Tuesday, January 13, 2009
GLOBAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATES (GEA)
In a comments box below Mathew in Fairfax asks:
Do you mind if I ask about the comments of yours the author refers to on page 263? I found only one comment you made pertaining to MacGillis in January 2005, here:
http://carrietomko.blogspot.com/...- prominent.html
Are those the comments the author is referring to?
They might be, but I've written on GEA a few times in the past. Some of those posts can be found in an older blog, "Running Off at the Keyboard".
I was on the mailing list for GEA for a time, and received their newsletters. They stopped, though I didn't think my subscription had run out. I've read Gerald and Patricia Mische's book, TOWARD A HUMAN WORLD ORDER. They were the founders of GEA, but I haven't looked at them in some time.
They are an affiliated NGO with the U.N. and promote the Earth Charter. For more details on that endeavor, check out Lee Penn's FALSE DAWN.
In the passage you refer to, Taylor admits that Genesis Farm (MacGillis' organization) and Michaela Farm (belonging to a community of sisters) promote "biodynamic agriculture", and both are affiliates of GEA.
I have no problem with organic farming. I should state that at the outset. What I have a problem with is the spirituality behind "biodynamic" farming which involves the beliefs of Rudolf Steiner, Theosophist (founder of the Theosophical Society in Germany), Anthroposophist, founder of the Waldorf Schools and other endeavors, among them Biodynamic Farming. Steiner was a Gnostic who broke with the Theosophical Society over his insistence that theosophical beliefs needed to be couched in Christian terminology for Western mass consumption. His theosophical beliefs permeate his activities across the board, and they are not compatible with Catholicism by a long shot. This includes some very strange ceremonies held over/in the garden.
Here is another article on Biodynamic Farming that incorporates not only the scientific practices, but the spiritual as well. From the website:
Steiner understood the farm as a living entity and the farmer through his or her toil, intent and conscious feeling, as a motivating, even healing part of that being. Some of Steiner's teachings resonate with accepted scientific concepts, such as the "agroecosystem", while others, particularly those involving planetary alignment and cosmic beings are from a different way of understanding.
Indeed it is a "different way of understanding". It is the religious way of understanding, and it isn't the Catholic religion that is being understood with Biodynamic Farming. Therefore, I don't believe women religious who advertise themselves as "Catholic" should be engaging in it, and promoting it.
Steiner's material comes via access to the Akashic Record, a clairvoyant endeavor that violates the First Commandment and CCC 2116. I object to the spirituality not the science. I believe that if you are calling yourself "Catholic" you should practice Catholicism, not Anthroposophy, whether you are a "green sister" or an anonymous face in the pew.
