Wednesday, August 27, 2008
NEW AGE, UFOs AND THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY - DENNIS KUCINICH
A discussion about the Rapture on Constance Cumbey's blog yesterday reminded me that I had seen discussion of a rapture in New Age/UFO websites, and I went looking for that information. One of the websites, UFO Digest, happened to mention Dennis Kucinich. Since he was (still is on an independent ticket?) a candidate for President, this looked worth pursuing. From the website:
The ETs may go on Larry King and be praised by the likes of Shirley MacLain or Dennis Kucinich or the National Press Club but do not be fooled. They are masters of deception. They may tell you that they are peaceful and have your best interests at heart but do not be deceived.
All that they have ever wanted was to keep you from the truth of the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
Well!
Dennis Kucinich was mayor of Cleveland at one time. During his term of office a recall was attempted and failed. He stirred Cleveland politics like no one else ever has. It was nightly entertainment to turn on the evening news and see what Dennis had done today. I'm still not sure how he was elected to Congress. In any case, this merited further investigation.
Next I found a Crunchy Con article about Dennis, Shirley, and the UFO. It seems that Rod Dreher took this seriously. He wrote:
The Wall Street Journal sussed out two people who saw the UFO with Dennis Kucinich back in the day, and got them to talk about it. Excerpt:
"The day was strange from the start. For hours, Mr. Kucinich, Mr. Costanzo and his companion noticed a high-pitched sound. "There was a sense that something extraordinary was happening all day," says the girlfriend. She and Mr. Costanzo say that none of the three consumed alcohol or took drugs.
As they sat down to a dinner, Mr. Kucinich spotted a light in the distance, to the left of Mount Rainier. Mr. Costanzo thought it was a helicopter.
But Mr. Kucinich walked outside to the deck to look through the telescope that he had bought Ms. MacLaine as a house gift. After a few minutes, Mr. Kucinich summoned the other two: "Guys, come on out here and look at this."
Dennis Kucinich is supposed to be Catholic. What was he doing at Shirley MacLaine's house?
An article from nearly a year ago that appeared in the Cleveland.com website adds a little more information:
Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich has seen a UFO, writes Shirley MacLaine in her new book, "Sage-Ing While Age-Ing."
Kucinich, she writes on page143-144 of the book, "had a close sighting over my home in Graham, Washington, when I lived there. Dennis found his encounter extremely moving. The smell of roses drew him out to my balcony where, when he looked up, he saw a gigantic triangular craft, silent, and observing him. It hovered, soundless, for ten minutes or so, and sped away with a speed he couldn't comprehend. He said he felt a connection in his heart and heard directions in his mind."
He smelled roses from this object?? The article adds a little more detail about Dennis and Shirley:
MacLaine is a well-known believer of UFOs and reincarnation. And she's been close to Kucinich for decades. MacLaine is the godmother of Kucinich's daughter and attended Kucinich's 2005 Cleveland wedding to third wife, Elizabeth, who's often campaigning by his side.
Godmother in what sort of baptism ceremony? Surely not a Catholic one. Third wife? Two annulments? Two died?
MacLaine also mentions Dennis's "spiritual advisor", Chris Griscom, who lives in New Mexico. Griscom, she tells us, "helped her communicate with trees". Dennis denies that Griscom is his spiritual advisor but rather is a "teacher and a very good friend".
Next I found Kucinich's Praxis Peace Institute Conference speech in Dubrovnik, Croatia, June 9, 2002. After reading this speech, I had little doubt that Dennis is entrenched in the New Age Movement. All of the jargon is there. A few examples:
** Spirit merges with matter to sanctify the universe. Matter transcends to return to spirit. The interchangeability of matter and spirit means the starlit magic of the outermost life of our universe becomes the soul-light magic of the innermost life of our self. The energy of the stars becomes us. We become the energy of the stars. Stardust and spirit unite and we begin: One with the universe.
** A universe of plenty flows to us, through us. It is in us. We become filled with endless possibilities. We need to remember where we came from; to know that we are one. To understand that we are of an undivided whole: race, color, nationality, creed, gender are beams of light, refracted through one great prism.
** We hear the music of peace, we hear the music of cooperation, we hear music of love. We hear harmony, a celestial symphony. In our soul’s forgetting, we become unconscious ! of our cosmic birthright, plighted with disharmony, disunity, torn asunder from the stars in a disaster...
** As we aspire to universal brotherhood and sisterhood, we harken to the cry from the heart of the world and respond affirmatively to address through thought, word and deed conditions which give rise to conflict: Economic exploitation, empire building, political oppression, religious intolerance, poverty, disease, famine, homelessness, struggles over control of water, land, minerals, and oil. We realize that what affects anyone, anywhere affects everyone, everywhere. As we help others to heal, we heal ourselves.
Our vision of interconnectedness resonates with new networks of world citizens in nongovernmental organizations linking from numberless centers of energy, expressing the emergence of a new organic whole, seeking unity within and across national lines. New transnational web-based email and telecommunications systems transcend governments and carry within them the power of qualitative transformation of social and political structures and a new sense of creative intelligence.
There's more where that came from, but why be redundant. Dennis is a voice for peace that we listen to at our peril.
Denis took part in the Department of Peace Conference in Washington, D.C. in February 2007--the Annual Conference of The Peace Alliance. So did Marianne Williamson and Depak Chopra. The Speaker's bio webpaage reveals that the program also included Michael Bernard Beckwith, "a world leader and teacher in the New Thought--Ancient Wisdom tradition of spirituality" and a co-founder of the Association for Global New Thought". James O'Dea is also listed as a speaker. He is President of the Institute of Noetic Sciences.
Quite an interesting line-up!
The top question for a Catholic considering a politician these days is where does he stand on abortion?
A website offers several Kucinich quotes on the topic, like these:
I've always worked to make abortions less necessary, through sex education and birth control. But the direction that Congress has taken, increasingly, is to make it impossible for women to be able to have an abortion if they need to protect their health. So when I saw the direction taken, it finally came to the point where I understood that women will not be truly free unless they have the right to choose
Source: Democratic 2004 Primary Presidential Debate in Durham NH Dec 9, 2003
I support Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to choose, and will select Supreme Court justices who affirm this Constitutional right. Because I know that the right to choose is under attack -- as President, I will only support someone for the Supreme Court if he or she agrees to uphold Roe v. Wade.
Source: Campaign website, www.Kucinich.org, "On The Issues" Apr 1, 2003
I've had a journey on the issue [of reproductive rights]. A year ago, before I became a candidate for President, I broke from a voting record that had not been pro-choice. After hearing from many women in my own life, and from women and men in my community and across the country, I began a more intensive dialogue on the issue. A lot of women opened their hearts to me. That dialogue led me to wholeheartedly support a woman's right to choose.
Source: Campaign website, www.Kucinich.org, "On The Issues" Apr 1, 2003
There are more quotes at the website.
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UPDATE
The Peace Alliane, founded by Marianne Williamson, is working for the passage of H.R. 808, legislation created by Dennis Kucinich.
