GATEKEEPERS INITIATIVE FOR TURTLE ISLAND-JUNE 10-JULY 20, 2011
CITY GATES
Thursday, June 22, 2011
by James Stephens
“For what is a man profited if he gains all the world, and loses his own life? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his life?”
~Mattithyahu (Matthew) 16:28.
“Man in his pomp, yet without understanding, is like the beasts that perish.”
~Psalms 49:20
In 1996, the XIV Dalai Lama was awarded the Key to the City of Pasadena. When I interviewed Dr. Arthur Glasser at Fuller School of Intercultural Studies and asked him about the award and how we as Christians might feel, he responded,
“Surely, he is a foreign personage, we should be respectful of him, but to offer him the Key to the City, Christians would tend to react. The key, the authority, what sort of authority is going to be understood by the Dalai Lama? We should speak about the seduction of idolatry.”
http://youtu.be/8AIv-BYZhso. Short clip of the Dalai Lama receiving the key.
http://youtu.be/R9Br7mC3ZNI. Dr. Arthur Glasser’s response to the Key.
Cities that the Dalai Lama has been given keys to in America.
San Francisco (Mayor Feinstein) September 9, 1979, Los Angeles (Mayor Bradley) September 1979, Pasadena July 1996, New York City (Mayor Blumberg) 09-25-2005, Seattle (Mayor Greg Nickels) April 13, 2008, Memphis (Shelby County Mayor AC Wharton, Jr. & Memphis Mayor Myron Lowery)September 22, 2009, Toronto October 24, 2010.
Tokens of Destruction
“When warnings for instruction are not received, they are tokens of destruction. This is a truth which none almost deny, and none almost believe. Had it been believed, many desolating judgments in former ages had been prevented; nations and cities should have abode in prosperity, which are not sunk into ruin, yea, into hell.”
“When God utterly forsakes a people, he will regard them no more, but give them up unto idolatry, false worship, and all sorts of wickedness.”
—John Owen’s “An Humble Testimony Unto The Goodness and Severity of God in His Dealing With Sinful Churches and Nations.”
The following are historical examples:
Dark magic was at work within the walls of the “National Cathedral” (September 11, 2003) as the Dalai Lama’s special retinue of tantric practitioners were about to release a demonic hoard from the bowels of a sand mandala as it was dissolved, wherein the sands swept up, given to those attending, and the remainder cast into the waters of the Potomac. All of this was occurring at about the same hour when ENDA legislation was being voted on in Congress which would directly end the ability of the clergy in this nation to hire those who would uphold the Laws of God and legally require their hiring practices to be inclusive, code for –not discriminating against people because of their sexual orientation, be it gay, lesbian, or transsexual.
In California, Governor Schwarzenegger whose wife invited the Dalai Lama to speak at the California First Ladies conference in Long Beach (September 2006) signed a bill prohibiting the use of “mom” and “dad” as designated terms in elementary schools, requiring schools to use inclusive language and teach elementary and secondary school children that there are “other types of family’s” recognized by our society.
As the Dalai Lama was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal (October 2007), the highest civilian honor that can be bestowed, Diane Feinstein, was sure to mention that she was the first American public leader to welcome the Dalai Lama into the United States as the Mayor of San Francisco in 1979 when she gave him the Key to the City.
In Richard Blum’s book, Himalaya:personal stories of grandeur, challenge and hope, he recollects his wife Diane Feinstein’s story about her first meeting with the Dalai Lama.
“I first met him in Dharamsala through my husband-to-be, Richard Blum, in the fall of 1978. I was awed by his presence and moved to action. We first went to visit the Dalai Lama at his home in Dharamsala, India. The purpose of this meeting was to deliver an invitation for His Holiness to visit the city and county of San Francisco. The Dalai Lama was appreciative of the invitation. At that time he had never even been to the United States.”
Not many people remember the unfolding series of event that were then to propel Diane Feinstein into the public limelight immediately after she returned from inviting the Dalai Lama to America.
“For most San Franciscans over 40, the memory of Dianne Feinstein’s November 27, 1978 press conference announcing the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk remains vivid. She was distressed but controlled. She heard the gunshots, had seen the killer, former Supervisor Dan White, in the moments between the two murders and he had rebuffed her attempt to talk to him. She raced to Milk’s office, saw the fatal wound, tried to take his pulse, but knew immediately he was dead.
Only nine days earlier, 913 people, mostly former Bay Area residents, had committed mass suicide with Reverend Jim Jones in Guyana. The same year, her second and much loved husband, neurosurgeon Dr. Bertram Feinstein, had died of colon cancer. Though she had been contemplating retirement after returning the day before from a trip to the Mt. Everest area where she met the Dalai Lama, on that November day it fell to Dianne Feinstein not only to tell the world of the assassinations, but to step into Moscone’s shoes as acting mayor. The very human and capable way in which she handled the situation, and later restored confidence to the city, proved her abilities. She vaulted to the forefront among California Democratic leaders. (The Golden Age of Jewish Achievement by Steven L. Pease)
Later as Senator, in a speech congratulating the Dalai Lama on being awarded the Congressional Gold Medal she was sure to mention her longstanding connection to the Dalai Lama. She in fact was responsible for opening the Gate in America to the Dalai Lama.
“In September 1979, as Mayor of San Francisco, I was the first official to invite and welcome His Holiness to San Francisco to present him with a key to the City. This was his first visit to America.
As I came to know His Holiness, I have tried to be a bridge between His Holiness and the Chinese leadership.
In fact, on three separate occasions since 1991, my husband and I hand-delivered letters from His Holiness to the Chinese leadership: Asking for direct talks, reiterating his Middle Way approach and clearly stating that he does not seek independence for Tibet, but is looking to secure Tibet’s religious and cultural autonomy.
The simple truth is this: I can think of no one who more embodies the spirit of the Congressional Gold Medal than His Holiness, the Dalai Lama.”
….
“The Center for Public Integrity has reported that Feinstein and her husband, Richard Blum, are making millions of dollars from Iraq and Afghanistan contracts through his company, Perini. There have also been critics who argue that Feinstein’s support of policies that are friendly to the Chinese government are because of her husband’s extensive China-related business holdings.”
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