gold Lake event was a “retreat” sponsored by “Christians” for New Age leaders. The events were chummy to the extent of featuring such popular trust-building exercises (popular in New Age circles) as Christians running obstacle races with New Agers. Molly told our friend that the events consisted mainly of group activities. Molly also told our friend that Art Lindsley was the person who knew about the tapes. This was the culmination of many months of our trying frustratingly to gather information on Gold Lake and being able to eke out only small tidbits from New Agers such as David Spangler and Fritz Hull bragging about the events. The following story will describe what we have been able to learn to date. “Dynamic Links” are the newest concept in software. It appears that there are all too many “dynamic links” between Christians and the globalist-occult community. Are they witnessing/ Or much more likely, are they networking? You be the judge!
Barbara Marx Hubbard’s most successful “Harmonic Convergence” did not take place on August 16-17, 1987. Nor was it the Soviet-American dialogues. Instead, her most successful blending of what she calls “resonating core groups” was held in Boulder, Colorado October 24 through 26, 1987. She started at a conference called “Christianity and the New Age” sponsored by Doug Coe’s Fellowship Foundation, Inc. (more commonly known as “The Washington Fellowship,” or “The Fellowship”), The C. S. Lewis Institute, Spiritual Counterfeits Project and other ‘Christian” organizations. The event seems to strongly smack of Evangelical Ministry to New Religions (EMNR’s) imprinting – in fact, many EMNR principals such as J. Vernon Grounds and Gordon Lewis were involved.
Our information for this story was culled from many sources. We learned by listening to tapes of New Agers, by asking New Agers such as Marilyn Ferguson, by other Christians calling “Christians” who were there and passing on the little information they received to us. The most important thing we learned was that the Christians there made a pact with the New Agers not to reveal information about the retreat. The “Christians” obviously kept their word better than the New Agers. In fact, the very day the conference ended, David Spangler spoke at an Episcopal Church in Boulder, bragging about the success of the event. If the New Agers were less than reticent about talking about the event than the Christians, perhaps it was because the New Agers had less to hide!
It took months for us to piece this story together, given the deliberate veil of secrecy thrown across the proceedings. We had, however, significant breaks. Our last significant break were [sic] conversations a Denver friend of ours had with Gordon Lewis and subsequently Doug Coe’s staff and Art Lindsley.
She phoned Dr. Gordon Lewis at the Conservative Baptist Denver Seminary, Denver, Colorado to ask about something else. She called me first to see what information I had on a group called Evangelicals for Social Action [Ron Sider] which had used her name without permission on their Colorado letterhead. I suggested she call her friend Gordon Lewis. I added, almost an afterthought, the she might pick his brain about the Gold Lake event.
She was told by Dr. Lewis that Doug Coe sponsored it because he had a child or two involved in the New age Movement and wanted better understanding between the parents and their children and understanding in families where one party was involved in the New Age Movement.
Among the New Agers invited and present were Fritz Hull, Barbara Marx Hubbard, David and Julie Spangler, Michael Lindfield, and John Babbs.
‘Christians present included Doug Coe, Gordon Lewis, Vernon Gounds, Michael Beltz, Art Lindsley, Mr. Ross Main (a South African). Lewis said it was taped and that participants were supposed to have received sets of tapes. He believed Doug Coe had the tapes. Gordon Lewis claimed the event gave Christians an opportunity to “witness” to the New Agers. More accurately, it might be called a case of apostates being given an opportunity to network or “harmonically converge” with New Agers!
The preparations for the event were so secretive that even most Fellowship Foundation personnel were not made aware of it.
We have another source who met with Washington Fellowship employees on 8-21-88. These employees said that other Fellowship Foundation people had gone without first telling them about it. They told our source that it was children of one of Doug Coe’s friends involved in the New Age Movement and not Coe’s own children. They were disappointed they were not told for very altruistic motives –– they wanted to cover those going with prayer support and since they were not told in advance, they could not have prayed for them! The same employees seemed to believe that the event had been initiated by Art Lindsley of the C. S. Lewis Institute, rather than Doug Coe.
Another Fellowship Foundation source gave an account that Lindsley of the C.S. Lewis Institute was behind the whole thing and that the C. S. Lewis Institute with its accompanying seminars came out of Regent College in Vancouver, Canada. She said Jim Houston started Regent College. Houston is an Oxford Ph. D. and also founded the Ligionier Valley Study Centers –– another Regent College offshoot.
Spiritual Counterfeits Projects has participated in Ligonier Valley events. In late 1983 and early 1984 SCP prayer bulletins, recipients were asked to pray for success at a forth coming Ligonier Valley Conferences [sic] to be held from February 5-11, 1984. Brooks Alexander was on of those scheduled to participate.
I learned of the Jim Houston connection in advance of the latest piece of information not received until August 22,1988. I learned of this initially from conversations with Kathleen Gow of Toronto, Canada. Kathleen Gow gave me the name and number of Jim Houston as being a personal friend of hers when I saw that she forwarded C. S. Lewis Institute materials as personal references and evidence of her personally clean bill of spiritual health. Gow’s books, published by Tyndale and supposedly against Values Clarification are in actuality a call for religious and moral values synthesis –– called ‘the Way of the Tao.” Kathleen Gow is one of the leaders in the International Moral Values Education Movement. Gow’s book was endorsed by international New Age leaders Aurelio Peccei, founder of the Club of Rome, Norman Cousins, head of the Planetary Initiative’s “World Council of Wise Persons” and Theodore Hesburgh. Kathleen Gow’s book, “Yes, Virginia, There is Right and Wrong” (Tyndale Publishers, 1987) is also endorsed by conservatives and Christians. Another harmonic convergence maybe?
The following entry regarding Houston is found in the C. S. Lewis Institute materials:
Dr. Jim Houston is Professor of Spiritual Theology, former Chancellor and Founder of Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia; and Fellow Hertford College and Lecturer in the University of Oxford, England. B.Sc., M.A., D.Phil., Oxford, M.A. University of Edinburgh. Author of “I Believe in the Creator” and Editor of “Classics of Faith and Devotion.”
SOURCE:
“1988 Spring Inst.” Arlington, Virgina: The C.S. Lewis Institute. Pre-Registration Form application brochure, ANNOTATION: C. S. Lewis Institute, 1904 N. Adams Street, Arlington, VA 22201. (703) 522-0266.
“And they were not to give them [the tapes] out without the consent of everyone who went to the retreat. Because basically the reason is they didn’t want people from either camp –– or whatever you want to call it –– to use parts of it against either people who were involved in the New Age or the people who were involved with Jesus Christ…to use excerpts of those tapes… without the consent of the other people. [W]hat Art said, possibly is that if he wanted excerpts from when he was there or maybe wanted to talk to somebody about that further, I’ve got the number for Gold Lake Ranch and who we dealt with… No, he doesn’t have any tapes. Nobody who went on it–– New Agers see Christianity as very closed,… They has a real time of opening up and saying what they all thought… And that was one bridge that was definitely built ––is the fact that the people who went representing Christ were not closed to what the New Agers said and especially to them. And one thing that came out that I was told was that a lot of the people that were involved with New Age that were there had had a bad experience in church with people… and that they had not so much bad experiences with Christ, but bad experiences with people who represented Christ and that this helped give then a more positive environment and more positive thinking about the fact that not everybody is like what happened to them growing up. [No! More “Christians” are now closet New Agers!!! [cec] He [Doug Coe] comes back in two weeks. He’ll be back in the office July 25.
“Molly” then suggested that our friend might talk to Art Lindsley who was physically present in her offices at the time of the July 8th conversations. She transferred our caller [sic] to him. She said that Lindsley was still meeting with the New Agers:
“And he is still meeting with many of the people –– Many of the people that went that live in this area such as Barbara [Marx] Hubbard –– and having a very positive time with, the people that he met with, and it might be interesting for you to get a report from him. So if you want to talk to him now I could transfer you over.”
Lindsely was much more guarded than “Molly” but still interesting disclosures came forth about their secrecy agreements and continued meetings with New Agers such as Barbara Marx Hubbard and David Spangler.
Molly also supplied our informant with the name and telephone number of the Gold Lake contact: “Her name is Charlotte and the number… is (303) 444-1826.”
Our Colorado informant had learned about Doug Coe’s involvement from conversations with Dr. Gordon Lewis at the Denver Seminary. Lewis told her that he thought Doug Coe might have the tapes as he was the one who convened the meeting. She told Lindsley that and asked if there would be any follow up information about the conference.
Art Lindsley: There may be something coming out down the road. Uh, there’s somebody that’s been working with a possibility of an article in Christianity Today that would include some of the things on New Age including that perhaps, but there would never be a detailed report on what happened there. The tapes were to be kept confidential and not given out really to anybody. Nobody from the conference really has copies of the tape ––that I know of.
In response to being asked if that was wise, Lindsley said,
“Yes. Because that was part of the agreement –– that everybody had for it being taped –– that it would not be given out to anybody. It was only to be kept in case somebody really wanted a section of it from the group–– and it was only to be used upon general consent of everybody there.”
Art Lindsley then defensively said in response to a suggestion that he was being secretive and defensive:
“Well, there was nothing there that was particularly secret. But you can see that prior to something being taped you don’t know what’s going to be there. It wasn’t agreed upon afterwards –– it was agreed upon beforehand. And the idea was that people would talk freely with–– for fear of being quoted out of context. And that’s what could happen if somebody were to get a hold of the tapes they could quote it out of context. [Their fear is not “out of context” –– it is “in context” [cec]. Because there are hours of discussion.”
Art confirmed that Colorado lawyer and leader of the World Instant Cooperation, John Babbs was there. When asked who else was there, he said after hesitation:
“I think Gordon Lewis should have a list there of some of the people…?
Lindsley tried to justify the affair by saying, “ I think it was a tremendous time of really trying to talk about Christ to New Age people and I really feel that people were drawn towards the person of Jesus Christ in time.”
David Spangler’s speech that night is illustrative of how closely he and others like him were “drawn to Christ.”
Lindsley said Christian witnessing was “made the condition of the conference –– to really focus on the person of Christ.”
“I think that it has encouraged further dialogue. For instance, I’ve met a number of times with Barbara Marx Hubbard and had long discussions, debates, or whatever you want to call them. I think there were good spirited discussions or debates on differences between Biblical view and a New age view. And those discussions are ongoing and I don’t want to jeopardize those by publicity…Well, I don’t see–– I don’t know that I particularly want to talk that much about it. I think that the discussions were productive and I think that it was the beginning of something, it wasn’t the end. It was the beginning of some ongoing discussions. And I think there –– that it will be ongoing. I don’t know what will come out of it.
Our caller suggested his guardedness made the event seem like “a big secret.” After interrogating the caller closely as to the name of her ministry and her contacts with Gordon Lewis, Lindsley said,
“I guess the reason why I am guarded is because I’ve been on the board of Spiritual Counterfeits Project in Berkeley and for about five years –– I just went off the board recently. And… I just found out after the Gold Lake thing that Constance Cumbey had written some things – erroneous facts about it [SPC] –– and I think desperately wanted to get some of the tapes and I just wonder about the motives there. That’s all.” Our caller said that she didn’t know what my motives were. Lindsley again asked her:
“Have you talked to Gordon Lewis about it?
When she suggested they might have a paranoia about it, Lindsley said:
“I don’t think that that’s appropriate. I don’t think that it is. I think it’s a guardedness and I think that you can probably understand the reasons why –– it might need to be guarded because of people like Constance Cumbey and the way they handle things. You understand that?’
When the caller suggested it was not Christian to make secret agreements with New Agers, Lindsley replied:
“Well I don’t know that the meeting is secret at all. It’s not –– we’re not trying to keep it secret. I don’t know what’s appropriate as far as sharing all the details of it. Uh, it wouldn’t be totally wrong to do it and we may decide to do it at some point, but I think that the relationships that are there –– I don’t want to jeopardize the relationships that I have had with people. I have ongoing discussions that could be for Christ hopefully winning people to Christ.”
After the caller questioned the wisdom of the meetings from even a strategy standpoint, Lindsley justified the event by saying “I know of cases throughout church history all the way through from the Apostle Paul on where great opponents of the Christian faith have come to Christ. I think God has great power to do that and so I wouldn’t want to rule it out. I can understand what you’re saying. But, uh, I think with God all things are possible.”
When the caller asked Art if this select group of New Age leadership had shown any inclination whatsoever to renounce Lucifer and accept Christ, Lindsley said:
“I think that there is definite struggle there and some signs of progress.”
Lindsley then told his caller that he was “having dinner with Barbara Marx Hubbard Saturday night.”
He also said after asking for prayers for that meeting,
“She knows that I don’t agree with her too but we have regular discussions [i.e. networking! cec] for hours at a time.”
When asked again when this would all be made public, Lindsley said, ‘Well! I think it will be. I’m not against being open about it. I just don’t know exactly what’s appropriate to share at this point and what isn’t. I don’t want to jeopardize the relationships that I have. I don’t want to be particularly secret. I’ve talked about some of the stories –– when I’ve given talks on the New age Movement. I’ve shared some of the things that have happened at the conference, but I don’t know that I want to go into all the details of what happened. I think people were really drawn toward Christ. And some of the stories that I’ve told, I’ve told off the record and not for publication or something –– that’s what –– that’s fine as long as it wasn’t for publication. I wouldn’t mind telling them anything informally to someone, but, I don’t know if I would want what happened to David Spangler on that weekend or his responses or his wife or Barbara Hubbard or other people there –– I don’t know that I would want to have that printed. Because it’s still –– it’s still not in its final –– there’s movement, I think. People were drawn toward Christ at that time. But they’re not –– it’s not all the way.” Per our source, Lindsley then engaged in evidently nervous laughter.
Exactly what does Lindsley think happened to Spangler on that weekend? Spangler was out the very day the conference ended –– October 26, 1987, bragging about the progress the New Agers had made in reaching Christians with their philosophy!
In response to a question as to whether Spangler and Barbara Marx Hubbard could be led to the Lord, Lindsley replied, “There’s some very striking things about them.”
When asked if maybe he and others could instead be possibly swayed by the New Agers, Lindsley said again with nervous laughter: “not really. But, I suppose that it occurs, in a sense, but…I think that it’s gone the other way.”
Our caller then wisely pointed out to him the dangers of spiritual seduction to those meeting with New Agers. She said “I have seen so many Christians who are not solid in the Lord– I see a lot of well meaning Christians get starry eyed and find themselves in the New age camp before they realize it.”
Lindsley then invoked his chapter in The New Age Rage about the shape of the “coming transformation.”
“My argument is an I’ve never heard any real answers to what I’m saying –– I wrote a chapter in the book The New Age Rage. It’s edited by Karen Hoyt and Spiritual Counterfeits Project and it’s comparing and contrasting the Biblical versus the New Age view of transformation. And I’ve never heard an answer to the arguments that I have there or otherwise from Barbara Hubbard or David Spangler or other people there.”
Lindsley said in regards to his own background: “One of my backgrounds is in the study of the cults and apologetics and I’ve been on the board of the Spiritual Counterfeits for five years and done a lot of work on it while I was there. So I think I know some deep deceptiveness too of evil and of these people and I’m not –– I don’t think I’m naïve to what’s going on. But one of the most important things from talking to one –– do you know Tal Brooke?
Lindsley raised Tal Brooke of SCP as an example of New Age leadership coming to the Lord. Tal was a close western disciple of Sai Baba:
“it was through a group of mission –– a missionary couple –– and one of the most powerful things that I think he saw in their lives as well as their arguments –– and that was significant –– but I think that what he saw the Hindus and people like Sai Baba lacked –– and that was love. True agape love. The love that only Christ can provide.”
This was Art Linsley’s justification for the extensive, expensive and secretive courting of the New Agers –– if not outright networking with them.
“’That you will know them by their love.’ I mean on the one hand I will argue and not –– I don’t want to compromise one thing. Dealing with them I don’t feel I have. [but you have bought them more time to deceive other New Agers and the Christian community to be set up for the action Barbara Marx Hubbard suggests in her books! cec] But I do feel it is important as far as possible to show them the kind of love that Christ would show.
cec>>>At this point the scriptural warning needs to be interjected, “A man that is an heretick [heretic] after the first and second admonition reject.” Titus 3: 10
It is important to note that this secrecy even if naïve and well meaning (which is highly doubtful in view of everything else that has transpired) has bought New Agers significant blocks of time to finish setting up their destruction machinery, so vividly described in Spangler’s and even more vividly described in Barbara Marx Hubbard’s writings! When Christ’s handling of the Pharisees was bought up, Lindsley defensively said
“I know that. There’s a fine line there and it’s more complex. It’s not simplistic. And I understand that… I agree. We’re not building bridges to put forward a unified view or something.” [But maybe they are! cec]
Perhaps it is no coincidence that these “Christian” reach out efforts to New Age leadership (or are they networking efforts?) are coinciding with the worst drought in United States history. Ezekiel 22 should be closely studied.
And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, son of man, say unto her, Thou [art] the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation. [There is] a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure anad precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof. Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed [showed] [difference] between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. Her princes in the midst thereof [are] like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, [and] to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain. And her prophets have daubed them with untempered [mortar], seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord GOD, when the LORD hath not spoken. Ezekiel 22: 23-28.
Another attendee was reportedly Karen Hoyt, then director of the SCP. Karen came to SCP from the Coalition on Revival (COR) and is again working with COR. Interestingly, from both writings of Dennis Peacocke and Charles Simpson, it appears the New Age influences on that particular “Christian” network may be far more than mere coincidental. Simpson –– a leader in the shepherding, discipling movement –– shows clear traces of New Age thinking –– that those who refuse to merge are cancerous cells in the global brain:
[Cumby here quotes the writings of Simpson–– “Integrity: Where Unity Begins.” New Wine June 1983: 5-9.]
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