Undergirding the UN's quest for "sustainable development" is a pagan religious world view that is utterly incompatible with biblical faiths. Known as the "Gaia Hypothesis or the "Gaian world view, the "UN's pantheist perspective holds that the earth itself is the deity which we should worship, and that the UN is the through which the earth goddess will dictate our forms of devotion. Gaia Atlas of Future Worlds, Dr. Norman Myers, who has been an adviser to the UN, the World Bank, the Department, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, sets forth the basic tenets of the Gaian religion, declaring that there is no longer any 'we' and 'they.'

For the first time, and for all time, there is only 'us' - all of us humans, together with all our fellow species and other members of the Gaian community." Of course, the "Gaian community" will require a governing ethic – one that teaches, in Myers's words, "a new humanism, a New World view, a new planetary concern." Ultimately this would require a UN ministry of religion.

The September/October 1994 issue of The Futurist magazine reported, "Religions are now headed toward what may 'eventually form a United Religions Organization (URO), structured in much the same way as the United Nations and with the same goals." Once created, the URO would be given the task of creating a "new covenant' for the planet: "The URO will discern the nature of that covenant, and with it the responsibility’s, rather than the rights, of planetary citizenship."

Furthermore, according to Dr. Myers, creation of such [a new world ethic is no side issue; it is recognized as an imperative by world institutions" such a United Nations Environmental Program, which in collaboration with radical environmental groups created a "world ethic for living sustainably" in 1991. In that same year, globalist theologian Hans Kung was commissioned UNESCO to create a "Declaration of a Global Ethic" which would impose a set of binding commitments upon religious leaders and institutions.

From Kung's perspective, traditionalist religions have an ethical obligation to cease to exist. In his 1991 book Global Responsibility: In Search of a New World Ethic, Kung declared1 "Any form of ... church conservatism is to be rejected.... To put it bluntly: No regressive or repressive religion - whether Christian, Islamic, Jewish or of whatever provenance - has a long-term future." Furthermore, according to Kung, there will be no room for religious diversity, because, "If ethics is to function for the well-being of all, it must be indivisible. The undivided world increasingly needs an undivided ethic. Postmodern men and women need common values, goals, ideals, visions."

The crusade on behalf of the "Global Ethic" began in earnest on January 25, 1993, when a colorful collection of religious leaders assembled around the "Peace Altar" at the UN's Temple of Understanding to inaugurate the "Year of Inter-religious Cooperation and Understanding." Present for that gathering was Daniel Gomez-Ibanez, a Hindu activist who is a trustee at the Millennium Institute (MI). Along with MI executive director Gerald Barney, Gomez-Ibanez helped to organize the 1993 Parliament of World Religions, at which the "Declaration of a Global Ethic" was unveiled and signed by scores of religious leaders.

According to Parliament chairman David Ramage, the Global Ethic document constitutes "an alternative framework for religion to which people will be held accountable." (Emphasis added.) The declaration presumes to dictate "an irrevocable, unconditional norm for all areas of life, for families and communities, for races, nations and religions."

The document asserts that individual freedom cannot be allowed except in the context of "global responsibility": "Self-determination and self-realization are thoroughly legitimate so long as they are not separated from responsibility for fellow humans and for the planet Earth." In short, we will be free to do as we are told to do by a global government. The third of the Global Ethic's "Irrevocable Directives," a "Commitment to a culture of tolerance," suggests that religious leaders who preach "intolerance" (perhaps through theological debate or by condemning sin) should be punished by the loss of their congregations: "When [representatives of religion] stir up prejudice, hatred, and enmity towards those of different belief, or even incite or legitimate religious wars, they deserve the condemnation of humankind and the loss of their adherents." While no sane and sensible person encourages or sustains prejudice, sane and sensible people should rebel at the thought of an entity capable of imposing the sanctions implied by this passage.

As we have seen, Hans Kung, the author of the "Global Ethic," candidly admitted that the triumph of the Global Ethic would mean the end of traditional religion. This prospect was touched upon by MI executive director Gerald Barney during his keynote address to the Parliament of World Religions. Barney has served as a national program director for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and is a well-connected member of the ecological elite; he is privy to the privately expressed thoughts of the eco-pagan elite. Thus it is of tremendous interest that Barney disclosed to the Parliament of World Religions that "an internationally famous, highly influential author on sustainable development told me, 'Religion must die. It is the fundamental cause of virtually all social, economic, and ecological problems and much of the violence in the world.'"

The only alternative to the destruction of religion, according to Barney, is the "reinterpretation and even rejection of ancient traditions and assumptions" and the creation of a" 'sustainable' faith tradition ~ a faith such that if everyone adopted and followed it, we would be assured a sustainable, just, and humane future for earth and her people." Presuming to speak on behalf of "not just all humans, but on behalf of the whole community of life," Barney made this demand of the religious leaders who had gathered at the Parliament: "Would you devote the next seven years of your lives to helping all six billion of us humans to learn from each other and from the earth how to live sustainably, justly, and humanely on the earth in the next millennium?"

Stated Barney: Over the next [several] years all five billion of us humans must prepare to die to 20th century ways of thinking and being.... Every person must learn to think like earth, to act like earth, to be earth.... As soon as we humans learn to think like earth, we together will see a new future for earth. Then we can die in peace, all five billion of us, to our old ways of thinking. We can cross the waters together. And we can celebrate earth's safe arrival in a new era in a way that will be remembered together.

Barney was the lead author of the Global 2000 report for the Carter Administration; in anticipation of the Parliament of World Religions, he helped create an updated version of that document entitled Global 2000 Revisited: What Shall We Do? The appendix to that report contains an invitation for heads of state and religious leaders to convene in Thingvellir, Iceland on January 1, 2000. There, in a tent, surrounding a stone altar, the gathered leaders would present hand-written covenants pledging loyalty to Gaia. This event would constitute what Barney calls "a ritual death to and giving up of the old 20th century and its ways of thinking and being."

Following the 1993 Parliament of World Religions, Ecumenicist religious leaders wasted no time in the effort to define "authentic" religious belief:

In December 1994, dozens of prominent religious leaders joined Paulos Mar Gregorius, former president of the World Council of Churches, on the banks of the river Ganges to compose the "Rishikesh Appeal," a document which urged the spiritual "empowerment" of the UN. According to the Appeal, "The UN should have a 'Spiritual Cell' with highly evolved individuals of all religions and cultures in it." These highly evolved masters would be assisted by "vast armies of spiritual adepts" who would preside over "multi-religious International Academies" in every country of the world.

An army of 100,000 "spiritual adepts" attended the Seventh Conference of World Religions, which was held in Delhi, India in February 1994. Among the organizers of that event were former WCC president Mar Gregorius, Karan Singh, president of the UN's "Temple of Understanding," and Father Louis Dolan, another organizer of the Parliament of World Religions. The foot soldiers of "spiritual enlightenment" were joined by 1,200 religious and political officials from 52 countries.

Also in February 1994, 500 Christian and Jewish clergymen from 90 countries gathered in Jerusalem for the "Religious Leadership in Secular Society" conference. That conference sought to indict "fundamentalism" as a global menace. As summarized by Washington Times reporter Larry Witham, the consensus of the Jerusalem meeting was that "extremist religion is on the rise globally in reaction to secularism, demanding that conventional Judaism, Christianity and Islam provide a better alternative...."

One prominent religious official told the conference that "authentic religious leadership has to deal with religious extremism." This note was taken up by Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, who urged leaders of the three monotheistic religions to "weed out the extremes" from their respective faiths in the interest of "moderating, whenever possible, unstable and pathological faith expressions." Archbishop Carey's preferred illustration of "pathological" faith was Waco's Branch Davidian sect, which perished as a result of an unprovoked federal assault.

The UN-sponsored crusade against, "unauthentic" religious traditions had a discernible impact on U.S. politics in" 1994, when an unprecedented media campaign was mounted against the "Religious Right." Conservative Christians, Orthodox Jews, and other "fundamentalists" were demonized as enemies of "democracy" and "civil liberties."

The "Masters"

If "fundamentalism "is" unauthentic," what religious traditions would the UN deem acceptable? One religious organization which enjoys the UN's imprimatur is Share International, a UN-affiliated non-governmental organization whose monthly journal is published with the assistance of the UN Department of Public Information. Share International is headed by Benjamin Creme, a British theosophist who claims to speak on behalf of "Lord Maitreya," a member of the "Spiritual Hierarchy of Ascended Masters Creme insists that Maitreya is the Christ" and is working with other members of the "Spiritual Hierarchy to bring about the consummation of human evolution.

The December 1994 issue of Share International reports that Maitreya an his associates are rapidly construction "the One Church and the New World Religion [which] will gradually emerge as a mutual tie to unite men with closer bonds." The same issue contains a warning issued by "The Master" via Creme: "Very soon now, a most usual event will allow the world know that the Masters do, indeed exist.... When men see Maitreya, they know that the time has come to choose to go forward with Him into a future dazzling in its promise - or to cease be." If "empowerment" of the UN continues apace, Creme's threat may become a hideous reality for those refuse to bend the knee to Gaia and pagan priesthood.
William Norman Grigg, New American April 3, 1995

Everybody’s Religion

If you are one of those who don’t have time to worry about the matters of spirit, not to worry, the U.N. is working to take care of that for you. Living up to its charter – to be an agency of the world – it has assigned Donald Keys, President of Planetary Citizens.. to fade individual worship out and to replace it with one religion for everyone.

My Keys explains that for all mankind. “The United Nations is the chosen instrument of God. Because of this fact, the world must come to treasure the soul of the UN. For it is a soul that is all-loving, all-nourishing and all fulfilling.”

In the major cities of the world, temples have already been built in which to worship the U.N. god. Pictured below is the temple in the UN building in New York. Without any news coverage similar temples are being constructed throughout the U.S. [ Futurist Magazine Volume? Year ? on page 25 ]

The Back Door Approach to Controlling Mankind

Nearly all American Universities offer courses in religious studies. That used to mean a survey of classified theology. Today, students can learn to practice any one of the more the 1600 different religions.

Only blocks from City University in New York is the School For Esoteric Studies. With one of the largest student bodies and literature clearing houses among religious schools, it works to proselytize a religion of no religion. The School of Esoteric Studies exists, according to its brochure, to gather from the four corners of the globe a New Group Of World Servers. No matter which field you may be active in, you can be included rather than separated from the soul of humanity. Men and women who learn to live in this higher consciousness, in what nation, race, religion, place, or position may find themselves , inevitably becoming transmitters of a world vision, dedicated to the well being of humanity.

Housed in the high rent district of New York’s Madison Avenue, the school is said to be well connected to major capitals world wide – via the United Nations. A close study of its mission and goals has prompted Dr. Raymond Hawthorn, former Dean of Religious studies at Grand Rapids School of Theology to question the merging of world religions. In a recent paper titled Religion and Man, Dr. Hawthorn took him at what he calls “the back door approach to controlling mankind”.

“History is replete with example after example of a relentless struggle between freedom and those forces that would take freedom captive. Depending on the period of history beginning with the Byzantine Empire to the western world of the 20th century, there has never been a period where this struggle was not present and consuming in terms of economics, education and politics. Whether one is talking about Buddhism in Japan, Hinduism in India, Islam in the Middle-East, Christianity, or Judaism, the debate continues to linger over who worships the real God. Is there any wonder those who would them would offer everyone a god that all could agree on?

Certainly, this is the most logical approach to solving the age old conflict between religions. Or so they believe. A common religion seems in the skeletal stages and on the horizon. Its outline seems Islamic, yet Judeo/Christian. Its themes stress social justice and a Marxist form of economic equality. The new religion contends that individuality was born in the dark mind of the infidel and must be replaced with love for one’s other selves in fellow humans, fish, fowl, mammals and soil. Like Islam however, it contends that the other major religions of the world have failed to deal with the increasing inability to slow the progression of human annihilation. ( Wrong. Jehovah’s Witnesses earth wide are united of all ethnic backgrounds even in lands were there is racial and ethnic conflicts www.watchtower.org )

“There is imminent danger in the subtle creation of a god that has no standards, or standards which will fit everyone. In such a religion, the release of everyone from basic individual prerequisite for future chaos.”

Dr. Hawthorn shares the view of many Americans who see explained in the politically correct handwriting on the social wall the very mixture of religion with the matters of state that the Left has protested since protesting became popular.

Traditional religious leaders are often stereotyped in the popular media. Some are even the objects of attack by militant homosexuals who insist “God loves us too.” In light of political correct pressure to socialize their congregations, churches are adopting a more conciliatory attitude toward everything from gay marriages, to endorsing riots as a means of effecting social change.

Most people doubt seriously that there will ever one religion resembling a cross between Islam and Judeo-Christian principles. After all, the three religions are said to originate from two half brothers, Ishmael and Isaac, separated by a cumbersome surrogate arrangement gone awry.