From: ed_l1@verifone.com
Newsgroups: talk.religion.newage
Subject: What is New Age? (and what is not?)
Date: 28 Jul 92 13:09:12 -1000
Organization: VeriFone Inc., Honolulu HI

A person recently communicated to me some information about the New
Age that I felt was faulty, a misinterpretation, a perspective of
what the New Age is from a non-participant taking an "Us vs. them"
view. We began an email conversation.
 
This answer to an answer s/he sent to my original email I posted here
because some of the things they said are universally applicable,
and should be posted here.

Names have been changed to protect the innocent...
	and the not-so-innocent.
=======================================================

>>Don't know who's been trying to sell you NewAge, ######, but this is not
>>representative of the NewAge _I_ know.

>From my subjective perception, you are in the minority.

Right, ######, I know that, but I don't consider snake-oil salesmen
as new agers.  Same old lies, new packages does _not_ make them
new age.  If pres. Bush says "I'm a democrat" does that make
him a democrat?  When Jim Jones said he was on a mission from
Christ, did that make it true?

There are a few who recognize what the New Age is about and many
who exploit it.  As happened with Christianity.  "Many will come,
but few are chosen."

New age has nothing to sell.  The new age is here, like it or not.
What is it about?  Decreasing differences, decreasing arguments,
less "us vs. them" and a recognition that "they" are all "us."
That's just ONE thing, anyway. "That we love one another."

Paganism is not "New Age."  It's VERY old age, back to the Taurean
age, which ended some 2000 years ago.  Christianity is old age,
Piscean age, over the last 2000 years.

New Age, Aquarian Age, is accepting the differences between them all
and recognizing the sameness.  One god, many names, and we are
all a part of it.  God is a part of all of us, no matter what
religion or lack of we have, whether we like it or not.

Paganism isn't obsolete, Christianity isn't obsolete.  They were
both 2000 year duration Truth classes that the human race was going
through.  Now it's time to graduate to the next step, and to retain
what we learned in the last steps, as well.

>>I think you been talking to a snake-oil salesman.  Don't go through
>>intermediaries, get to know God yourself.

>Who are the intermediaries you are referring to Ed?  

Anyone who has religion to sell to you.  The price may be that you 
become a supporter, a follower, or it may be money or blood, obedience,
whatever.  Look at who is the beneficiary of all this... who benefits?
Where lies the power?  Who gets the money?  This goes for so-called
"new age," old age and very old age stuff.

>If you are interested, may I share my story with you?

Please do.  But first, a word from our sponsor:
I took Christ as my personal saviour in 1968.  I read the bible and
then moved to find a place to participate  in Christianity.
I found no churches where the bible wan't interpreted for their
own preference and benefit.

I asked Christ to guide me, to teach me His Truth.  I went through
rough times and easy times, met the scum of the Earth and those in
"high places."  I took religion classes, _History of the Bible_ 
included among them, in college.  I experienced things personally.
I saw things that I couldn't believe happening within religions
on Earth today. 

I spent time bathed in the light that is love that comes from god.  
I took classes in a place that exists only in spirit, as well as 
my college classes.

Little by little I have been shown that which is NOT Truth, but
which exists to serve the ego of humans.  I learned that these
ways are NOT the path to truth.

>>Christianity is good stuff, for the most part, but churches and
>>religious power-mongers have messed it up, subverted what Christ 
>>taught for their own ends.

>Who are these power-mongers?  Upon what info are you basing this 
>upon, Ed?

Well, let's start with the people who decided which religious writings
should be included in the Bible and which should not.  Then we'll go
on to the redactors who added passages (a simple study of writing styles as
one is reading can reveal this quite clearly) or changed what was
written.  Then let's go on to the power controlled by the Catholic
Church and the desperate grip it holds on it's followers.  The 
inflexibility of interpretations imposed by the Fundementalist sects.
Those power-mongers, #####.  Just open your own eyes and see.

Study a little bit.  Pick up a college course on the history of the 
Bible, read a few college-level texts, studies of the Bible, and
learn more than any one person can uncover in a lifetime.

Or even better, if you are a Christian, ask Christ to show _you_
the Truth, and see what you see, and where you are lead.

I'm not trying to sell you anything, ######.  I'm not trying to 
convince you of anything.  I would rather you discover Truth
on your own, and with your own means, which are quite adequate.

But first, you have to want to KNOW Truth, even if it is going
to contradict that which you have lived for the last however many
years you have lived it.  It may do that.  How much do you trust
your truth?  Are you willing to accept that you might have been wrong?
If not, don't set your hand to the plowshare.
                    
-- 
 //=====================================================================\\
|| Ed L'Esperance - P.O. Box 4635, Kane`ohe, Hawai`i 96744  U.S.A. Earth ||
|| Anthropologist, Writer, Editor, Earth Native       Ed_L1@VeriFone.Com ||
|| * Opinions Copyright (c) 1992 Ed L'Esperance.  All Rights Reserved. * ||
 \\=====================================================================//