by Terry Melanson
For those who dismiss and mock the UN's Agenda for a New World Religion based on pagan morals and values, I offer the following.
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Inside this 'Ark of Hope' the Earth Charter is handwritten on papyrus paper, and ready for presentation to the United Nations; the Ark along with it's Gaia "Ten Commandments" – a new covenant to which every nation must adhere. Each panel represents one of the five traditional elements of pagan worship: Water, Fire, Earth, Air and Spirit. According to the Ark of Hope website, the Ark's dimensions are 49" X 32" X 32" and it was crafted out of a single Sycamore plank. The obvious meaning behind the Ark of Hope is to mock God's own Ten Commandments and the Ark of the Covenant. In this context the choice of Sycamore wood for the Ark of Hope's contruction is a revealing one. The Sycamore tree was sacred to most all the pagan religions in the middle east during biblical times, and in Egypt especially:
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"The real goal of the Earth Charter is that it will in fact become like the Ten Commandments."
"Do not do unto the environment of others what you do not want done to your own environment....My hope is that this charter will be a kind of Ten Commandments, a 'Sermon on the Mount', that provides a guide for human behavior toward the environment in the next century."
Participants form a "sacred circle" around the Ark of Hope, to offer prayers and worship the vessel of Gaia'a Earth Charter.
Steven Rockefeller, architect of the Earth Charter, speaks to the Earth worshipers.
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On September the 9th, 2001 a celebration of the Earth Charter was held at Shelburne Farms Vermont for the unveilling of the Earth Charter's final resting place. This "Ark of Hope" will be presented to the United Nations along with its contents in June of 2002. It is hoped that the United Nations will ratify the Earth Charter document in that time frame; the tenth anniversary of the UNCED Earth Summit in Rio. Maurice Strong was the Secretary General of the Earth conference in 1992. It was hoped that an Earth Charter would be the result of this event. This was not the case, however an international agreement was adopted – Agenda 21 – which layed down the international sustainable development necessary to form a future Earth Charter agreement. Maurice Strong hinted at the overtly pagan agenda proposed for a future Earth Charter, when in his opening address to the Rio Conference delegates he said, "It is the responsibility of each human being today to choose between the force of darkness and the force of light." [note: Alice Bailey, and Blavatsky before her, used these terms often. Their writings state that the 'force of darkness' are those who adhere to the 'out-dated' Judeo-Christian faith; those who continue along their 'separative' paths of the one true God. The 'force of light' (Lucifer), in there view, is the inclusive new age doctrine of a pagan pantheistic New World Religion. In the New Age of Aquarius there will be no room for the 'force of darkness' and 'separativeness'.] "We must therefore transform our attitudes and adopt a renewed respect for the SUPERIOR LAWS OF DIVINE NATURE." |
The
"For Love of the Earth" day-long celebrations at Shelburne Farms Vermont began with an
early morning pilgramage, during which 2000 or so participants,
led by Satish Kumar walked to the "great barn" where they were
greeted by the sounds of the "Sun Song" played by musician Paul Winter.
The Pagan festivities continued with the words of Dr. Jane
Goodall, Satish Kumar and organizer Dr. Steven C. Rockefeller.
The Earth worshippers were treated to dance, music and paintings
of several Vermont artists, after which they joined hands
and offered an "Earth prayer" of "reverence" and "commitment"
to Mother Earth and the "Ark of Hope".
Satish Kumar, who led the participants of the September 9th celebrations on the early morning pilgramage to the "great barn", is an an influencial advocate of Gaia. Kumar has said that "contemporary thinkers of the green movement are collectively developing an ecological world-view." The Earth Charter is the green movement's crowning achievement toward this holistic world-view, and the practical means by which, all of us will soon be held accountable to "Divine Nature". According to Satish Kumar [2], this pagan view has five ingredients: Gaia (James Lovelock), Deep Ecology (Arne Naess), Permaculture (Bill Mollison), Bioregionalism (Gary Snyder et al.), and Creation Spirituality (Mathew Fox). "Creation Spirituality" is what had, undoubtedly, taken place at the Shelburne Farms Earth Charter celebrations. In the words of Steven W. Mosher, president of Population Research Institute, "Gaia is the New Age term for Mother Earth. The New Age believers hold that the earth is a sentient super-being, kind of goddess, deserving of worship and, some say, human sacrifice. Compared to Gaia worship, the simple animism of primitive cultures is wholesome."
