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The Awakenings

The Essence of Contemporary American Religion

Part Six of Nine

By Shlomo Phillips © 1989 (last updated 12.31.2013)

The Awakenings

Return to Part One

The Third Great Awakening Concluded

The World Parliament of Religions

The 1893 World's Fair, housed along the banks of Lake Michigan in Chicago, was much more than a fair. It included pavilions from across the globe and was intended to be the celebration of the dawning of a New World Order. At the very least the fair was an opening salvo in the ongoing social engineering revolution. The Third Great Awakening accompanied the birth of American Consumerism, the corporatism that emerged in earnest with the creation of the Federal System and Globalism. In 17 Things You May Not Know About the 1893 Chicago World's Fair Barbara Maranzani sheds light on this aspect of the fair:

2. The fair produced a number of firsts.
Among the well-loved commercial products that made their debut at the Chicago World's Fair were Cream of Wheat, Juicy Fruit gum and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. Technological products that would soon find their way into homes nationwide, such as the dishwasher and fluorescent light bulbs, had early prototype versions on display in Chicago as well. The U.S. government also got in on the act, issuing the country's first postcards and commemorative stamps and two new commemorative coins: a quarter and half dollar. The half dollar featured Christopher Columbus, in whose honor the fair had been staged, while the quarter depicted Queen Isabella of Spain, who had funded Columbus' voyages, making it the first U.S. coin to honor a woman.
What is not mentioned in her list, and it is a sign of the times in which we live, is the White City World Parliament of Religions. The stated purpose of this historic three week religious 'city' was "to house a larger conception of human history, a new and more religious idea of divine providence through all ages and all lands, the World Parliament of Religions." Possibly borrowing his presentation from Isaac (ben Solomon) Luria Ashkenazi's (1534 - July 25, 1572) teachings on Tikkun Olam (i.e. the repairing of the shattered soul), the event's chairperson, Presbyterian minister Reverend Barrows, proclaimed:
"Religion, like the white light of heaven, had been broken into many-colored fragments by the prisms of men. One of the objects of the Parliament of Religions has been to change this many-colored radiance back into the white light of heavenly truth."
From around the globe truth seekers and teachers came to this "Universalist" convocation to share spiritual insights. Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Jews, Protestants, Catholics, Unitarians, and adherents of the Shinto and Zoroastrian traditions all gathered in a unitive spirit never before seen in the West (many have noted the intentional absence of Native American participation in the event).

In a real sense the World Parliament of Religions was an American Kumbh Mela, although of course much smaller, more modest, and limited in scope and history. Such a significant public gathering would have been impossible during the days when the hold of Christianity was more firm. Even a decade before most Christians would have viewed the event as utterly blasphemous, a sign that the End of Days had surely arrived. It would probably have been forbidden, but now the Secular Humanist state and federal government endorsed it fully. The historic Christian hope of America as "New Zion" was now officially dead.

By the 1890's the Church had lost its near absolute religious control over the US and the world. More and more people were now questioning and rejecting the accepted religious traditions of society.

The event was not without its critics of course. It was not only Fundamentalist Christians who refused to take part in the universalist parliament. The Ottoman Turkish sultan Abdul Hamid II refused to attend without citing a reason, although his belief in the supremacy of Islam was doubtless it. The Archbishop of Canterbury was clear about his reasons for refusing. He explained: "the Christian religion is the only true religion."

Although Reform Rabbi E.G. Hirsch of Chicago's Sinai Congregation was present, there was no traditional (i.e. Orthodox) Jewish representation at the event. Likewise, despite the presence of liberal Catholic Bishop P.A. Feehan, the European Roman Catholic hierarchy, just like most North American Evangelical leaders, including D.L. Moody (see above), also openly opposed the convention both in practice and in intention.

A Core Dividing Line Exposed

In these refusals we find a core dividing line among people of faith. Those who embrace a more universalist spiritual perspective as advocated at the WPR usually focus on faith in more abstract terms. From this perspective we find the credo: "It doesn't matter what one believes as long as one believes." Beginning with the Third Great Awakening this eclectic belief was becoming the dominant Western view.

The traditional Christian belief in Jesus as the only way to God, the traditional Jewish belief in its unique Covenant relationship with God, were both under direct attack. The Jewish Reform Movement rejected the Mosaic Covenant of the Jews as a Chosen People and other traditional foundations. Their reformed views fit nicely with the Parliament's unitarian goals.

The advocates of this dawning unitarian-universalist paradigm saw spiritual awareness as an ever developing flow of culturally relative experiences that tends towards a united global religion. Those who reject this view are dismissed as passe, as counter spiritual revolutionary. This lack of respect for the traditional religions led to their being blamed for most evils in the world. This view reached its zenith in Chairman Mao's declaration that religion is the opiate of the people. The traditional religions had become antiquated and should be dissolved with the help of science, Social Humanism, and legislation. Faith was becoming an enemy of the dawning new world religious order.

More traditionally minded people stressed the importance of what people believe. They pointed out that while many evils have certainly been done based on wrong/negative beliefs about God and religion, some of the most important advancements in human history have occurred because of and through religious faith. Society should not "throw the baby out with the bath water." If God/Truth exists as we (whoever "we" are) have traditionally believed, then abandoning those traditional convictions surely is not the way to curry Divine favor nor continued advancement. The opponents replied that if God does not exist as traditionally accepted, then everything we as a people have believed has been built on a lie. Everything should therefore be opened up to the current skepticism. For these people the WPR and globalism represented the best aspects of human nature: the desire to recast God in their own image.

How can these views ever be reconciled? While the prior perspective has become the social norm throughout the non-Muslim world, faith in the traditional beliefs is still strong among a healthy minority of the people. Even as the Third Great Awakening witnessed a blossoming of religious thought from one perspective, it also oversaw a major decline in religious specificity and practice.

Among the changes taking place during the period was the role of women. In the PWR women were afforded an opportunity that foreshadowed their growing role in religion. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, the first woman to be ordained as a minister in the US (by the Congregational Church in 1851) spoke. She told the assembly: "Women are needed in the pulpit as imperatively and for the same reason they are needed in the world - because they are women." The fact that most women who enter the clergies of the various religions embrace a more liberal than traditional perspective has significantly contributed the universalist trends for better or for worse.

This globalist assembly was hailed as 'the noblest and proudest achievement in history' and as 'the crowning work of the nineteenth century' by Anagarika Dharmapala (September 17, 1864 - April 29, 1933), one of the founding contributors of non-violent Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalism. The gathering was the virtual embodiment of the Third Great Awakening. Through this conference, the western world was introduced to some of the most influential religious thinkers of the day. Swami Vivekananda, who had received the mantle of Sri Ramakrishna and established the Vedanta Society, B.B. Nagarkar of the Hindu Brahma-Samaj, and Buddhist Master Anagarika Dharmapala were among the main speakers; however, a host of other religious leaders spoke as well. Japanese Buddhists, such as translator Zenshiro Noguchi, Rinzai Zen master Soyen Shaku (the first Zen master in America and teacher of D.T. Suzuki), Kinzai R.M. Hirai, Prince Chandradat Chudhadharn of Siam, Z. Noguchi (who spoke for Banryu Yatsubuchi -- who introduced Esoteric Buddhism to the west), and assorted representatives of the Jodo Shinshu, Nichirin, Tendai and various other esoteric sects also spoke (S 119-129). This was an amazing meeting that spiritually opened the U.S. to the world!

Anagarika Dharmapala likened the Parliament to the re-emergence of the ancient Council of Asoka that had occurred twenty-four centuries earlier. He proclaimed that it was his destiny to, "share the Buddha's noblest lessons of tolerance and gentleness, and that in this great city, the youngest of all cities, this program will be carried out, and the name of Dr. Barrows [the organizer of the Parliament] will shine forth as the American Asoka" (note 33).

Thanks to the World Parliament of Religions, eastern spiritual traditions, especially Buddhism and Mayavadhi (i.e. Impersonalist, see note C).) Hinduism, gained entry into America and the western thought (S 122). It is said however that "Zen was brought to the West single-handedly by Daisetz (Great Simplicity) Teitaro Suzuki." Suzuki was born two hundred miles north of Tokyo in 1870 and first arrived in America (at San Francisco) in February 1897. His teacher, Soyen Shaku, was the first Zen master to visit the West. At the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, in the heart of the Third Great Awakening, Shaku offered a very down-to-earth presentation of the Buddhadharma (as is appropriate for a Zen master). Due to language difficulties, an English translation of that speech (by D.T. Suzuki) was read by the Rev. J.H. Barrows, the chairperson of the Parliament (S 126). The impact of D.T. Suzuki on western religion is often likened to the significance of Aristotle and Plato (ZM 9; S 34; NR 32-73).

The End of the Third Great Awakening

In 1914 the First World War began in earnest and the Third Great Awakening became one of its many casualties. The extent to which the Third Great Awakening reshaped the world is difficult to overstate. There are certain watershed events in human history that serve as markers of time: time before and time after. The Third Great Awakening is one of these markers. Life before was fundamentally different than life afterward. The world wars were manifestations of the social upheavals caused by the Third Awakening. The world had become a much smaller, more interconnected place in which to live. The days of isolationism were ending.

With the spread of Globalism and globalist philosophy religion, politics, and commerce had forever changed. Into this manipulated and arguably inevitable void entered a new breed of social planners. The past was gone and these elite social engineers intended to shape the new future: the New World Order.

Interjacent of the Third and Fourth Great Awakenings

The Scopes Monkey Trial

Traditional American religion was dying on the vine. Scientific and Secular Humanism was becoming the religion of the day. Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882) and his theories gained popular support during this period. The theory of natural selection gradually replaced biblical creationism in the nation's schools.

On May 25, 1925, John Thomas Scopes was legally charged with teaching Darwin's Third Great Awakening theories of human development. In the view of the town's irate, largely Christian, parents he was teaching their children that the Bible is not the inspired Word of God and that humanity had evolved from ape-like ancestors rather than having been created in the image of God! People felt that demons were taking over and seeking the souls of their children.

Today most religious and secular Americans accept these theories and those who do not just shake their heads at what they see as secular brainwashing. To the Christians of the day however these ideas posed fundamental threats to the Gospel of Jesus and the very core of their lives and traditions. If the biblical creation accounts could be discounted as myth, they reasoned, then the essential Christian doctrines such as Original Sin (without which there would be no need for salvation according to Christian dogma), the restoration of Paradise and the Kingdom of God, etc. would all be disproved. Bluntly stated, if Darwinian evolution (or the modern versions of this now largely reworked theory) are true, then historic Christianity is a lie! Already beleaguered Christianity was now facing its most serious challenge ever. With the general embrace of Darwinism Christianity began the final stages of it existence as the world's predominate religion.

For the nation's Jews the matter seemed like much ado about nothing. To them Torah was much more than a history book and many Orthodox rabbis were already debating and in some cases rejected any literal interpretation of the Torah before the Sinai revelation. Torah is much deeper than the surface reading. If educated scientists was developing a demonstrable theory about the origins of life, then mazel tov! Knowledge is good. Maybe tomorrow they will learn something more.

Judaism has always been an intellectual religion and for Jews no scientific theory was to be accepted or rejected at face value. All views should be studied, considered, and understood before determinations were made. Among the Orthodox this would take a few decades at least. The rabbis did not perceive the threat to our traditions in the same way the Christian Fundamentalists did. "Accept the theory or reject it. It changes nothing of reality." HaShem is Echad (One).

But it did matter!

The anti-Darwin Christians understood this. It was about much more than a theory. This was a debate about the very meaning of life and the future of the nation! The Scopes Monkey Trial was about something far more essential than Adam and Eve. It was about establishing a completely new global paradigm in which, according to its designers, there would be no place for God as historically conceived. That being the case, there would be no place for the Christian Church as it had historically existed.

To the Christians, the schools had been taken over by Secularist Atheists and they were seeking to program the nation's children to be people with beliefs their parents could neither understand nor accept. This raised significant questions that threatened the role of the family itself. Does the government have the right to legislate such profound social and religious changes against the will of the people? Do not such mandates violate the First Amendment? Did the government really have the authority to a person's children doctrines that violated everything wanted their children belief? Surely not! But the court ruling said they did.

When the trial ended the answer was affirmative. The Federal courts had become the final authority over the upbringing of children. The courts were establishing the new anti-religious consciousness of the nation. The nation and the world had fundamentally changed. Belief in God as historically understood had been defeated by the New World Order. "Ignorant and superstitious" individuals could believe as they wished, but their children WILL BE indoctrinated into the Universalism introduced at the World Parliament of Religions!

"We the People" could have stopped this government takeover of parental rights then, but as was becoming more and more common, most Americans remained either apathetic or agreed that religion could be regulated despite the First Amendment. The oft boasted freedom loving American image was collapsing.

In part because of the new religious and secular theories, many people were finding faith in the 'Old Rugged Cross' no longer tenable. Confused by the future shock of the post-industrial world they began looking at their traditional religious and ethical systems and finding them wanting. Faith in the Western myths (like the Bible) was being shattered by scientific reason and challenged by the comparative study of religion fostered by the WPR (World Parliament of Religion) and the growing interfaith movements. Christianity and Judaism were just two of the many religions one might like, the God they proclaimed was the Greek gods of the past, without real substance.

Perhaps the Bible wasn't really unique after all! The Bhagavad Gita is certainly beautiful and spiritually uplifting. People began learning that there had been several other virgin birth claimed by other religions. That was nothing unique. Other miracle workers had performed deeds equal to or even exceeding those claimed for Jesus. As such things were being contemplated many Christians, Jews and others began to feel somewhat embarrassed that they had ever believed what their parents had taught them. They wanted to find their own truth and they began seeking churches and synagogues began shrinking and/or closing their doors. Perhaps God had died, it was speculated. Certainly in His very existence was waning.

In India the god-man Krishna once lifted Govardhan Hill over his head and held it for days like an umbrella in order to protect his fellow villagers! Jesus never lifted the Mount of Olives! Of course, they didn't accept these stories either, but credulous faith in the Bible was no longer considered viable by growing number of American educated people (LM 47-78).

Christians began to redefine their faith in terms that were more modern and scientifically feasible. Ministers and Bible Colleges began teaching that the Book of Genesis could have been a metaphor. They argued that God could have created the world through the process of evolution couldn't He? Satan became an anthropomorphic symbol of negativity and God was recast as an energy more akin to the Force in Star Wars than to the supreme personal deity of the Bible. By such compromises of their beliefs, Christians were gradually being cut off from the "living, personal Christ" they had always depended on. Belief in God, as historically exercised in the West, had for many become untenable (PN 95).

Whether these reformed ideas were closer to the truth or not is irrelevant to my point. The point is that traditional religion was being fundamentally altered into something far less divine, something that required no faith. This growing trend within Christendom was gradually moving it towards the Universalism desired by the WPR and the social engineers. The Christian Fundamentalists continued to stand, albeit on sometimes shaky ground, while most others embraced the new beliefs.

Having lost faith in traditional Western religion, many found themselves spiritually and emotionally bankrupt. Without a meaningful spiritual belief system, their lives seemed hopeless, without direction. As Nietzsche (October 15, 1844 - August 25, 1900) had predicted in his The Gay Science, this loss of faith by the monstrous logic of terror came as a prophet of gloom, as a solar eclipse whose like has never before been seen (PN 447) (note 34).

This was largely the situation throughout the United States as the 1950's dawned. Americans were becoming the most materialistic people on the planet. The new society offered toys of ever kinds to distract the citizens. New cars, television, new kinds of music, all the latest fads kept them distracted. Religion had at best become rote observance, a weekly duty to be observed with neither intention nor faith. The nation had became a society of secular consumers. Television replaced Bible study and science supplanted religion. Religion was no longer an integral part of what one was, it became something one did, or did not do. Religion was becoming something more and more Americans were leaving behind. Those who continued to confess meaningful religious convictions often did so through beliefs reinterpreted by the new relativist religion of Secular Humanism. The beliefs, convictions and experiences that had once united Americans during the previous Awakenings were now losing their strength. Our sense of nationhood, our beloved e pluribus unum, was being supplanted by crass materialism, consumerism and, in all things, greed. Loving ones neighbor as oneself seemed naive in this brave new world. This was a dog-eat-dog world where only the strong survived! Forget about keeping up with the Jones', the new Americans had to crush them! Instead of being defined by ones spiritual and moral qualities, people were now being judged by their wealth and power, not by who they were as individuals.

Ask someone, "Who are you?" and they will usually reply, I'm a doctor, a cook, unemployed, etc. As the West lost its faith in God ("I'm a child of God"), it also lost its soul. Humans were being redefined in Secular Humanist terms as being little more than another species of mammal. The schools convinced us that we are no better than the rest, although quite likely worse!

The Honolulu Zoo had an exhibit when I was there a few years ago: A sign before a solid cage wall read, See the fiercest animal on earth! Following the arrow and walking to the other side of the cage to behold this terrifying creature, one found only an empty cage with a mirror on its far side. Witty? Perhaps, but while there certainly is some truth in the point the exhibit made, according to both the Bible and Western tradition, human beings are not animals. We alone are created in the image of the Almighty God. We have destiny and purpose.

Animals have neither need nor ability to observe moral codes. As the divinely wrought uniqueness and personal responsibility of humanity was diminished some people began acting like the animals they were told they were. Violence, hatred, rapes, infanticide, and crimes of all types increased dramatically.

Today the U.S. imprisons more of its 'free citizens' than any other nation on earth! We are all the poorer for the death of religion. As a society we have largely lost our moral compass. We deem evil to be good and good to be evil.

Father Coughlin

During the Third Great Awakening people were witnessing the dawn of the modern Secular State. Those who warned that the Humanist dream was in reality a nightmare of epic proportions that was being unleased on the generally gullible public, were quickly dismissed as fanatics, paranoids, or lunatics. Among these "lunatics" was the ever controversial Father Coughlin (featured to the right). True religious fanatics like talk radio star Catholic Father Coughlin (October 25, 1891 - October 27, 1979) would soon be given a bully pulpit from which to nearly lead the US into embracing the diverse philosophies of Adolf Hitler! You can hear some his radio broadcasts here. One thing you quickly realize is easy a gifted speaker can make insanity sound sane.

It was now becoming clear to most thinking people that world events were being controlled by people unseen. For the Christian Fundamentalists the developing events screamed of the coming Anti-Christ. For the Jews it should have been a foreboding warning of the dark days to come. For many it was. Many Jews began heading to Israel. But far too many said "It can't happen here" and remained loyal to the "Fatherland" until it was too late. Many Jews in the Diaspora today are making the same mistake.

"Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people" -- Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858 - January 6, 1919 - Source.
Never forget that Fundamentalism has its uses. It can both whip people into a frenzy for specific political purposes and at the same time discredit faith completely by its inevitable abuses and human failings. This growing anti-spiritual paradigm was threatening to replace all others as people came to believe that truth must be based on objective, scientifically provable facts and crowned with a Scientific stamp of approval. The human spirit was critically ill.

Das Aufklarung was back with a vengeance! The new religious expressions during this non-awakening period were in one way or another all reacting to the secularization of the nation and the growth of cold logic and reason. Each weak religious group claimed in its own way that only through its revealed doctrines could the Secular dragon be slain (obvious references to Revelation chapter 12). Traditional American religion was crumbling before the alter of Secular Humanism. It was quickly losing members to the new religious innovations and the social secularism of the day.

There has never been a time when spiritual development did not occur, however during the Three Great Awakenings (as during the Age of Enlightenment) the degree of these developments ramped up. From 1914 until the turbulent 1960's many spiritually and religiously significant events occurred of course, but most of these were within movements born during the earlier Awakenings, like the Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses and so on. Many of the sects born during the Awakenings still exist today. During the years following the Third Great Awakening some sects expanded while others failed. Most lost their reform fire and became new hierarchies without much impact. Some new religious expressions also came into being during this period. As stated a few times, we are looking at general trends here and there are often overlaps.

For instance in the 1930's the I Am Movement presented a unique recasting of Madam Blavatsky's Theosophy and had profound influence. This was the original Ascended Masters sect founded by Guy and Edna Ballard (1878-1939/1886-1971) in Chicago. This sect spawned much of the current New Age Movement, including Elizabeth Clare Prophet's Church Universal and Triumphant. The I Am Movement launched a still developing paradigm that impacted much of what followed among the neo-Occultic and New Age sects, including the Nazis. Its impact far exceeded its membership rosters.

Mainline Protestant revivalist Billy Graham (born November 7, 1918) was all but anointed Dwight L. Moody's spiritual heir while the aging Billy Sunday (November 19, 1862 - November 6, 1935) was hailed as a virtual national prophet. Protestant Christianity continued to hold its own during this period.

Despite the revivals and new religious flavors of these post war years, there was not the massive spiritual interest and awakenings seen previously. Most people who study these things view these as independent religious developments rather than part of a renewed spiritual awakening. Indeed what took place during the years Interjacent of 1914 and the 1960's could arguably be considered a reversed Awakening (the First Great Sleeping). Billy Graham and others were admirably seeking to awaken the public to spiritual realities, but for the most part the general public remained uninterested. The numerous Billy Graham Crusades attracted millions of attendees but when they ended the audiences remained largely untouched spiritually. They gradually became more like New York stage productions than religious meetings. Dr. Graham's unfortunate foray into Republican politics later on doubtless diminished his reputation and how his impressive accomplishments will be remembered. At the time I writing this he is still alive and 96 years old.

Madame Blavatsky and Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was a lapsed Roman Catholic. Like others of his generation young Adolf felt the religion of his youth was insufficient and so he searched for truth elsewhere. He was especially drawn to Germanic Paganism and Theosophy. Of Theosophy we read:

"One of the most hidden secrets involves the so-called fall of Angels. Satan and his rebellious host will thus prove to have become the direct Saviours and Creators of divine man. Thus Satan, once he ceases to be viewed in the superstitious spirit of the church, grows into the grandiose image. It is Satan who is the God of our planet and the only God."
- H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine See pages 215, 216, 220, 245, 255
Hitler's fascination, appreciation and knowledge of Aryan culture (i.e. Indo-Himalayan Hinduism, Buddhism, and Shamanism), was based largely on the published research and conclusions of Madame Helena Petrova Blavatsky (HPB) and her Aryan Theosophical Society and Press (HTR) as we discussed before. From her (and her student Dietrich Eckart), Hitler adopted the Hindu swastika and other symbols used by the Reich and engaged in diverse rituals that aimed to make him an invincible god.

The ancient Vedic emblem of Aryan nobility and blessing took on a very different meaning under the Occult Humanism of Hitler. He blended his Nordic Pagan views and Theosophy's Secret Doctrine with his German Christian hatred of all things Jewish. Its a generally known fact that Hitler deeply admired Martin Luther's well-known anti-Semitism and the Catholic Passion Plays that depicted the Jews as an evil to be eradicated. Hitler brought these views to their next logical step, the Shoah or Holocaust.

George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (January 13, 1866 - October 29, 1949) and his fascinating views aside, stark materialism has never been sufficient to satisfy our inner needs. I submit it never will be. Despite this Western society, with few exceptions, has devoted itself to scientific theories and cut itself off from the spiritual realities. It has chosen to sneer contemptuously at belief in God despite the fact that it was these beliefs that established it. While the Occult remains more popular today that most imagine, the main religion of America is the Consumerism directed by the principles of Secular Humanism.

While many people continued in their religious beliefs and practices, during the period following the Second World War the scientific community was transformed into the nation's official priesthood by the media fed masses who consider them healers, teachers and saviors. The national religion today is clearly Secular Humanism. It tenets and beliefs guide most Americans as Christianity once did. During this period Christianity ceased to be the world's largest and most influential religion (when Catholicism and Protestantism are viewed as separate religions). It has been replaced by Islam. Traditional religious faith now appears as a beaver's dam before a billowing typhoon. We can admire its tenacity but the coming storm appears unstoppable. Christianity seems like to be going the way of Zoroastrians and other once great religions.

We will consider what some view as a Fourth Great Awakening as we continue.

The Awakenings

Return to: Part 1

Continue with: Part 7
Bibliography and Resources

NOTES

Be the Blessing you were created to be
and
Don't let the perfect defeat the good