March 19, 2024

Two Faces of a Tibetan Idol in America

March 07 2014 DL WDC National Cathedral Interfaith Dialogue

An Icon of Light with a Shady Side
by Tilman Müller and Janis Vougioukas
English Translation of an excellent German article in Stern Magazine published in 2009.

When visiting Germany this week, the Dalai Lama will again be lauded as a messiah. The head of Tibetans is regarded as a symbol of tolerance. But critics in his exile community fail in demanding religious freedom and democracy.

He always comes in a large convoy like a president, bodyguards surrounding him, movie stars and managers forming honour guards. Politicians in charge hurry to welcome him. The scene may be the same this week in Frankfurt [Germany], just as it was in Nuremberg last year. The Dalai Lama greeted the crowds with his lovely child-like waving of hands. But his speech in the town hall made people halt their breath, as reported by a local newspaper next day.

.
He catered the elect audience saying he saw Nuremberg already on photographs when he was still a child: “very attractive with generals and weapons“ and with “Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goering“.
Some of the auditors seemed to be “embarrassed”, some were “alienated for a second;” Nuremberg’s chief mayor Ulrich Maly calls it a “moment of shock“. The special guests tried to get him self afterwards out of the affair by stating that as a child he wasn’t able to foresee the Nazi catastrophe.

.

If the Pope had given himself room for such statements in the city of the Reichsparteitage [NSDAP party summits] and the race laws, there would have been a loud outcry in the republic [of Germany]. But the head of Tibetan Buddhists is willingly excused for such words although His Holiness has enough reason to critically think about Nazi history. He who bears the title of the “Ocean of Wisdom” always had a very close relationship to his teacher Heinrich Harrer, a famous alpinist and author (“Seven years in Tibet”). Harrer had been a snappy Nazi who for a long time tried to hide the fact that he used to hold the rank of SS-Oberscharführer [Senior Squad Leader of the Schutz-Staffel (SS) or Protective Echelon of Adolf Hitler]. The Tibetan court used to have close ties with the NS-regime.

.

SS-expeditions were welcomed to Lhasa with full mark of respect. Until today, His Holiness never distanced himself from these inglorious relationships. But this is not the only dark chapter in his story of success.

.
The Dalai Lama smiles away all doubts. Almost everywhere he receives the same god-like veneration. In the West he appears as the super idol of the new age but in the Himalayans he governs like a medieval potentate. A gentle do-gooder who can show a surprisingly intolerant yes dictator-like behaviour. His people’s sad fate, suppressed by Beijing and expulsed, hides the inner problems of the Dalai Lama-regime.

.
Here [in Germany] people attracted by him fill stadiums like coming to see a pop star. In Nuremberg 7,000 people listened to him, in Hamburg two years ago 30.000 and Frankfurt Commerzbank-Arena expects 40.000 visitors these days. The tickets range from € 10 to € 230 and usually are booked one year in advance. In conjunction with his huge events, there came up a unique spiritual supermarket. 728 German and 908 English books from and about the Dalai Lama are listed with amazon, 13,200 videos at youtube, almost 8 million entries in google. The son of Tibetan peasants is the most popular of all living noble laureates.

.

Members of all religions and also atheists come like pilgrims to his one-man-shows. “We had direct eye-contact”, a young woman in the German city of Moenchengladbach shouted out over-happily and immediately promised to stop smoking henceforth. “He makes me feel good”, a woman in Boston says in excitement and puts it into a nutshell, “it’s his aura, this simpleness”.

.
Just in Europe and the US, the birthplaces of the Age of Enlightenment, this Buddhist messiah formed new strongholds of his religion and he also finds favour with the usually critical-thinking generation of 68 [the left wing student protest movement in Europe] In 1971, Stern Magazine [The magazine where this article was published] celebrated him as the “saint on the mountain”, Spiegel Magazine romanticised him to be a “god to touch” two years ago.

.

The head of the powerful German publishing house Springer, Mathias Döpfner, ex-porn queen Dolly Buster, German football star Mehmet Scholl, former economy minister Otto Graf Lambsdorff, and the inventor of the famous Love Parade Dr. Motte venerate Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama.

.
Where does that huge excitement come from? Christianity is loosing prestige and believers. That left a vacuum giving Buddhism a space to develop in the west as some kind of wellness-religion. And the peaceful calmness of the Dalai Lama makes you feel comfortable in the rough daily rat-race. His positive charisma seems to ban all fear of crisis. On top of this, there arose a Tibet romanticism in the West transfiguring  the snow land on the roof of the world where the Dalai Lama had been born in 1935 in a hut with juniper rain-pipes.

.
The Asia expert Orville Schell, president of the New York Center of Sino-American Relations, explained the development of the Tibet-Myth from its remote position for centuries in innumerable works. The lack of knowledge gave birth to fantasies. It all started back in 1933 with James Hilton’s novel “Lost Horizon”, first published in German titled “Irgendwo in Tibet – Somewhere in Tibet”. The action was set in the sunshine paradise Shangri-La where no one had to work and everyone is living in eternal peace. The dream factory of Hollywood later on could use all these fantasies, creating a symbiosis of Tibet and pop culture, and created a monument for Tenzin Gyatso with the movie “Kundun”. “Because Tibet has always been so inaccessible, it existed in western imagination rather as a dream than as reality. It was supposed to be a country we could project our post-modern longings to”, Schell says.

.
“I am for you whatever you want me to be for you”, the Dalai Lama says and in that way, alpinist Reinhold Messner regards him as “a fighter for environment protection”. German movie director and Oscar prize winner Florian Henckel von Donnermarck appreciates that “he makes happiness one of his religion’s core principals.” Actress Uma Thurman expects absolution for making the bloodthirsty violent movie “Kill Bill”: “The Dalai Lama would die laughing” if watching the movie. And the Dalai Lama takes part in that game, he is open to all directions at one’s will.

.
He is a perfect tool for presidents and heads of government as even George W. Bush looks peaceful when being with him. The hyper active Nicolas Sarkozy looks gentle, and boring Roland Koch [prime minister of the German state of Hessen] at least seems to have some esprit. Especially with conservative and right-wing politicians this game of mutual instrumentalisation works especially well. The Dalai Lama had strong sympathy for the Austrian right-wing Jörg Haider and visited him several times in his Austrian state of Kaernten.

Buddhist tantric vase buried in Westminster Abby by the Dalai Lama.

Buddhist tantric vase buried in Westminster Abby by the Dalai Lama.

.
Although the head of Tibetans is already 74, he is touring the West so intensively only for a relatively short time now. In June 1979, he visited Mont Pèlerin at Lake Geneva giving his first public teaching to a greater audience in the west. “There was not much interest regarding the Dalai Lama and we couldn’t even get police protection for him,” one of the then organizers, today living in Switzerland, tells us.

.
In the meanwhile, the Dalai Lama became popular to the world but isn’t it anymore to all the monasteries. “There had been a break in our community about ten years ago,” a former companion says. In the first line it was about a protective saint the brotherhood is not allowed to worship anymore. But basically this religious quarrel is a struggle for power with intrigues, slandering, and intimidation continued until today. Out of fear of repression the confidant of the Dalai Lama asks to stay anonymous. The “Tibetan Community of Switzerland”, an organisation strongly devoted to the Dalai Lama called on all Tibetans in Switzerland having passed their 18th birthday to “immediately” stop the worship of the Tibetan protective deity Dorje Shugden and to sign an 8-point-agreement: “Those few Tibetans publicly and for no reason criticising the Dalai Lama are regarded to be Chinese collaborators by us.”

.
This strategy of “either being with me or against me” and the rigid tone absolutely don’t fit to the gentle manner in which the “Übervater” [super-father] is usually presenting himself to the West. His royal court in Dharamsala still follows the feudalist structure of the old Tibet and is ruled by oracles and rituals that do not have much in common with western tolerance and transparency. The Dalai Lama’s sudden prohibition of the protective deity Shugden who had been worshipped since the 17th century and is one out of hundreds of saints in the Tibetan Buddhist canon in 1996 deeply alienated many religious Tibetans. For them it is incomprehensible and outsiders hardly can grasp how rigorous it is enforced. About one third of the 130,000 exile Tibetans are supposed to have worshipped Shugden before the ban. Today there are only a few thousand to openly show their connection to the cult. There are no independent estimations regarding the 5 million Tibetans inside China.

.
The journalist Beat Regli in 1998 for the first time showed emotional pictures of that imminent conflict in the Indian exile communities in Swiss television [Schweizer Fernsehen, SF – Dalai Lama and Dorje Shugden]. Highly aged monks regretted crying that they didn’t already die before the prohibition of Shugden. A desperate family whose house had been set alight is presented as well as wanted posters denouncing Shugden followers and a Dalai Lama uncompromisingly defending his ban. “Wrong, wrong” he sounds off in a cold and sharp way nobody in the west has ever expected from the ever smiling noble laureate.

.
In Dharamsala this quarrel is continuing to the present day. Monks not following the Dalai Lama’s order report of massive discrimination. Relatives and friends are put under pressure and vendors put posters on their shop’s doors saying “No Entrance” for Shugden-believers.

.
In southern Indian city of Mundgod, Ganden Shartse monastery last year celebrated the inauguration of a new prayer hall. “It was supposed to become a great feast” one monk present at the time remembers. He is afraid to say his name. The Dalai Lama himself came and with him a number of other high ranking dignitaries. But almost everything talked about in the speeches and lectures was the old controversial topic of Dorje Shugden. Shortly afterwards the monks are said to have been told to sign a declaration stating they were no longer praticing Shugden. The monastery’s administration even erected a man-high wall through the monastic yard.

.
In the meanwhile the dispute was handed over to the court. Dorje Shugden Society filed a complaint at New Delhi’s High Court in order to check whether this “religious discrimination” is acceptable under Indian law. A decision is expected for the end of this year. Dalai Lama says Shugden worship is harmful to his life and to the “cause of Tibet” with no further statements available. His opposition suspects that Shugden, who is also exhorted as an oracle, was prohibited for being a concurrence to the Dalai Lama’s state oracle.

.
The Tibetan Governement-in Exile (TGE) nevertheless rejects all accusations. “There are only very few of those people left and they are completely financed by PRC. They are the only ones still talking about this topic,” TGE’s prime minister Samdhong Rinpoche says. Being paid by the Chinese is the worst accusation for any Tibetan.

.
The Tibetan refugee’s capital is situated in the small town of Mc Leod Ganj, next to the district capital Dharamsala and twelve hours by bus from New Delhi. The Dalai Lama and members of his closest staff moved into the former residence of the British administration in 1960 with thousands of devotees following him. Among many Indians of that region, Mc Leod Ganj is known as “Little Lhasa”. It is a tiny place with two dusty one way roads winding up the mountain.

.

About 600,000 enlightenment-tourists come here every year. Loud music flows from cafés and bars into the valley and little stands with religious kitsch stand side by side along the roads, one of them even offering “monk’s fashion”. Young Tibetans here wear Jeans and T-Shirts whereas the western tourists usually dress like actors in biblical movies. Little Lhasa has become the “Ballermann” [an area with lots of clubs, bars, and discotheques in Palma de Mallorca famous among German tourists to the Spanish island] for spiritual seekers.

.

The small government district is a short way down the hill with tiny ministries, a parliament, and a library. The Dalai Lama again and again underlines that Tibetans in exile have built up a democratic system. There is a parliament with 43 to 46 seats. All sessions are recorded on DVD and then sent into the refugee settlements. On a theoretical basis the parliament may decide against the Dalai Lama. “But this never happened,” says the parliament’s president Penpa Tsering. “Everyone has great confidence into His Holiness. He sees the Tibetan question from many different angles, receives lots of information and is very, very logical.”

.

For a long time, His Holiness’ family members held high positions. Since 2001 the prime minister is elected directly. In 2006’s elections, he received more than 90% of the votes and thus was confirmed in office. The main goal of Little Lhasa’s political structure is to confirm the Dalai Lama’s decisions and to solidify his power. Parties are absolutely irrelevant and the separation of state and church is not mentioned in the exile Tibetan Charta although it avows itself to the “ideals of democracy” in nice sounding words.

.

In 1990, the independent Tibetan newspaper “mang-tso” (democracy) was published for the first time and quickly became the most important piece of media for Little Lhasa’s refugee community. “We wrote on election fraud, corruption, and everything else existent in every other country as well,” says Jamyang Norbu, then editor-in-chief. “Mang-tso” was uncomfortable and its editors didn’t allow themselves to be intimidated when some of them received death threats and the paper boys were threatened in the streets. In 1996, the situation got even worse, shortly after the newspaper published an article on the Aum sect which was responsible for poisonous gas attacks on Tokyo’s metro in 1995 killing 12 and leaving hundreds injured. The terrorist sect’s leader, Shoko Asahara on several occasions met the Dalai Lama. Even weeks after the first assault, Dalai Lama called him a “friend, yet not a perfect one.” Only later he went on distance to the sect. “Reporters Without Boarders” then said that due to that article “the religious authorities immediately put ‘mang-tso’ under pressure.” It had to close down; that was the end of “democracy”.

.

Criticism or public debates are not welcomed in Little Lhasa. Dalai Lama prefers to ask gods and demons for advice. His Holiness’ official state oracle is called Thubten Ngodup, born in 1958. He is living in Nechung monastery right behind the parliament.

.

For centuries now, the Dalai Lamas seek oracle advice in all important religious and political decisions. After his predecessor had died, Thubten Ngodup became the Dalai Lama’s official fortune-teller in 1987. It is said that he became aware his qualification in various dreams and visions for the first time. Another hint for his supernatural skills was his oftentimes bleeding nose.
Whenever the Dalai Lama has a question, Thubten Nodup would put on his 40-kg ritual garment. Incense would be burnt and his assistants would put a huge crown on his head. Then the oracle would start dancing to the music of horns and cymbals until he would enter a trance murmuring words only well-trained ears can understand. Dalai Lama strongly believes in his predictions. Looking back he found out that “the oracle was always right,” he once said.

.
This is not what democracy looks like and yet there is not much criticism regarding his way of governing for reasons of solidarity with a suppressed people facing the super power China. Drawn out of his country, the Tibetan head has to see the cruel injustice happening there and the old culture slowly being destroyed.

.
The communist leaders in Beijing try to defame the Dalai Lama by calling him “wolf in monk’s robes” or “devil with a human face and a beast’s heart”. At the same time, Chinese security forces suppress even the slightest move towards freedom on the Tibetan plateau. So one doesn’t have to wonder for most Westeners stepping on the side of the weak.

.

But Tibet never was the paradise it is in western imagination. When the Chinese marched into it in 1950, it was stuck up in the medieval era with monks and aristocrats sharing the power. Most people were slaves, serfs, or under debt bondage. The system was protected by a brutal religious police with whips and bars and many monasteries had their own prisons. Even the Dalai Lama’s friend Heinrich Harrer was shocked: “The monks’ rule in Tibet is unique and may only be compared to a strong dictatorship. They are suspicious of any influence from the outside that may endanger their power. They are intelligent enough not to believe in their unlimited power but they will immediately punish anyone who dares to doubt it.” Harrer reports of a man who stole a golden butter lamp from a temple. At first his hand were publicly amputated and then “his mutilated body was sewn into a wet yak skin. They let it dry and then threw it down a ravine.”

.
After the occupation, the Chinese presented themselves as the Tibetan people’s liberators and destroyed the monasteries. And they built up a new system of suppression. They oftentimes point out that despite of his peace messages the Dalai Lama supports the armed resistance in his homeland, himself being supported by “foreign imperialists”. In deed the Dalai Lama’s two elder brothers built up connections with the US intelligence agency. During several years, CIA trained about 300 Tibetans in guerrilla war techniques at Camp Hale in the Rocky Mountains. In a full moon night in October 1957, the first Tibetan elite soldiers jumped out of a B-17 without nationality marking over Tibet. For the case of being caught by the Chinese, each of them carried a small container of cyanite.
.

These Tibetan agents also protected the Dalai Lama’s flight to India permanently being in contact with the CIA via Morse messaging. Later on, the US financed the formation of a Tibetan rebel army in the Nepalese kingdom of Mustang. The programmes were stopped when the US intensified their trading with China in the early 1970s.

.
Regarding Buddhism rather as an esoteric cult than as a religion, many of the Dalai Lama’s followers are astonished when hearing of their idol working hand in hand with the US intelligence agencies. Or when they hear that Buddhism spread in Asia as with much bloodshed as Islam did in Arabia or as the Christian crusades. Again and again Tibetan monasteries had brutal fights against each other. Buddhism is not necessarily more tolerant than other religions. In an interview with “Playboy” magazine, Dalai Lama called homosexual practices “misconduct”. The teachings also condemn “having oral or anal sex with your wife or another female partner”. Similar passages had been deleted from his “Ethics for a New Millennium” on his publisher’s advice.

.
Dalai Lama is in favour of harmony. But he will have to face the confrontation as there is growing criticism in his own exile community. “His Holiness is living in a bubble without contact to the outside world,” says Lhasang Tsering, a long term activist. He is now running a bookstore in Little Lhasa. “Religion and politics should finally be separated.”

.
This is also what Jamyang Norbu is stipulating. “Dalai Lama is not a bad person”, says “mang-tso’s” former editor-in-chief. “But he begins to be a hindrance to our development. We don’t have democracy. Many things today are even worse than in 1959. Then we had three political powers: Dalai Lama, the monasteries, and the nobility.” Today the only leading figure left is the Dalai Lama.

© STERN

RED ALERT_Day Ten_ ‘RAISING THE STANDARD’

FORTY-DAY GATEKEEPERS INITATIVE FOR TURTLE ISLAND_June 10-July 20, 2011

Monday, June 20, 2011_by James C. Stephens

It was said of “the sons of Issachar” that “they were men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do.”  I Chronicles 12:32

When I came to know the LORD Yeshua in 1984, the Scripture that weighed most heavily upon my soul was 2 Peter 3:10. “The Day of the LORD will come like a thief in which the heavens and earth will pass away with a roar and all the elements will be consumed with intense heat.”

Knowing this, what type of people are we to be? YHWH’s set apart people, holy people.  And yet, like Isaiah, I feel “woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips among a people of unclean hearts.’  Rarely today have Elizabeth and I found friends who have not suffered from divorce or infidelity or some besetting sin, even in the body of Christ.  It is a difficult day.

During my early walk with Master Yeshua, I recall being deeply distressed when I began to see all of my sin. All of a sudden my despair was replaced with great joy as I realized that I could only see it because of the abiding work of the HOLY SPIRIT in my heart. At times, I grasped realities that I would share with other believers such as, “Can you believe it! Jesus is ALIVE! I mean, REALLY. He is not in the grave! He is ruling at the right Hand of YHWH and will return!” The expressions on their faces betrayed their hearts. “Yeh, so.”  WHAT?! I mean this changes everything! He is raised from the dead! He is our KING.

I began to see back then, that the Church was lukewarm. I didn’t come from a lukewarm Buddhist sect. We were zealots. How could I be any less zealous for my Savior Yeshua Ha’Moshiach, Jesus Christ of Nazareth?

We wrote tracts that spoke of our decision to follow Jesus.  We discovered on short order, that there was a Devil, and he was YHWH’s adversary.

Our first outreach in Santa Monica involved handing out literature to thousands of my former Buddhist friends who were attending a Buddhist parade. The night before our outreach, it seemed that all the forces of hell were unleashed as our son threw up on our bed, I got sick and gang members were attempting to break into an apartment above ours. We were apartment managers at the time as well. We didn’t let it stop us, but went out and shared the Gospel. I got miraculously well while witnessing.  While some of them have come to the LORD, I have recently discovered that many of them have passed away which has grieved me. It has also intensified my resolve to return to my first love, Yeshua and do the deeds I did as a young believer.

After our conversion to Jesus Christ in 1984 which coincided with the Olympics in Los Angeles, we felt compelled to share the Gospel with our Buddhist friends. After taking “Perspectives on the World Christian Movement” we discovered there was a gaping hole in the Christian Movement to reach the Buddhist world and were challenged by Ralph Winter to do something about it.  After much prayer and searching for a mission agency who worked among Buddhists we discovered there few doing any serious outreach.

 At about the same time in Pasadena, a terrible murder occurred of  Lois Haro, the daughter of Elsie and Herb Purnell who had been missionaries to Thailand and were working at the US Center for World Mission and William Carey International University. Lois, a newly married bride was abducted from the Pasadena Plaza at gunpoint, taken to the Rose Bowl, raped and shot to death. As a result of her tragic death, a cry for prayer went out in Mission Frontiers entitled, “Make Satan Pay for this one!”  It called for prayer for the establishment of an organization that would focus on reaching unreached Buddhists around the world. Prior to that the LORD Jesus had placed a burden on our heart for the establishment of a work to accomplish the same goal.

In 1996, when the Dalai Lama came to Pasadena, he was given the Key to the City by the Mayor, a sand mandala was built at Pacific Asia Museum, and the Dalai Lama spoke to 3,000 Chinese Buddhist leaders from all over the world. While it was a daunting spiritual task, we knew we were called to share the Gospel and pray against the onslaught of Tantric Buddhism in California.

While some Christians were very supportive, even financing the production of “Mankind Needs a Savior” which included the testimonies of four former Tibetan Buddhists and a Gospel message; some Pastors were resistant and suggested that it was not their responsibility to address since there are four hundred cults that come through here a year.

A small group of former Buddhists recognized our responsibility to engage in covering the city. During our interview of the Tibetan lamas that were building the sand mandala, they told us that they had to conduct prayers to prevent their own demonic possession since they were doing ritual that invited 722 deities to take possession of the territory where the sand mandala was built.

Bernie W. formerly a Buddhist from Sri Lanka taught us how to pray authoritatively over the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, the venue where the Dalai Lama was to conduct ancient rituals and give talks to the Buddhist community and at the Distinguished Speakers series to the general public.

It had not been the first time the Dalai Lama had been in the Los Angeles area. The question we wrote in a prayer letter,

“I keep asking the Lord,  “Why is the Dalai Lama coming to Pasadena? From a natural perspective, its timing may have something to do with conducting a visible media event during the Olympics for “Free Tibet.” On a supernatural level, couldn’t it be a continuation of the invisible spiritual war between God and the powers of Darkness? In light of Pasadena’s significance as a Christian center and an increased number of students who are now engaging in serious coursework preparing to do ministry among Buddhists, please pray.”

What we didn’t recognize was just how serious spiritual warfare was in this context. Years later, when I spoke to Chuck Pierce about the proliferation of Tibetan Buddhism in America and showed him the map we had done of all the sand mandalas, he said, “I dealt with Tibetan Buddhism once and will never do it again because of the intensity of the warfare and the backlash.”

After the 1996 outreach and spiritual initiative, all of our teams suffered from serious backlash. That is a very, very long and complex story. Many painful lessons were learned. But, Satan did not stop YHWH’s agenda.

I think the real question that should be asked is, “

Are we doing the work YHWH has purposed for our generation?”

I read John Owen’s “Sermon to the Nation” delivered on April 20, 1649 before the Parliament on a day set aside for extraordinary humiliation that should link our heart to the soul of the historic blood washed covenant community. We must ask ourselves, “Are we fulfilling YHWH’s burden  and purposes for our generation? Will we be ashamed to stand in the presence of our King before such an audience of faithful men and women? Will He say to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant?”  These are questions we must ponder in our generation.

Owens exhorted the Parliament! Yes, the Parliament who set an entire day aside for humiliation! How far we’ve fallen! Grasp that fact alone. Again, Owens, “The kings of the earth have given their power to Antichrist, endeavoring to the utmost to keep the kingdom of Christ out of the world. What, I pray, hath been their main business for seven hundred years (and I’d add, their business today as well?) and upwards,–even almost ever since the man of sin was enthroned? How have they earned the titles, Eldest Son of the Church, The Catholic and Most Christian King, Defender of the Faith, and the like? Hath it not been by the blood of the saints? Art there not, in every one of these kingdoms, the slain and the banished ones of Christ to answer for? In particular,–   

Hath not the blood of the saints of Jesus (eclipsed by Antichrist and his adherents), Wickliffites and Lollards, cried from the ground for vengeance upon the English “heaven and earth” for a long season? Did not their bodies lie in the streets of France, under the names of Waldenses, Albigenses, and the poor men of Lyons? Is not Spain’s inquisition enough to ruin a world, much more a kingdom? Have not all these, and all the kingdoms round about, washed their hands and garments in the blood of thousands of Protestants? And do not the kings of all these nations as yet stand up in the room of their progenitors with the same implacable enmity to the power of the Gospel? Show me seven kings that ever yet labored sincerely to enhance the kingdom of the LORD Jesus Christ, and I dare boldly say, Octavus quis fuerit, nondum constat.”   

I witnessed martyrdom in America when I received a call to a hospital to identify the body of Wally Tope, a Christian brother  who was struck down during the LA Riots in 1992.  We live in a serious age, which calls for men of faith willing to take unpopular stands in the face of evil. Wally was well known for his in-depth counter cult apologetic research on Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses which he produced incredible tracts from that lead many into the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Wally was called to preach in the hard places and had been working on a research project on Tibet at the time and had my card on his person.  That day I heard from the LORD that this was the beginning of many martyrs in America.

So where are we TODAY JUNE 20, 2011? Do we see YHWH’s Hand in turning kingdoms upside down? He has promised “His church that he will give unto it holy priests and Levites, Isa. Lxvi.20, 21, which shall serve at the great feast of tabernacles, Zech. Xiv.16.” The kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord, Revelation 11:15.

Are we walking as His sons and daughters in truth and obedience?

Don Upham, a former Navy pilot who served as a Firefighter, Paramedic, Captain, and Battalion Chief with the Los County Fire Department believes that “The Ancient of Days will pass judgment in favor of the Saints…When the Saints begin to take possession of the kingdom!’ according to Daniel 7:22.

In 2003, I worked with Don while addressing “The Circle of Bliss: an art exhibit on Buddhist meditational art” at the LA County Museum of Art. Years early when I was a Buddhist, I had performed in a Buddhist brass band in the same exact place that the sand mandala was being constructed. I confessed my sin in helping lay the groundwork for these Buddhist events in my young days as a Buddhist radical.    http://www.worldviews101.com for more indepth coverage in our twelve lesson course which focuses on a Christian perspective on the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhism).

During the process of our work together on a series of events that were being spawned from the Dalai Lama’s visits including An International Buddhist Film Festival, Sacred Music Festival inaugurated by the Dalai Lama in Los Angeles, etc., Don and I worked through many levels of strategic spiritual warfare. He ended up being instrumental in answering the question I had about the Dalai Lama’s activities in Pasadena back in 1996.

THE CANOPY OVER LOS ANGELES COUNTY

Don recognized that we had to dig deeply to uncover the root iniquities that gave the Dalai Lama permission to conduct his ceremonies in Los Angeles. We learned the power of answered prayer when no one else seemed to want to listen or assist in the battle.   His spiritual model which is thoroughly discussed in his excellent book In Favor of the Saints.

Don openly speaks of the spiritual battle and struggles he had in understanding what the LORD wanted him to do with what he was witnessing in his own life as he grappled what it would look like to walk out the purpose of God in his generation. First of all, YHWH has an agenda and we are involved in an ongoing battle with Satan, the dispossessed god of this world. YHWH wants us to learn to walk in the authority that He’s given us. Don drew on his experiences in Latin America in the Argentina revival and his growing experience of spiritual authority as a Christian working for the LA County Fire Department. The LORD showed him how worship changed the atmosphere over an entire territory as he sang over the territory assigned to him. Fires diminished.

He worked on difficult assignments dealing with toxic chemicals as well and recognized that the nature of the toxic spiritual rituals that the Dalai Lama and his priests were designing. But understanding the meaning and strategy of the enemy was not all. God wanted a canopy of worship established over the County of Los Angeles which would require prayerful teamwork and careful hearing the LORD.

He began to see that there were multiple dimensions of warfare and in this the LORD began unveiling the sins that had opened the doors for Tibetan witchcraft.  The LORD also began revealing how institutions that had fallen had broken original covenants that were honoring Jesus Christ and the faith. Christians began uncovering these at Claremont which was a beginning.  

On one day, I participated in the raising of the Canopy over Los Angeles and with a team of about five people prayerfully asked the LORD Jesus Christ for His Holy Scriptures that we could write on a tall fence stake which we pounded into the ground as one of the stakes to hold up the spiritual canopy over Los Angeles. It had become the LORD’s answer to Satan wishing to strengthen his dominion over Los Angeles through the Buddhist sand mandala. Shortly afterwards, we discovered that another mandala had been made. While we were in Hacienda Heights praying, one of the prayer warriors who was a son of a Central American President who had been assassinated by a bomb and had escaped afterwards to he United States where he came to faith, came up to me and said the LORD Jesus who saved me showed me your face in a vision. And here we are. There is much work to be done. It is but a beginning.

Shortly afterwards we prayed and also prayed over an area where a Latin American woman evangelist had been martyred by Satanists and dragged behind a truck and dropped off on Hacienda Heights blvd.  An hour later we were praying in the neighborhood over a house that we felt was a nest of evil. We were invited in and the house was full of every conceivable devil mask from around the world. The four of us testified to him about the power of Jesus Christ to set him free from his sin and were allowed to pray for his salvation. It was a powerful moment. He was the radio voice of a program on spiritualism in San Francisco broadcast out of Hacienda Heights!

There is so much more on identifical repentance, the influence of Jack Parsons who worked with L.Ron Hubbard attempting to channel the Spirit of Babylon into Pasadena. The hidden meaning of the Seal of the City of Pasadena. So much material.  Order the book, it provides an excellent experiential model of what was done complete with many biblical references.

Here is the link to In Favor of the Saints website for the book which lists the Table of Contents and other information. Also has links on the website for purchase on line and another link to his publisher for purchase and download of a PDF format of the book.

http://www.infavorofthesaints.com/              http://www.infavorofthesaints.com/

PETITIONS FOR TODAY.

(I could use gatekeepers help on prayer requests on items.  Please go to Facebook and join Facebook Worldviews101 group. We can share requests there. Thanks.

Pray about the floods and nuclear plants on the Missouri and Mississippi.

First the floods starting in Montana. Pray against the Tibetan tantric vases that have been buried in Helena, the State Capitol, in the Missouri, in Glacier National Park, Yellowstone.  Repentance.

Here’s the status of the flood from today:

MONTANA, NEBRASKA

“It’s all just sitting there, sitting there, sitting there. Everyone knows it’s going to come down, it’s just when and how quick that we’re all waiting for,” he said. “The bull is basically sitting in the chute and the gates are already open. He’s just not coming out to play yet, but when he does I anticipate he’s really going to be ticked off and bucking hard.”

…. http://youtu.be/G2zpkayD5k4

IN SACRAMENTO!

Federal officials have determined that Sacramento has the highest flood risk of any U.S. city outside New Orleans, with some neighborhoods under 10 to 20 feet of water after a catastrophic levee failure. Last month, state and federal officials participated in an emergency drill to prepare for just such a disaster.

NORTHWEST

The National Weather Service predicts this will be one of the top five water years in history in the Pacific Northwest, and the biggest since 1997, the last year of significant flooding, said Gina Baltrush said of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

NUCLEAR PLANTS PUT POPULATION AT RISK

 Fire knocks out spent fuel cooling at nuclear plant near Omaha — Operating under heightened alert level because of nearby flooding on Missouri River

June 10th, 2011 at 08:11 AM

  1. Fire knocks out spent fuel cooling at nuclear plant near Omaha — Operating under heightened alert level because of nearby flooding on Missouri River June 10, 2011                                                   
  2. JUST IN: ‘Notification of Unusual Event’ declared at nuclear plant near Omaha — “They don’t expect any radioactive material to be released” June 7, 2011                                                         
  3. Report: Radioactive release from nuke plant less than 150 miles from New Orleans               May 3, 2011Quake, not tsunami, may have caused

 

DENNIS R. NELSON

June 9, 6:37 p.m.

I am the President (and a Board Member) of the Chicago-based NUCLEAR ENERGY INFORMATION SERVICE (NEIS), “Illinois’ Nuclear Power Watchdog Group.” It just so happens that, living in Council Bluffs, Iowa, I went to Dana College in Blair, Nebraska (in the vicinity of the Omaha Public Power District’s Fort Calhoun nuclear plant), from 1972-1976, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) Degree in Biology and Environmental Studies. While at Dana College, I testified at the licensing hearing for the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant—arguing against giving Ft. Calhoun an “operating license.” ( I spoke about the dangers of the ionizing radiation to be released by the plant.) The electrical fire that “knocked out” the cooling for the irradiated (spent) fuel pool there shows us that: NUCLEAR POWER IS A VERY COMPLEX, INHERENTLY DANGEROUS AND ‘DIRTY’ ENERGY TECHNOLOGY WHICH IS HIGHLY VULNERABLE TO A WIDE RANGE OF UNANTICIPATED MISHAPS!!! What we need is a “nuclear construction moratorium,” the immediate removal of ALL direct and indirect federal nuclear subsidies (including loan guarantees and the Price-Anderson Act), and a speedy phase-out of the entire commercial nuclear power industry. We need to aggressively pursue a “‘CARBON-FREE/NUCLEAR-FREE’ ENERGY PATHWAY”—the best technically and economically feasible way for us to get off of all oil without nuclear (or coal) within 30-50 years. What we are talking about is a 100-percent U.S. renewable energy economy by 2040-2050, being based upon these things: (1) Greatly Increased Energy Efficiency; (2) Combined Heat-and-Power; and (3) Appropriate Renewable Energy Technologies.

Bob Nations, Jr., the Director of Shelby County Office of Preparedness, says that since the lack of preparation exposed by Hurricane Katrina, he is “preparing for the catastrophic event” in his six-county jurisdiction.&nbsp

Nations admitted that after a major quake, Tennessee′s infrastructure and response capabilities “would get overwhelmed fairly quickly.” 

There are 15 nuclear power plants in the New Madrid fault zone — three reactors in Alabama — that are of the same or similar design as the site in Japan experiencing problems. 

The USGS report predicts that a major quake would create horrific scenes like something out of a science fiction movie, potentially cutting the Eastern part of the country off from the West in terms of vehicular traffic and road commerce. 

“The older highways and railroad bridges that cross the Mississippi River, as well as older overpasses, would likely be damaged or collapse in the event of a major New Madrid earthquake,” according to USGS. 

In September, FEMA’s associate administrator for Response and Recovery, William Carwile, told a Senate panelthat FEMA has five regional groups planning for possible earthquake responses, but a major quake along the New Madrid fault line could displace 7.2 million people and knock out 15 bridges. The response would require 42,000 first responders from local firefighters to the Pentagon.&nbsp

Another study by the Mid-America Earthquake Center last year estimates that nearly 750,000 buildings would be damaged, 3,000 bridges would potentially collapse, 400,000 breaks and leaks to local pipelines and $300 billion in direct damage and $600 billion in indirect losses would occur. Source