The Naked Communist - a book written in 1958 - and its implications TODAY

This is the first part on the scary truth that America is falling into the communist mind set more and more each month. This particular message deals with a book written by Cleon Skousen, a former member of the FBI, back in 1958 and shows the communist plan to overthrow the United States

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4


Part 5

Wide Is The Gate part 2 The Emerging "New" Christianity - A MUST WATCH!

Dangers, Toils and Snares: End Time Warnings by Jenn Lawson

Summarization of a Conference that was held at CALVARY CHAPEL CYPRESS, California
http://calvarychapelcypress.net/index.html
          
                   The 2011 Women on the Watch Conference entitled “Dangers, Toils and Snares in the End Times” was held in the middle of the southland on the border of Orange County and Los Angeles county, in the city of Cypress in mid-September.  One would expect thousands of women to show up, but it was a small turn out with about 200 people.  Speakers with pre-Christian backgrounds in the New Age/New Spirituality movement, witchcraft and the occult gave their testimonies and warned about how these things have not only crept into Christian churches, but are boldly and blatantly being accepted by many undiscerning people who attend these churches.  This begs the question - Are Christians being deceived and falling away from Biblical truth? 

Just about every speaker referred to the biblical account in Genesis where Lucifer (Satan), possessing a serpent, deceived Eve through dialoging with her and questioning God's Word.  In Genesis three verse one, the serpent said, “Has God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”.  The major question being asked at this conference was are we listening to God or to the Serpent - the Devil?  A personal friend from Scotland, Deborah Menelaws of Bethel Communications, was one of the guest speakers.  She asked challenging questions like: Do we really believe we are in the end days?  Are we really hearing the Word of God and responding properly?  Are we relying on our pastor or husband or some other person rather than God?  Are we relying completely on God and what He says?  Do we know what God says and do we care?

As a person who is not a citizen of this country, our friend Deborah boldly asked, “Are you, as Americans, being duped into believing that America will stay strong and free?  Do you believe tha

t God will keep America strong even when America is no longer following Him as a nation?  Are you prepared for the economy to totally crash and America to be devastated?  In what (or who) do you put your trust?  Do you truly trust in God regarding your country?  Do you listen to man (and rely on man’s systems) or to God?

THE DANGERS OF SYNCRETISM AND THE WORLD OF THE OCCULT

Author Johanna Michaelsen, taking us on a journey through the Bible, addressed the growing global trend of religious syncretism - the blending of irreconcilable parties (worship of the Creator God with pagan practices), and showed the dire consequences of such.  She explained how the Christianization of yoga, Hindu breath prayers, occult visualization, inner healing, altered states of consciousness, and spiritual chanting and drumming are all inroads to the world of occultism – into the mystery religions where seeking “the hidden things” [occult] is the root, and goal, of becoming “god,” the realization that “we are all gods.”  She stated that New Age teachings such as the “Law of Attraction,” “positive confession, and “sending vibrations” are all rooted in occult [hidden] power. “To worship God as the pagans do is an abomination.”  In other words God hates syncretism.  She quoted several verses to back up the biblical principle of not mixing pagan worship practices with the worship of God.

When you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.  For all who do these things are an abomination to the LORD, and because of these abominations the LORD your God drives them out from before you. You shall be blameless before the LORD your God. For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the LORD your God has not appointed such for you. (Matthew 9:14-18)

 Johanna went on to say, “Contemplative, Emerging, and New Spirituality claim to be authentic.  It is authentic alright – authentic to the occult!”  This comes from a woman who once was heavily involved in the world of the occult and demonic power.  She explained that this is simply ancient Gnosticism revived for those seeking new knowledge, power, and experience.  Johanna talked about an extremely problematic idea that is prevalent in our “politically correct” world today; that as long as we are sincere in our beliefs and practices, we are all right.  She explained how this is nothing more than a lie from the Devil.  Jesus says in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

She also pointed out in Genesis 3:5 where the foundation of all occultism and apostasy stem from. “For God knows that in the day you eat of it (the forbidden fruit) your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil.”  It should be forever remembered that the quest for “knowledge” and “wisdom” apart from the revealed will of God is simply an open door for spiritual deception – i.e. occultism, witchcraft, false teachings in the church, apostasy (to turning away from the truth).

Johanna’s book, “The Beautiful Side of Evil” is her testimony of how she came out of the occult.

HUMAN BEINGS ARE NOT GODS, DIVINE EMANATIONS, AND SPARKS OF DIVINITY

Another common theme at the conference was exposing the popular deception that we are all divine, or a part of divinity. The New Age religion, otherwise known today as the New Spirituality/The New Gospel, is at its root and core pure Hindu philosophy [evolutionary occult pantheism].  It is simply the same old lie of Lucifer found in Genesis 3:5, couched in modern terminology, that states that we can be as God.  Filmmaker Caryl Matrisciana explained that through yoga one seeks to “awaken the serpent power” in order to come to the realization that “we are God.”  She said, “There is no yoga without Hinduism and there is no Hinduism without yoga.  The exercises of yoga cannot be separated from the spirituality of yoga.”  She also rightly stated what Hindu philosophy declares, “In Hinduism all is deity.”  Caryl was raised in India and is very familiar with Hinduism and its practices.  She has produced a documentary on this topic called, “Yoga Uncoiled: From East To West.”

At this conference Caryl Matrisciana rightly stated the truth about yoga!  The entire goal of yoga, whether it is called “exercise” or not, is based on occult Hindu philosophy – the practices and postures are inextricably intertwined.  Practical Hindu spirituality, which is rooted in occult philosophy, teaches that through yoga [yuj Sanskrit; yoking] individuals can become One with the Brahman – the “Divine Ground of All Being,” or, the “Divine Consciousness” of Hinduism.  It seems that today, the vast majority of Christians in the West are completely unaware of the reality and dangers of yoga.

MANIFEST SONS OF GOD AND THE LATTER RAIN MOVEMENT - GONE MAINSTREAM AND GOING GLOBAL

Researcher and writer with Herescope, Sarah Leslie spoke on the Manifest Sons of God/Latter Rain movement and how they are going mainstream.  She explained their heretical Seven Mountains of Dominionism and how their goal is to take over government, education, media, business and other systems in order to usher in the Kingdom of God. This very unbiblical movement promotes the idea that the church is the ongoing representation of God on earth and that God is raising up a “new breed” of god-men or an “elect seed” for “Joel's Army” to destroy or subdue all enemies of Jesus Christ.  Many in these movements believe and teach that Jesus will not return until we are perfected on earth to usher in the Kingdom of God.  In their mind, it is up to us to make His appearing – the Second Advent – happen!  Scripture teaches that Christ will come and set up His Kingdom, not the heretical “Manifest Sons of God” and “Joel’s Army.”

THE STATE OF THE CHURCH:  LUKEWARM AND PLAGUED BY THE FEAR OF MAN

Conference organizer and author, Jackie Alnor, spoke on spiritual apathy in a lukewarm church.  She reiterated the warning from Jesus in Revelation 3:16, “So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”  She explained how the church growth movement started by C. Peter Wagner has created mega-churches full of goats and tares among the sheep and wheat, respectively, which result in lukewarm Christians.  Pastor Chris Quintana gave a message about the real mission of the Church.  He said, “Men fear man and not God and they focus on action and not the message.  If we depart from the Bible we can't meet human needs and we use the Bible as an accessory rather than the authority.”  He rightly exhorted us not to be men and women who suppress the truth regarding unrighteousness, as so many are doing today.  Proverbs 9:25 says “The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe.”

Caryl Matrisciana previewed a portion of her new DVD entitled “Wide is the Gate,” an exposé on the Emerging Church/New Spirituality/New Gospel and how the false teachings of these “change agents” are flowing straight into the church, causing a great delusion which will ultimately end in shipwrecking the faith of many.

Attendees also watched clips from the new full-length documentary, “The Daniel Project.”  This film investigates 20 major Bible prophecies in relation to past, present and future events.  The theme of this film is taken from Daniel 12:10 in reference to the end times, “...only the wise shall understand.”

LET NO MAN DECEIVE YOU

The overall theme of this conference was that spiritual deception is all around us – in the world and in much of the church.  It was a call to test all things - trusted teachers at the local church fellowship, all TV preachers/teachers, and even authors of the latest popular “Christian” books.  When the disciples asked Jesus what would be the sign of His coming and the end of the age in Matthew 24:3-4, Jesus responded by saying, “Take heed that no one deceives you.”

Johanna Michaelsen closed the conference with an intense message about how individuals, including Christians, can be freed from the subtle power and influence of occult bondage.  She rightly said, as the Bible teaches, that many in the church are being groomed for the Anti-Christ.  In light of what happens when people yield to the influences Johanna was warning us about, she said, “God allows a deluding spirit and the symptoms are horrendous.”  She encouraged us to read Ezekiel 8 and Second Thessalonians 2, and to study the Word of God to know what we believe and to be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks.

So many Christians are admiring and promoting heretical books like William Paul Young’s book “The Shack,” Rob Bell’s “Love Wins,” and Rick Warren’s panentheistic [God in all things] “Purpose Driven Life.”  Others are involved with groups and churches teaching heresy that clearly go against what the Bible says.  It makes one wonder what deceptions are coming and what undiscerning Christians will embrace next.

TEST ALL THINGS, HOLD FAST TO THAT WHICH IS GOOD!

So that you are thoroughly immersed in the Word and can clearly understand God’s views on these subjects, please take time to read the following scriptures for your own encouragement and edification.  The Word of God is our only defensive weapon to fight against the schemes and teachings of the Devil.  Guard yourself with what God has said.  “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies.  Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.”  (1 Thess. 5:19-23)

Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.  For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.  Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.  And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch. (Mark 13:33-37)

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:  From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.  (Ephesians 4:11-16)

Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle. (II Thessalonians 2:15)

I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;  And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.  But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.  For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.  I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.  (II Timothy 4:1-8)

And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ. Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9-11)

Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you: But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled. (II Corinthians 10:1-6)

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. (I John 4:1)

 Do not err, my beloved brethren.  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.  (James 1:16-17)

Wide Is The Gate

Wide Is The Gate examines the intrusion of the 60's and 70's New Age Movement, steeped in its pagan eastern mysticism, and traces its morphing over the last 4 decades..from its repackaging as the Self Help Psychology, Wholistic Health Movements of the 80's, to its Seeker Friendly, Mega Church appearance in the 90's, to its coming out in the 21st century as The New Spirituality. Its slick reinvention of "new truth" shows itself off today as a new "Emerging" Christianity, a Vintage, Ancient Future Movement that is supposedly taking us back to our "Christian" origins in the Desert Fathers of 300 years after Christ. Sadly, that "taking back" does not go back far enough. Missing is a return to the Early Church's foundation, birthed in Jerusalem, at Pentecost, 40 days after the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who at that time, filled His Believers with His Holy Spirit and instructions to go out, preach the Gospel and make disciples.


Today's new brand of Christianity has a different gospel and is targeting thousands of the younger generation with a so-called hip, cool, experiential spirituality, much of which is embracing the mysticism of Roman Catholicism with its ecumenical philosophy of uniting people from all faiths to work together and bring about a new world of peace and harmony. This notion dovetails with the heart of New Age thinking and the utopian ideals of many world religions who all await their religious leaders and dreams of world domination.

The dangerous result of this new spirituality in the church is bringing about the rise of today's "Christianized" occultism. It's stretching its tentacles around the souls of unsuspecting youth, setting them up for the lie that subjective emotions of "power" and "experience" are "feelings" to be held higher than an objective walk in the Christian Faith, based in Truth found in the Pure Word of God. The Holy Bible is presented as unattainable truth: "stuffy", "dry" and "churchy". .

The Bible warns of great heresy and apostasy in the church of the last days. It foretells of false teachers, prophets, doctrines of lying spirits and their signs and wonders. For 2000 years, since the crucifixion of Jesus Christ the Bible has been attacked. Alongside the Apostolic Church, based on the teachings of Jesus Christ and his apostles, counterfeit Christian heretics, apostate denominations and false movements have proliferated. Ecclesiastes says, "There's no new thing under the sun". (I:9)

Learn what Scripture teaches about the times we live in, the ways in which Christians are being seduced away from Biblical Truth, and the methods used by the New Spirituality to usher in the counterfeit Kingdom of God on earth. Jesus said, "My Kingdom is not of this world" (Jn. 18:36) and "Narrow is the Way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it." (Matthew 7:14)

In recent decades Christianity has been redefined giving rise to unprecedented quasi-Christian spiritual philosophies and practices. Claiming to be "revivals" are these the counterfeits Jesus warned would occur before His return? (Luke 18:8)


Many so-called Christian leaders are introducing innovative teachings based on new Bible translations and paraphrases that alter the timeless truths of Holy Scripture. A more progressive spirituality, with roots in eastern mysticism, is replacing faith in God's Word. This "New Christian Spirituality" poses as a more relevant "New Gospel" for today's Postmodern culture that prefers subjective and emotional feelings, rather than absolute truths.

Biblical Truth is the foundation for knowing God. His promises and prophecies. At Pentecost, the Church was given the Holy Spirit of Truth to be guided into all Truth. Jesus Christ, Who is Truth Incarnate, taught that after His death, resurrection and ascension to Heaven, He would bring His Church to His Father's house before returning with them to govern the world for a 1000 year Kingdom period. Biblical faith trusts God's promise to fulfil these prophecies.

However many within the Emerging, Seeker-friendly, Purpose Driven, New Apostolic, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Reformed, neo-Evangelical, Charismatic and Pentecostal Churches deny many teachings and Prophesies in God's Word as literal Truth.

Many promote the false gospel of transforming the world for the common good, encouraging a "working together", and bringing about social justice on planet earth. Through modern marketing techniques and business management skills a global agenda of faith, commerce and government is being orchestrated for churches to partner with other faiths for world peace and unity. This man made utopia will usher in the reign of Antichrist and his kingdom, preceding the coming of the True Jesus Christ and the True Kingdom of God on earth.

From Southern Baptist to Goddess Worship: Sue Monk Kidd

Sue Monk Kidd is a very popular writer. Her first two novels, The Secret Life of Bees (2002) and The Mermaid Chair (2005), have sold more than 6 million copies and the first one is being produced as a movie. She has also written two popular books on contemplative spirituality: God’s Joyful Surprise (1988) and When the Heart Waits (1990).


She is quoted by evangelicals such as David Jeremiah (Life Wide Open), Beth Moore (When Godly People Do Ungodly Things), and Richard Foster (Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home). Kidd’s endorsement is printed on the back of Dallas Willard’s book The Spirit of the Disciplines. She wrote the foreword to the 2006 edition of Henri Nouwen’s With Open Hands and the introduction to Thomas Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation.

It is “contemplative spirituality” that changed Kidd’s life, and her experience is a loud warning about flirting with Catholic mysticism.

She was raised in a Southern Baptist congregation in southwest Georgia. Her grandfather and father were Baptist deacons. Her grandmother gave devotionals at the Women’s Missionary Union, and her mother was a Sunday School teacher. Her husband was a minister who taught religion and a chaplain at a Baptist college. She was very involved in church, teaching Sunday School and attending services Sunday morning and evening and Wednesday. She describes herself as the person who would have won a contest for “Least Likely to Become a Feminist.” She was even inducted into a group of women called the Gracious Ladies, the criterion for which was that “one needed to portray certain ideals of womanhood, which included being gracious and giving of oneself unselfishly.”
But for years she had felt a spiritual emptiness and lack of contentment. Prayer was “a fairly boring mental activity” (Kidd’s foreword to Henri Nouwen’s With Open Hands, 2006, p. 10). She says,

“I had been struggling to come to terms with my life as a woman--in my culture, my marriage, my faith, my church, and deep inside myself” (The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, p. 8).

She was thirty years old, had been married about 12 years, and had two children.

Instead of learning how to fill that emptiness and uncertainty with a know-so salvation and a sweet walk with Christ in the Spirit and a deeper knowledge of the Bible, she began dabbling in Catholic mysticism. A Sunday School co-worker gave her a book by the Roman Catholic monk Thomas Merton. She should have known better than to study such a book and should have been warned by the brethren, but the New Evangelical philosophy that controls the vast majority of Southern Baptist churches created an atmosphere in which the reading of a Catholic monk’s book by a Sunday School teacher was acceptable. Their thinking goes like this: Who are we to judge what other people read, and who is to say that a Roman Catholic priest might not love the Lord?

Kidd began to practice Catholic forms of contemplative spirituality and visit Catholic retreat centers and monasteries.
“... beginning in my early thirties I’d become immersed in a journey that was rooted in contemplative spirituality. It was the spirituality of the ‘church fathers,’ of the monks I’d come to know as I made regular retreats in their monasteries. ... I thrived on solitude, routinely practicing silent meditation as taught by the monks Basil Pennington and Thomas Keating. ... For years, I’d studied Thomas Merton, John of the Cross, Augustine, Bernard, Bonaventure, Ignatius, Eckhart, Luther, Teilhard de Chardin, The Cloud of Unknowing, and others” (pp. 14, 15).

Of Merton’s autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, which she read in 1978 for the first of many times, she says,
“My experience of reading it initiated me into my first real awareness of the interior life, igniting an impulse toward being ... it caused something hidden at the core of me to flare up and become known” (Kidd’s introduction to New Seeds of Contemplation, 2007, pp. xiii, xi).

Of Merton’s book New Seeds of Contemplation she says, “[It] initiated me into the secrets of my true identity and woke in me an urge toward realness” and “impacted my spirituality and my writing to this day.”

Merton communicated intimately with and was deeply affected by Mary veneration, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sufism, so it is not surprising that his writings would create an appetite that could lead to goddess worship.
In The New Seeds of Contemplation, Merton made the following frightening statement that shows the great danger of Catholic mysticism:
“In the end the contemplative suffers the anguish of realizing that HE NO LONGER KNOWS WHAT GOD IS. He may or may not mercifully realize that, after all, this is a great gain, because ‘God is not a what,’ not a ‘thing.’ This is precisely one of the essential characteristics of contemplative experience. It sees that there is no ‘what’ that can be called God” (p. 13).

What Catholic mysticism does is reject the Bible as the sole and sufficient and perfect revelation of God and tries to delve beyond the Bible, even beyond thought of any kind, and find God through mystical “intuition.” In other words, it is a rejection of the God of the Bible. It says that God cannot be known by doctrine and cannot be described in words. He can only be experienced through mysticism. This is a blatant denial of the Bible’s claim to be the very Word of God.

This opens the practitioner to demonic delusion. He is left with no perfect objective revelation of God, no divinely-revealed authority by which he can test his mystical experiences and intuitions. He is left with an idol of his own vain imagination (Jeremiah 17:9) and a doctrine of devils.

Kidd’s own first two books were on contemplative spirituality.

The involvement in Catholic contemplative practices led her to the Mass and to other sacramental associations.
“I often went to Catholic mass or Eucharist at the Episcopal church, nourished by the symbol and power of this profound feeding ritual” (p. 15).

There is an occultic power in the mass that has influenced many who have approached it in a receptive, non-critical manner.
She learned dream analysis from a Jungian perspective and believed that her dreams were revelations. One recurring dream featured an old woman. Kidd concluded that this is “the Feminine Self or the voice of the feminine soul” and she was encouraged in her feminist studies by these visitations.
   She spent much time with a friend who had a feminist mindset and was “exploring” feminist writings, and she began to read ever more radical feminists, such as Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, Elaine Pagels, and Rosemary Radford Ruether.


We are reminded of the Bible’s warning, “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners” (1 Cor. 15:33).
She says, “I began to form what I called my feminist critique” (p. 59). She learned to see “patriarchy” as “a wounder of women and feminine life” (p. 60).

She determined to stop testing things and follow her heart, rejecting the Bible’s admonition to “prove all things” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
“I would go through the gate with what Zen Buddhists call ‘beginner’s mind,’ the attitude of approaching something with a mind empty and free, ready for anything, open to everything. ... I would give myself permission to go wherever my quest took me” (p. 140).

She rejected the doctrine that the Bible is the sole authority for faith and practice. In church one day the pastor proclaimed this truth, and she describes the frightful thing that happened in her heart at that moment:

“I remember a feeling rising up from a place about two inches below my navel. ... It was the purest inner knowing I had experienced, and it was shouting in me no, no, no! The ultimate authority of my life is not the Bible; it is not confined between the covers of a book. It is not something written by men and frozen in time. It is not from a source outside myself. My ultimate authority is the divine voice in my own soul. Period. ... That day sitting in church, I believed the voice in my belly. ... The voice in my belly was the voice of the wise old woman. It was my female soul talking. And it had challenged the assumption that the Baptist Church would get me where I needed to go” (The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, pp. 76, 77, 78).

She began to think that the Bible is wrong in its teaching about women and that women should not take the subordinate position described therein. She came to believe that Eve might have been a hero instead of a sinner, that eating the forbidden fruit had actually opened Eve’s eyes to her true self. Kidd came to the conclusion that the snake was not evil but “symbolized female wisdom, power, and regeneration” (p. 71). She was surprised and pleased to learn that the snake is depicted as the companion of ancient goddesses, concluding that this is evidence that the Bible is wrong.

She determined that she was willing to lose her marriage, if necessary.
“I would not, could not forfeit my journey for my marriage or for the sake of religious acceptance or success as a ‘Christian writer.’ I would keep moving in my own way to the strains of feminine music that sifted up inside me, not just moving but embracing the dance. ... I felt the crumbling of the old patriarchal foundation our marriage had rested upon in such hidden and subtle ways. Though both of us would always need to compromise, there was no more sacrificing myself, no more revolving around him, no more looking to him for validation, trying to be what I thought he needed me to be. My life, my time, my decisions became newly my own” (pp. 98, 125).

In her case, her husband stayed with her and came to accept her feminist vision, even leaving his job in the Christian college and becoming a psychotherapist, but in many other cases the feminist philosophy has destroyed the marriage. She says, “I’ve met women who in such circumstances have stayed and others who’ve left. Such choices are achingly difficult, but I’ve learned to respect whatever a woman feels she must do.” It is amazing how a person can come to the place where he or she is convinced that it is a righteous thing to renounce a solemn marriage vow that was made before God and man.

She rejected God as Father.
“I knew right then and there that the patriarchal church was no longer working for me. The exclusive image of God as heavenly Father wasn’t working, either. I needed a Power of Being that was also feminine” (The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, p. 80).

She came to believe in the divinity of man.
“There’s a bulb of truth buried in the human soul that’s ‘only God’ ... the soul is more than something to win or save. It’s the seat and repository of the inner Divine, the God-image, the truest part of us” (When the Heart Waits, 1990, pp. 47, 48).


“When we encounter another person ... we should walk as if we were upon holy ground. We should respond as if God dwells there” (God’s Joyful Surprise, p. 233).

She began to delve into the worship of ancient goddesses. She traveled with a group of women to Crete where they met in a cave and sang prayers to “the Goddess Skoteini, Goddess of the Dark.” She says, “... something inside me was calling on the Goddess of the Dark, even though I didn’t know her name” (The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, p. 93).

Soon she was praying to God as Mother.
“I ran my finger around the rim of the circle on the page and prayed my first prayer to a Divine Feminine presence. I said, ‘Mothergod, I have nothing to hold me. No place to be, inside or out. I need to find a container of support, a space where my journey can unfold’” (p. 94).


She came to the place where she believed that she is a goddess.
“Divine Feminine love came, wiping out all my puny ideas about love in one driving sweep. Today I remember that event for the radiant mystery it was, how I felt myself embraced by Goddess, how I felt myself in touch with the deepest thing I am. It was the moment when, as playwright and poet Ntozake Shange put it, ‘I found god in myself/ and I loved her/ I loved her fiercely’” (The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, p. 136).


“To embrace Goddess is simply to discover the Divine in yourself as powerfully and vividly feminine” (p. 141).
“I came to know myself as an embodiment of Goddess” (p. 163).


"When I woke, my thought was that I was finally being reunited with the snake in myself--that lost and defiled symbol of feminine instinct” (p. 107).

She came to believe in the New Age doctrine that God is in all things and is the sum total of all things, that God is the evolving universe and we are a part of God.
“I thought: Maybe the Divine One is like an old African woman, carving creation out of one vast, beautiful piece of Herself. She is making a universal totem spanning fifteen billion years, an extension of her life and being, an evolutionary carving of sacred art containing humans, animals, plants, indeed, everything that is. And all of it is joined, blended, and connected, its destiny intertwined. ... In other words, the Divine coinheres all that is. ... To coinhere means to exist together, to be included in the same thing or substance” (pp. 158, 159).

She built an altar in her study and populated it with statues of goddesses, Jesus, a Black Madonna -- and a mirror to reflect her own image.
“Over the altar in my study I hung a lovely mirror sculpted in the shape of a crescent moon. It reminded me to honor the Divine Feminine presence in myself, the wisdom in my own soul” (p. 181).

She even believes that the world can be saved by the divine mother.
“I know of nothing needed more in the world just now than an image of Divine present that affirms the importance of relationship--a Divine Mother, perhaps, who draws all humanity into her lap and makes us into a global family” (p. 155).

The Dance of the Dissident Daughter ends with the words, “She is in us.”
According to this book, Kidd’s daughter, too, has accepted goddess worship.



Republished July 1, 2010 (first published July 15, 2008) (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org;

For more information about Sue Monk Kidd and contemplative spirituality, we recommend our book on Contemplative Mysticism and our book and DVD set on the Emerging Church. Both are available here:http://www.wayoflife.org/publications/topicalbooks.html