At the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (BSCNC) of the Southern Baptist Convention there isn’t even an attempt to hide its openly embracing corrupt Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM) and its Contemplative/Centering Prayer (CCP), which flowered in the antibiblical monastic traditions of apostate Roman Catholicism, i.e. not Christian.

Contemplative/Centering Prayer—TM-Lite A-Ok For Southern Baptists in NC

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Repent! Turn from your idols and renounce all your detestable practices! When any Israelite or any alien living in Israel separates himself from me and sets up idols in his heart and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face and then goes to a prophet to inquire of me, I the LORD will answer him myself.’”

“‘I will set my face against that man and make him an example and a byword. I will cut him off from my people. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’”
(Ezekiel 14:6-8)

The reason for this snowballing evangelical infatuation with CSM is very likely due to the growth within mainstream evangelical circles of The Cult of Guru Richard Foster with an able assist from ordained Southern Baptist minister Dallas Willard. Apprising Ministries has shown you that more and more pastors, ministers and leaders are being conditioned (think frog in the kettle) through spurious Spiritual Formation courses in college and/or seminary to see this CSM as a viable approach to God.

You should know that among the primary textbooks used in these SF classes, not only in SBC seminaries but in most evangelical schools, are works by Willard and his associate Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic “Roshi” Richard Foster from which their so-called “spiritual disciplines” largely culled from Roman Catholic and Quaker mystics is then taught.

In Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM) in Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (SBC) AM gives you the links where you can view the current SpiritLines Newsletter (SLN), “Written by: Wendy Minton Edwards, Spiritual Formation Coach,” of BSCNC as well as the opportunity to View [A] Past Edition of SpiritLines.

As I begin to close this opening piece let me point out that the current May 2008 issue of SLN is absolutely chock full of counter-Reformation CSM skubalon. For example under Prayer Resources we have books by teachers of CSM such as Guru Foster himself, Jan Johnson, and the late Roman Catholic priest Henri Nouwen:

Foster, Richard J. Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth. New York: Harper & Row, 1978, 1988.
_______. Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home. New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992.
Johnson, Jan. When The Soul Listens: Finding Rest and Direction in Contemplative Prayer. Colorado Springs, Colorado: Navpress, 1999.
Nouwen, Henri J. M. With Open Hands: Bring Prayer into Your Life. New York: Ave Maria Press, 1972. (Online source)

Southern Baptists Encouraged To Learn CCP From The All-Stars Of CSM

Or how about this quote in SLN from CSM Golden Buddha Thomas Merton:

“A lot of ‘distractions’ would vanish if we realized that we are not bound at all times to ignore the practical problems of our life when we are at prayer.”
Spiritual Direction & Meditation. Thomas Merton. Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1960, p. 96.

O, and if you’d like to see where the practice of CCP would lead Merton we refer you to Thomas Merton and the Buddhas and so he can tell you himself from his own journal. Also in the May 2008 SN of the BSCNC we have the “BOOK REVIEW” for “THE SOUL AT REST: A JOURNEY INTO CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER by Tricia McCary Rhodes” where SBC Spiritual Guru Edwards tells us:

Anyone desiring a more reflective quiet time, greater intimacy with God, or genuine rest for his/her weary soul will find The Soul at Rest to be just what the doctor ordered. In fact, the book is designed to accommodate five daily quiet time experiences for eight weeks. Each session builds on the previous ones, providing an “inner prayer journey” that explains and prepares one to experience contemplative prayer.

Author Tricia McCary Rhodes defines contemplative prayer as “communing with God through quiet moments of meditation, listening, and reflecting on Him.” (ibid.)

And finally Spiritual Formation Coach Edwards of the BSCNC state convention of the allegedly “Protestant” SBC wants to make sure that we Southern Baptists know all about the:

Five-Day Intensive Centering Prayer Retreat
June 16-20, 2008

St. Francis Springs Prayer Center, Stoneville, NC
Retreat Leaders: Joan Ricci Hurst, Paul Supina
The 5-Day Intensive Centering Prayer retreat is an in-depth experience into profound stillness and silence. (ibid.)

By the wayJoan Ricci Hurst is part of the Outreach Staff of, and Winston-Salem, NC contact person for, Contemplative Outreach Ltd. Well now, it just so happens that this organization is dedicated to advancing the CCP materials of Roman Catholic monk and Living Spiritual Teacher Thomas Keating:

The Board of Trustees, Resource Faculty, and Coordinators maintain the integrity of the method of Centering Prayer and its conceptual background as articulated by Thomas Keating in Open Mind, Open Heart, and other practices and programs offered by Contemplative Outreach. (Online source)

And COL President Gail Fitzpatrick-Hopler further informs us that:

Father Thomas Keating has been the spiritual wisdom figure of Contemplative Outreach from the beginning. His guidance and formation, along with his published works and videotape series, provide the main content for our workshops, retreats, and ongoing programs. (Online source)

As a service to Southern Bapstists in North Carolina below is Roshi Keating with an introduction to CCP. Men and women, the time has arrived where you’d better wake up to the fact that this spurious CSM has zero place in the allegedly “Protestant” SBC—or within your own evangelical denomination for that matter—and it was never part of what SBC minister Rev. Dr. Walter Martin so often called “the historic, orthodox Christian faith.”

So it is as I said before. Anyone who can’t recognize the obvious presence of these doctrines of demons of CSM, which have right now slithered into the heart of the American Christian Church from their nest in Hell, really does need to get on their face and call upon the Great Physician, because you do have a most serious case of “me-no-wanna-see-i-tis.”

See also:

SPIRITUAL FORMATION: JUST SAY NO

WHO IS RICHARD FOSTER?

THE SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES OF DALLAS WILLARD DESTROYED