psychoceramics: Beware the Noo Age!

["Wright, Bruce" <32000BKT @ macnet.cpa.state.tx.us>]

Subject: Prophe-ZIne
Choice wisdom from Misc.activism.militia.  Lengthy but tasty.   Bruce W.

From: Raymond from Prophe-Zine, ray673 @ best.com
Date: Thu, 2 May 96 1:33:19 GMT

Hello all, 

My name is Ray and I publish a free internet email newsletter called
Prophe-Zine. Prophe-Zine deals with Bible Prophecy, World Events and
Politics.  I like to share articles from time to time in this group to let
you know what I do and let you know what is out there. This is a book excerpt
from one of the contributing authors to PZ. 

Prophe-Zine has a www site also that you cna visit..

http://www.best.com/~ray673/pzhome.html 

or you can go to any of the search engins and type in Prophe-Zine. Enjoy
and see you on line.

In His service,
Ray 
Sr.Editor Prophe-ZIne



SERVING A GREATER WHOLE

An excerpt from Brave New Schools 
  by Berit Kjos

 Laura's fourth-grade teacher was reading a new book called The Giver. 
The story seemed sort of strange and spooky, but most of her classmates at
Adams Elementary School in Davenport, Iowa, liked it. After all, it had won
the 1994 Newbery Medal--and was dedicated to "all the children to whom we
entrust our future."i  Therefore it had to be good--didn't it?  The book told
about a special community where every child felt safe, ate plenty of food,
took pills to stop any pain, and lived in a family no larger than four.
Overpopulation was no problem since new babies were limited to fifty a year. 
Born to professional "birth mothers" instead of real mothers, the newborns
were placed in Nurturing Centers where older children helped care for them
during volunteer hours.  To keep people comfortable and free from stress,
handicapped babies and low-weight twins were "released" to go to a mystical
"EIsewhere."  

Each December all the children advanced into the next age group. At the
Ceremony for the Ones, the healthy babies born during the year were
assigned to selected families.  Jonas, one of the Elevens, still
remembered when his sister Lily was a One and came to live in his family. 
This December, she would become an Eight and receive her first voluntary
service assignment.  On the same day, all the Nines would get their first
bicycle, and the Tens would get special haircuts. The new Elevens would soon
have to take daily pills to quench the strange "stirrings" that came with
puberty.

Each group of children--up to Twelve--learned to follow the rules for
their age, succeed in school, complete their service assignments, and
share their dreams and feelings with their designated family.  Sometimes
Jonas preferred to hide his feelings, but that was against the rules.  As
they neared December once again, Jonas and the other "young adults" waited
anxiously for the Ceremony for the Twelves. This year, they would receive
their permanent Assignments--their place to work during their productive
years.  These Assignments were chosen by the Committee of Elders who had been
observing every child.  Jonas, who had intuitive power to "see beyond," was
chosen to be the Receiver of Memories - the one who would know the past. The
former Receiver, who now became the Giver, would place his hands on Jonas'
back and  psychically transfer all past experiences and distant memories to
the boy. Eventually, Jonas would become the community's source of wise
counsel and secret wisdom - like a tribal shaman.

   Laura and her classmates listened, imagined, absorbed, and pondered.
Sometimes Laura felt uncomfortable--as when Jonas had to bathe a frail,
slippery Old woman during his volunteer hours at the House of the Old.  But
the worst part came when Jonas' father, a Nurturer, had to "release" the
smaller of two newborn twins. 

As the teacher read from the book, Laura pictured the scene she heard:
Jonas and the Giver were watching the Release on a video screen.  They saw a
small windowless room with a table and scale--the same room Jonas had seen
during his service work at the Nurturing Center.  
"It's just an ordinary room," he said to the Giver. "I thought maybe
they'd have it in the Auditorium, so that everybody could come. All the
Old go to Ceremonies of Release. But I suppose that when it's just a
newborn, they don't...."

Suddenly, Jonas saw his father enter the room with a tiny newchild. He
put it on the scale and noted the weight. "...you're only five pounds ten
ounces," he said, "A shrimp!"  A shrimp? Laura could identify with the tiny
infant. She, too, was a low-birth-weight twin.  Feeling shaky, she listened
closely as the teacher continued to read:  

 His father turned and opened the cupboard. He took out a syringe and
a  small bottle. Very carefully he inserted the needle into the bottle and
began to fill  the syringe.... [Then he directed] the needle into the top
of newchild's forehead,  puncturing the place where the fragile skin
pulsed. The newborn squirmed, and wailed faintly.
"Why's he--"
 "Shhh," the Giver said sharply.
 His father... pushed the plunger very slowly, injecting the liquid
into the scalp vein until the syringe was empty....
 
 As Jonas continued to watch, the new child no longer crying moved
his   arms and legs in a a jerking motion. Then he went limp. His head
fell to the side,  his eyes half open. Then he was still... His father tidied
the room. Then he picked up a small carton that lay waiting on the floor, set
it on the bed, and lifted the limp body into it.... He opened a small door in
the wall... It seemed to be the same sort of chute into which trash was
deposited at school. 

His father loaded the carton containing the body into the chute and
gave it a shove. "Bye-bye, little guy," Jonas heard his father say before he
left the room.    Then the screen went blank."

Stunned, Laura stared at her teacher. Would they really kill a baby if
it didn't weigh enough?  The horrible image of the tiny infant, murdered
and thrown down a chute like a piece of garbage made her sick.  Her
thoughts raced on.  How could the kind Nurturer kill it!  What if it had
been her!  She was just as tiny when she was born.  And she already  been
thinking about death.  Only weeks ago, her own grandmother had died.   She
rushed home from school and burst into the house.  "Mom, Mom," she cried,
"Guess what my teacher read today!"  She poured out her story, while her
mother, Elaine Rathmann, listened quietly. 

   The next day, Mrs. Rathmann, a member of the local school board,
visited the school.  When she suggested that The Giver might be
inappropriate reading for fourth-graders, the principal indicated his
reluctance to "stifle academic freedom". Next, she told the teacher how the
book had affected her daughter. "But I didn't tell the class what I
believed," he answered.  "I let them come to their own conclusion. My
children know fiction from nonfiction."

But that doesn't matter, thought Mrs. Rathmann.  Sometimes an exciting
story can transmit horrible images and socialistic messages more easily than
a history lesson.
   
THE  21st CENTURY GLOBAL VILLAGE. The Giver fits into the flood of
classroom literature that force children to think the unthinkable and
reconsider the values they learned at home. It also models many of the
pitfalls and imagined perfections of the utopian school-centered community
being implemented by today's national and international change agents: 

* State surveillance and control of health, wealth, attitudes, beliefs,
values and behavior.  
* State controlled child care, health care, training of parents,
vocational guidance and work assigment.
* Mandatory "voluntary" service.
* Personal privileges conditioned on compliance.

In many parts of our country - as in the envisioned community -- teams
of professional "experts" are already replacing parents as ultimate
decision makers in the lives of children.  As suggested by the slogan, "It
takes a whole village to raise a child," they will make sure parents are
trained to follow the prescribed guidelines for parenting. If this new
system is implemented by AD 2000-2001 as planned, all who refuse to
conform will find their parental authority usurped by trained educators
and community leaders. 

A sensational fantasy?  Not at all, as you will see in Chapter 7. Since
many of the specific strategies are hidden behind "sugar-coated" promotion
and misleading labels, few see the danger. Some are silenced by the
politically correct notion that discernment spells intolerance. Others simply
don't believe that America could really change all that much. After all, we
have our constitution!  

Could we have become a nation of listless frogs, drifting  blindly in
cultural waters that are nearing the boiling point?  Laura's mother, a
school board member,  would probably answer yes.  She saw the blind
drifting both in her daughter's classmates and among the other parents.
"The Giver desensitized students to the new values," she told me.

"Though the last part showed the downside,  the book helped make the
futuristic community seem normal. Their conclusions would be based on the
biased information they were given." "Did other parents share your concern?"
I asked her.  "I don't think so. They didn't want to be disturbed. No one
else was willing to say, 'I won't let you teach this to my child.'"

 "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive
philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this
world rather than on Christ." (Colossians 2:8)
_______________________________________
Note:  Years ago, a young boy in Zaire named Kyosa was "chosen to know"
special tribal secrets. He is now a scholar in African spirituality,
but his mystical initiation echoes one of the many ominous themes in Lois
Lowry's Newbery Award Winner, The Giver. Like all Newbery winners, this
popular book can be found in classrooms and libraries from coast to coast.
Some states add study questions and special programs to amplify its message. 
 

   Brave New Schools (Harvest House Publishers)
    is available through Christian bookstores 
   and by calling r 800-829-5646.  

Berit Kjos    
14710 Manuella Road   
Los Altos Hills, CA 94022    

Fax: (415) 941-9352

PERSONAL BACKGROUND:  
Berit Kjos has authored four books, Your Child and the New Age, Under the
Spell of Mother Earth, Brave New Schools,  and A Wardrobe from the King, a
Bible study showing how to wear the Armor of God.  These books were written
to encourage Christian families to resist the New Age and
Neo-pagan influences that are transforming America.  A 1974 conference on
Holistic Health first introduced Berit, a registered nurse, to the enticing
"universal force" of the New Age. While writing Bible studies and training
leaders, she saw the need to show children the basic differences between New
Age teaching and Biblical truth--and to help them know and love the truths
that counter deception. 

Berit Kjos' newest book Brave New Schools, shows how the goals of
education have been turned upside-down.  Socialization--learning global
beliefs and values and politically correct behavior--have replaced
academics as the main outcome of education.  You may hear nice-sounding
promises, but factual learning and individual thinking are out, feelings and
group thinking are in.  If this international system is put in place by AD
2001 as planned, all children will be monitored through a national
computerized data transmission system designed to build a permanent, personal
file on every child.  No one will be safe from the watchful eyes of those who
control the new "school-to-work" system-not children taught at home or in
private schools, not their parents, not anyone.  So be informed. Learn what
you can do to help preserve our families and freedoms.


BIO sketch  (from Harvest House Publishers)

Berit Kjos

Berit Kios is a widely respected researcher, the author of books and
magazine articles, a popular conference speaker, and a concerned parent
who has extensively studied current education systems.

Kjos first became aware of New Age and occult influences in our society at a
1974 conference on holistic health.  As a registered nurse, she was
interested in methods of healing, but soon discovered that the occult powers
found in New Age methods brought bondage instead of true healing.  As a
parrot, [????] Kjos became aware of similar New Age influences in education. 
She began to monitor the schools for classroom programs that taught occultism
and New Age spirituality, then began to share what she learned with other
parents and teachers.

Now a popular speaker for churches, Christian schools, and homeschooling
groups nationwide, Kjos has given workshops and seminars at conferences such
as the Association for Christian Schools International.  She has spoken at
conferences for such groups as the Constitutional Coalition, Child Evangelism
Fellowship, Concerned Women for America, and Citizens for Excellence in
Education. 

Kjos is also the author of Your Child and the New Age, Under the Spell of
Mother Earth, and A Wardrobe from the King. Her articles have appeared in
magazines such as Virtue, Moody, Servant, Focus on the Family, and the
Chrsitian Conscience. Kjos has also written numerous Bible study guides,
booklets, and devotional.

A frequent guest on national radio and television programs, Kjos has been
interviewed on The 700 Club, Point of View, Bible Answer Man, Beverly LaHaye
Live, Crosstalk, CBN Radio, Family Radio Network, and many more.


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