NSA SHIFTS FROM TERRORISM TO DOMESTIC POLICING

Surprise! NSA data will soon routinely be used for domestic policing that has nothing to do with terrorism

BY RADLEY BALKO

SEE: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2016/03/10/surprise-nsa-data-will-soon-routinely-be-used-for-domestic-policing-that-has-nothing-to-do-with-terrorism/;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

A while back, we noted a report showing that the “sneak-and-peek” provision of the Patriot Act that was alleged to be used only in national security and terrorism investigations has overwhelmingly been used in narcotics cases. Now the New York Times reports that National Security Agency data will be shared with other intelligence agencies like the FBI without first applying any screens for privacy. The ACLU of Massachusetts blog Privacy SOS explains why this is important:


What does this rule change mean for you? In short, domestic law enforcement officials now have access to huge troves of American communications, obtained without warrants, that they can use to put people in cages. FBI agents don’t need to have any “national security” related reason to plug your name, email address, phone number, or other “selector” into the NSA’s gargantuan data trove. They can simply poke around in your private information in the course of totally routine investigations. And if they find something that suggests, say, involvement in illegal drug activity, they can send that information to local or state police. That means information the NSA collects for purposes of so-called “national security” will be used by police to lock up ordinary Americans for routine crimes. And we don’t have to guess who’s going to suffer this unconstitutional indignity the most brutally. It’ll be Black, Brown, poor, immigrant, Muslim, and dissident Americans: the same people who are always targeted by law enforcement for extra “special” attention.


This basically formalizes what was already happening under the radar. We’ve known for a couple of years now that the Drug Enforcement Administration and the IRS were getting information from the NSA. Because that information was obtained without a warrant, the agencies were instructed to engage in “parallel construction” when explaining to courts and defense attorneys how the information had been obtained. If you think parallel construction just sounds like a bureaucratically sterilized way of saying big stinking lie, well, you wouldn’t be alone. And it certainly isn’t the only time that that national security apparatus has let law enforcement agencies benefit from policies that are supposed to be reserved for terrorism investigations in order to get around the Fourth Amendment, then instructed those law enforcement agencies to misdirect, fudge and outright lie about how they obtained incriminating information — see the Stingray debacle. This isn’t just a few rogue agents. The lying has been a matter of policy. We’re now learning that the feds had these agreements with police agencies all over the country, affecting thousands of cases.

On the one hand, I guess it’s better that this new data-sharing policy is acknowledged in the open instead of carried out surreptitiously. On the other hand, there’s something even more ominous about the fact that they no longer feel as though they need to hide it.

It’s all another sobering reminder that any powers we grant to the federal government for the purpose of national security will inevitably be used just about everywhere else. And extraordinary powers we grant government in wartime rarely go away once the war is over. And, of course, the nifty thing for government agencies about a “war on terrorism” is that it’s a war that will never formally end.


















































The NSA’s growing footprint






View Photos



The spy agency is in the midst of a hiring, construction and contracting boom. Here is a look at some of its sites.

COMMON CORE CRITICS SLAM CONFIRMATION OF JOHN KING AS U.S. EDUCATION SECRETARY

COMMON CORE CRITICS SLAM CONFIRMATION OF JOHN KING AS U.S. EDUCATION SECRETARY 

BY JAIME FRANCHI

SEE: https://www.longislandpress.com/2016/03/15/common-core-critics-slam-confirmation-of-john-king-as-u-s-education-secretary/;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

In a 49-40 vote Monday the U.S. Senate confirmed President Barack Obama’s nominee for U.S. Department of Education secretary, former New York State education commissioner John B. King, Jr., inciting harsh criticism from education advocates across New York, as well as a denunciation from U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

“John King’s tenure in New York was very adversarial, leaving families, students and teachers without a voice on important issues, and therefore I cannot support his nomination at this time,” says Sen. Gillibrand, who voted against King, in a statement.

New York’s other U.S. senator, Chuck Schumer, voted in favor of King’s confirmation.

The split vote comes amid ever-growing protests against King’s nomination and the controversial education reform Common Core instigated by statewide education advocates, who had experienced firsthand the aftermath of his tenure. More than 240,000 students statewide “opted-out” of taking the exams last April. Sen. Gillibrand was the lone Democrat opposing King’s nod.

King remains a controversial figure in New York education. Known for his unrelenting stance to stay the course on the Common Core roll out, he has been accused by critics of turning a deaf ear to students for whom the education reform failed. The Common Core Learning Standards, created by the National Governor’s Association and Council of State School Officers, was born from President Obama’s Race to the Top initiative, which granted funds to states that implemented the national reforms. New York received $700 million in Race to the Top funding.

Common Core’s roll out was flawed from the start, with teachers given inadequate preparation for teaching the new materials, which were riddled with typographical errors and mistakes, confusing parents, educators and children. The new reforms were included in the state exams, given each April in math and English for grades 3 through 8. Critics blasted the tests for being shrouded in secrecy, its scores not released until the following school year, and the content developmentally inappropriate for the grade levels.

______________________________________________________




GOP Senate Confirms Obama's Pro-Common Core Education Secretary

BY ALEX NEWMAN

SEE: http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/education/item/22769-gop-senate-confirms-obama-s-pro-common-core-education-secretary;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

Obama's nominee to finish fundamentally transforming “education” in America has been approved by the GOP-controlled U.S. Senate, despite the pleas of Americans from across the political spectrum. Apparently the establishment wing of the Republican Party just cannot help itself when it comes to surrendering to Obama — even on so-called “education” and the minds of America's future generations. In what is being touted by the establishment press as a bipartisan move, seven GOP senators, all elected to stop Obama, joined forces with Democrats on Monday to confirm the deeply unpopular pro-Common Core nominee for U.S. education secretary, extremist John King (shown).

The latest GOP surrender came just a few months after the Republican-controlled Congress literally conspired with the White House to impose Obama's entire “education” agenda on America with the unconstitutional “Every Student Succeeds Act” (ESSA). Under King, the implementation of that radical agenda will continue uninterrupted. Critics were outraged, though, and vowed not to let the matter go.

King has been serving as “acting” U.S. education secretary since the recent departure of Obama's last ultra-unpopular education chief, Common Core pusher Arne Duncan. Among other alarming statements and actions, Duncan has boasted publicly about using the “weapon” of government education to transform American children into “green citizens,” with the United Nations education organ UNESCO as his “global partner.” The man responsible for bribing and bullying some 45 states into adopting the extraordinarily unpopular and widely criticized Common Core regime also called for government-run boarding schools, saying there are “just certain kids we should have 24/7.” Throughout the end of Duncan's almost universally reviled tenure, King served as his deputy and adviser. In other words, King is another extremist who will pick up where Duncan left off on the nationalization and even globalization of what today passes for public education in America.

King was so extreme, and so hostile to the concerns of parents, students, and teachers, that even Big Government-loving New York State rose up against him during his 2011 to 2014 stint as New York education commissioner. From leading liberal newspapers and leftist policymakers to conservative activists and Republican lawmakers, King managed to infuriate practically everyone with his disastrous tenure.

Among other outrages, critics pointed to his trampling of privacy and parental rights, ignoring outraged citizens and teachers, and imposing a testing regime and Obama-backed national standards that sparked the largest “opt out” of testing in the state's history. He was also a leading mouthpiece for even more nationalized data gathering on children, even promoting various crony capitalist initiatives to vacuum up private information on students into a national database.

In 2014, even the 600,000-member strong New York State teachers union voted, unanimously, to demand the ouster of King for trampling the public in his fiendish drive to impose Common Core at all costs. “We’ll have to be the first to say it’s failed,” New York State United Teachers President Richard Iannuzzi was quoted as saying at the time about King's ham-handed efforts to foist Common Core on New Yorkers against their will.

King was also a leading proponent of charter schools, which must use Common Core and have also sparked a backlash even among many conservatives for using public funds without accountability to taxpayers and voters via elected school boards. His time destroying what remained of education in New York was so bad that multiple schools districts in the state passed resolutions demanding that the U.S. Senate reject his nomination.    

Despite the controversy all across the political spectrum surrounding the nominee, Obama was an enthusiastic cheerleader, confident that King would help cement the educational component of his “fundamental transformation” of America. “There is nobody better to continue leading our ongoing efforts to work toward preschool for all, prepare our kids so that they are ready for college and career, and make college more affordable,” Obama said in a statement touting King and demanding Senate confirmation for him. Of course, there is no authority in the Constitution for the federal government to be involved in preschool, college, or even education — not that “education” is the feds' goal, anyway. And the Tenth Amendment specifically reserves all those powers to the states or the people.

But thanks largely to Obama's Republican enablers in Congress, the ongoing process of destroying and federalizing American education while enriching crony capitalists will continue. Leading the charge to approve Obama's nominee was Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the chair of the Senate Education Committee and a lead player in imposing Obama's education policy on America while deceitfully pretending to fight it. “We need an education secretary confirmed by and accountable to the United States Senate so that the law fixing No Child Left Behind will be implemented the way Congress wrote it,” claimed Alexander, who has a Freedom Index score of 54 percent, indicating a serious lack of faithfulness to the U.S. Constitution he swore to uphold.

Alexander, former education secretary during the George H.W. “New World Order” Bush administration, also continued his efforts to deceive Americans about the ESSA he shepherded through Congress. That deceit, of course, has already been exposed by The New American and even by Obama's previous education secretary, Duncan, in media interviews.

“If you look at the substance of what is there [in the ESSA], embedded in the law are the values that we’ve promoted and proposed forever,” Duncan gloated to Politico Pro, adding that he was silent on the bill before it passed at the request of deceitful GOP lawmakers who were trying to stab their constituents in the back without raising alarm. “The core of our agenda from Day One, that’s all in there — early childhood ['education'], high standards [Common Core], not turning a blind eye when things are bad. For the first time in our nation’s history, that’s the letter of the law.” Obama even called it a “Christmas miracle” before signing the establishment Republican-backed statute enshrining his unconstitutional agenda.

Alexander, though, apparently thinks voters are either idiots or not paying attention. “This is such an important year for our nation’s 100,000 public schools. We are working to implement a new law that reverses the trend toward a national school board and restores to those closest to children the responsibility for their well-being and academic success,” he claimed, falsely, about the Obama-backed “miracle” statute that cements Common Core in place while further undermining parental rights, privacy, state sovereignty, local control, and real education. “That’s why, in December, I urged the president to send to the Senate a nominee for education secretary — and I’m glad there’s now someone confirmed and accountable to Congress as we implement this new bipartisan law that represents such a dramatic and important change in direction for federal education policy.”

The final confirmation vote on King was 49 to 40. Other Republican senators who voted to confirm Obama's nominee included Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, and Senator John Cornyn of Texas. Republicans who failed to vote also contributed to Obama's victory, critics said. Those included: Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, senators John McCain and Jeff Flake of Arizona, Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois, Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, and Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. Except for one Democrat senator from New York, Kirsten Gillibrand, who was no doubt under tremendous pressure from constituents who experienced King firsthand, all Democrats who voted on the confirmation supported Obama, King, and Common Core.

Activists in education, though, fought hard, and vowed to keep fighting. The group United States Parents Involved in Education (USPIE), which sponsored a Twitter Action Page and a Twitter Rally leading up to the final confirmation vote, helped send some 20,000 tweets bearing the hashtag #stopjohnking to U.S. senators with a variety of messages. All of them were aimed at persuading senators to vote “no” on the King nomination. The organization, which hopes to abolish the U.S. Department of Education and restore local control over schools, first got involved after the initial subcommittee hearing. After sustained pressure, the number of senators supporting King declined.   

But more action is needed to hold lawmakers accountable. “We are very pleased with the Republican senators who stood up to the leadership on this issue and voted with the people,” explained USPIE President Sheri Few. “As for those Republicans who voted with the progressives and Obama, we say they need a primary challenger. There will be accountability on education issues going forward at the ballot box. They cannot continue to ignore hundreds of thousands of fed up parents and taxpayers. We are organized and we will do all we can to take them out if they don’t start paying attention to the people who put them in D.C.”

Also opposing the nomination was Heritage Action, which vowed to include the confirmation as a key vote in its legislative scorecard. “Given that King served alongside Duncan during the re-authorization discussions and earned the confidence of President Obama, there is no reason to expect the department will be any different with him in charge,” the group said. “ In fact, it only serves to reinforce that due to Obama’s frequent and general lawlessness, the Republican-controlled Senate should stop confirming any of Obama’s non-security related nominees.” The GOP-controlled Senate has “no excuse” for putting its stamp of approval on an education secretary who supports Common Core and sides with “data-mining over student privacy, and central planning over local control.” But it did anyway.

Leftists were outraged, too, including a coalition of prominent voices such as former MIT professor and left-wing activist Noam Chomsky, New York University research professor Diane Ravitch, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, and more. "As New York State Education Commissioner, he was an unapologetic supporter of the Common Core standards and [student information database] inBloom. His policies failed. While test scores are flawed metrics, in 2013, just 31 percent of students in New York passed the English and math standardized tests,” the group said in an open letter. “He persistently refused to consider the desperate pleas of students and teachers who were reporting that the Common Core and value-added teacher evaluations were not working. The American public deserves a Secretary of Education who will advocate for their interests, not those of the testing corporations who profit from the common core. We also deserve a secretary who respects the importance of schools governed by communities, not by federal mandate.”

In short, the establishment wing of both parties ignored a massive public outcry that transcends the political spectrum — all in order to install another pro-Common Core hack for Obama and the establishment who will undoubtedly continue to trash education in favor of indoctrination and dumbing down. If members of Congress refuse to listen to the public and uphold the Constitution, it is time for them to be removed from office. The federal government has no business being involved in education.

"PASTOR" MARK DRISCOLL'S WOES: RACKETEERING LAWSUIT CLAIMS HE MISUSED DONOR DOLLARS AT FORMER MARS HILL CHURCH IN SEATTLE

On Heels of Mark Driscoll’s New Church Opening, Seattle Times Reports: “Racketeering suit claims Mark Driscoll misused Mars Hill donor dollars”

SEE: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newsletters/2016/newsletter20160315.htm; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

By Nina Shapiro

Seattle Times staff reporter

Mark Driscoll may have moved on to a new city and a new church, but he faces the sharpest demand yet to account for his actions at Mars Hill Church.

On Monday, four former Mars Hill members filed a civil racketeering lawsuit against Driscoll, charging that the once swaggering pastor fraudulently used thousands if not millions of dollars raised by the church, which once boasted 15 branches in five states with 13,000 visitors on Sundays.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for Western Washington, also names former Mars Hill executive elder John Sutton Turner as a defendant.
A 42-page complaint accuses the two men of raising money for specific purposes and then using the money for other things, including a “scam” designed to make Driscoll a best-selling author. Click here to continue reading.
Related Information from Lighthouse Trails:
Mark Driscoll’s Distorted View on Noah and Salvation . . . (And How Some People Have a Very Strange Idea as to the Meaning of God’s Salvation)
Mark Driscoll Resigns From Mars Hill Church For Social Failures – But Media Silent on Controversial Doctrinal Issues
Seattle Megachurch Mars Hill Dissolves 2 Weeks After Founder Mark Driscoll Resigns
That Didn’t Take Long!—Mark Driscoll Resurfaces With New Resource Ministry & Website

LOOKING FOR A CHRISTIAN COLLEGE FOR YOUR CHILD IN 2016?-BETTER BE CAREFUL!

LOOKING FOR A CHRISTIAN COLLEGE FOR YOUR CHILD IN 2016?-BETTER BE CAREFUL! 

SEE: http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newsletters/2016/newsletter20160315.htm; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

Spring 2016 is almost here, which means parents will be diligently helping their college-age children search for Christian colleges, seminaries, and universities for enrollment for this coming fall. As many of you know, Lighthouse Trails has been researching Christian colleges for 14 years. Three years ago, we published a report called An Epidemic of Apostasy, which revealed that the majority of Christian colleges, seminaries, and universities had begun to incorporate contemplative spirituality (through Spiritual Formation programs) into their schools. The report showed how much of this was happening because accreditation associations were requiring schools to include Spiritual Formation in the lives of their students if they wanted to be accredited.  

We are reposting our report below (which is also in booklet format). We include in the report a list of many of the Christian schools that are including Spiritual Formation in the lives of their students. This is not a complete list. Lighthouse Trails is adding new schools to this list as we learn of their contemplative propensities. To see updates to this list, visit: www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/Colleges.htm. We also have a small list of Christian schools that are not promoting Spiritual Formation at: www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/collegesgood.htm.
Before deciding on a Christian school, please check out the school carefully and ask God to give you wisdom and guidance. As we have shown in our report, there is an agenda taking place to incorporate a mystical spirituality into the very heart of Christian education. It can be subtle, but it always deceptive and dangerous.
Note: We first published this report in 2013. In this 2016 update, we have discovered that almost all the links we have provided in our end note section below have been removed by the institutions we are discussing. We have been able to replace some of them with cache files, but some have gone into obscurity.
By the Editors at Lighthouse Trails

Spiritual Formation: A movement that has provided a platform and a channel through which contemplative prayer is entering the church. Find spiritual formation being used, and in nearly every case, you will find contemplative spirituality and its “pioneers” such as Richard Foster, Dallas Willard, and Henri Nouwen. Spiritual Formation is based on “spiritual disciplines” that can be practiced by people of any faith to make them more “Christ-like.” Rebirth through Jesus Christ and regeneration through the Holy Spirit are not essential. Rather it is a works-based “theology” that has strong roots in Roman Catholicism and ancient paganism.1
Contemplative Spirituality: A belief system that uses ancient mystical practices to induce altered states of consciousness (the silence) and is rooted in mysticism and the occult but often wrapped in Christian terminology. The premise of contemplative spirituality is pantheistic (God is all) and panentheistic (God is in all). Common terms used for this movement are “spiritual formation,” “the silence,” “the stillness,” “ancient-wisdom,” “spiritual disciplines,” and many others.2

What do Abilene Christian University, Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, Bethel Seminary, Biola Seminary, Briercrest College and Seminary, Dallas Theological Seminary, Eastern Mennonite Seminary, Fuller Theological Seminary, Moody Theological Seminary & Graduate School, Multnomah Biblical Seminary, Regent College, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and around 240 other seminaries and colleges throughout North America all have in common?3 They are all accredited or in the process of being accredited through the Association of Theological Schools (ATS).4
What do Cincinnati Christian University, Columbia International University, Briercrest College & Seminary, Hope International University, Moody Bible Institute, Prairie Bible College and about 90 other colleges and seminaries throughout North America all have in common? They are all accredited through the Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE).5
What do the two accreditation organizations—Association of Theological Seminaries and Association for Biblical Higher Education—have in common? Both associations require schools that wish to be accredited to include Spiritual Formation within the school’s infrastructure. Just what exactly does that mean for these 350 some seminaries and Bible colleges? Well, it means that if they want to receive and maintain their accreditation, they are going to have to incorporate Spiritual Formation (i.e., contemplative spirituality) into the lives of their students.
This would certainly answer, in large part, a question that Lighthouse Trails has had—how is it that contemplative spirituality has become so widespread so quickly within Christian colleges and seminaries over the past decade?
We were told, when we contacted ATS, that “Each school and tradition approaches this [Spiritual Formation] in a different way.” In other words, how one school defines “Spiritual Formation” may differ from how another school defines it, they say. Yet, both accreditation associations have made it very clear that they are speaking of contemplative spirituality when they are speaking of Spiritual Formation. That’s easy to prove. A look around their websites and in their handbooks shows clear signs of the contemplative emphasis.
Take the “Additional Resources for Seminary Presidents” 18-page handbook, for instance, from ATS.It recommends books by mysticism advocates Jim Collins (Good to Great), Daniel Goleman (author of The Meditative Mind), Peter Drucker, contemplative mystic Henri Nouwen, Buddhist sympathizer Peter Senge (recommending his book The Fifth Discipline (the 5th discipline meaning meditation), contemplative advocate Dorothy Bass, and Catholic nun and Buddhist zen practitioner Rose Mary Dougherty (part of the panentheistic Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation in Washington, DC); and there are numerous other “Spiritual Formation/contemplative” advocates in the list of “Additional Resources for Seminary Presidents.”6
In the ATS Handbook under “Assessing Outcomes in the Master of Divinity Program,” where it talks about assessing students progress, it states:

The Master of Divinity degree program standard requires that students be educated in four areas: (1) Religious Heritage, (2) Cultural Context, (3) Personal and Spiritual Formation, and (4) A Guide for Evaluating Theological Learning Capacity for Ministerial and Public Leadership . . . The MDiv standard requires each school to address the four areas.7

The ATS is determined that Spiritual Formation is integrated through all four of these areas:

However, the standard indicates that achievement and formation in these four areas should be integrated: “Instruction in these areas shall be conducted so as to indicate their interdependence with each other and with other areas of the curriculum, and their significance for the exercise of pastoral leadership.”
Integrated outcomes result from an integrated curriculum and instructional strategies.8

The Spiritual Formation/contemplative focus at the Association for Biblical Higher Education is as troubling as it is at ATS. In the ABHE Programmatic Standards handbook, it states under Curriculum—Essential Elements: “[A]n accredited graduate program is characterized by . . . A learning environment that cultivates critical thinking, theological reflection, spiritual formation, and effective leadership/ministry practice.”9
That might sound vague, but the 2011 ABHE Leadership Development Conference helps clarify ABHE’s view of Spiritual Formation. Session 1 was titled: Student Spiritual Formation—Principles, Processes, Issues, Resources & Assessment.10 This session was presented by Todd Hall of Biola University, a school that has clearly come out on the side of contemplative spirituality. Hall co-authored a book with contemplative advocate Dr. John Coe, who is the director of Biola’s Institute of Spiritual Formation; Hall also teaches Spiritual Formation at the Institute, which turns to the ancient mystics for spiritual understanding.
It is interesting to note the following in the conference literature:

Todd also developed the Spiritual Transformation [a contemplative term] Inventory (STI), a measure of Christian spirituality that is being used in national assessment projects conducted by the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU), Association of Biblical Higher Education (ABHE), and Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI).11

In other words, when it says “a measure of Christian spirituality that is being used” to assess students at Christian schools, it means that assessment is made under the lens of contemplative spirituality. Students are assessed to see if they are properly absorbing their spiritual disciplines ala Spiritual Formation.
ABHE’s Council of Reference members list also indicates a contemplative agenda. Members include J.P. Moreland (whom Lighthouse Trails has critiqued for his contemplative advocacy) and contemplative musician Michael Card.12
Students who oppose or resist contemplative spirituality aren’t going to find success in these 350 theological Spiritual Formation-driven schools. According to the ATS Handbook, “direct evidence of students reaching stated goals is needed.”13 In a section titled Quality Assurance Expectations, it explains again that students will be expected to “provide evidence” that they are being transformed into their view of spirituality:

[T]heological schools are required to provide evidence that students in general reach stated learning outcomes. 14

In the summer of 2010, Moody Bible Institute, accredited through ABHE, took part in ABHE’s Assessment and Accountability Project. A report on this project explains in depth the criteria for assessing the outcomes of student success. The four areas are Biblical, Transformational, General/Experiential, and Missional (Transformational, Experiential, and Missional are terms used frequently by contemplative/emerging advocates). The “suggested assessments” include ABHE Spiritual Formation Assessment.15 The report explains that students will need to “demonstrate the knowledge of specific spiritual disciplines.”16
Incidentally, the ABHE Spiritual Formation Assessment is given every year whereas some other programs at ABHE are only assessed every three years. Clearly, ABHE intends to see Spiritual Formation thriving at these accredited member schools. One of the ways they will do this is through the influence of Henri Nouwen. In the Winter 2010 ABHE Journal is an article titled: “Hospitable Teaching, Redemptive Formation, and Learning Mobility: A Spirituality of Teaching Based upon the Writings of Henri J.M. Nouwen” by Neal Windham.17 Nouwen’s idea of hospitality and redemption incorporated mystical practices, universalism, and an interfaith reconciliation.
Anyone who thinks that Moody Bible Institute is not going to succumb to the pressure from ABHE to implement a full Spiritual Formation program at Moody is not looking at the obvious here. Already Moody has a Master of Arts in Spiritual Formation and Discipleship. By the way, the report we mentioned—ABHE’s Assessment and Accountability Project—is on Moody’s website. In the past, Moody has condemned Lighthouse Trails for our efforts to warn them because they were veering toward contemplative/emerging figures.18 What shall they say now? They HAVE incorporated Spiritual Formation (that is, contemplative spirituality). In the spring of 2013, Lighthouse Trails issued a special report titled “Concerns Grow as Moody Presses Forward Down Contemplative Path.”19
One other case in point, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School has been accredited by ATS since the 1970s. It went through an assessment by ATS in 2010 and passed. That is partly because Trinity now has a Spiritual Formation emphasis.20 Some may argue that just because a school uses the term Spiritual Formation doesn’t mean they are going contemplative. But in virtually every case we have ever examined, if a school is using that term, they are using the writings of the contemplative mystics.
As for Trinity, so are they. In their 2012-2013 catalog, they list some recommended authors for incoming seminary students for “excellent background.”21 Among those authors is Henri Nouwen and the mystic monk Brother Lawrence. This means that incoming students are being introduced, before they even get started, to contemplative writers. Trinity also has on this recommended reading list Lesslie Newbigin, a Scottish writer and Bishop who is looked to for insights by emerging church figures because of his sympathetic and embracing views of postmodernism (i.e., emerging). Of Newbigin, emerging church leader Brian McLaren says: “I see my work very much in line with Newbigin’s.”22 Trinity has at least one course, DE 5740, that is called Spiritual Formation. And in a student chapel service in October 2010, contemplative pioneer, the now late Dallas Willard was the guest speaker.23 Willard is aligned with Richard Foster, and both men have had a major influence in bringing contemplative spirituality into the evangelical church.
The future of Christian theological schools is bleak. In many cases, they are the most dangerous places for Christians to be, from a biblical point of view. Already scores of them are implementing contemplative spirituality, via Spiritual Formation programs, into the lives of their students. And remember, these students are the evangelical/Protestant church’s future pastors, youth pastors, Sunday school teachers, professors, missionaries, and leaders. Thanks to ATS and ABHE, there’s little doubt that a growing number of Christian seminaries and colleges will join the ranks of contemplative-promoting schools. Consider the following by some of the people who are recommended on the resource list at ATS. This will illustrate the severity of this epidemic of apostasy.

Henri Nouwen: “Today I personally believe that while Jesus came to open the door to God’s house, all human beings can walk through that door, whether they know about Jesus or not. Today I see it as my call to help every person claim his or her own way to God.”24
Daniel Goleman: “The meditation practices and rules for living of these earliest Christian monks [the Desert Fathers] bear strong similarity to those of their Hindu and Buddhist renunciate brethren several kingdoms to the East . . . the meditative techniques they adopted for finding their God suggest either a borrowing from the East or a spontaneous rediscovery.”25 Note: Goleman’s book advocates Tantric sex, Kundalini, T.M., and other deep occultic meditative practices.
Rose Mary Dougherty: A description of Dougherty from the Shalem Institute: A Zen student for a number of years, Rose Mary was called forth as a dharma holder in the lineage of the White Plum Asanga in 2004, becoming a dharma heir in 2006. As a sensei, she teaches Zen meditation in various settings and assists people in integrating contemplative presence and just action in their lives.26

If you know someone who is attending a seminary or Christian college that is accredited by ATS or ABHE, the quotes above are a representation of what that person may be getting rather than the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.
To order copies of An Epidemic of Apostasy – How Christian Seminaries Must Incorporate “Spiritual Formation” to Become Accredited, click here.
Endnotes:
1. From the www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com website.
2. Ibid.
3. http://web.archive.org/web/20140130120553/http://www.ats.edu/member-schools.
4. http://www.ats.edu.
5. http://web.archive.org/web/20140106040431/http://abhe.org/pages/NAV-Directory.html.
6. http://web.archive.org/web/20130513171021/http://www.ats.edu/LeadershipEducation/documents/presidents/PresHndbkWebResources.pdf.
7. http://web.archive.org/web/20140124194154/http://docs.ats.edu/uploads/accrediting/documents/handbook-section-8.pdf.
8. Ibid, (A.3.1.1.3), p. 8.
9. http://web.archive.org/web/20120417114212/http://www.abhe-sln.org/opac/programmatic_standards.pdf, p. 9.
10. http://www.abhe.org/images/11.CSDO_Program.pdf. (link removed)
11. Ibid., p. 3. (link removed)
12. http://web.archive.org/web/20111013005613/http://abhe.org/pages/NAV-Council.html.
13. ATS Handbook (http://web.archive.org/web/20130415015005/http://www.ats.edu/Accrediting/Pages/HandbookofAccreditation.aspx), p. 9, Section 8.
14.http://web.archive.org/web/20130513124327/http://www.ats.edu/Accrediting/Documents/Handbook/HandbookSection8.pdf, p. 46.
15. http://www.academia.edu/609666/Association_for_Biblical_Higher_Educations_Assessment_and_Accountability_Project_for_Summer_2010, p. 7.
16. Ibid., p. 17.
17. http://web.archive.org/web/20120220032221/http://www.abhe-books.com/ABHEJournal/2010ABHEBibleicalHigherEducationJournal.htm.
18. http://www.moodyministries.net/crp_NewsDetail.aspx?id=7080.
19. http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=11846.
20. http://divinity.tiu.edu/student-life/spiritual-formation.
21. http://divinity.tiu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2013/05/TEDS12-13catalog.pdf, p. 188.
22. http://www.brianmclaren.net/archives/blog/q-r-newbigin.html.
23. http://web.archive.org/web/20120119110125/http://blogs.tiu.edu/sojourn/2010/10/29/dr-dallas-willard.
24. Henri Nouwen, Sabbatical Journey (New York, NY: Crossroad Publishing, 1998), p. 51.
25. Daniel Goleman, The Meditative Mind (Los Angeles, CA: Tarcher/Putnam Inc., 1988), p.53.
26. http://www.shalem.org/index.php/about-us/people/senior-fellows/rose-mary-dougherty-ssnd.
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APPENDIX
Christian Schools That Are Promoting Spiritual Formation and Contemplative Spirituality
Note: Lighthouse Trails has done research on every one of the schools below.

Abilene Christian University—Abilene, TX

ACTS Seminaries of Trinity Western University—British Columbia, CA

Alberta Bible College–Calgary, Alberta, CA

Ambrose University—Calgary, Alberta, CA

American Christian College & Seminary—Oklahoma City, OK

Anderson University—Anderson, IN

Anderson University—Anderson, SC

Ashland Theological Seminary—Ashland, OH

Assemblies of God Theological Seminary—Springfield, MO

Azusa Pacific University, Haggard School of Theology—Azusa, CA

Baptist Theological Seminary of Southern Africa—Johannesburg, ZA

Barclay College—Haviland, KS

Baylor University—Waco, TX

Beeson Divinity School—Birmingham, AL

Belmont University—Nashville, TN

Bethel Seminary—San Diego, CA St. Paul, MN, East Coast campus

Bethel University—St. Paul, MN

Biblical Theological Seminary—Hatfield, PA

Biola University—La Mirada, CA

Briercrest Bible College— Caronport, Saskatchewan, CA

Bryan College—Dayton, TN

California Baptist University—Riverside, CA

Calvin College—Grand Rapids, MI

Campbell University—Buies Creek, NC

Campbellsville University—Campbellsville, KY

Canadian Mennonite University—Winnipeg, Manitoba, CA

Carey Institute—Vancouver, British Columbia, CA

Cedarville University—Cedarville, OH

Christian Theological Seminary—Indianapolis, IN

Christian University (GlobalNet); ministry of RBC Ministries (online)

Cincinnati Bible Seminary—Cincinnati, OH

Corban University—Salem, OR

Colorado Christian University—Lakewood, CO

Columbia Theological Seminary (Presbyterian)—Decatur, GA

Cornerstone University—Grand Rapids, MI

Dallas Theological Seminary—Dallas, TX

Drew University—Madison, NJ

Duke Divinity School (Duke University)—Durham, NC

Eastern Mennonite Seminary—Harrisonburg, VA

Eastern University—St. Davids, PA

Emmanuel Bible College—Kitchner, Ontario, CA

Emmanuel School of Religion—Johnson City, TN

Fresno Pacific University—Fresno, CA

Fuller Theological Seminary—Pasadena, CA

George Fox University Seminary—Newberg, OR

Gordon College—Wenham, MA

Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary—South Hamilton, MA

Grace Theological Seminary—Winona Lake, IN

Grand Canyon College—Phoenix, AZ

Greenville College—Greenville, IL

Harding School of Theology—Nashville, TN

Harding University—Searcy, AR

Hope College—Holland, MI

Hope International University—Fullerton, CA

Houghton College—Houghton, NY

Indiana Wesleyan University—Marion, IN

John Brown University—Siloam Springs, AR

John Wesley College—Pretoria, ZA

Lancaster Bible College—Lancaster, PA

LeTourneau University—Longview, TX

Liberty University—Lynchburg, VA

Lincoln Christian University—Lincoln, IL

Lipscomb University—Nashville, TN

Luther Rice Seminary/University—Lithonia, GA

Malone College—Canton, OH

Mars Hill Graduate School—Bothell, WA

Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary—Fresno, CA

Messiah College (Brethren in Christ Church)—Mechanicsburg, PA

MidAmerica Nazarene University—Olathe, KS

Milligan College—Milligan College, TN

Montreat College—Montreat, NC

Moody Bible Institute—Chicago, IL

Mount Vernon Nazarene—Mt. Vernon, OH

Multnomah University—Portland, OR

Nebraska Christian College—Papillion, NE

New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary—New Orleans, LA

Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, Lombard, Chicago, Rockford, IL

Northeastern Seminary—Rochester, NY

Northern Seminary—Lombard, IL

Northpark University & Northpark Theological Seminary—Chicago, IL

Northwest Nazarene University—Nampa, ID

Northwestern College—Orange City, IA

Northwestern College (University of Northwestern)—St. Paul, MN

Nyack College—Nyack, NY

Oklahoma Christian University—Oklahoma City, OK

Oklahoma Wesleyan University—Bartlesville, OK

Olivet Nazarene University—Bourbonnais, IL

Oral Roberts University—Tulsa, OK

Pacific Rim Christian College—Honolulu, HI

Palm Beach Atlantic University—Palm Beach, FL

Pepperdine University—Malibu, CA

Phoenix Seminary—Phoenix, AZ

Prairie College of the Bible—Three Hills, Alberta, CA

Providence College and Seminary—Otterburne, Manitoba, CA

Reformed Theological Seminary—Several locations in U.S.

Regent College—Vancouver, British Columbia, CA

Rockbridge Seminary—Springfield, MO

Rocky Mountain College—Calgary, Alberta, CA

Rolling Hills Bible Institute—Rolling Hills Estates, CA

Samford University—Birmingham, AL

Shorter College—Rome, GA

Simpson University—Redding, CA

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary—Wake Forest, NC

Southeastern University—Lakeland, Fl

Southwest Baptist University—Bolivar, MO

Spring Arbor University—Spring Arbor Township, MI

Talbot Seminary (Biola)—La Mirada, CA

Taylor Seminary/Taylor College—Edmonton, Alberta, CA

Taylor University—Upland, IN

Toccoa Falls College—Toccoa Falls, GA

Trevecca Nazarene University—Nashville, TN

Trinity International University—Deerfield, IL

Trinity Western University—Langley, British Columbia, CA

Tyndale University College & Seminary—Toronto, Ontario, CA

Vanguard University—Costa Mesa, CA

Western Seminary—Portland, OR; Sacramento, San Jose, CA

Western Theological Seminary—Holland, MI

Westmont College—Santa Barbara, CA

Wheaton College Graduate School, Wheaton, IL

Whitworth University—Spokane, WA

William Carey Institute —Vancouver, British Columbia, CA

* This is not a complete list. Lighthouse Trails is adding new schools to this list as we learn of their contemplative propensities. To see updates to this list, visit: www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/Colleges.htm. We also have a small list of Christian schools that are not promoting Spiritual Formation at: www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/collegesgood.htm.

An Epidemic of Apostasy – How Christian Seminaries Must Incorporate “Spiritual Formation” to Become Accredited, click here.