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Horizons Magazine Review Thinking about circles, churches
and the people I care about:
In the latest issue of Horizons, “Thinking Outside the Circle,” Charlotte Johnstone in her funny story “Dispatch from forbearance Presbyterian Church: Recess For Peace,” pictures the reactions of church members to a new part of the service called “Passing the Peace.” My church, like many other mainline churches, has the same kind of event in their services. While we don’t actually pass the peace, we do stand and greet those around us. I laughed at this story because I saw many of the same real characters in my church as those Johnstone pictures in her story. And that includes a person who refuses to participate and sits with her eyes closed while others smile, laugh and talk around her. I thought about these people in my church, in particular the women, as I read this recent edition of Horizons. How will this material affect them in their relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ? Will they be drawn closer to Christ or move farther away? In order to answer these questions I have also moved outside of a circle, that is the circle of this particular Horizons magazine. I have drawn on the material they are linking with and drawing from. One of the articles, “Thinking inside the Circle,” by Steve Shussett refers to Dorotheos of Gaza, a sixth century abbot. Shussett writes about Dorotheos’ concept of a circle as a means of picturing how when we draw nearer to God we are drawing nearer to others. The actual quote is: Imagine a circle with its centre and radii or rays going out from this centre. The further these radii are from the centre the more widely are they dispersed and separated from one another; and conversely, the closer they come to the centre, the closer they are to one another. Suppose now that this circle is the world, the very centre of the circle, God, and the lines (radii) going from the centre to the circumference or from the circumference to the centre are the paths of men’s lives. Then here we see the same. Insofar as the saints move inwards within the circle towards its centre, wishing to come near to God, then, in the degree of their penetration, they come closer both to God and to one another; moreover, inasmuch as they come nearer to God, they come nearer to one another, and inasmuch as they come nearer to one another, they come nearer to God. It is the same with drawing away. When they draw away from God and turn toward external things, it is clear that in the degree that they recede from the central point and draw away from God, they withdraw from one another, and as they withdraw from one another, so they draw away from God. 1Dorotheos is therefore, writing about the saints, those who belong to Jesus Christ. Additionally, it must be added that if those writing about religious actions, even actions of care and concern focus on a different deity or a false spirituality, they will turn those in the circle away from the center, toward external things, drawing them away from the Biblical God and in the end away from each other. The articles about care, “Encircling Care—Support For Caregivers,” by Pat Gleich and the one on “Creating an Inclusive Community,” by Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty, about the needs of the disabled, are good and helpful articles, but they are mixed in with other articles, links and hints that lead women away from Jesus Christ, the center. The most offensive article is, “A Circle in Trouble,” by Jean Shinoda Bolen. The article only gives faint hints of what is really underneath. Bolen writes, “When the energy in a circle feels ‘off’, anyone can ask for silence for each woman to check-in with herself.” or, “Sometimes a women does not belong in this circle because she cannot hold onto her center or connect to the center of the circle, or keep confidences, or see others or herself clearly, and she needs to leave for the good of the circle,” or “Am I projecting my shadow onto someone?” Does any of this sound Christian? If not, there is a reason. Bolen is a psychiatrist, Jungian analyst, and a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California Medical Center. She is also the author of such books as, Crossing to Avalon; Goddesses in Everywoman, and, Crones Don't Whine: Concentrated Wisdom for Juicy Women. She is also the author of The Millionth Circle: How to Change Ourselves and the World—The Essential Guide to Women’s Circles, the book featured in Horizons as a recommended resource. It is also the book the article was taken from. In writing the book Crossing to Avalon, Bolen was writing of her own spiritual journey. She writes: To cross to Avalon is to remember the archetypal Mother, the Goddess, in her several forms and many names, to discover the feminine mysteries and the sacred in embodied experiences. Avalon exists where divinity dwells in nature and quickens it in the pilgrim. Where there is feminine divinity, there is access to Avalon. But once patriarchal relgion [sec] and male gods prevailed, Avalon, the Grail, and Goddess all disappeared into the mists of time.2 In writing her remarks about her book, The Millionth Circle: How to Change Ourselves and the World—The Essential Guide to Women’s Circles, and the idea of women forming circles to change the world toward peace, on her Cyber Circles web site, Bolen writes: This is an invitation to form circles of wisewomen, women’s spirituality circles, crone circles—circles with a spiritual center—through this web site. Imagine yourself in a circle of women, meeting together around a fire in the center of a round hearth. The fire in the center of the circle is a symbol of divinity, of spirit or soul, of goddess or god; it’s the archetype of the Self in the center of your psyche, as it can be in the center of a circle, and as such, is a source of emotional warmth, spiritual and psychological illumination, wisdom and compassion.3Additionally, Horizons invitation to women to connect with a circle by joining “Peace X Peace” leads toward the same encounter with a false spirituality. While some of the leading members of this group are Moslem women in this and other countries who are genuinely attempting to bring democracy and betterment to oppressed women and peace between warring factions, many other leaders, particularly in this country, are members of the goddess, new age, and human potential movements, including, Jean Shinoda Bolen, (see above) and Barbara Marx Hubbard. And they are using their religious worldviews to guide the movement. In one paper guiding this movement Hubbard writes of the “deep democracy” needed to change the world. She believes this is connected to an evolving human consciousness and writes of its beginning. The time has come for deep democracy to take more visible form throughout the world. The good news is, it is arising subtly and invisibly, based on several emerging evolutionary potentials in the personal, relational, and social arenas.Another rather troubling article in Horizons is, “Girls Becoming Women: Rites, Responsibilities and Reality,” by Robin Miller Curras. Some of the ideas in this article are good; that is, mothers and daughters communicating and connecting. Mothers should find a way to insure that daughters feel free to discuss any aspect of their lives, including sexuality, with their mothers. And mothers should be responsible for giving their daughters sound and loving knowledge about sexuality. Also listening to experts who are knowledgeable about such matters can be helpful. But, there was much missing from this article that should have been part of the “how to” as well as the “ritual” aspects of the information. The only mention of God is in relation to the gift of sexuality and in the closing prayer at the end of a newly created ritual commemorating the movement of young women, from girlhood to woman. Although there are many questions raised in the article, there is little mention of biblical helps, or even of moral teaching as a means of answering the questions. The ritual for mothers and daughters seems to be void of any Christian terminology until the prayer. This lack of a Christian world-view about sexuality in an article that refers to older women as crones, a term used by Wicca, and pagan women spirituality groups, is not helpful. Christians need to be aware that they are now living in a world where ritual, particularly newly created ritual, is a dominant focus in new pagan religions and women’s spirituality groups. Since the Christian church is also a place where ritual is important two different things can happen. Either the beautiful rituals of Christianity focused on the wonders of Jesus Christ can draw the pagan into the safe fold of Jesus Christ, or the candles, circles and other forms of ritual can become so void of the gospel that they are open to being filled with the darkness of paganism. Rituals full of the beauty of Christ can bless girls growing into women, as can mothers, who lead them to Christ and nurture them with the scriptures. There is a beautiful picture of God’s care for his people, his lambs,
and those about to give birth, in Isaiah. “Like a shepherd He will tend
His flock, in His arm He will gather the lambs and carry them in His bosom;
He will gently lead the nursing ewes.” (Isaiah 40:11) This focus of God’s
love for his people is also the picture of Jesus carrying the lost lamb
back home. God loves the world but is bound in covenant to his sheep by
the cross. God’s love for his sheep includes anger at those who would mislead
or cause offense to his little ones (Matt. 18: 6). He calls the offensive
ones thieves, because they steal, kill and destroy the sheep (John 10:
10). He calls the offensive ones wolves because they snatch and scatter
the sheep (John 10: 12). This seemingly harmless issue of Horizons
is linked to false spirituality and is noxious to the sheep that belong
to Jesus Christ.
1 E. Kadloubovsky and G. E. H. Palmer (translators), Early Fathers from the Philokalia (London: Faber and Faber, Ltd., 1954), pp. 164–165. Found at Touchstones archives, “I Have Called You Friends An After-Dinner Conversation on Christian Friendship by Addison H. Hart 2 Found at http://www.jeanshinodabolen.com/bk_avalon_ex.html 3 Found at http://www.jeanshinodabolen.com/cybercircles.html 4 Barbara Marx Hubbard, “Deep Democracy,” at http://www.peacexpeace.org/peacepapers/marxhubbard.html.
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