False Dawn: The United Religions Initiative, Globalism, and the Quest for a One-World Religion

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Sophia Perennis, 2004 - Religion - 490 pages
The interfaith movement, which began with the 1893 World¿s Parliament of Religions in Chicago, has grown worldwide. Although this movement has been largely unknown to the public, it now provides a spiritual face for globalization, the economic and political forces leading us all from nationalism to ¿One World¿. The most ambitious organization in today¿s interfaith movement is the United Religions Initiative (URI), founded by William Swing, the Episcopal Bishop of California. Investigative reporter Lee Penn, a Catholic ex-Marxist, exhaustively documents the history and beliefs of the URI and its New Age and globalist allies, the vested interests that support these movements, and the direction they appear to be taking. The interfaith movement is no longer merely the province of a coterie of little-heeded religious idealists with grandiose visions. The URI¿s proponents have ranged from billionaire George Soros to President George W. Bush, from the far-right Rev. Sun Myung Moon to the liberal Catholic theologian Hans Küng, and from the Dalai Lama to the leaders of government-approved Protestant churches in the People¿s Republic of China. The interfaith movement, including the URI, is being promoted by globalist and New Age reformers who favor erosion of national sovereignty, marginalization of traditional religions, establishment of ¿global governance¿, and creation of a new, Earth-based ¿global spirituality¿¿in effect, a one-world religion. Therefore, the URI and the interfaith movement are poised to become the spiritual foundation of the New World Order: the ¿new civilization¿ now proposed by Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union. In The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times, French metaphysician René Guénon spoke of the ¿anti-tradition¿ (the forces of materialism and secular humanism) finally giving way to the ¿counter-tradition¿ (the satanic inversion of true spirituality), leading to the regime of Antichrist. The ¿anti-tradition¿ weakens and dissolves traditional spiritualities, after which the ¿counter-tradition¿ sets up a counterfeit in their place. Since Guénon¿s time, as is well known, anti-traditional forces have greatly advanced worldwide. It is less well-known that counter-traditional movements have also made great strides, and now stand closer to the centers of global political and religious power than ever before. The ¿counter-tradition¿ is making inroads on the political and cultural Right, as much as it is doing on the Left. False Dawn painstakingly documents these trends, and speculates on their future development. In so doing, the author takes investigative reporting to the threshold of prophecy, and gives us a stunningly plausible picture of the global religious landscape of the 21st century. This extraordinary project is the literary equivalent of turning over a flat rock. There is much to be seen and learned here¿all of it unsettling, disquieting, occasionally downright scary. ¿William Murchison, Radford Distinguished Professor, Baylor University When a bishop of a Christian church happily worships alongside a Wiccan invoking other gods, something has gone horribly wrong. In False Dawn, Lee Penn has produced a comprehensive and critical history of the United Religions Initiative. This book sounds a clear warning: Anyone who makes theological truth subservient to utopianism denigrates all religions. ¿Douglas LeBlanc, Editor, GetReligion.org
 

Contents

FOREWORD
1
The Intellectual Precursors of Todays New Age Movement
18
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
28
ONE ANGLICAN BISHOPS DREAM
35
Secular Foundations Billionaires and Theosophists
57
Molding Minds For A PostModern Religion
63
THE IDEALS AND THE PRACTICE OF THE URI
69
Bishop Swings Condemnation of Entheogens
86
Engines of Human Evolution
276
Destruction and Rebirth
282
The Bleak Eschatology of the Omega Point
288
A Pragmatic Evolutionary Case for Euthanasia and Eugenics
294
Heralding the Coming of the Spirit of the Earth
300
ROBERT MULLER
306
Demoting Jesus to Highly Evolved Being
328
The Judgments of Walschs Tolerant God
336

THE URIS FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES
93
From the White House to the State House
99
AMONG THE NATIONS THE NONCHRISTIAN
105
New Religious Movements and the URI
115
A Divided VerdictTHE CHURCHES AND THE URI
140
Fourteen ReaSONS TO STAND AGAINST The United
175
11 Stigmatizing Exclusive Religions and Orthodoxy
182
111 Laying the Ground for a New Religion of the Sacred Earth
188
IV Fostering Dissent Within Traditional Religions
205
CLOSING THE CASE AGAINST THE URI
235
THE NEW AGE MOVEMENT FRIVOLOUS IN APPEARANCE
246
Population Controlin 1888
252
ALICE A BAILEY AND THE LUCIS TRUST
259
Communism and World Government as the Extraterrestrials Do It
342
THE INVERTED SPIRITUALITY AND POLITICS of
348
MIKHAIL GORBACHEV MAN WITH A STILLUNFULFilled
359
THE STATE OF THE WORLD FORUM
365
Implementing the Population Plan
372
The Forums Elite Supporters
378
MAURICE STRONG
389
ARE THE NEW AGE AND GLOBALIST MOVEMENTS
396
THE ASCENDANCY OF THE ANTITRADITION
404
THE URI CHARTERS PREAMBLE PURPOSE
449
A SELECTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY
455
AUTHORS BIOGRAPHY
479
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