The coming to power of the ‘60s generation

Although the United States has always been a spiritual melting pot, the declining influence of mainline churches, along with the coming to power of the '60s generation, has made the nation's religious expression more ecumenical than ever.

Organized religion has responded to the rising religious ecumenism in two different ways.

Some church leaders, especially those in fundamentalist and Pentecostal churches, have attacked this trend as satanic.

Other churches have welcomed Buddhism, yoga and New Age spiritualities with open arms.

Pope John Paul II warned a group of U.S. bishops visiting him in Rome about the dangers of the New Age movement.

''This religious reawakening includes some very ambiguous elements which are incompatible with the Christian faith,'' the pope said. ''Their syncretistic and immanent outlook (tends to) relativize religious doctrine in favor of a vague world view expressed as a system of myths and symbols dressed in religious language.”

However, in a Papal approved “Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith” letter to 3,000 Roman Catholic bishops around the world, the church teaches the ‘60s generation and all other generations: "Just as the Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions, neither should these ways be rejected out of hand simply because they are not Christian. On the contrary, one can take from them what is useful so long as the Christian conception of prayer, its logic and requirements, are never obscured.”

''Many Christians today have a keen desire to learn how to experience a deeper and authentic prayer life despite the not inconsiderable difficulties which modern culture places in the way of the need for silence, recollection and meditation,'' the letter said.

''The interest which in recent years has been awakened also among some Christians by forms of meditation associated with some Eastern religions and their particular methods of prayer is a significant sign of this need for spiritual recollection and a deep contact with the divine mystery,'' the letter said.

Since at least the late 1960's, many Americans, including American Catholics, have been fascinated by Eastern religion. The Beatles learned yoga meditation from a Hindu guru. Yoga classes are now part of almost every health club. The Dali Lama has been an intriguing figure who has grabbed news headlines, and popular actors such as Richard Gere have become followers. Shirley McClain also popularized some Eastern religious thought through the New Age movement. We have seen a proliferation of Martial arts films that introduce Eastern philosophy and religion to the Western mind.

As did a lot of the ‘60s youth counter-cultural revolutionaries, many people today come to ponder Eastern religion through the writing of a Catholic Trappist monk, Thomas Merton. Merton, whom many people now consider a saint, was very interested in the commonalities between Buddhist monasticism and Christian monasticism.

Pope John Paul II was criticized by the right and the left for his views on ecumenism. Conservatives found him too ecumenically oriented, while liberals thought he did not go far enough. In his example, more than his words, the former Holy Father demonstrated a great interest in Eastern spirituality. He met with the Dali Lama and invited Hindus and Buddhists to pray with him in Rome.

Father Thomas Keating is a Trappist monk and internationally renowned leader of a worldwide prayer movement.Through the late 1960s and early 1970s, Father Keating and two other monks met with Buddhist and Hindu teachers in an effort to understand the mass defection of young Catholics at the time, people drawn by the hippie counter cultural revolution to the East's meditation practices. Their research led Keating, then an abbot at a Massachusetts monastery, to begin unearthing a similar meditative method based on the Christian tradition.

Father Keating is now the leading figure in an interdenominational movement to revitalize the Christian contemplative practice known as "centering prayer." Keating is known for his avid and unusually open-minded interest in the contemplative and meditative practices of other religious traditions. He has met and studied with spiritual teachers from a variety of Hindu and Buddhist lineages and helped to create the Snowmass Interreligious Conference, at which teachers from different traditions meet regularly to compare views and ideas, and to evaluate objectively the benefits and drawbacks of their respective practices.

In the 1960s Father Keating invited the great Zen master Roshi Sasaki to lead retreats at the abbey. At the time, he thought, surely there must be a precedent within the church for making such simple but powerful spiritual techniques available to laypeople. After Father Keating’s meeting with the great Zen master he and his Trappist brother Father William Meninger began teaching a form of Christian meditation (a form similar to Buddhist and Hindu meditative methods), that grew into the worldwide phenomenon known as centering prayer.

The coming to power of the ‘60s generation has given humankind a great opportunity to unite the world’s religions into a single religion, a single religion that will serve as the principle of unity for a single united global culture, a culture made up of the best of the past of all the world’s different peoples’ traditions and cultures, a culture that I believe will become manifest because of the increasing closeness people around the world are experiencing because of the world wide web and other mass communication systems that bring people together who are of different cultures. I hope to see the ‘60s generation, by way of its youth counter-cultural revolution, unite humanity, and in doing so, fulfill the prophecy proclaimed in the Beatles’ song Imagine: “Hope you join us and the world will be as one.”

 

It is through the electronic media that this unification has occurred, not so much with a particular generation.

When you can unite people through communication, change is bound to come. The 60's generation just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Kind of like Reagan and the Berlin wall.



x

 

We're in the right situation now Xexon.

With the war going on and Christians becoming more extremist everyday, we have a good opportunity. With Terrorism growing, with crime growing, with Political leaders becoming more and more corrupt.

We are almost, if not the same exact position that the 60's generation was in. We only need to defeat ignorance and educate the masses.

Peace and Love, John.

 

I agree w/ you Fedup. It irritates the hell out of me when I hear about Christian "pro-lifers" b/c I want to scream at them "Do you believe the death penalty is just? Do you believe war is a necessary part of life?" If you are pro-death penalty and you support war, then you are pro-death. You are anti-abortion, not pro-life. If you believe the life of a fetus must be protected, then what about full developed people? The Dalai Lama is against abortions, but he also disapproves of capital punishment and war- someone who supports life in all of its stages have the right to call themselves pro-life, not just b/c in 1 out of 3 situations you support life.

Sorry, my rant for the day.

Peace and love

 

I've come to the conclusion that there is only one party in this country. Republican and Republican wannabes. Republicans stand for evil, corruption, manipulation, greed - everything that Americans think is okay after being conditioned to it during the eighties. Republicans stand for all the values that Americans now hold dear. Plus they have more balloons than God, and for a nation raised on cartoons, that tells you something. Anybody with balloons, they're okay. They don't tell you what kind of crippled people had to blow those suckers up. The Democrats have no agenda, and when they speak on any topic, they want to sound as Republican as possible while still finding a way to retain the pork.

-- Frank Zappa​

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Don't be sorry, you are right in what you speak and it needs to be heard.

I'm telling people man, we need a fuckin' movement. People are always too busy laughing at me and my beliefs to do something.
"How in the world you gunna see, laughin' at fools like me?"

When my plans of walking the world are in effect, then I will have the opportunity to to show Truth. Influencing people by my actions, and speaking of the Truth. However, we need change on a larger scale. We need an Icon, more than not this is usually accomplished by music.

Oh what will we do?

Peace and Love, John.

 

[size=+1]The whole foundation of Christianity is based on the idea that intellectualism is the work of the Devil. Remember the apple on the tree? Okay, it was the Tree of Knowledge. "You eat this apple, you're going to be as smart as God. We can't have that."
[size=-1]-- Frank Zappa[/size][/size]


[size=+1]The essence of Christianity is told to us in the Garden of Eden history. The fruit that was forbidden was on the Tree of Knowledge. The subtext is, All the suffering you have is because you wanted to find out what was going on. You could be in the Garden of Eden if you had just kept your fucking mouth shut and hadn't asked any questions.
[size=-1]-- Frank Zappa [/size][/size][size=+1][size=-1] interview, Playboy, May 2, 1993[/size][/size]


[size=+1]So, when Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, if you go for all these fairy tales, that "evil" woman convinced the man to eat the apple, but the apple came from the Tree of Knowledge. And the punishment that was then handed down, the woman gets to bleed and the guy's got to go to work, is the result of a man desiring, because his woman suggested that it would be a good idea, that he get all the knowledge that was supposedly the property and domain of God. So, that right away sets up Christianity as an anti-intellectual religion[/size][size=+1]. You never want to be that smart. If you're a woman, it's going to be running down your leg, and if you're a guy, you're going to be in the salt mines for the rest of your life. So, just be a dumb fuck and you'll all go to heaven. That's the subtext of Christianity.
[size=-1]-- Frank Zappa[/size][/size]

 

I would also like to point out my argument against Augustine's interpretation of The Fall. It seems that God cannot be all knowing if he placed the Tree of Knowledge in Eden, not expecting Adam and Eve to eat the fruit. If he did know this, then it seems like he couldn't create man in his perfect image or man's flaws illustrate his own flaws, which means God is not all-powerful. And the last scenario is that God knew Adam and Eve would eat the fruit and put the tree in Eden, knowing they would fail his test- how can anyone call this God all-good?

Let's think about the 3rd scenario: what if I knew that my fiance gets violent every time he drinks alcohol. Then I hand him a bottle of Jack Daniel's and tell him that if he gets in a fight, I would leave him. Also, I know that he cannot turn down alcohol when it is given to him. Would it be fair for me to end our relationship after he got in a fight later that night when I "knew" this would happen? Or would I be at fault somewhat b/c I set him up for failure? This is how I see The Fall.

I also see most of the Old Testament not as truth but rather parables. I think once Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, and Buddhists stop viewing their way as the only right way, we will be making progress. It seems that extremists in all of these religions tarnishes not only whatever sect the person believes in, but also religion in general. The basis of these religions is loving each other, ending violence etc; we lose focus of the big picture w/ different dogma placed by those who want power through their religion.

Peace and love

 

that is ALL you have encountered fedup? And what does Christianity TRULY preach? eviL?

dont be hatin'.

 

I think Bush has proven that his base the neocon Evangelists do preach hate- remember when Pat Robertson said that the US should assassinate Chavez? When there are "Christians" who support this man, it shows that hatred has been an accepted truth by many. It shows that one should love all those who have the same opinions as you, but those who disagree w/ you? Fuck them, they don't deserve to live. This is the attitude I have heard about concerning Iraq- that many God-fearing soldiers look down upon Iraqi citizens b/c of our differences.

I don't think that religions are necessarily the only cause of this trend; I don't think the abolition of all religions would solve our crisis of hatred. There are some good parts to religions, such as giving a moral code to those who need it- not everyone is at the same morality level (for lack of a better term). It is those who use religions as a means to seize power and spread hatred that are the problem. It becomes our responsibility to listen to what our religious leaders are telling us and support messages that promote peace and love between people, no matter what their ideology or religion. Also, we must say to those who are using religion to push their hatred, "Stop. You are not following Jesus (Buddha, Muhammad, etc)- he teaches tolerance and love. Why do you call yourself (insert religion) if you don't follow (insert religious figure)'s laws?" When we remove extremists by destroying their power, the good that lies in religions can help heal this world from the wounds of hatred.

Peace and love