29 April, 2007

Gaia in Christ's World

Most people do not consider Gaia a living person, spiritual or otherwise, but it will be helpful to refer to her as such. She is the sum of all life on earth, and hers is the philosophy that seeks life's continued preservation and evolution. She is the mother of all earth-life, and she is the meta-organism that is made up of all earth-life.

There are trillions of bacteria living happily in our guts, and we are their earth. E Coli is a major, beneficial bacteria and is much appreciated, but sometimes it spoils everything. When E Coli escapes from the large intestine, it kills not just its own home, but everyone's. Even so, man is a powerful force in Gaia's body. When we find our place and maintain it, all of the earth is bettered. When we escape from our place, we risk killing the earth for everyone.

So, things like global warming, worldwide poverty, unbounded development, industrialized food and nuclear proliferation are all anathema to Gaia. She sees their global effect, and final outcome, and longs for mankind to stop them.

"How do you know that?" you ask.

Gaia has no voice, except that of the people who speak for her, and they shout these things from the housetops. Without question, each of them preaches a slightly different, or wildly different, version of Gaia's heart, but they are all defending Mother Earth - Gaia - and thereby defending all of us who are her essence.

There is also a subset of Gaians who believe in spiritual things, and that we are as interdependent spiritually as we are physically. They believe that hate and greed are as toxic to the world's psychosystem as are industrial waste and automobiles to our ecosystem. They preach love, and not just feelings of love, but love in action. And they don't just preach these things, they start groups that put their love in action. They are making a positive difference.

Gaia cares, and Gaians live her caring out on his tiny blue-green orb we call home.

I need to talk about Gaia for a while.

I hate her.

I hate her from the depths of my being, and I want to talk about why. You will find her in every TV show, in every news report, in every self-help book, and quite probably sitting in the corner in your church, waiting to "make a difference." The grammar of Christianity's conversation is framed by Gaia, not Christ, and too often we must talk in her words to be understood at all, even in His church.

Gaia is invading Christianity. You see her in our talk of Unity, spoken in her words, not Christ's. Our goals are her goals. The church partners effectively with charities everywhere, because we are trying to accomplish the same things - and we should not be. Gaia is winning the verbal judo match. In judo you take the attacker's force, and turned it back against him. Gaia has taken our precious words, received from the Holy Spirit, and defined them in her own image.

She is sifting the Christ out of our churches, and leaving us with a Jesus formed in her own image.

Gaia's promises will fall when she meets her Ruin. Those hidden under her skirts will be exposed and judged. Their guilt will find them, and their judgement will be complete.

The world, and the fulness of every cell of every living being in it, is Christ's, and He will throw Gaia down into the pit.

8 comments:

kc bob said...

So good CP, so good. It made me think of the invisible kingdom - the antithesis of Gaia's visible one. Your post is a great reminder of the preeminence of Christ's kingdom and of how it is so different from Gaia's.

Kevin Knox said...

Thanks, Bob. I have been thinking about her a lot lately, and I am probably going to do three or four more posts about her inadequacies. I have found Christ's triumph over her amazingly encouraging.

Jeffrey Pinyan said...

You have to separate Gaia-ism from true Christian stewardship of the Earth given to us by God. God did not say (as Ann Coulter would paraphrase) "the earth is yours, rape it". Adam's role was to keep and guard Eden, not use it up and find a new home.

Weekend Fisher said...

So -- call me tone deaf here -- how exactly do you see Gaia winning the judo match? I'm not *trying* to be clueless; on this one I actually *am*. If you were to spell out a concrete example for me, what would I look for to see it?

(Btw, now I'm hungry for eggloaf.)

Kevin Knox said...

Agreed, Japhy, and Amen.

I'm headed there. Not in my next post. My next is actually the heart of what got me to thinking about Gaia. Maybe post # 3.

Kevin Knox said...

Hehe, WF.

Yeah, I'm hoping to get there in post 4 on the subject.

Anonymous said...

I chose the fence on this one. I'm looking forward to reading more.

Andreia Huff said...

Mabye it's a girl thing but I'm with WF.

Im big on getting riled up about stuff but I need to know why Im mad.

Is there a chance that people who are involved in Gaia worship are closer to us than further apart. I for one know I would much rather deal with someone that has a level of respect and awe for God's creation than someone who does not. I would prefer to talk to someone who actively believes in ridding some pain in the world in the name of Jesus, rather than those that simply want to wax eloquent on theology. Now, in typing that last sentence two simulataneous thoughts occured in my brain (a good thing for me). First, I thought, "Well, Andreia, who cares what you want." Then I thought about how Gaia lovers of the world believe that if they and others just DO enough then poverty and the like will simply disappear from the earth. And as we all know this is a fallen world, that will never be heaven, despite our efforts.

Perhaps that is where you are headed to discuss the simple arrogance of the person that buys into these ideas?

Anticipating your next!