"DANGER! GOD AHEAD!" Nuns On The SpaceBus travelling to hear Barbara Marx Hubbard
The champion of all things Left, the National Schismatic Reporter (aka Fishwrap), has run the response of Barbara Marx Hubbard, LCWR’s 2012 keynote speaker, to Card. Müller’s recent pointed speech to the same LCWR.
Barbara Marx Hubbard’s (BMH hereafter) new-gnostic stuff is so weird that you get the sense that she hears a radio station that no one else can tune in. The LCWR nuns lap up this oddball claptrap with large spoons.
You will recall that Card. Müller, Prefect of the CDF, said (HERE for the complete text):
I do not think I overstate the point when I say that the futuristic ideas advanced by the proponents of Conscious Evolution are not actually new. The Gnostic tradition is filled with similar affirmations and we have seen again and again in the history of the Church the tragic results of partaking of this bitter fruit. Conscious Evolution does not offer anything which will nourish religious life as a privileged and prophetic witness rooted in Christ revealing divine love to a wounded world. It does not present the treasure beyond price for which new generations of young women will leave all to follow Christ. The Gospel does! Selfless service to the poor and marginalized in the name of Jesus Christ does!
Read a little more about Conscious Evolution HERE. About BMH’s keynote to the LCWR at in 2012 HERE. What she thinks, HERE.
And now, Fishwrap‘s presentation of BMH’s Apologia pro vita sua with my emphases and comments:
Marx Hubbard responds to Cardinal Müller’s LCWR comments
[…]
I am grateful to Cardinal Gerhard Müller for raising concerns about conscious evolution and its relationship to Catholic teaching. I hope his focus on this issue will stimulate many, both within the Catholic church and outside it, to [book sales and invitations to speak] deepen human understanding of conscious evolution and how we might advance our own evolutionary action for the good of the whole of Earth life. [She is doubling down. But, why not? This is the most attention she has ever received.]
I am not a Catholic nor a theologian, yet I have been deeply inspired to help develop the meaning of conscious evolution through my studies of Teilhard de Chardin, Ilia Delio, John Haught, Beatrice Bruteau, Fr. Thomas Berry, David Richo, Diarmuid O’Murchu, [I am glad that some of these people have gone back to the Gaelic spellings… so that we have no idea who they are. Dire-mooid Oh’Murchyou? Okay… just having some fun.] and others. And of course, from the New Testament itself. [Of course! We all read the NT and come up with mystical presencing. But I am getting ahead.]
Now, meeting with so many women religious through LCWR, I see conscious evolution in action. They have been evolving the church [and yet, this is the English language….] and the world for hundreds of years through deep gospel living, a mystical presencing, faithfulness in serving unmet needs, solidarity with Earth, [not “the Earth”, but Earth… the living consciously evolving Earth, like the gal you buy fish from at the store] building community as “whole-makers,” [huh?] risk-taking for the sake of the mission, [that’s new? No. The apostles and martyrs didn’t do that.] genius for cooperative self-governance and decision making, [Next question: is that really a good thing? Plato didn’t think so. But I digress.] and above all bringing love and hope for the future into the lives of millions. [Millions?]
For me, the most vital source of meaning of conscious evolution is the Catholic understanding of God and Christ as the source of evolution, [Not Christ, the same, yesterday, today, tomorrow.] as its driving force as well as its direction. As Ilia Delio puts it, we experience in evolution the Emergent Christ and God Ahead. [Are we going to accept the premise that Ilia Delio, or anything else to which she refers, is “Catholic understanding”? I don’t think so.]
Through science, research, technology communications and virtually every other area of human activity, we are weaving a delicate membrane of consciousness, what Teilhard called the “noosphere” [I am now wishing that the asteroid would hurry up. Think of what it would do to the noosphere.] or the thinking layer of Earth that is embracing and drawing into itself the entire planet. It will infuse the whole of humanity with [… opium… ] a feeling of relationship and resonance. He called this potential experience “the Christification of the Earth.”
Many of us are becoming what Teilhard called “Homo progressivus,” those attracted to the future of the world moving toward the unknown, toward ever higher consciousness, freedom, order, and love. [Hey! Who doesn’t want a higher consciousness? Irenaeus worked on a Christian gnosis, gno?]
In this view, evolution itself becomes a spiritually motivated labor of love toward a Christ-inspired world, leading toward life ever-evolving beyond this current stage of Homo sapiens sapiens. [… Huh?]
Of course the scientific basis for conscious evolution is coming from many fields, most importantly from an understanding of the new cosmology, of the 13.8 billion year “The Universe Story,” as written by Brian Swimme and Fr. Thomas Berry, and from “Big Bang Cosmology,” as Ilia Delio calls it. [There she is again. Hmmm… maybe it is time for the CDF to look into her. She is a woman religious, after all. It seems that her notions are having a less than positive influence. And she was the LCWR speak last year. Coincidence? I think not.] Recently, Big History: From the Big Bang [“Big” seems to be a key word for her.] to the Present by David Christian, Cynthia Stokes Brown and Craig Benjamin is changing the view of history itself to begin at the origin of creation. [With such prestigious authors as they on her side, how can we any longer object?]
Meanwhile, new technologies are giving us vast new powers we used to attribute to gods, to destroy this world or create new worlds on this Earth and in space, as described in Dr. Ted Chu’s new book, Human Purpose and Transhuman Potential: A Cosmic Vision for Our Future Evolution. [Okay… this has ceased to be any kind of response to the CDF. This is nothing but a plug for herself so that someone, probably a group of nuns, will hire her to speak.]
The headlines every day make millions of us aware that the crises we face are requiring us to become conscious of our effects on our own evolution, to act out of choice for the good rather than mere chance, or face the destruction of our life support system. [I am now deeply concerned about the fate of my brother the earthworm, my sister the butterfly.]
Finally, [Finally!] a new field or meta-discipline is beginning to form around the themes of conscious evolution. Philosophical geniuses like Ken Wilber, originator of Integral Theory, have surfaced as major thinkers of our times. [On which planet? Have you heard of him? He’s a Major Thinker!] His book A Brief History of Everything has been helpful to me as a beginning text. The work of Sri Aurobindo of India in his masterwork, The Life Divine has revisioned Buddhism and Hinduism from an evolutionary perspective. His partner, the Mother, [any relation to Earth?] founded the first evolutionary community, Auroville in India. Hazel Henderson in her website Ethical Markets and recent books, and Elizabet Sahtouris in Earthdance: Living Systems in Evolution have illuminated conscious evolution in the field of economics. [So far, I have seen anything from my blog roll. I guess it hasn’t evolved yet.] Jean Houston has called us to evolve in the field of creativity and human capacity in such books as Jump Time: Shaping Your Future in a World of Radical Change. Jan C. Smuts wrote Holism and Evolution calling us to understand the tendency in nature to form ever more comprehensive whole systems. Buckminster Fuller revealed to us the nature of synergy in evolution and foresaw a world that works for all. Duane Elgin in The Living Universe has illuminated a new vision of the universe. [It is hard to imagine that even the most devoted readers of the Fishwrap will fall for this rubbish.]
A new book by Carter Phipps, The Evolutionaries: Unlocking the Spiritual and Cultural Potential of Science’s Greatest Idea, reviews leading people in this new field. Steve McIntosh has written a beautiful book called Evolution’s Purpose, probing the spiritual nature of evolution itself. Ervin Laszlo has illuminated the scientific and social basis of conscious evolution in over 50 books. An organization of 50 Evolutionary Leaders (evolutionaryleaders.net) has issued a “Global Call for Conscious Evolution” as a world focus.
[When they start throwing the kitchen sink at you, you can tell that they really don’t have a clue.]
Yet [But wait! There’s more! Forget than “finally”, above.] the meaning and direction of conscious evolution is, for me, coming to us most clearly from the great modern Catholic theologians and thinkers, And most fundamentally, of course, directly from the New Testament: “Behold I show you a mystery, we shall not all sleep, we shall all be changed, in a moment, at the last trump and the trumpet shall sound,” as St. Paul told us. [ummm… Paul as a source for Conscious Evolution.] The trumpet is sounding upon this phase of human self-centered behavior and growth. We will either evolve more consciously in our lifetimes, or devolve and destroy much of Earth life.
The key question in our time is, I believe, conscious evolution — that is, how to evolve consciously as a new whole planetary system. [Hey! Didn’t Pope Francis speak of Martians the other day?] What is required now is many convenings of disciplines, faiths, and understandings to gain for the very first time, a sense of shared human responsibility for the destiny of Earth Life. Our new crises and opportunities require all of us to ask ourselves these questions: What is my unique contribution to the conscious evolution of humanity? What is my greater life purpose? What can I do, small or large to contribute toward a positive future for all? What are the purposes of the heart of Christ?
[Barbara Marx Hubbard is president of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution.]
Okay, I am sure that Card. Müller is going to be pretty impressed by this response. She really settled his hash.
Consider this. In the final analysis, BMH is not being much of a heretic. She isn’t really saying anything intelligible. This is new-age sounding, cliché ridden, B as in B, S as in S. There is nothing Christian about this. There is no interest here in sin, mercy, salvation, redemption, Christ’s propitiatory Sacrifice, heaven. Zip. There’s nothing here.
We have no idea what she is saying beyond “hug a tree”. She isn’t say that the tree is God.
She doesn’t connect with anything that Müller said to the LCWR. She actually thanks him for helping her keep the lime-light for a few more minutes.
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As Wolfgang Pauli would say, that is not even wrong.
I mean no disrespect here, Fr. Z., but if folks at the Vatican are going to continue making statements in praise of Teilhard de Chardin, contrary to the monitum issued several decades ago (and never formally repealed), we can expect more of BMH’s drivel.
“Earth life”? What about “non-Earth life”, Barbara? Even Francis recently mentioned Martians. I think Barbara needs to evolve beyond her stone-age, bigoted, planetist ways of thinking, and try to open her mind little more.
There is actually a literal “Random New Age BS Generator” on the internet that can come up with better sounding garble than this. (Google it for a giggle if you like.)
This cr*p is absolutely brilliant. As Pope Benedict says of rock-music (In New Song to the Lord), it is “beyond parody” – self parody. The greatest writers living (even Fr Z) could not write this stuff in parody which would exceed Mother Hubbard.
What I cannot quite work out is whether she herself believes it? If so, and it means something to her, then she must be close to insane; if not, then this is the most cruel and pointless deception of silly women, so wicked and malicious, thus criminally insane.
Be honest, Father – that was like shooting fish in a barrel, wasn’t it?
How could any rational creature give this a moment’s credence?
The poor (ex)nuns must be pretty far gone to give the woman house-room.
“When they start throwing the kitchen sink at you, you can tell that they really don’t have a clue.”
That’s the sense I got from the piece as well. Based on her writing I wouldn’t consider Barbara Marx Hubbard to have an understanding of the theories of any of the authors she cited. I wouldn’t be surprised if many, if not all of them, would proclaim like Marshall McLuhan in the scene from Annie Hall, “I heard what you were saying! You know nothing of my work!…How you got to teach a course in anything is totally amazing!”
These quasi-Teilhardian . . . expressions are so nonsensical that they’re simply begging for some enterprising Catholic scientist to parachute in and perpetrate a theological version of the Sokol Hoax.
Because frankly, this stuff makes anything printed in Social Text over the last two decades look like rock hard science.
As Wolfgang Pauli would say, that is not even wrong.
Ganz Falsch!
Ok, at two-thirds I was hoping that electrons would evolve (if the whole earth does, why not elemental particles?) in such a way as to never again pollute my tablet with such rubbish! Please, dear Earth, have mercy on my poor Samsung!
I had been thinking the genial originators of Integral Theory were some Englishman called Newton and that well-known Butterkeks and Zwieback manufacturer from Saxony.
Wow. Cardinal Mueller is 100% right about this: there is nothing new here, except the gobbledygook language that is used to express it. This nonsense is as old as the hills, Gnosticism 101. We need to start calling upon the intercession of St. Irenaeus for these people if they really believe this claptrap.
Barbara Marx Hubbard – “Meanwhile, new technologies are giving us vast new powers we used to attribute to gods”
The devil in Genesis 3:5 – “and you shall be as Gods.”
The idea is to fit the term “evolution” in there… even if it is completely detached from any scientific understanding of the word.
This stuff is unbearable garbage and very destructive. Hubbard at least admits that she is not now nor ever has been a Catholic. I did, however, happen to know indirectly one of the Catholics that she mentions as her formative influences (a priest) who was, IMHO, a sort of Rasputin who particularly preyed on gullible or vulnerable women such as these ditzy sisters. This was actually even before the time of environmentalism, and I think he was mostly generating his woo-woo capacity from Teilhard, but it had to do with something somewhere evolving into who knows what. But in practice it was cruel and amoral, and I know that a friend of mine was destroyed by it and I would suspect that she was not the only one.
However, I still think this is closest of all to Mormonism and to the 19th century theosophist movements that were popular particularly with women and which boasted a number of women “theologians” (starting with Madame Blavatsky and going through the founder of Christian Science and a host of others). The Church was supposed to protect the gullible, particularly “spiritual” ladies, long notorious for their goofiness, from this. What happened?
I think Isaac Asimov in his later years may have been influenced by some of this stuff — his later books in the Foundation series talk about evolution of higher consciousness and group consciousness of the earth as a whole. Anyways, it doesn’t sound particularly Catholic. Am I the only one who thinks that saying you are consciously making yourself a higher evolved person is rather elitist and just un-liberal? Moreover, it doesn’t seem scientific. It appears she is not talking about scientifically retooling human DNA, which to my simple unevolved brain is what “conscious evolution” would mean in a truly practical sense, i.e., artificial selection in Darwinian terms. Learned behavior, if that is what she is talking about with her higher consciousness stuff, does not affect biological inheritance, which is what “evolution” is about.
She is like a dotty old aunt. You just smile at her ramblings and ask her if she would care for another sherry before dinner.
“They have been evolving the church…”
Dear Lady,
The Church is Christ’s bride and he is the head of it. If any conscious evolution of it will be done, it will be done by him, not you. Go back to sleep. You are having a bad dream.
Too snarky?
The Chicken
Good grief! What a bunch of mumbo-jumbo.
What really got me was this quote:
“As Ilia Delio puts it, we experience in evolution the Emergent Christ and God Ahead”
I guess they think Christ, The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity is still “emerging”.
I wonder what “God Ahead” they expect He will emerge to.
But then again, I guess they haven’t learned the difference between the Creator and the creature.
Satan all over again: “You will become like God”
Satan found a weak link in woman (Eve). Now he’s going after the modern women (LCWRs), the “new” weak link.
Actually, although it might taste bad to do so, are there any good apologetical sites or books out there to contradict these ideas? Does anybody need the hard lifting to be done?
In any case, why won’t someone just pin these people down and ask for some proof of their ideas?
The Chicken
Why on earth would a nun want to listen to BS like this when they could be reading The Imitation of Christ’ or St. Faustina’s Diary or a thousand other Catholic classics. Hubbard appears to have flattered the nuns with her assertion that they are wonderful examples of her theories in action, how naive they must be. For this sort of thing they get a slap on the wrist by a Cardinal (and a pat on the back by another)? Don’t these women and their supporters have any idea what they are risking? I suppose not.
Chicken,
“In any case, why won’t someone just pin these people down and ask for some proof of their ideas?” Because as Cardinal Muller said they don’t know what they don’t know.
Her words sound like the ramblings of someone in a dream. They only make sense to the person dreaming.
Maria
When I was a kid, I had to spend an hour on The Wild Mouse to get this dizzy. Now it takes just 5 minutes on a blog. I have evolved!
Can we just stick to the Catechism of the Catholic Church and keep away from Mystery Science Theater 3000, please?
The phrase “whole-makers” was the knock-out blow. I couldn’t read any more.
I know the LCWR is undergoing an overhaul with the help of Bishop Sartain, but are they considered to be in full communion with Rome? If so, why?
The more I read this essay, the more it seems like it was a canned article she had saved on her word processor, which she just slightly modified to offer up on short notice to her friends at NCR.
Because, otherwise, it has virtually no points of contact with Cardinal Muller’s address, as Fr Z notes. Not that it makes much sense on those terms, either.
She sounds like a certifiable wack-job…it would be really funny if it WAS a parody, but OH SO SAD because she and the sisters are deadly serious that they really believe in this total cr*p. BMH needs her head examining to see if she really has a mind in there…..I’m not sure she has – she might be recommended for investigation for dementia her ideas are really soooo far out. Either that or a toxicology screen as her ramblings remind me of someone having an odd LSD trip. How anyone can take this seriously beats me.
There is nothing remotely catholic/Christian in any of this, but only more of that parallel religion/’spiridualidy’ stuff which is leading many to their doom in hell….
I wonder if she’s been studying ‘The Hamburger Universe’ and listening to Russian radio station ‘UVB-76’?
[A favorite of mine!]
I was just thinking what a dull day this has been, with grey skies, thunderstorms and hail, when I came here for a read. I haven’t laughed so hard in a while, although I don’t know which amused me most, what she said, Fr Z’s comments, or the readers’ comments. Cantor’s “Wild Mouse” just about did me in. My screen almost wore the tea I had just tried to slug. I can’t wait for the good Cardinal’s reply, which should simply red Q.E.D.
There is a vast difference between the thoughts of Barbara Marx Hubbard and Teilhard de Chardin as the following would attest.
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Introduction to Christianity – 1968
* We shall return later to discuss today this enlarged perspective which is at last beginning to gain currency in the Western consciousness as well, especially as a result of stimuli from the work of Teilhard de Chardin. Page 85
* It must be regarded as an important service of Teilhard de Chardin’s that he rethought these ideas from the angle of the modern view of the world … Page 236
* This leads to a further passage in Teilhard de Chardin that is worth quoting … Page 238
* From here it is possible to understand the final aim of the whole movement as Teilhard sees it … page 238
* To use Teilhard de Chardin’s terminology … Page 304
* The first of these two concepts can be accepted again today without argument; and after what we have learned from Teilhard, the second should no longer be entirely incomprehensible, either. Page 318
Pope John Paul II, Gift and Mystery, page 73
The Eucharist is also celebrated in order to offer “on the altar of the whole earth the world’s work and suffering”, in the beautiful words of Teilhard de Chardin.
Flannery O’Connor – The Presence of Grace.
It is doubtful if any Christian of this century can be fully aware of his religion until he has seen it in the cosmic light which Teilhard has cast upon it.
I’ve not read this type of environmentalist polytheism since my last exposure to the New Age Kabbalah followers….
ICK.
How can anyone with a functional mind believe this stuff to be well reasoned, meaningful or insightful?
These sisters must be using LSD or something. Hope they don’t drive their busses themselves…
Since we are now on a Spaceballs/evolution theme, there has to be a Mog (half-man, half-dog) joke somewhere here. Sadly, though, turning away from a vocation to be Christ’s bride, and embracing New Age religious practices which possibly open the door to the demonic is deadly serious.
@CharlesG The ancient Gnostics (not to mention their Albigensian and Cathar descendants) were the very definition of elitism.
All I had to do was about five minutes of searching around online to come up with quote at the end of this reply.
Why are we burying the lead on the story of this woman and her words? Does not the quote below indicate the most horrific consequences of New Age thought? It could have come straight out of a Nuremberg Rally. Here is Hubbard and how to handle those of us who refuse to buy into her BS. Ask yourself – are you a member of the “destructive one fourth”? Then you must be prepared for the “selection process” of which she is speaking. Absolutely chilling.
Here’s the quote:
“This act is as horrible as killing a cancer cell. It must be done for the sake of the future of the whole. So be it: be prepared for the selection process which is now beginning.
“We, the elders, have been patiently waiting until the very last moment before the quantum transformation, to take action to cut out this corrupted and corrupting element in the body of humanity. It is like watching a cancer grow; something must be done before the whole body is destroyed… The destructive one fourth must be eliminated from the social body.”
(Barbara Marx Hubbard, Manual for Co-Creators of the Quantum Leap, pp. 55-57)
“[and yet, this is the English language….]”
Nope, don’t think so. Not sure it’s any Earth language at all.
Fr. Z forgot to include the signature, I think it may explain everything preceding:
“Bababooey.. Bababooey.. Bababooey
BMH”
Smoking those “funny cigarettes again”. Sounds like a 1960’s drug party at the local “coffee house”.
What no background music by the Beatles?
Once into a lake with a rocky bottom we fellow philosophical geniuses dove at a place where the water was much too shallow.
Of course, we surfaced as major thinkers.
Transhumanism and this philosophical mumbo jumbo you see above is tied to the esoteric messaging found in a lot of entertainment. Entertainment, especially the music industry, is tied into the “Illuminati” which have ties back into the OTO, the Church of Satan, and the New World Order. Basically, these Nuns are promoting Satanism. To understand where I am coming up with this, I highly recommend http://www.vigilantcitizen.com You may at first find me to be a bit of a tinfoil hat wearer, but when you start seeing the repetitive esoteric symbolism in movies, TV, and music, you will see where all of this came from and where all of it is leading.
It may seem like harmless nuttiness, but nothing can be further from the truth. These people are serious, and the people at the top know what they are doing.
There is a classic Seinfeld scene in the episode when Kramer and Newman are going to hook up the homeless to pull rickshaws in New York City, and the poor, ragged homeless man suddenly salutes and says “Potato salad!” to nothing in particular. This response is almost like that. I smell fear. She clearly doesn’t want to take him on. She seems as if she is trying to deflect attention or rally the troops by answering in names and books that may somehow validate her…point of view? It’s embarrassingly awful. No doubt people have gone to their graves having only this junk for consolation. What about the state of their souls? What a sobering thought. It’s too bad it took so long to address this.
What I hear is Pride. Dangerously delusional Pride.
I don’t understand what she is waiting for. If she wants to “evolve”, stop talking and start evolving already.
It is very scary to me that this stuff could be taught and supported at high levels of the Church (within the LWCR) and have gone unchallenged before now.
That’s the dumbest thing I’ve read all year and I work for the Feds. Calling this gnostic is probably horribly insulting to Gnostics.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5hfYJsQAhl0
THE
WAKING
OF
MAN
Beware goddess green
Mother earth’s pagan queen
She’ll recycle man’s faith
Unto doubt.
They will question their existence
Contracept with persistence
If man does not wake…
He’s waked out!
LOVE Spade’s comment.
You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension – a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You’re moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You’ve just crossed over into… the National Fishwrap Zone.
I can understand someone being captivated by Teilhard; his writings fascinate. As someone else noted, above, some greater minds than mine have seen fit to quote him.
Yet he had difficulties; one of which is being played out here: his ideas are too susceptible to heterodox interpretation.
However–a big however–Father Teilhard was a loyal son of the Church, and when the Church pointed out some of the problems, he was docile.
I haven’t seen much docility with the LCWR and its enablers.
Uh… so BMH writes from Washington State or from Colorado?
She said “I am not a Catholic nor a theologian” right off the bat, then went on to prove her thesis. The only question is why on earth she was chosen to be a speaker at a gathering of Catholic religious women. Would none of the Catholics or the theologians the sisters asked agree to come?
@Heather F: I am loving the “New-Age BS Generator” so much, I think I can finally become a published author, just like BMH!
To quote a priest we all know, “huh?”
BMH and her cohorts – Eckhart Tolle, Oprah Winfrey, Marianne Williamson, Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, et al – cannot communicate a single cogent thought or sentence. It’s all disjointed mumbo jumbo.
LCWR, return to the one, true, Catholic and apostolic faith.
I remember when I (very briefly) discerned with an order that shall remain nameless, we had a Sister come in and teach us the Enneagram and what our “spirit animals” were. That almost seems orthodox compared to this.
I think I liked the Spaceball’s picture the best. Sort of a shame that even IT had better vestments on their priests:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTKHzjh1mUk>
and don’t forget when they sang and danced in front of their goddess: LINK pracining around like Pricilla, queen of the desert.
yes, three hail marys for me…
Sadly, I read almost all of the people (Swimme, Wilbur et al.) that BMH lists in my LCWR-run college religion curriculum. And they are still teaching this nonsense. Sigh.
Shaka, when the walls fell.
Totally incoherent!! Satan loves this garbage!
To quote the hamster in the ball from the Sprint commercial: “Okay, I don’t know where to go with that.”
Reading this stuff reminds me of wading through Coptic Manichaean texts – seemingly endless, inscrutable, filled with a panoply of idiosyncratic and contradictory names and terms (Jesus the Splendor lives in the Moon! Jesus Suffering is the Cross of Light trapped in matter that we can return to the Land of Light by eating beans!) – except that Manichaeism is genuinely interesting and historically noteworthy, being the only genuine world religion to disappear and, of course, having claimed St. Augustine as an adherent. This… *stuff*, on the other hand, is anything but.
tcreek, I am so happy you brought in Ratzinger to defend Teilhard de Chardin. Introduction to Christianity was assigned reading for my THE 101 class in the fall semester, and I ate it up. And O’Connor wrote a short story “Everything that Rises Must Converge,” borrowing the title from him.
Second Fr. Fox that his ideas are very susceptible to heterodox interpretations, but they don’t have to be, certainly. And shouldn’t be: he was a Catholic before he was anything else. It doesn’t mean one should frame a philosophy around him like one might do with Thomism…
Hole makers…we made holes this past Tuesday. We planted fruit trees, real ones.
When the cartoon strip Doonesbury was still funny, Zonker Harris read aloud, to Doonesbury, the term paper he was writing. (It sounded a lot like the Marx brothers, and sisters.) Doonesbury asked, “What class is it for?” Zonker, “I haven’t decided yet”.
No wonder the section called “Metaphysics” in box book stores includes New Age, UFOlogy, and other various quackeries. Fr Teilhard de Chardin SJ would be rolling in his grave if the dead could do such things.
New Age. Rhymes with Sewage.
Once again we women fall for the Snake…
This reminds me of the third installment of ‘The Matrix’. I guess Cardinal Muller was right but he gave them more credit than they deserve.
Total rubbish.
Fr. Martin Fox & Matt R — Here is someone else who would never equate Teilhard with proponents of Conscious Evolution as Barbara Hubbard.
Archbishop Fulton J Sheen in his book Footsteps in a Darkened Forest, (New York: Meredith, 1967) page 73.
“It is very likely that within fifty years when all the trivial, verbal disputes about the meaning of Teilhard’s “unfortunate” vocabulary will have died away or have taken a secondary place, Teilhard will appear like John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila, as the spiritual genius of the twentieth century.”
Reading her… thoughts… all I could think of was this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKjxFJfcrcA
When I read this and saw the space bus, I immediately remembered a show that I used to watch as a kid called “Great Space Coaster” and this was the intro:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dddm5bQeKvg
All the nuns from the bus, get on board!
The thing that sticks out to me most about this “response” is something I’ve encountered A LOT from “academics” who are highly educated but dumb as a brick… in place of arguments, they simply cite authors they’ve read (or, usually, authors “whose work they are familiar with” meaning they’ve never read anything they wrote but they’ve discussed their ideas casually at dinner parties with other equally ignorant people).
I’ve known people who truly don’t even understand how constructing arguments work, they *genuinely* think that just being familiar with a concept and regurgitating it is the same thing as making a claim, supporting it, and rebutting counterclaims.
This is why a certain sector of society wants “dialogue” but never “debate”. They all want to get up and present the “book report” version of their ideas about the world and then clap each other on the back for their openmindedness in listening to everyone else’s harebrained versions as well.
To expand on some of Ms. Marx Hubbard’s thoughts:
The complexity of the present time seems to demand an awakening of our brains if we are going to survive. Only a wanderer of the dreamscape may generate this transmission of interconnectedness. We can no longer afford to live with delusion. You must take a stand against stagnation. Ego is the antithesis of guidance. Yes, it is possible to erase the things that can shatter us, but not without conscious living on our side. Although you may not realize it, you are sublime. Lifeform, look within and bless yourself. It can be difficult to know where to begin.
On a positive note, even some of the Fishwrap readers were apparently able to recognize organic fertilizer when they smelled it.
@elijah408 : I guess in this case, no Gnus would be good Gnus too.
The Nuns must be crazy.
Good thing they are not traditional Catholics, otherwise the LCWR would be closed down. This pap is dangerous now that even the Church believes that men cause Global Warming. Pseudoscience is everywhere.
Thanks for the laugh, Spade:
Quote:
“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve read all year and I work for the Feds.”
EUGENICS!
Eugenics is obviously going to turn out to be the dirty secret buried under all the gnostic posturing and bending of language. We have seen this before, dressed up in other terms, but it ends more or less the same. This is the Progressive ideology repackaged for a new century, and it shall justify some new round of horrors and abominations. It always seems to end with many usurping the role of God and exercising the powers of life and death in a most ungodly fashion.
Nevertheless, pray for this woman, both for her sake and her father’s: his life’s work made many children very happy for many years, including me.
I noticed she never really denies anything the good Cardinal said. She just admitted that he is correct about everything he said.
Stephen D: ” Why on earth would a nun want to listen to BS like this when they could be reading The Imitation of Christ’ or St. Faustina’s Diary or a thousand other Catholic classics”
Or teaching in classrooms, or actively running (and nursing in) hospitals, or… nah, that’s sooo Pre-V2. I must be unevolved.
Thanks to HeatherF for posting the random New Age BS generator. Having such fun with it :)
“We are in the midst of a spiritual evolving of serenity that will remove the barriers to the planet itself. Our conversations with other storytellers have led to an unveiling of pseudo-heroic consciousness. Reality has always been radiating beings whose hearts are enveloped in wellbeing.
That was pretty wacked-out! Years ago when we had cable, we used to get some program broadcast by the “Church Universal and Triumphant,” the one out West led by the loony lady that had a giant commune and stockpiled weapons. Anyway, she used to “channel” some spirit called St. Germaine (don’t know if she just liked the name or it was supposed to be the old-time Rosicrucian St. Germaine, although he supposedly couldn’t die so I don’t see how you could channel him even in theory) upon which time she would declare, in a weird, high-pitched voice, “I am a pillar of violet flame.” We still say that to each other whenever someone spouts something NUTS, and it immediately came to mind. On another note… I watched the season finale of “Agents of SHIELD” last night, which had a couple of characters spouting stuff exactly like this. So that’s the level it’s on: comic book cosmology.
Poor Fr. Teilhard! I doubt he ever envisioned this. But the other theologians did…
aquinas138: “Jesus Suffering is the Cross of Light trapped in matter that we can return to the Land of Light by eating beans!”
Thanks for that, I needed a laugh! So true. I don’t think Manicheanism is more interesting than this junk, I think it’s pretty similar. And it reminds me of St. Irenaeus, one of the first sarcastic Church Fathers I ever read, saying that Gnostics just liked to give fancy names to silly ideas and inventing a whole ridiculous cosmology to show how it was done, calling one entity a “squash” to show how dumb the whole thing was.
One last… thanks to whoever quoted BMH on one-fourth of the world being killed. I looked that up, and yes, she did say it and other similar things (might have been some “Elder spirits” she “channeled,” saying it as a warning, the quotes are not clear). But apparently many of the things she has said are not so benign and nutso. Or rather, are just as nutso but not so benign. She seems to teach that a population crisis is coming and that those who will unite to “Christ consciousness” of hte “Emergent Christ” or some similar popular New Age idea to make themselves into super-beings will rule. Those who don’t unite but who go along with it will be ruled. And those who oppose them will die — one quarter of the world by that particular quote — at the hands of the enlightened ones or the Elders or whoever. The LCWR had her come to address them. Is that a problem, NCR????? Comments there are closed now or I would ask.
From Stamp Your Feet!, by Anthony Esolen:
CDF: “Sisters, you seem to argue that you are ‘beyond Jesus.’ Do you in fact believe that man may be saved in the name of Jesus alone? That Christ alone reveals the Father to man, and man to himself?”?
LCWR: “Why are you using sexist language? We are offended by your pronouns.”?
CDF: “Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of the Father?”?
LCWR: “We have advanced degrees in theology. We have received awards from our friends – we mean, from prestigious theological societies. Why are you suggesting that we are incompetent? Is it because we’re women?”?
CDF: “Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of the Father, yes or no?”?
LCWR: “Where were you when bishops were hiding pedophiles? Why are you picking on us all of a sudden? Is it to distract people from your incompetence?”?
CDF: “Sisters, the question is fundamental. At every Mass we affirm that Christ is the eternal Son of the Father, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, the sole savior of man – of the human race. Do you believe this or not?”?
LCWR: “We don’t like your attitude! Why are you shouting? What is this really all about?”?
I gotta believe at least one person at the LCWR is thinking that we don’t really want Hubbard arguing for our side.
Read the comments on NCR… it is not entirely the usual, more than half the people are saying she is spouting nonsense and people saying “I was giving the LCWR the benefit of the doubt until I read this. Way too heady (and over my head) to be truth.” The more “progressive Catholics” come into contact with what is really going on that is so problematic the more some of them will actually say “I didn’t know this was going on… this is a bridge too far.” Even some of those who favor “women’s ordination” will understand that is a bridge too far when they realize the way it plays out in practice is entirely people leaving the Church.
By the way, all this mortarfire (hint hint) – you sincerely cannot call it artillery, can you? – comes from a person called:
Barbara
Marx
Hubbard.
Nothing against people called, for instance, Marx, but the entire combination and all
(Though I admit I brought the “mortarfire” up on purpose.)
The appeal to “authority” is impressive; or at least voluminous. I couldn’t even read her words, my eyes kept sliding off the sentences. I started just jumping to the red comments for some coherence.
Is this an Emperor’s New Clothes situation? Are adherents to conscience evolution simply afraid to be the first to stand and say that it makes no sense at all?
This woman, Barbara Marx Hubbard, is NUTS.
One of the oddest responses to the Mueller’s statements regarding BMH and Elizabeth Johnson comes from Phyllis Zagano’s claim that the CDF put BMH on the same level as Elizabeth Johnson. Really? The CDF didn’t do that, LCWR did. The CDF did not give BMH a platform, LCWR did. The CDF did not offer Elizabeth Johnson the same platform, LCWR did. As well, the NSR, not the CDF, gave both Phyllis Zagano and BMH the same platform for issuing a response. Isn’t it strange, she takes no offense? http://ncronline.org/blogs/just-catholic/evolution-consciousness
My goodness, what is this?
I’m pretty sure there isn’t enough marijuana on the face of the planet to make me even come close to finding this interesting. I’m not over-exaggerating when I say I have never seen anything so nonsensical in my entire life.
It astounds me that anyone could question why the Church needs to condemn this drivel.
I would think it was funny but for some reason reading it just makes me angry. It’s makes so little sense it makes me mad.
Oh, I just *had* to post this:
Every day I get in the queue (Too much, Magic Bus)
To get on the bus that takes me to you (Too much, Magic Bus)
I’m so nervous, I just sit and smile (Too much, Magic Bus)
You house is only another mile (Too much, Magic Bus)
Thank you, driver, for getting me here (Too much, Magic Bus)
You’ll be an inspector, have no fear (Too much, Magic Bus)
I don’t want to cause no fuss (Too much, Magic Bus)
But can I buy your Magic Bus? (Too much, Magic Bus)
Nooooooooo!
I don’t care how much I pay (Too much, Magic Bus)
I wanna drive my bus to my baby each day (Too much, Magic Bus)
I want it, I want it, I want it, I want it … (You can’t have it!)
Thruppence and sixpence every day
Just to drive to my baby
Thruppence and sixpence each day
‘Cause I drive my baby every way
Magic Bus, Magic Bus, Magic Bus …
I said, now I’ve got my Magic Bus (Too much, Magic Bus)
I said, now I’ve got my Magic Bus (Too much, Magic Bus)
I drive my baby every way (Too much, Magic Bus)
Each time I go a different way (Too much, Magic Bus)
I want it, i want it, I want it, I want it …
Every day you’ll see the dust (Too much, Magic Bus)
As I drive my baby in my Magic Bus (Too much, Magic Bus)
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz………………………………..
From an Adam Sandler movie taylored for this post;
“Mz. BMH, what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having read it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”
The way she (and a lot of the LCWR off the wall stuff) sounds likely remind the Holy Father of the anti-Christ character in his favorite book “Lord of the World”. It’s uncanny. Here are a few snippets from the book. Do they not sound like “Barbara Marx Hubbard”-speak? :
Describing the anti-Christ character’s speech:
“the great fact of Universal Brotherhood, a congratulation to all who were yet alive to witness this consummation of history; and, at the end, an ascription of praise to that Spirit of the World whose incarnation was now accomplished.
…
There shall be no more an appeal to arms, but to justice; no longer a crying after a God Who hides Himself, but to Man who has learned his own Divinity…What remains is to work out this new lesson, to bring every action, word and thought to the bar of Love and Justice; and this will be, no doubt, the task of years. Every code must be reversed; every barrier thrown down; party must unite with party, country with country, and continent with continent. There is no longer the fear of fear, the dread of the hereafter, or the paralysis of strife. Man has groaned long enough in the travails of birth; his blood has been poured out like water through his own foolishness; but at length he understands himself and is at peace. ”
And from a part where they sing a “Humanism” hymn:
The hymn was one composed ten years before, and all England was familiar with it. Old Mrs. Bland lifted the printed paper mechanically to her eyes, and saw the words that she knew so well:
‘ “_The Lord that dwells in earth and sea.” …
She glanced down the verses, that from the Humanitarian point of view had been composed with both skill and ardour. They had a religious ring; the unintelligent Christian could sing them without a qualm; yet their sense was plain enough–the old human creed that man was all. Even Christ’s, words themselves were quoted. The kingdom of God, it was said, lay within the human heart, and the greatest of all graces was Charity. ‘
I really thought she was dead, and that your article was about one of the nuns hearing her voice from the “other side”!
My 7 year old saw your picture of the space bus and said, “Oh! Is that the Magic Schoolbus?” Practically, huh? LOL
Good gracious, that made my brain hurt. Is it just me or did that read like one long plug? She doesn’t actually *say* anything, she just cites author and book after author and book.
Fr Z. 2013 August 28
Martians-Argentina-[Pope]-LCWR
Scotty!
The diagram at the bottom regarding intelligence, shown to have progressively gone up, can only be correct by measuring with their stick. IOW, they still can’t figure out how some things were built let alone having Scholars who had the depth of thought that most lack today.
Also, if they were keeping in line with what we believe and know about Adam and Eve, perfect intellect before the fall, it would start off high, then drop. Then when Christ walked the Earth, a dramatic jump. In my mind it should look like an EKG. I would put the line at near bottom for now, if that were the case, because intelligence is not just knowing stuff, but also applying it correctly.
But, I guess you would need a different stick, glasses, to see that.
It is amazing that those who claim the advancement, evolution, get messed up on the basics.