| "We desperately need to recognize that we are | | | | Merchants of the Earth" who clearly represent |
| the guests not the masters of nature and adopt | | | | that "million" mentioned by David C. Korten, |
| a new paradigm for development, based on the | | | | whose greed and avarice are Biblically denounced |
| costs and benefits to all people, and bound by the | | | | in the Almighty's ultimate judgment upon those |
| limits of nature herself rather than the limits of | | | | who "destroy the earth!" |
| technology and consumerism." Mikhail Gorbachev, | | | | Now, how can I say all this in one breath? It |
| Chairman of the Board, Green Cross International | | | | appears that I concur with the underlying |
| "No sane person seeks a world divided between | | | | assumption of both Korten and Gorbachev that |
| billions of excluded people living in absolute | | | | somehow we must stop the ecological madness |
| deprivation and a tiny elite guarding their wealth | | | | imposed upon and corrupting the earth. Those |
| and luxury behind fortress walls. No one rejoices | | | | who "destroy the earth" are naught but conniving |
| at the prospect of a life in a world of collapsing | | | | exploiters of earth's resources whose ultimate |
| social and ecological systems. Yet we continue to | | | | judgment the Almighty holds in special contempt! |
| place human civilization and even the survival of | | | | However, embedded within the Global Ethic of the |
| our species at risk mainly to allow a million or so | | | | Left is a fervent and repulsive hatred of the |
| people to accumulate money beyond any | | | | Cross of Christ and its defining demarcation |
| conceivable need. We continue to go boldly where | | | | against all for which it stands. Indeed, listen to the |
| no one wants to go." (David C. Korten, "When | | | | beguiling words of Bishop Swing: |
| Corporations Rule the World") | | | | "The time comes, though, when common |
| "The nations were angry, and Your wrath has | | | | language and a common purpose for all religions |
| come, and the time of the dead, that they should | | | | and spiritual movements must be discerned and |
| be judged. And that You should reward Your | | | | agreed upon. Merely respecting and understanding |
| servants the prophets and the saints, and those | | | | other religions is not enough . . . the nature of the |
| who fear Your name, small and great, and should | | | | United Religious would be to focus on: 1) the |
| destroy those who destroy the earth." Revelation | | | | whole human family; 2) the whole health of our |
| 11:18 | | | | planet; and 3) the whole realm of living species, |
| THE RUSSIANS WERE FLABBERGASTED | | | | and to offer the unique gifts of religions . . . there |
| We swerved in and out of the two-lane streets | | | | will have to be a godly cease-fire, a temporary |
| of the Presidio next to San Francisco Bay. Our | | | | truce where the absolute exclusive claims of each |
| little group of Russian tourists had no idea where I | | | | (religion) will be honored but an agreed upon |
| was taking them--they simply thought we were | | | | neutrality will be exercised in terms of |
| heading for an underside view of the Golden Gate | | | | proselytizing, condemning, murdering, or |
| Bridge. Little did they realize they would shortly | | | | dominating. These will not be tolerated in the |
| stand aghast at the small two-story gambrel | | | | United Religions zone" (A Case Against the URI). |
| cottage where the International Green Cross | | | | The survivability of the URI or Gorbachev's |
| headquarters, headed by the deposed President | | | | International Green Cross is of no concern . . . the |
| Mikhail Gorbachev, stood in obscure testimony to | | | | "religious philosophy" behind the Left's efforts is . . |
| the once mighty colossus of the Soviet Union. | | | | . "We can't afford fundamentalists in a world this |
| I was amused. More than reluctantly these | | | | small" (Paul Chafee; transcribed by Lee Penn from |
| Russian coal miners, now in 1994, were coaxed | | | | URI-provided tape of URI forum at Grace |
| by me to get out of our large van and literally | | | | Cathedral, San Francisco, held on 2/2/97). |
| enter into this unbelievable sight--a military facility | | | | BATTLE OF THE CROSSES |
| donated by the US to Mikhail Gorbachev's | | | | A convergence of political and religious interests |
| fledgling, altruistic ideal at earthly redemption: The | | | | from the Left has coalesced around the Green |
| International Green Cross. | | | | Cross, juxtaposed to their antithesis: The Religious |
| Sight seeing is one thing--peering into "how are | | | | Right. |
| the mighty fallen" is quite another! "How could this | | | | Amazing how religion, especially the Christian |
| have happened? Gorbachev winding up in this hole | | | | religion--its use or lack thereof--is manipulated by |
| in the wall underneath the Golden Gate Bridge in | | | | Left and Right. While traveling through Kentucky, |
| an old US Coast Guard facility huddled amongst | | | | and throughout the Midwest of the USA, several |
| warehouses and rickety old buildings of little | | | | years back, and shortly after 9/11, I witnessed a |
| import?" The surreal scene of it all was altogether | | | | most remarkable sight blazoned on the double |
| bizarre, eerie, and even prophetic in its | | | | doors of country churches and atop church |
| condescension. My Russian guests, most from | | | | steeples . . . and, since a picture's worth a |
| Siberia, left this esoteric experience flabbergasted, | | | | thousand words . . . |
| embarrassed, and even angered that their once | | | | Can I ask you . . . has not the Cross of Christ |
| dynamic, articulate, and feared leader of the | | | | been politicized by both the Christian Right and by |
| world's largest communist empire had embraced | | | | the Religious Left? Come on now . . . just who's |
| such a humiliating conclusion to his ignoble career. | | | | using the Cross for their own agenda? The truth |
| Alas! President Vladimir Putin this month | | | | of the matter is altogether clear . . . politics and |
| bemoaned the Soviet Union's demise: "The | | | | religion (be it from Left or Right) fully understands |
| greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century." | | | | the dynamic of religious support for their political |
| WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON HERE? . . . "THE | | | | agenda and visa versa (i.e., religion realizes its need |
| GLOBAL ETHIC" | | | | for political support)). |
| Lee Penn in his article A Case Against the United | | | | THE WORLD FORUM |
| Religions Initiative (URI) exposes the soft | | | | Former U. S. Senator Alan Cranston was not only |
| underbelly of Gorbachev's real agenda. How on | | | | the co-organizer of The World Forum but acted |
| earth (no pun intended) did folks like Mikhail | | | | as the chairman of the Gorbachev Foundation |
| Gorbachev, former California Senator Alan | | | | (the funding mechanism behind the International |
| Cranston, George Schultz, et al, get behind this | | | | Green Cross). The Cranston/Gorbachev alliance |
| slogan: Give Humanity a Chance, give the Earth a | | | | was/is straightforward: |
| future? | | | | "First discuss the state of the world, what might |
| "I believe in the cosmos. All of us are linked to the | | | | be done about it, what the options are and what |
| cosmos. Look at the sun. If there is no sun, then | | | | practical steps might be taken. Issues include how |
| we cannot exist. So nature is my god. To me, | | | | to get weapons under control, mediating disputes, |
| nature is sacred. Trees are my temples and | | | | protecting the environment and creating a climate |
| forests are my cathedrals" (an interview with | | | | for rational development." |
| Gorbachev). | | | | However, without the "religious component" under |
| Penn deliberates on the New Age religion of | | | | girding the political designs to change the |
| Maurice Strong, Mikhail Gorbachev, and the likes of | | | | environment, the goals and aspirations of |
| Ted Turner, who like Episcopal Bishop William | | | | organizations like the World Forum and the |
| Swing (founder of URI), back the new "Global | | | | International Green Cross, are doomed to |
| Ethic" and its "Declaration of Human | | | | irrelevance and political solitude. Thus, those who |
| Responsibilities" in their new "Earth Charter." | | | | embrace the Green Cross and who "rediscover a |
| Gorbachev calls the Earth Charter, the new | | | | reverence for all life and respect for the |
| religion of Ecology (a.k.a., the GREEN CROSS) . . . | | | | sacredness of the whole of Planet Earth" must |
| ". . . a kind of Ten Commandments, a 'Sermon on | | | | get clergy and laity to accept the gradual |
| the Mount,' that provides a guide for human | | | | development of their New Religion by "retooling" |
| behavior toward the environment in the next | | | | both clergy and lay religious leaders in the |
| century and beyond . . . the protection of the | | | | philosophy of "spiritual ecology." |
| Biosphere, as the Common Interest of Humanity, | | | | SPIRITUAL DYNAMIC YES, BUT WHICH ONE? |
| must not be subservient to the rules of state | | | | Korten has hit on something . . . something utterly |
| sovereignty, demands of the free market or | | | | profound, when he states: |
| individual rights" (The Earth Charter: The Green | | | | "Our spiritual awakening may be integral to our |
| Cross Philosophy). | | | | political awakening. Alienation from our spiritual |
| The religious philosophy behind the Green Cross, | | | | nature has left us exposed to manipulation by |
| epitomized in Bishop Swing's URI, is strongly | | | | both the advertisers who turn our longing for |
| supported by dissident Catholics like Hans | | | | spiritual connection into an insatiable quest for |
| Küng, who like Gorbachev, wish to use | | | | money and the political demagogues who connect |
| government power to create a world utopia by | | | | this quest with the corporate interest. . . |
| ridding the earth of what the Bible terms "The | | | | |