I begin this piece here at Apprising Ministries by pointing you to yet another illustration of the type of syncretism slithering into contemporary evangelicalism right now because it chose to open its arms to the neo-liberal cult openly operating within the Emerging Church aka the Emergent Church.

For you see, this was the Trojan Horse from which was unloaded the corrupt Counter Reformation Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM) such as that spread by sinfully ecumenical neo-Gnostics like Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mysticRichard Foster along with his spiritual twin Dallas Willard.

Some ask: Must you really put it that way? Answer: Absolutely; we’re well past time that we see the rise of people in teaching positions who will tell it like it is, as they used to say. Just take a good look at the nauseating compromise CSM has brought in when combined with postmodernism’s anything goes.

Today I became aware that Elizabeth Kaeton would make a tactical blunder in her post Emergent Monastic Communities by deciding to take a swipe at me. Kaeton tells us she’s a:

joyful Christian who claims the fullness of the Anglican tradition of being evangelical, Anglo-Catholic, charismatic, orthodox and radical… [Who’s also] national Convener of The Episcopal Women’s Caucus, and am now member of the national board of RCRC. (source)

In addition Kaeton is in “ordained ministry” and further informs us she:

graduated in May 2008 from Drew with my doctorate in Pastoral Care and Counseling and was Proctor Fellow at EDS, Spring Semester 2011. I am a GOE reader. I consult and counsel at Canterbury Pastoral Care Center in Harbeson, DE. (source)

So, the point is the “Rev.” Dr. Elizabeth Kaeton, who’s even “worked closely with Bishop Jack Spong,” ((http://telling-secrets.blogspot.com/2012/06/hrh-quean-lutibelle.html)) is certainly in a position to know better concerning the historic orthodox Christian faith. Before I go on, let me be clear here: This is not at all about throwing the entire Episcopal/Anglican community under the bus.

With this all understood, Kaeton begins her post:

Tomorrow [June 13th], at 11 AM, I will be at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Wayne, PA to preach for the Installation of Sr. Barbara Clare (AKA “Ms Conroy”) as Abbess of the Anamchara Fellowship.

It’s a fairly daunting task, this business of preaching for an Abbess – my first one in 26 years of ordained ministry – but made even more especially so by the fact that I’m preaching for someone I’ve known and with whom I’ve shared more than half my life. (source)

Leaving her deviant sexual proclivities aside, we can already see we’re dealing with women in rebellion against the Word of God, which tells us the Lord has not chosen to have women be elders in the Christian community. Kaeton then turns to “research” she did:

on monastic communities in general and what I’m calling “emergent monastic communities” in particular, as well as the whole “emergent church movement”. (source)

She then goes on to talk about postmoderns and their supposed “great hunger for community,” as if one can’t find such in a local church. Having studied this myself for years, I can tell you that in practice it’s merely an excuse to denigrate doctrine and to fashion a Burger King “have it your way” approach to spirituality.

After setting up that false dichotomy concerning “organized religion,” translation: Bible-believing churches, she discusses the spiritual blackhole “the Anamchara Fellowship.” Following that commercial Kaeton then turns to a roster of heretics quite likely familiar to you:

There are many “emergent Christians” who share the same affectionate bonds: Phyllis Tickle, Tony Campolo, Brian McLaren, Shane Clairborne, Tony Jones, Diana Butler Bass, Carl McColman, John O’Donohue, Doug Paqitt, Jay Bakker, Richard Rohr, and Jim Wallis of the Sojourners Community – to name just a few of the more contemporary ones.

Some even include Rob Bell, the evangelical ‘upstart’ who has openly and publicly suggested that non-Christians like Gandhi and Buddha are, in fact, in heaven.  Imagine! (source)

I agree with Elizabeth Kaeton here, the only way to see Gandhi and Buddha in heaven is to imagine it. Concerning these spiritually bankrupt Emergent monastic communities Kaeton goes on to point out that:

They have their critics – especially those who find ideas like Celtic or Thomas Merton’s spirituality failing in the orthodoxy known to many churches and monastic communities. (source)

Well, guess who that might be; click on critics and you come to my article The Emerging Church On A Wild Goose Chase. Kaeton continues quoting me:

“Squishy evanjellyfish” is one term applied to Tony Campolo and they criticize emergent Christianity as a “perversion of the Christian faith”, a “postmodern progressive de-formation of the Christian faith” – as if that were a bad thing – and “a spiritual free fall out into the delusion of creating your own Christianity with a mystic mush god made in your own image”. (source)

Yes, a “postmodern progressive de-formation of the Christian faith” is a horrible thing; it leaves one still dead in their sins and outside the Gospel of repentance and forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ Name. The EC’s “big tent” Christianity aka Emergence Christianity is another gospel, which is really no gospel at all (cf. Galatians 1:6-9).

The new form of postmodern Progressive Christian theology—Liberalism 2.0—which I’m talking about in that passage Kaeton quotes is powerless to save; it’s a deadly theological poison. We don’t have the option of creating our own individual Christianities, which is what these fools (look it up in the Bible) are trying to do.

Unfortunately, this only seems to amuse Kaeton who opines:

It’s endlessly entertaining to me that, whenever I hear “orthodox Evangelicals” criticize the ideas of others about God and gasp breathlessly that these “neo-pagans” have created a god in their own image, they seem to lack the insight that no one “owns” an image or understanding of God.  Not even them.  (source)

Let me clear up a couple of things here for Dr. Elizabeth Kaeton; 1) I’m not an evangelical, I broke with that camp a good three years ago, and 2) the Bible is God’s revealed revelation of Himself and we form our image of Who He is by what He has condescended to tell us of Himself. God “owns” His image and our “understanding of God.”

While Emergent monastics and emerging communities are welcome to their beliefs, no one has the right—not even Kaeton herself—to merely make up a mystic mush god in their own image; and now you know what’s at the heart of my reference to this Emerging Church wild goose chase below:

[mejsvideo src=”https://www.apprising.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Wild-Goose.mp4″ width=640 height=360]

May God in His mercy grant repentance to Dr. Elizabeth Kaeton and others like her worshipping worthless idols…

Further reading

• BEWARE OF EMERGING SPIRITUALITY AND EMERGENCE THEORY
• THE EMERGING CHURCH AND THE NEW PROGRESSIVE THEOLOGY ON CHRIST
• THE EMERGING CHURCH AND THE NEW PROGRESSIVE THEOLOGY ON OTHER RELIGIONS