Roll Over Menno

Speaking of Mennonites promoting ancient practices…how about this one.

Mike Perschon, part-time associate pastor of Holyrood Mennonite Church in Edmonton, AB, Canada, has some good advice about how the church needs to go about reaching its youth and the generations to come (here). Unfortunately, he says that Bible study is not one of those ways. Instead, he recommends ancient spirituality such as deep breathing, Lectio Divina, prayer labyrinths (see here), and spiritual disciplines, mystics, drum circles, and the “thin place” (here).

In the Dec. 3rd issue of Youth Worker was an article called Disciplines, Mystics, and the Contemplative Life by Mike Perschon in which he said:

“I built myself a prayer room, a tiny sanctuary in a basement closet filled with books on spiritual disciplines, contemplative prayer, and Christian mysticism. In that space I lit candles, burned incense, hung rosaries, and listened to tapes of Benedictine monks. I meditated for hours on words, images, and sounds. I reached the point of being able to achieve alpha brain patterns…”

- The Issue of other Religious Practices as Worship in the Church
(http://www.letusreason.org/current74.htm)

The promotion of these contemplative practices (the names of which Mike Perschon calls “inside language”) in church youth groups is nothing new. While it is concerning that a part time pastor has no problem teaching contemplative spirituality to youth, there is something even more disturbing that he is okay with. In an article at The Ooze called ‘A visit to “Where Faeries Live’, Mike Perschon tells about his visit to have his tarot card reading:

“Finding a place to engage the “community of faith” with Wicca was a near impossible task, but one which I was determined to succeed in. As a young teen, I was fascinated by the concept of white magic, but being that it was the early 1980’s and preceded the greater acceptance Wicca has found in the late 1990’s and early 21st century, there was little information on the subject. It remained but a curiosity even after I became a Christian in 1985. As a young adult, I believed I sensed the call of God to minister to people caught up in the New Age movement and began to research the movement, but not as Evangelical Christians classically look at things they believe to be ‘deceptions of Satan’ or simply ‘cults’. This approach assumes the utter deprivation of the people involved in the movement, and that their beliefs have no value to us. At best, Evangelical Christians will tip their hat to the fervor with which Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses seek to proselytize, going door to door. But to actually admit that there would be something we could learn from the New Age movement, or worse yet, Wicca with its witches and pentagrams, would be heretical….”

After his (very descriptive) visit to a witch where he had a Tarot card reading done and his fortune told, his time was up…

“Our time up, we said our goodbyes and I thanked her deeply for her time and the experience. On my way out I stopped to buy some Sandalwood Incense and talk with Dorothy. She indicated interest again in how my Christian community would react to me having gone to a witch for a Tarot reading. We talked at length about tolerance and openness in the area of faith, and then I left.

As I sit, contemplating events only hours old, I am at a loss for what to think. I prayed extensively before and during my visit, and believe I have a sensitivity to demonic activity, none of which I sensed. And yet, there is a part of me, the part trained in Bible School and then Seminary, to think of this as ‘of the devil.’ This part isn’t getting much of a hearing though.

I do not understand everything in the universe. I do not know how ESP or telekinesis works. I have never seen an angel, or for that matter a devil. So as a seeker of God’s face, I can only say that I believe that tonight I participated in a numinous event where I connected with something Divine and was enlarged for the experience.

As I was working on this paper, a friend I went to Bible School with in the early 90’s was on MSN chat. When I told him of my experience, he asked, “Why can’t I go to a pastor and have him be that insightful into my life?” My reply was, simply, “I guess we have some things to learn from these people.””

-A visit to “Where Faeries Live, The Ooze, September 1, 2003
(http://www.theooze.com/articles/article.cfm?id=621)

As Christians, the Bible is clear that we are to stay far away from the ancient practice of witchcraft. But even when given the opportunity, instead of sharing the gospel, Mike Perschon mistakenly thought he could connect and learn from these witches.

What are we to think of a part time Mennonite church youth worker/worship leader who speaks at youth camps and retreats, writes articles for Youth Specialties, meditates to change his alpha brain patterns, and visits nice friendly witches on the side to experience something Divine? What does this tell us about the discernment of Youth Specialties, the major distributor of materials to church youth leaders, who carries Mike Perschon’s articles?

Who is teaching the lambs? Could there be a better sheeps clothing costume for a wolf to wear? Meanwhile, the Mennonite Brethren Conference is promoting the Canadian Youth Worker’s Conference which is put on by Youth Specialties (see here).

Whether Menno is rolling over in his grave or not over this one is irrelevant.

Lord have mercy.

Some recommended reading pertaining to this topic might be:

“Pragmatic Evangelicalism” Has Peaked
by Orrel Steinkamp
http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/orrel26.html

What is Wicca?
http://www.carm.org/wicca.htm

What Does the Bible say about Wicca?
http://www.carm.org/wicca/bible.htm

What Do Witches Believe?
http://johnankerberg.com/hp-articles/hp-believe.htm

Youth Specialties:
Promoting Mysticism and Interspirituality
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/youthspecialties.htm

Christian Colleges That Promote Contemplative
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/Colleges.htm

This July, children in the workshops during the Mennonite Church Canada Summit 2008 were taught how to make and use prayer beads.

Here is a brief history of prayer beads:

Prayer Beads

Roman Catholic: European catholics began using prayer beads in the 7th century AD. Gertrude of Nivelles, 626-659 AD; her body was found with a fragment of a rosary in a tomb in Belgium. Twelfth century AD, beads were found in the graves of Norbert in France and Rosalia of Palermo, Sicily. The infamous Lady Godiva, died in 1040 AD at Coventry, England

Orthodox Christian:Prayer Rope used by Orthodox, Greek Orthodox and other Orthodox Christian groups. A series of 33, 50 or 100 knots in a wool or cotton rope, anchored by a cross at one end. Wooden beads or beads of another material often are used as guide markers on the rope.
In the 11th century, church bureaucracy decided rosaries were better used for counting devotions than as superstitious pagan talismans.

Those who were unschooled in the original biblical languages Greek, Chalde, Hebrew, Aramaic; or Latin like the Romans; or were illiterate, unable to read were assigned prayers to memorize and repeat on rosaries.

Rosaries and prayer beads were intended by the Catholic Church hierarchy, cardinals, bishops and priests, for use by the ignorant.

Repeating the prayer is meant to help a person focus on the presence of God and what God is trying to say to him.

(Source: http://www.newsfinder.org/site/more/prayer_beads/)

Here is what Mennonite children were taught about prayer beads at the Summit this July (you can go to the PDF’s to read it for yourself):

About the 33 beads:

Counting Prayer Beads

Each prayer bead bracelet contains 33 beads – one for each year that Jesus lived on earth. Within these 33 beads are beads of different sizes and grouped in different numbers which symbolize other aspects of our faith…

During the Children’s Assembly, kids will make bracelet-sized prayer beads…In Deuteronomy 6:6-8, Israelites are reminded to keep God’s commandments in their hearts, to “bind them as a sign on your hand.” Prayer beads, an old prayer practice tool, can serve as reminders of God’s faithfulness – and it’s all in the numbers of beads. Stay tuned to fin out how counting beads can remind you to count on God.

Here:
www.mennonitechurch.ca/resourcecentre/FileDownload/9441/CrossroadsCurrent7th.pdf
and here:
www.mennonitechurch.ca/files/events/summit08/CrossroadsCurrent7th.pdf

About the 4 beads:

Four groups of seven beads are divided into sections by larger beads. These four beads are positioned at the top, bottom, left and right of the bracelet, reminding us of the four points of the cross.

Here:
www.mennonitechurch.ca/files/events/summit08/CrossroadsCurrent10th.pdf

About how two pray with the beads…

After circling the bracelet of beads, prayer ends on the cross directly below the “invitations to praise” bead. The cross reminds us of the prayer that Jesus taught us.

Here:
www.mennonitechurch.ca/files/events/summit08/CrossroadsCurrent10thFinal.pdf

These symbolic prayer beads sound very similar to this:
http://www.fullcirclebeads.com/symbolism.html

Here is some more enlightening information regarding the 33 beads, the 4 beads and the cross which the children were taught about at the Mennonite Summit:

Prayer beads an ancient devotion – Spirituality

Prayer beads originally were devised to help people to keep track of repetitive devotions. They enabled one to pray while doing routine jobs and between activities. In the very earliest times, prayers were marked by dropping little pebbles one by one on the ground.

About 500 years before Christ, people tied knots in strings. Primitive forms of prayer beads were made of fruit pits, dried berries, pieces of bone, and hardened clay. The wealthy used precious stones and jewels.

St. Dominic is a latecomer to the scene. The Western Church picked up on the idea in 1213 when parts of Europe were devastated by the crusade against the Albigensian heresy. According to tradition, Dominic sought the help of Mary, who instructed him in a dream to preach the rosary, as an antidote to sin. The word, rosary, comes from the Latin word rosarium, which means wreath or chaplet of roses.

By Dominic’s time, other spiritual traditions were already well grounded in their own prayer bead practices. The Hindu religion has had prayer beads for a long time. Its rosary consists of 109 beads–108 to mark the 108 names of God and one to mark the beginning of the prayer cycle, “Dancing Shiva, who shows grace, peace and creative power, and destroys and treads on the evil dwarf.”

Sakyamuni, the East Indian who was the founder of Buddhism, was well grounded in prayer beads. On one occasion, he gave a distraught king a spiritual practice based on his Hindu heritage. He directed Vaidunya to thread 108 seeds of the Bodhi tree on a string, and while passing them through his fingers to repeat, “Hail to the Buddha, the darhma (teaching) and the sangha (community).

Another interpretation of this Sanskrit prayer is translated as “Hail to the jewel in the heart of the lotus (compassion).” Repeating the mantra on each of the mala’s 108 beads serves to drive away evil “filling you and all other beings with peace and bliss.”

Islam also has its prayer beads, called tasbih or subhah. The 33-bead strand, repeated three times, honors the 99 “beautiful names of Allah” (the One Unity or God). Some of these names, or Wazifas, include Mercy, Compassion, Opener of the Way, Lover and Beloved.

The Anglican Church created its own rosary in the 1980s. It also has 33 beads, remembering the years Christ lived. The rosary is grouped in sevens and is based on Incarnational theology, starting with the cross. Four sets of beads represent the seven days of creation, seven days in a week, and seven seasons of the church year. They are divided by four large cruciform beads representing the centrality of the cross.

Source:(http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1141/is_7_39/ai_95632004)

How unfortunate that instead of teaching Bible stories to the children, Mennonite Church Canada is introducing them to this ancient repetitive practice of praying the rosary, which has been such a big part of the religious system that Menno Simons renounced.

ROM Index: 33 and counting

Ancient beliefs and practices, many of them pagan, are being introduced to the post-modern church. Some of these practices are being taught by Mennonites.

For example, see this Religion Link article (from last year) that mentions the practices of fixed-hour prayer, prayer beads, spiritual journaling and Lectio Divina:

AUG. 13, 2007
BELIEFS & PRACTICE

Prayer beyond words

Many people who pray are moving beyond words – whether audible or silent – and using yoga, dance, painting, walking, meditating to connect with God. Prayer that is expressed physically with the body – through the use of a religious object or through a form of art – appears to be on the rise, reflected in the number of books, retreats, workshops and classes on them (see list below).

People of faith are also using words to pray in creative ways, such as spiritual journaling. And worshippers are reaching across denominational and faith lines to try different forms of prayer. Today you can find Methodists walking the Catholic Stations of the Cross and Mennonites performing Anglican-based fixed-hour prayer.

If you read the entire article, you will notice that one of the people listed is a Mennonite who teaches the ancient practice of fixed-hour prayer. Arthur Paul Boers is the associate professor of pastoral theology at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind. He has also written a book called The Rhythm of God’s Grace: Uncovering Morning and Evening Hours of Prayer.

According to the article, fixed-hour prayer is “the practice of praying set prayers at set times of the day and night. While common in Islam – Muslims pray at five prescribed times of the day – in Christianity fixed-hour prayer is most commonly known as a monastic practice. Many Christians, especially mainline Protestants, are now reviving the practice, which is also known as the divine office, praying the hours and common prayer.”

All quotes can be read in the entire article at this link:
http://www.religionlink.org/tip_070813.php

Also this week, Roll Over Menno will be looking at another practice that is being taught by Mennonites - prayer beads.

ROM Index: High

If you are a member of the Mennonite Brethren denomination and have no idea what is being taught to your new pastors in training, I suggest you read the new post over at December 1859. Menno is definitely rolling in his grave…

HOW MUCH OF OUR HERITAGE ARE YOU WILLING TO LOSE? The blood of all our martyrs was not spilled so that we would allow a small group of people to train us to reject The Lord for whom we have stood.

Gather ’Round Christian education materials are published by Mennonite Publishing Network and Brethren Press for Mennonite Church Canada, Mennonite Church USA, and the Church of the Brethren, and are also used by congregations in at least half a dozen other denominations.
(Gather ‘Round summer curriculum connects all ages - mennonitechurch.ca)

One of these denominations who is working in cooperation with the Mennonites is the United Church of Canada (see United Church of Canada endorses their Gather ’Round curriculum - mennonitechurch.ca)

What does this tell us about Mennonite Church Canada when its curriculum is endorsed by its newest cooperative user, the United Church of Canada, which (among other problems) also endorses and teaches New Age Practices?

For example, Ste-Genevieve United Church in Quebec has something called Healing Pathway Ministry
(http://stegennys.org/healing.html). This the description:

Christian Healing Involves The Trust That
God Works Through Dimensions Of Reality
That We Cannot Fully Understand,
To Bring Healing And Health

Symbols such as Prayer, Laying on of Hands, Touch, and Anointing with Oil are genuine instruments of healing that can open us to a power which medical science, by itself, does not possess. In practicing this healing, we are reclaiming the healing ministry Jesus taught his disciples.

HEALING PATHWAY Training has been offered at the United Church of Canada’s Naramata Centre
(http://www.naramatacentre.net/programs-healingpath.asp) in Naramata, British Columbia, and within congregations since 1993. This program has roots in - and is affiliated with - Healing Touch International, and Healing Touch techniques are similar to those used in Therapeutic Touch and adapted for this United Church program.

But is this really what Jesus taught his disciples?

The healing touch that is taught at the Naramata Centre has nothing to do with Jesus, yet HEALING PATHWAY is a program that is offered through United Church of Canada’s own training center to every United Church across Canada. It is not, as they claim, Christian healing, but just another name for New Age energy healing (therapeutic touch).

Read more about what Healing Pathway and the Naramata Center of United Church of Canada is about here.

Here is a biblical explanation of Therapeutic Touch from Ankerberg Theological Research Institute:

Therapeutic Touch

If you are ever in the hospital, you may discover your nurse asking permission to perform a treatment on you known as therapeutic touch. This is where she passes her hands along and a few inches above your body. Therapeutic touch is a form of psychic healing now practiced by at least thirty thousand nurses in America—and thousands more in other countries.

Incredibly, it is also accepted in scores of hospitals. It was developed by spiritist Dora Kunz, president of the occult Theosophical Society, and a nurse by the name of Delores Krieger. Krieger combined Dora Kunz’s occult approach with other Eastern beliefs, such as manipulating “prana” or what is thought to be “mystical life energy” within the body. Therapeutic touch thus claims to work in a very simple way by channeling psychic energies from the therapist to the patient for healing.

But despite its popularity and use in many hospitals, therapeutic touch is obviously not a scientific practice. In reality, it is an occult form of healing and should be labeled as such. For Christians, both because of the scientific facts as well as the biblical warnings found in Deuteronomy 18 against occult involvement, therapeutic touch is neither a safe nor innocent medical treatment.

-Source: Why Shouldn’t Christians Use Such New Age Holistic Health Treatments as Homeopathy and Therapeutic Touch?
http://www.ankerberg.org/ankerberg-articles/holistic-health.htm

Here is the point of the issue. If this is the spirituality within the United Church of Canada, should Mennonite Church Canada be partnering with them to teach children with their Gather ‘Round curriculum? How long will it take until this cooperative effort goes both ways, and their New Age Healing Pathways techniques are introduced into Mennonite Church Canada? Are Christians to gather ’round the table of the Lord, or the table of devils?

Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils. 1 Cor. 10:21

This is a red flag, to be watched.

ROM Index: on the alert

***UPDATE: THE GATHER ROUND CURRICULUM is now available at Kindred Productions, a ministry of the Mennonite Brethren churches of North America, here:
https://www.kindredproductions.com/index.cfm?pageID=13&section=37&ID=367