Holy ghosts

Announces that the new awakening in mainstream society is neither universally recognized nor always lauded. Neuroscientists decry of the popular clinical movement called psychoneuroimmunology; Catholic Dominicans expel of Father Matthew Fox, author of numerous popular books like The Cosmic Christ; His new ministry.

By PT Staff, published on November 01, 1994

For all its penetration of mainstream culture, the new awakening is neitheruniversally recognized nor always lauded. Most of the institutions of American high culture are either against it or deny that it exists, even as they are being shaken by it at their very foundations:

o There are neuroscientists working at the interface between immunology, neurology, and endocrinology who decry the popular clinical movement called psychoneuroimmunology because, they say, there is no evidence that beliefs and values influence the rise and fall of immune cells. The public, meanwhile, continues to clamor for psychospiritual interventions in the treatment of physical illness.

o Various authors who espouse Christian fundamentalism have launched harsh attacks against all new and creative expressions of spirituality. Indeed, anyone who does not embrace their scheme of rapture and salvation is branded not only un-Christian but also un-American. Constance Cumby's The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow, for instance, portrays the New Age movement as a worldwide conspiracy to subjugate "all decent Christians" under a "Master Race."

o After years of hand-wringing, the Catholic Dominicans have finally expelled Father Matthew Fox, author of numerous popular books like The Cosmic Christ. Silenced by the Vatican in 1989 for his upbeat and unorthodox spirituality, Fox was finally asked to leave the church in 1993. Since then, he has been ordained an Episcopalian priest. His new ministry reaches out to young people through Rave music; his religious services employ a total environment of computers, giant video screens, and high-decibel "techno" music to deliver the message of spirituality. According to Fox, this kind of service is "reinventing the language and form for liturgy through...music and dance, techno-art, and electronic media."

Fox recently established himself in the basement of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, where he regularly performs a Rave Mass for standing-room crowds of young street people. There are murmurs of discontent from the established congregation, but according to Alan Jones, dean of Grace Cathedral, "if young people can be encouraged to get high on God instead of on drugs, so much the better."

Perhaps the most unfortunate misunderstanding of the new spiritual awakening was the incident at Waco, Texas, involving David Koresh and the Branch Davidians. They were like many other apocalyptic sects common in American religious history, hermetically sealed ideologically and physically as a self-chosen way of life. At a recent meeting of the American Academy of Religion, scholars in the New Religions in America Study Group were vocal in their opinion that the situations was misperceived by the FBI and the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Unit. With the permission of the FBI, two religious scholars were, in fact, in contact with Koresh throughout the siege and had extracted a written promise of surrender from him as soon as he finished writing his commentary to a passage in the Bible, which he wanted them to read to the world. The FBI and ATF ignored this exchange as inconsequential and made a preemptive assault in which 86 men, women, and children died. Philip Arnold, director of the Reunion Institute in Houston, has set up a national Religion-Crisis Task Force to better inform law enforcement officials about controversial religions.