Although the United Nations is regarded by many as a secular organization, the truth is something else entirely. The U.S.-funded world body is promoting its own brand of religious faith. The separation of church and state doctrine doesn’t seem to apply to the U.N. and its favored non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

 

For example, on October 27, 2005, at United Nations headquarters in New York, a special event was held in celebration of “The Spirit of the United Nations.” America’s Survival, Inc. attended and covered the event. Open to all U.N. staff and NGOs, the program featured an opening “blessing song on behalf of indigenous peoples,” an expression of “thanks to Mother Earth,” and a moment of silence. A special rendition of former Beatle John Lennon’s song, “Imagine,” was played to the crowd. The lyrics include:

 

Imagine there's no countries,
It isn’t hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...

 

It may seem odd to refer to “no religion” at a U.N. event on spiritual values. But the U.N. is an odd institution that doesn’t believe in traditional religion.

 

Jan Eliasson of Sweden, president of the Sixtieth Session of the U.N. General Assembly, told the gathering that they were there to celebrate the 60^th birthday of the U.N. and the 100^th anniversary of the birth of Dag Hammarskjold, a former U.N. Secretary-General and founder of the U.N. Meditation Room.

 

The main organizers were the Values Caucus of the U.N. and the NGO Committee on Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns. ^[1] The latter is a project of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations and its Spiritual Council for Global Challenges. Diane Williams, co-chair of the NGO Committee on Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns, was a moderator of the event. She is also affiliated with theInternational Association of Educators for World Peace (IAEWP) and the Tribal Link Foundation. The IAEWP website ^[2] features the following articles:

The Tribal Link Foundation regards the earth as sacred and promotes the view that indigenous peoples have a “spiritual connection” to the planet. ^[3] This view, which combines aspects of the animal rights and radical environmentalist movements, holds that human beings are exploiting the Earth and other living creatures for selfish purposes. It follows that, if the planet is inhabited by a spirit of some kind -- and human beings can have mystical experiences or a spiritual relationship with this entity – then the U.S. and other industrial countries have to be prohibited from certain uses of the world's natural resources. This helps explain why the U.N. spends so much time trying to regulate global economic activity in the name of saving the planet from global warming, climate change, or other perceived problems.

 

The Bush Administration has been opposing U.N. interference in U.S. environmental and economic matters without a clear understanding of the mystical belief system that drives much of the world organization’s activities.  Some might argue that U.S. taxpayer underwriting of this bizarre religious movement through the U.N. constitutes a violation of the First Amendment prohibition on the establishment of a state church. It is worthwhile for Congress to take a look.
 

The October 27 event should leave no doubt that a high-level movement with very strange spiritual beliefs is operating in the upper echelons of the United Nations.

What the participants at this event had in common is a rejection of traditional Christianity, which holds that there is a gulf between man and God that is bridged by Jesus Christ alone. Their New Age philosophy and most Eastern-style religions hold that man is somehow capable of becoming God, through mystical experiences, earth-worship, meditation or sometimes even mind-altering drugs.

 

The U.N. Meditation room ^[4] is a curious place where U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was married. It is bereft of any Christian or traditional religious symbols. ^[5]Annan has no known religious affiliation but has been quoted as saying, “The politics of nations…can never ignore the transcendent, spiritual dimension of human

experience.” ^[6]

 

In their book, Spiritual Politics, Corrine McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson write about the Meditation Room, describing it as "the focus for the energies of a unified planet and humanity, and for right relations among all kingdoms of life."  Davidson is said to have experienced this “energy” that is “helping to support the synthesis of nations and the emergence of the Soul of humanity.”

 

The claim is reminiscent of when “psychic researcher” and U.N. consultant Jean Houston, ^[7] who favors the use of the mind-altering drug LSD in some settings to facilitate spirituality, held meetings with then-First Lady Hillary Clinton to help her "communicate" with the long-dead Eleanor Roosevelt, who was herself a big backer of the U.N. and helped form the organization now known as the United Nations Association of the United States. Critics said the Houston-Clinton meetings resembled a voodoo-like séance featuring communications with ghosts or spirits. The psychic sessions caused enormous embarrassment for Mrs. Clinton when they were exposed in a book by Bob Woodward of the Washington Post. Mrs. Clinton is a true believer in the U.N. and the cause of “world federalism” or world government. ^[8] 

 

 

While increasing attention is being focused on the influence of the United Nations in military, political, economic and social affairs, this very important area of religion or spirituality has been largely ignored. Yet billionaires Ted Turner, George Soros and Rev. Sun Myung Moon have been underwriting or sponsoring activities designed to push the world toward a global religion under United Nations auspices. Curiously, Turner and Soros are atheists, while Moon proclaims himself the savior of the world.

 

Lee Penn, author of a new book on the subject, False Dawn, ^[9] explains their motivation this way:

 

They see this as a convenient lever that they can pull to gain power. All of them are building what they call a new civilization. Just about anyone who understands how civilization works knows that almost every civilization that has ever existed has religion at its base. So if you want a new global civilization you need a new global religion. ^[10]

 

While Soros and Moon are perceived by some to be on opposite sides of the political spectrum, they have come together in support of the United Religions Initiative (URI). The URI, which functions as a religious United Nations, includes representatives of everything from the major faiths to New Age and Wiccan movements and members of Moon’s World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (WANGO). WANGO gave an "Inter-religious Cooperation Award" to Bishop William Swing of the Episcopal Church, founder of URI, at an October 2002 banquet.^[11]

 

Author Penn notes that URI leaders tend to regard Jesus Christ as just another teacher or prophet, not as the Son of God.

 

In his February 2005 Executive Director's Letter, Gibbs urged URI “Cooperation Circles” or affiliates around the world to support three major United Nations' observances: Environment Day, the 60th Anniversary of the U.N. Charter, and the International Day of Peace

Gibbs declared, “URI's global community grows as a force for peace, justice and healing, we and all of humanity owe a debt of profound gratitude and support to the visionary founders of the United Nations and to those people who devote their lives to its success. A strong and effective UN is critical to humanity's future. The UN inspired the birth of the URI and URI is formally affiliated with the UN through the Department of Public Information. There is a URI Cooperation Circle at the UN and many URI CCs around the world have partnerships with local UN groups.” [14]

The URI, Penn notes, is very open to Muslims. In fact, it is “so open-ended that a convicted multiple rapist and Al Qaeda terror suspect can join, and can remain listed as an ‘Affiliate’ on the URI web site.”

 

He’s referring to Ghulam Rasool Chisthi, a Muslim cleric from Islamabad, Pakistan, who had visited Salt Lake City for a United Religions conference May 31-June 4, 2001. He was arrested on a federal charge that he knowingly falsified his visa application by not disclosing British convictions for statutory rape. He was linked by Italian authorities to an alleged al-Qaida plot to plant a bomb at St. Peter's Square in Vatican City. Authorities said Chisthi, who had stayed at what was to become the Olympic Village for athletes, aroused suspicions when he asked questions about security and living arrangements for athletes and the planned appearance by President Bush at the Games' opening in 2002. The plot was apparently called off as Osama bin Laden made deadlier plans for September 11, 2001.

As for Ted Turner, an outspoken critic of Christianity, he was a participant in the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders, held at U.N. headquarters in 2000. However, he ruled out going to heaven, saying, "Who wants to go to a place that's perfect?"  He said it would be "boring." He has been quoted as saying that Christianity is a religion "for losers," that he didn't need anyone to die for him, and that the Ten Commandments are "obsolete." 

What Turner, Soros and Moon share in common is hostility toward traditional Christianity. They also share access to or influence over press groups, news organizations and global media corporations:

Although perceived by some to be Christian-oriented, Moon believes that he is the true Christ and that Jesus Christ was a failure. One of his front groups has waged a “take down the crosses” campaign, removing crosses from Christian churches, on the grounds that they are offensive. ^[16] He favors the establishment of a new religious body at the U.N. and his theological spokesman has openly declared that an American society in which Christianity is de-emphasized is more conducive to surviving in the age of global terrorism:

 

The new, interreligious America presents a more attractive partner for engagement with Islam than a 'Christian' America, being less encumbered with the historical baggage of a religion that Islam has seen as an adversary for more than 1,000 years. ^[17]

 

Another Moon group, the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace (IIFWP), an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, works with the Arab/Muslim bloc of nations. IIFWP representative Imam Mohammad Eli Elahi participated in a May 2005 “International Conference on Environment, Peace and Dialogue among Civilization and Cultures, organized jointly by the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United Nations.” The report says, “In his meeting with [Iranian] President [Mohammad] Khatami, Imam Elahi expressed the appreciation of IIFWP and peaceloving peoples to his Excellency for his leadership in promoting peace and focusing on the importance of dialogue among civilizations and cultures.” ^[18] Elahi himself received his Bachelor Degree in sociology and his Master Degree in social science in Iran.

 

Moon’s IIFWP sponsored a September 10-17, 2005, New York City conference, to convene a “Global Peace Council” and promote “interreligious cooperation.” It reportedly drew more than 1,000 people from 150 nations. The IIFWP was renamed the “Universal Peace Federation” and its chairman declared:

 

The idea for the UN is fully consistent with God’s original ideal for a world of harmony and peace, one world under God, one world with no borders, with no discrimination and no injustice. ^[19]  

 

He went on to say that the proposal from “Father Moon” for an interreligious council within the U.N. system was necessary to prevent the collapse of the world body and further human suffering. Moon’s speech to the conference was published as a full-page advertisement in the September 13, 2005, issue of the Washington Times. A follow-up event, held in Washington, D.C., gave “global peacemaker” awards to several people and was addressed by Moon. The event was written up in the Washington Times on September 24, 2005.

 

One of Moon’s current projects is a proposed $200 billion “Peace King Tunnel,” an underwater highway connecting the U.S. through Alaska to Russia. “The United States and Russia can become as one,” Moon says. The project, he adds, will help establish a “Peace Kingdom where people will no longer make war with each other.” ^[20]

 

 

The “new civilization” they envision coming into being has a definite post-Christian or secular and humanistic cast to it. However, contact with “higher beings” – of the extraterrestrial variety -- is not ruled out.  

 

In this regard, it is noteworthy that Kosmos editor and publisher Nancy Roof, a consultant to the U.N. for over 15 years, once served as a representative at the U.N. for the John E. Mack Institute, named for the Harvard Professor of Psychiatry who achieved notoriety for writing about “alien encounters.” ^[21] Mack’s 1999 book was titled, Passport to the Cosmos: Human Transformation and Alien Encounters.

 

Roof, who co-founded the Values Caucus and the Spiritual Caucus at the U.N., has declared that the world is “preparing for the birth of a new humanity and a new global civilization based on inner oneness and outer diversity.” She defines Kosmos as the “unchanging Oneness” and “ineffable mystery of life.” ^[22]   

 

           

Kosmos also features an article, “Building World Community,” co-authored by Steven Nation, formerly of World Goodwill and the Lucis Trust, who co-founded the “Meditation Initiative” at the U.N.

 

As noted by Penn, the Lucis Trust is associated with an occultic movement known as Theosophy. It was started in its modern form in 1875 by Helena Blavatsky and has been carried forward by people such as Alice A. Bailey.  The Lucis Trust, founded by Bailey in the 1920s, is a vehicle for her theosophical teachings. Blavatsky claimed to be in contact with various “spiritual masters,” and her journal once went under the name “Lucifer.” Her publishing arm, Lucifer Press, became Lucis Press and then Lucis Trust. Theosophy, Penn explains, is a comprehensive inversion of traditional Judeo-Christian faith. Theosophists hold that the fall in the Garden of Eden, which Christians and Jews believe to be a story of human rebellion against God, was in fact a good thing -- the ascent of humankind from ignorance and from automatic obedience to God at the behest of the serpent, whom they consider to be the bringer of wisdom.”

 

            During a previous visit to the U.N. in New York, America’s Survival. Inc. visited the Quest Book Shop, several blocks from U.N. headquarters, where we were told that U.N. officials go on the occasion of a full moon to hold meditation sessions. Quest Books is a project of the Theosophical Society, which had highlighted its access to the White House when Jean Houston, a contributing author to its Quest magazine, had held those mystical sessions with Mrs. Clinton. 

Wicca is also involved in the URI. Although Wicca claims to be pre-Christian in origin, Penn says the movement is actually a “new religion,” founded in England during the 1930s-50s, by people who had been associated with Aleister Crowley. “This new spiritual movement spread to the U.S. and got great impetus in the 1960s and ‘70s from the hippie movement and feminism,” he says. Crowley (1875-1947), whose influence continues to be felt worldwide, is probably the most notorious example of Satanic influence in the movement toward a “New World Order.” A wealthy individual with contacts among international elites in Europe and America, Crowley was a drug addict and homosexual who claimed he received supernatural commands from "the Snake that giveth Knowledge and Delight and bright glory" -- Satan himself.

 

 

            The idea of a United Religions organization is not new; it has been a long-time dream of Robert Muller, a veteran of the U.N. who served as assistant to U.N. Secretary-General U Thant, a Buddhist, who became Muller's "spiritual master." Muller, who collaborates with Mikhail Gorbachev's State of the World Forum and the Lucis Trust, considers himself a good Catholic but believes that one religion is as good as another.  His book, New Genesis: Shaping a Global Spirituality, has been prominently displayed at the U.N. bookstore at U.N. headquarters

 

Muller also has connections to those who believe in the "mind-expanding" nature of so-called "psychedelic" drugs for religious purposes. Muller was mentioned in a December 1992 High Times magazine article about the effort to make research into "psychedelic" drugs a respectable field. The article featured an interview with Rick Doblin of a group called the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. Doblin, described as a "diplomat" for the "psychedelic and cannabis [marijuana] communities," revealed that he tried "through the help of Robert Muller" to get the U.N.'s World Health Organization (WHO) to keep an LSD-type drug known as MDMA from being listed as illegal under various international drug treaties.

 

"Through the help of Robert Muller," Doblin said, "I was able to go to Geneva [WHO headquarters] and present information about MDMA to the WHO staff for consideration by the Expert Committee" evaluating the drug. While the committee ruled that the drug should be made illegal, Doblin said it also encouraged "research" into this "interesting substance." ^[24]         

        

Doblin, an associate of the late Timothy Leary, the so-called "High Priest" of LSD, believes that substances such as LSD and MDMA can facilitate religious experiences. "Everyone wonders about religious questions," he said. "Psychedelics can help

them." ^[25]   Mind-altering drugs are believed by pro-drug advocates to break down the sense of oneself, creating "oneness" between an individual and his surroundings. The use of drugs in some "religious" services is used to facilitate "out-of-body" experiences and contacts with spirit beings and deities. 

 

Earth worship is not just a matter for NGOs. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), established in 1972, commissioned a major collection of articles entitled Ethics & Agenda 21, treating the issue of respect for the environment as a moral and religious concern.  One article, "A Theological/Ethical Response to Agenda 21," was written by Sallie McFague, who has lectured on "A Christian Ecological View of Human Beings."  Her article called for rejecting the Western model of the Earth in favor of the "ancient organic model" which "can serve to incite the needed change in perspective."  She explained that the organic model, which is found in cultures and religions in Native American traditions, Goddess religions, and even in Christianity's incarnationism, portrays Earth as a body.

The UNEP established a project to create an "Environmental Sabbath" and get religions involved in a crusade to "save" the environment. Targeting children, the UNEP distributed "An Environmental Sabbath — Earth Rest Day Guide" which carried the cover headline "Our Children Their Earth."  In a section of the publication recommending games and activities to "save the Earth," junior and high school students were told to: “Gather 'round a beautiful tree.  Look, listen and meditate upon it as long as you can.  When your attention starts to wander from the tree, raise your hand.  You may be surprised to discover how restless your mind is.  Discuss with the group why you think this is.  Then try again to experience the tree, for only by contemplating with a quiet mind can we fully experience and reverence nature.”  

Today, an “Earth Values Caucus” exists at the U.N. ^[26]

 

            Religious groups, including Christian organizations, have long been involved in U.N. affairs. Indeed, the Church Center on the United Nations was built by the Women’s Division of the United Methodist Church and is located across the street from the U.N. It served as a base for Quaker groups that crafted the Law of the Sea Treaty. ^[27]

 

Christian groups that played a major role in forming the U.N. included the Federal Council of Churches, now known as the National Council of Churches. A group called the Laymen's Movement for a Christian World helped bring into being the U.N. Meditation Room.  

 

Like the Quakers, most of the Christian groups that traditionally work with the U.N. and the URI are very liberal. Some have a track record of working with the oppressors of Christians. Both the National Council of Churches (NCC) and World Council of Churches have very cordial relations with Communist Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and have tended to excuse his oppression of Christians. Former NCC head Joan Brown Campbell played a key role in the return of Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez to the Castro dictatorship.

 

            But the U.N. record on religion is hostile even toward non-Christian figures. The Dalai Lama, the exiled leader of Tibetan Buddhism, is considered a non-person by the U.N. because Communist China, which holds a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, conducts a brutal occupation of Tibet. Journalists who compiled a book on the U.N. on its 50th anniversary in 1995 were ordered to delete references to the Dalai Lama and Tibet. One journalist said the U.N. was guilty of "intellectual cleansing." ^[28]      

           

Reflecting this pro-China bias, the Dalai Lama was originally not invited to attend the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders at the United Nations. Then, after a flood of letters complaining about this slight, he was invited to give a closing speech at a New York Hotel rather than the U.N. itself. He declined. 

           

Like the Soviets before them, the Chinese communists permit certain pro-government religious groups and activities but actively suppress those which try to act independently. Yet the United Religions Initiative collaborates with the Chinese regime. Supporters of the URI include leaders of the China Christian Council, the state-approved Protestant church in China.

 

            In the world at large, Christians are being actively persecuted in 50 or more countries, including China and many Muslim nations, according to the Voice of the Martyrs organization. Today, according to author Paul Marshall, a Senior Fellow at Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom, more than 200 million Christians around the world suffer imprisonment, abuse and even death because of their faith.

 

            One of those areas is U.N.-administered Kosovo, where the “ethnic cleansing” that was supposedly ended by the war has continued, with the Christian Serbs being the victims. At a 2004 Washington press conference, Serbian Orthodox Bishop Artemije of Kosovo produced documentary evidence, a book entitled Crucified Kosovo, showing that more than 100 Christian churches have been destroyed, and graves and tombs have been desecrated, by the Muslim extremists there. Most Serbs have been forced to flee the province.

 

President Clinton had ordered the 1999 NATO war in Kosovo, a province of the former Yugoslavia. But the U.S. Congress never voted for it and the U.N. never endorsed it. There was no claim that Yugoslavia had weapons of mass destruction or had ties to terrorist groups. Instead, Clinton had the U.S. intervene on behalf of the terrorists, operating in Kosovo under the banner of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA.), with links to Osama bin Laden.

Some conservative-oriented religious groups at the U.N. have collaborated with Muslim regimes in order to beat back the pro-abortion, pro-homosexual, radical feminist forces at the U.N. In one case, conservative pro-family advocates participated in a World Congress of Families conference ^[29] featuring a leading official of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to the United Nations, a group of mostly terrorist regimes and Islamic dictatorships. ^[30] They share a mutual disgust for America’s pornographic culture.

The role of the Roman Catholic Church in the emergence of this new civilization is a matter of concern and speculation. Some say that the late Pope John Paul II went too far in encouraging the development of a U.N.-style global religion encompassing different faiths. Pope Benedict XVI is said to have a different view about interfaith cooperation in a world racked by global Islamic terrorism. ^[31]

 

 

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