About two years ago, I was asked by a group of previous workshop attendees if I would come to their home and talk about the movie
The Secret. All members of the group are Christians and they know I am sensitive to their beliefs. Because of my own Bible-based upbringing, I am able to discuss "new age" concepts and Christian concepts simultaneously.
Regardless, one of the members of the group decided to drop out based on a warning from her minister. He believed that what I was teaching was harmful to her impressionable 21-year-old mind.
This experience never left me. I always wondered, what was it she told him about my class or what did he know about what I was teaching that caused him to be so alarmed? I knew for a fact that Christian writers like
Norman Vincent Peale and many Christians of corporate and government agencies in America use select passages of the Bible to keep themselves and their entire organization motivated and focused. Christians will tell everyone who will listen that it's their "Faith" (being in alignment, receptive and trusting God/Source/Energy) that delivered them to success and triumph.
I might not ever know what type of conversation transpired between that young woman and her minister but I do know this. The next time someone wants to know if living in the power of God (aka living in line with The Secret, aka "aligning your energies") is anti-Christian, I'm going to refer them to the book my Dad (a born-again Christian) gave to me. It's titled
Victory Over Darkness by Neil T. Anderson.
Here's a quote I pulled from the book:
"I believe I am a saint by the grace of God and I intend to live my life as His child in the way He intended me to live by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit."
If you read these words VERY SLOOOOWLY and let them sink in, you are using The Secret. (For added umph, you could pretend like you're Xena the Warrior Princess or Abraham as you read authoritatively).
The man who wrote these words is the "founder and president emeritus of
Freedom in Christ Ministries. He has 30 years of pastoral and teaching experience and was formerly chairman of the Practical Theology Department at Talbot School of Theology." At least that's what the bio on the back of his book,
Victory Over Darkness says and that sounds pretty darn Christian to me.
P.S. Anderson's book is filled with lists of scriptures that you can refer to such as the "Who I Am in Christ" list, the "What Is True of Christ is True of You" list and the "Who Am I"? list.
The title of this article was taken from page 145 of the A Course in Miracles text. I wanted to share an extended quote with you here today. I'm also going to use it as the invocation at my Toastmasters meeting tomorrow morning. (Exact location is paragraph 6 starting with line 7).
Freedom cannot be learned by tyranny of any kind, and the perfect equality of all God's Sons cannot be recognized through the dominion of one mind over another. God's Sons are equal in will, all being the Will of their Father. This is the only lesson I came to teach.
This statement is flawless, it is clear that we are all equally children of God, equal in will. Only our language clouds the truth. You see, we have decided to use the word "He" as the pronoun for all people. Not all languages adhere to this custom. Some have one word that means all people or "humankind".
So, if you are a woman reading the phrase above, realize that in God's terms "He" = All people. Don't let the language prevent you from receiving the message.
The first sentence of this quote assures you that sexism and racism are not Godly. "Freedom cannot be learned by tyranny of any kind." That means you can't have one group oppressing another group and have freedom. This applies to all human beings in all settings.
The next part of the sentence states: "the perfect equality of all God's sons cannot be recognized through the dominion of one mind over another." Said another way, as long as we are at war, we will never have peace. As long as we hate, we cannot experience love. As long as we are looking for problems, we will never find solutions. 
