When
I spoke to the “Friday Night Massacre” [Cumbey refers
to coming under attack by the "cult experts"] at El Toro,
California in December, 1983, I dissected a book that was representative of the
way New Age thought was penetrating the church of Christ. The book was Jeremy
Rifkin’s The Emerging Order. The book
which proudly proclaimed the evangelical and charismatic churches would be the
chief instrument to bring the New World Order to birth (probably not an untrue
statement!) This book was published as part of Ballantine’s Epiphany book
series. That is supposed to be “Christian” orientation. The book was
enthusiastically endorsed by John Bernbaum, Director of Christian College
Consortium; J. Edward Hakes, Dean, Trinity College; Merold Westphal, Philosophy
Department Chairman, Hope College; Bishop James Armstrong, President National
Council of Churches; Gilbert Bilezikian, Professor of Bible, Wheaton College;
John W. Alexander, past President, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship; Floyd W.
Thatcher, Vice-President, Executive Editor, Word Books; Richard V. Pierard,
Professor of History , Indiana State University’ John Stoner, The Mennonite
Central Committee; Wes Michaelson, former Editor, Sojourners; Jay Kesler,
President, Youth for Christ [Christianity Today, Board of Directors] and last , but not least, Senator Mark Hatfield.
I was to later find out that Spiritual
Counterfeits Project had endorsed that book as well.
Cumbey relates about how, on that night in El Toro, CA [1983] she
appeared in a debate with a panel of cult “experts” on the Rifkin book and
Brooks Alexander sided with her. This was before she discovered SPC’s
endorsement of the Rifkin book…
Thereafter
I counted Brooks as an ally until a few weeks later. In January, 1984 somebody
was to send me an extremely interesting book by Major Edgar Bundy of the Church
League of America. Called how Liberals
& Radicals Are Manipulating Evangelicals, the book contained an
extensive discussion of SCP’s role in radical socialist politics. On page 6,
Bundy said:
“The Berkeley Christian Coalition [the previous name of the
Spiritual Counterfeits Project], another radical, so-called evangelical community, dedicated over
a page to Rifkin’s book in their SPIRITUAL COUNTERFEITS PROJECT newsletter and
listed the address of Rifkin and the People’s Business Commission for those who
wanted further information’ The review by SPIRITUAL COUNTERFEITS PROJECT lists
Rifkin and co-author Ted Howard [also active with Werner Erhard’s The Hunger
Project] as members of the People’s Business Commission, a “secular think-tank”
based in Washington, D.C. and devoted to examining issues of importance to the
future of American society and concerned about the worldwide drain of natural
resources and its impact on the economy. Rifkin and Howard launched a skeptic
research project to evaluate the potential influence of the charismatic
evangelical movement on America’s misuse of natural resources… R. and H. see
real hope in a Christian spiritual renewal.”
Cumbey
called Brooks Alexander to confront him on the SCP endorsement of Rifkin’s book
and he dissimulated.
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 specifically gave the Christian Liberation Front a
leading designation as an entry point to the Aquarian frontier in his 1975 book
the Unfinished Animal. A lisitng of
all Roszak’s entry points is given elsewhere in this MONITOR. Of the
orientation of the Berkeley Christian Coalition, which includes the Spiritual
Counterfeits Project, Quebedeaux writes:
Each
of these three radical evangelical communities has less than 100 active members
and is made up predominantly of young, white, well-educated singles from
upper-middle-class evangelical backgrounds… And though they won’t admit it, all
three communities are gradually moving toward an espousal of some form of Christian
socialism, tinged with Marxism. …
Opposition or Entry Point?
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.)
Editor’s Note:
Jesus Freaks were “invented” by Pat Matriciana
~emphasis added
Interviewed by Daniel Hopsicker [Mad Cow web site]…
I shot it at him: "Are
you Agency?"
I meant, of course, was he from the Company. The good ‘ol bad ol’
CIA. But this is, apparently, not considered a polite question, though god
knows why not… because before he [Matrisciana] answered he coughed, and looked
surprised.
Maybe he’s just not all that used to direct address. But at the
end of the meal he said to me that for some reason he’d told me a lot more than
he was planning to, so I guess it was a successful tactic.
"I’ve been to Berkeley, too," his reply began
"I was 'detailed' to Berkeley in 1965, to establish a
countervailing force to Mario Savio's Free Speech Movement. While there I
founded the Campus Crusade for Christ.
And then it was his turn to grin:
"I invented," he [Matriciana] told me
proudly, "Jesus freaks."
Return to:
Spiritual Counterfeits Project