Abruptly, the pen began moving on its own. To my surprise, as I scribbled out the last of my bitter, unanswerable questions and prepared to toss my pen aside, my hand remained poised over the paper, as if held there by some invisible force. It was a spiteful, passionate letter, full of confusions, contortions, and condemnation. This time…I decided to write a letter to God. As I’d been in the habit for years of writing my thoughts down in letters…I picked up my trusty yellow legal pad and began pouring out my feelings. I was very unhappy during that period, personally, professionally, and emotionally, and my life was feeling like a failure on all levels. In the spring of 1992…an extraordinary phenomenon occurred in my life. Walsch explains how the Conversations got started: A former radio talk show host, newspaper reporter, managing editor, and public information officer for one of the nation’s largest school systems, an erstwhile Roman Catholic and altar boy, veteran of five marriages, and father of nine children - one can see why “God” might single out this individual. The 54-year-old Walsch almost seems more interesting than the God with whom he converses. Smith professed to have unearthed a long-lost revelation from God Walsch simply says he has recorded direct talks between God and himself. Rather, he and his wife have started a group called ReCreation, whose “purpose is to give people back to themselves - and so, to change the world” (2:260). In the spirit of our times, Walsch is opposed to organized religion. While Walsch, like Joseph Smith, is at the forefront of a religious movement, he is not starting a new church. More than that, they are part of an avalanche of Eastern, New Age, and occult literature. They are representative of the growing catalog of materials “channeled” from the beyond. Both books have appeared high on The New York Times best-seller list for nonfiction. 2 Book 2 was published in 1997 by the original small press publisher. By late 1997, more than 800,000 copies were in print. God: Do you really want an answer….? (Book 1: p.1).īook 1 was a small press best seller in 1995, before being taken up by a major publisher. Walsch: I decided to write a letter to God. The books would make an apt contribution to any time capsule showing the condition of America’s spiritual life in the 1990s. For further information or to subscribe to the Christian Research Journal please click here.īack in 1831, Alexander Campbell observed that Joseph Smith had gathered in the Book of Mormon “every error and almost every truth discussed in New York for the last ten years.” 1 If we substitute America for the state of New York and emphasize the error over truth, his remark applies 165 years later to the first two volumes of Neale Donald Walsch’s trilogy Conversations with God. This article first appeared in the Christian Research Journal, volume 20, number 5 (1998).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |