Over the last weekend, I burrowed in. No phone calls, no going anywhere, although the sun and breeze were out there to be enjoyed, it was enough to see through a window a small portion of garden, still living after the last heat wave burned through and killed off an expansive jasmine and much else. I worked on a crochet project, something I've been trying to invent without a pattern, endlessly listening to YouTube videos, looking to see what ex-New Ager Doreen Virtue had posted since her radical "one-eighty" conversion to fundamentalist Bible-based Christianity.
When it came to those associated with the New Age Movement, Doreen Virtue was famous. She may in fact be the person who made the most money and became the most famous among those who toured, giving lectures and classes. (Think Wayne Dyer and Deepak Chopra and those in the Self-Help business.)
If you've never heard of Doreen Virtue, you must have been living in a cave (not just burrowing into one as I've been) or not living in California.
She is the person who always said she was a Christian while earning a fortune with books and divination cards that featured Angels. She also holds an advanced degree in psychology and once worked as a therapist. She published about 70 books, none of which I read, but I did own a deck of her Angel divination cards and for a while used them to focus my thoughts. I don't want to use the word meditate, as I don't and have never been in a meditation practice, but let's say I used my Angel cards deck for a few months back in the day to direct my focus to deeply concentrate regarding worldly problems. Her assurances that she was coming from a Christian point of view and that her card decks featured Angels, which were reported in the Bible including the Old Testament, was comfortable to those of us who wanted to be on the side of Good. (That statement in itself could move this post into an entirely different direction.)
Once Virtue, who then lived on and owned an estate in Hawaii, discovered the Bible (King James) portion in which it says that Christians are not to be or involve themselves with divination and so on, and realized that she was an abomination to God, she sold off everything, downsized, moved, and begged God/Jesus to forgive her. Her publisher, Hay House, fired her, which makes sense. She asked them to stop selling her products. She says now her products are being printed and sold without her permission by intellectual property bandits out of China, and is asking people not to buy them. As a side, I happened to see an unopened, pristine Angel card deck being sold for near a thousand dollars on the Internet - wish I still had mine. She now regularly makes videos, all of which are interesting, some of which include guests of her same persuasion. Several witches and others who also run YouTube stations have posted about her; first there was shock, now they sort through betrayal. She emphasizes that Jesus saved her when she was already a senior citizen. (Last minute repenting and redemption.) She is criticized as basically doing all this to redirect her career, as a publicity stunt perhaps, that she could not possibly be sincere. I think she is.
While touting the Protestant Bible, Virtue and her peers are anti-Catholic, anti-Latter Day Saints, anti Jehovah Witnesses ; you see these three entirely different religions can be put into a category.
I'm always irked by Protestants who are anti-Catholic and have absolutely no desire whatsoever to be involved in the competition for souls or the whole Protestant versus Catholic debate, for I will always be ethnically Catholic, if not a devout believer; It seems in the Protestant versus Catholic debate the very Christian ideals of empathy and tolerance are challenged. (And if you get involved in a church or group that claims to be Interfaith or Ecumenical and does not include Catholics, get out of there! They are fraudsters.)
I listened to hours of Doreen Virtue's new YouTube videos, that included her friends, going against the New Age Movement. Her list of things Christians don't do includes yoga for exercise, Reiki and other forms of energy healing, enigrams and personality tests, anything Buddhist, anything Hindu, astrology, of course - on and on it goes.
She and her friends also go against ART, any representation of Jesus, so I suppose they are in that category of people who want historical statues taken down, the equivalent of book burners. Like Muslims, they claim that representations are IDOLATRY. Even the Shroud of Turin and relics are idolatry.
However, Virtue does make some points, all of which I could argue against.
She says that people who are attracted to the New Age Movement are basically broken people who are in desperate need of healing. I would say that just living on this earth is enough to break just about everyone, more or less. I don't know anyone who isn't stressed a little or a lot. I would say that spirituality or religion in any form is about dealing with the stresses of life on earth. I've met people who think this IS hell. Some say it's a school. I think we are all tested.
She also says that it's supposed to be about what God wants, not what we want and the New Age is focused on knowing what we as individuals want and getting it. Well, I say, God has not done a great job of protecting his People (The Holocaust) and so many babies are born to die, most humans on this earth are struggling to survive.
What she describes as her experience as a New Ager, I would call religious addiction. She describes taking very many classes, very many certifications. All of it ultimately unsatisfying. She stopped her seeking and settled. And now claims to be at Peace.
She says she honestly thought she was a Christian, as she had been raised in Christian Science, which she says is a false church, one of many. (My guess is that in her world view only the one percent who think like her are going to be rewarded with eternal bliss in heaven and almost all churches, including the particular Protestant preachers she targets, while claiming not to target them, are false. In one of the more recent videos she says that the Bible says women are NOT to be leaders in the church, not to be preachers, but they can be Women's Bible Study teachers. That's RIght. In Christianity, women have their place, and that is not to have equal opportunity to men.*)
Demons pop up all over the place, pretending to be nice and helpful, and demons are the ones telling mediums and psychics what information they relay to you, just to get you hooked. There is one and only one diety/person you should rely on, that is Jesus.
(I once had a friend who was earning a Doctorate in a science, but who was no doubt addicted to love in an infatuation that was going nowhere, and having Tarot card readings once a week.)
Near Death Experience are not to be trusted because it is not true that it's all good, that you can do no wrong, that there is no punishment. Hell is forever and people involved in New Age activities and ideas are going there when they die.
Ok, I personally hate the idea that people who have done wrong to me - the predators and opportunists and users - will get away with it in the afterlife, just as they may have on earth. However, the idea that a person who is broken from the earthly experience and seeks healing and who does that through the New Age experience such as scented oils or trying to not be overwhelmed in negative thoughts, though they are in a terrible time, will be punished in hell for eternity is ridiculous. (You can read my doubts about the whole Positive Thinking thing elsewhere.)
She says the New Age denies that evil exists.
I know evil exists.
She says it is not enough to be a "good person." One must also believe in Jesus, that he died on the cross for our sins; depending on which of the many variations of Christianity you're into, this belief in itself may be your Salvation. I never trust the last minute conversion of the evil.
I do think evil exists but not everyone is demonic and out to get you.
Can she, or any "Christian" actually face someone who does not believe as they do, say a Jewish person, and treat them with respect? I doubt it. What such Christians do is become exclusive and avoid those who do not support their notions so they don't have to deal with them. When you think cult, don't just think Moonies. Certain Christians become cultish too.
I totally disagree that it does not count that you are a Good Person. I think we should all be active in trying to make this world a better place.
As a society and culture we struggle with What Is Good? I realize.
When actually we are often choosing between The Lesser of Two Evils or even kidding ourselves that we have Choice.
This all ties in with a recent foray though, which is what made me think to check out Doreen Virtue's latest.
I have a neighbor who works all night and sleeps most days, who has been in the same little house rental for years and can barely keep up with the rent. Her landlord told her to get a room mate but I was in there once and there is no room for a roommate. The asshole also has not repaired, repainted, refloored, in years. I saw a roach going up the wall.
Once in a while she goes for free food distributions. During Covid the LA Food Bank set up in the area. I went over there a few times and picked up items for her, knowing she was not able to. Recently she lost her job. I know her many children do not live local and only one of them sometimes looks in on her. (I sure hope they are able to pitch in and pay their mother's rent when she is unable. I get the feeling she is very much alone.)
So, I spotted a newish food pantry set up at a church not too far away and went over there to see who was behind it and what they had. It turned out to be a Christian group, which is not surprising since their set up was at a small old Protestant church. They had moved from another location that was too expensive for them. I'm aware of that location as a friend who is active in another church near it said they were massive pain in the asses with their overly loud praise-God amplification that boomed out of the doors and disturbed the quietude of other church's services.
A few years back I met a woman who was working on a book, for which I did a tiny bit of free editing on. A relative of hers paid for her to publish her book, which was full of poetry she had written that was spiritual/religious Christian. I'm not putting her down for this. She had tremendous odds to deal with after being severely injured in an accident. She credits her faith, her prayer, as slowly overcoming a long period of hospitalization and much else. This works for her. Great!
But there she was, at this new food distribution site, volunteering. I knew this was her third, possibly fourth Christian church that she had been involve with. If she is church hoping seeking the right congregation, I understand, however, after cries of recognition and hugs, she actively sought to make me pray, leading me into the rental church to see it. She was glowing and happy, but she was also pushy, giving me the congregation business card, telling me they had a huge meeting house elsewhere in another town, urging me to go inside the church. I felt like saying :I love architecture but a person does not need a physical church to pray. When I packed up a few items for my now unemployed neighbor, I was asked by someone with a board what my name was and if I was there for food or prayer.
It was OK; a couple nice stained glass windows, a young guy facing the stained glass window with a guitar turned up loud, and a woman with her hands upright in the "praise" position, which always makes me think "Beam Me Up Scotty" (Star Trek) or, when done in groups, perhaps the worst scenes of conformity from the Steven King film "Cell."
There are just some things a person feels to be wrong for them, uncomfortable, in the gut. This type of worship is uncomfortable to me.
Why do we think God or Jesus or Angels or Saints are always UP in the sky? Why is "heaven" UP. Is this a posture to admit we are LOWER? Should we grovel?
Really, is 21st century religion still about some time in the past when there were Gods on earth? Giants on earth? Beings that needed to be pleased or they would (and did) punish?
Is this planet being visited by Aliens in UFO's? Have they always been Watching us? Interfering in our evolution? Harvesting our DNA? Killing animals to feed? Doing genetic experiments?
Are demons showing up in our bedrooms at night and paralyzing us? Or is that actually a physical, medical, sleep disturbance issue?
I looked around the rented old church and said "Nice stained glass windows. This looks like it was built in the 1930's, maybe the 1920's?"
I barely escaped without forking over my phone number. As much as I have liked this woman and in a sense admire her, I knew without a doubt that I did not want to hear from her. I was not, ever, going to join this church. Her glow may have come from inner Peace or being Favored by Jesus, or it might be that over-zeal of the recent convert.
I took the bag of groceries over to my neighbor and said, "You may want to go over there next time since you're not working. They have produce but they want to pray for you or with you, which I can't stand."
She nodded and said "I'm O.K."
She was standing there, with a Mexican blanket over her head like a hood. I got the distinct feeling I had maybe interrupted her while she was doing her own form of prayer.
C 2022 Christine Trzyna
Note: this post was slightly edited for more clarity 9/29/2022
