Several months ago, in the aftermath of the Guyana carnage, a cartoon appeared in the Los Angeles Times. It featured a large human monster named cults. The monster held the Bible in one hand, the other hand clutching a number of strings attached to human puppets. The caption said, “Give me your rootless souls.”
The Times magazine of Dec. 4, 1978 described the tragedy as “an appalling demonstration of the way in which a charismatic leader can bend the minds of his followers with a devilish blend of professed altruism and psychological tyranny.” Whether or not it was the fault of the church for not giving these people the water of life or the fault of the people for rejecting the water, these are descriptions of a thirsty people drinking at cisterns “that hold no water.” Daniel Morse writing in The Presbyterian Guardian of Dec., 1978 said, “Because we have not brought to them the water of life, they have replaced it with kool-aid and cyanide.” This these people did in the belief that they were championing a just and righteous cause. We stand appalled at their twisted minds.
But Jim Jones is not alone in the treachery of warping people’s minds and lives. Other organized movements are seeking to fill the vacuum in people’s lives. Some are quasi-Christian cults; some are based on Eastern religious thought. But all attempt to brainwash and program their clients by means of phsycial pressures such as isolation, fatigue and tension, psychologically induced guilt or fear, overwhelming emotional conditioning and scriptural half truths and distortions of Scriptures.
One example of these is the American Unification Church, followers of the Reverend Moon. These people are frequent visitors to the communities in which we live. Many are clean-cut young people with winning smiles and warm gestures. They say they are selling this or that for a “Christian” cause, and will not we please support them? After a lengthy probe into the doctrine and life-style of one “Moonie” not long ago, we have now determined to question more thoroughly these followers of Moon. We try to show that they have no right to sail under the banner called “Christian” since they totally reject the cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith, the substitutionary blood-atonement of Jesus Christ. These people are dynamic and dangerous. Many are ment. Reformed Women Speak. following them.
Transcendental Meditation is another opium being fed to restless souls under the guise of being an effective scientific technique for obtaining relaxation and increased creativity. It desensitizes conscience by diminishing the concept of guilt. It makes the mind and body passive and thereby open to false and demonic ideologies. It is a rigorous process of mental conditioning under the cloak of scientific and spiritual enlightenment. Many meditators hold important professional positions in education, government, business, medicine, entertainment, media, sports and religion.
A similar movement is the Erhard Seminar Training (EST). EST seeks to reduce tension and induce peace by obscuring the objective reality of the Christian world and life view and championing the autonomy of man.
In addition to organized movements of mind-benders, there are many false ideologies which clamor for the minds of men. Evolution is one of these. It has successfully dominated the entire public school system of this country under the guise of a “neutral” approach to the origins of life. Its influence can be felt in the “cheapness” of life we see reflected in abortion, euthanasia and the violence and murder communicated in movies and television, evils to which even many Christians have become almost indifferent.
Then there are the deadly “isms”: “Communism” with its more gentle and plausible forerunner called “socialism” paving its way; “materialism,” causing millions to exchange family unity and spiritual growth for the “mess of pottage” called material success; “secularism” trying to divorce God from education, entertainment, communications and many more areas of life.
The multiplying of errors does not stop here. It has even invaded the orthodox Christian church. The undermining of confidence in the Scriptures in the leadership of denominations has worked itself down to the church members like a cancer, sometimes the “slow” kind and sometimes the “fast” kind, but cancer nonetheless. Today church pews are empty, men’s fancies have replaced “thus saith the Lord!” and people by the thousands are groping for meaning to their existence and direction for their pressured lives. In desperation they turn to mystical religions or to the deadly “isms” which offer them love and security. Thus the circle of degeneration is completed.
Rootless souls! Let us never think that spiritual uprooting does not threaten our homes. Doubt and disobedience are among us too. The only way we can survive, yes, even blossom and grow spiritually is to sink our roots and the roots of our children deeply into the revealed will of God.
How can we do this? We take a simple lesson from nature. When we plant seeds in the springtime, we prepare the soil. We refine it and enrich it with nutrients that will give our seeds everything they need to grow up into sturdy productive plants. We must use the same procedure in spiritual living. When we bring little ones into this world, we must be very sure that the soil, the environment, into which we place those children, is rich and refined. We provide these seedlings with nutrients which will build them. We purge the soil and the plants of all foreign influences which will harm or destroy them.
Our homes are the first and most influential soil into which our children are placed. We must surround them with conversation which will build them spirit ually. We must demonstrate consistent Christian behavior ourselves so that our practice matches our principles. We must avoid practices which may cause the children to stumble in later life. We must refine the atmosphere of our homes by careful selection of the radio and television programs and wise judgment in the use of time to be spent in watching or listening to them. We must build relationships with our children which promote love, family unity and continuing open communications.
We must make sure that the soil of our church which surrounds our children is preaching of the whole counsel of God, of exposing sin as well as showing love. We must insure that our church is teaching faithfully the full-orbed message of the Scriptures—the mighty acts of God in the history of revelation as well as the doctrines of the Scriptures. These are essential to the development of strong spiritual roots and sturdy plants. We must make sure that we support the educational programs of the church. If we show by any word or gesture that we are impatient with catechism classes or Sunday School, that we think it is a burden to take the children or wait for them, if we indicate an impatience with memory work or written work, the impact of the instruction, no matter how good the teacher, will be lost on the child.
We must be equally sure that the soil of the school which our children attend nourishes them with a sound curriculum and standards of moral excellence. In order to insure this and contribute toward it, we must make it our business to become involved in the life of the school as well as the church. Some parents believe they do their children a favor by always staying home and never attending PTA, conferences, school programs, church programs and Bible study groups in the church. Actually they are shortchanging their children in two ways: 1.) They are setting an example of non-involvement in church and Christian school affairs which affect their own children in years to come so that their children will also be passive observers instead of active workers in Kingdom activity; 2.) Parents who bypass the opportunities to grow spiritually which are offered by church and school, are depriving themselves of important input which they as parents need in the tremendous output demands which are made upon them as parents. If they are to feed their young plants, they must first receive so that they will have something substantial to give.
Plants in the garden of our homes also need constant pruning. We must say “no” sometimes and say it firmly and stick to it. This needs emphasis today. There are far too many children and young people running parents instead of parents ruling children. The effects are showing. Discipline is painful for the moment but “in the end it profiteth.”
With the indispensable help of God, Christian parents who pray and work diligently to provide rich, refined soil and nutrients for their children, have equipped them to stand firm when the heat of temptation and lure of the world is upon them. In this day of mass communications and the ease of world travel, we cannot isolate our children. But we can and must insulate them for the rigors of Christian living which lie ahead. In our baptismal vows we promise as parents to instruct our children and cause them to be instructed to the utmost of our power. That takes work. That takes agonizing intercession. But with God’s blessing, it produces rooted souls.
Mrs . Vanden Heuvel of Chino, California is editor of this department Reformed Women Speak.