Since
Ruth Haley Barton has become a significant figure in bringing new
doctrine into Christianity, it is important to know who she is.
Her writings are filled with Christian clichés mingled with bizarre
misinterpretations of the Scriptures and quotes from Roman Catholic
heritics and pagan mystics. Inserted into the mixture is a
significant portion of New Age doctrine and practices. In fact,
while she unabashedly promotes Roman Catholicism and New Age beliefs
and practices throughout her writing and speaking, she repeatedly
chides Protestantism as being inadequate and far less spiritual than
Roman Catholicism. One has to wonder how a Christian could fall
to this level of deception. While other individuals have done an
excellent job of defining her by her doctrine and practices, I
believe it is important to define her by her spiritual journey as
well.
Rebecca
Ruth Haley Barton began her spiritual journey 20 years ago when she
was climbing the “ladder to professional success”. That
mindset motivated 52-year-old Barton to pack an impressive list of
accomplishments into her life. She claims to hold a Doctor of
Divinity from Northern Theological Seminary (Lombard, IL), a
Bachelor of Arts from Wheaton College (IL) and Master's studies at
Loyola University Chicago Institute for Pastoral Studies. She
claims to have studied the Enneagram with Russ Hudson of the
Enneagram Institute and a student of family systems theory as it
relates to congregational life at the Lombard Mennonite
Peace Center. Also, she claims to have taught at Wheaton
College Graduate School, Denver Seminary, Northeastern Seminary and
Mars Hill Graduate School, and that she is a senior teaching fellow
for the Renovare Institute, among other employment. She claims
to be an adjunct Professor of Spiritual Transformation at Northern
Seminary. Further, she founded and leads the Transformation
Center, has authored numerous books, resources, and produced a number
of videos, traveled and spoken at numerous churches and conferences,
served on the pastoral staff at several churches, and not to mention
lived in several different cities. I suppose she was still a
wife and a mother during some or all of that period.
However,
in her bio, she describes a phase in her life that led to a desperate
search for something greater than what Protestantism had to offer
her. In her thirties, married with children, Barton was likely
on staff at the Highland Hills Church of Christ when she experienced
a spiritual and emotional crisis. From her description in
various bios, she had become what might be termed as a “basket
case” that nothing in her Christian experience could correct.
“…I
was aware of things in my life that needed fixing and longings that
were painfully unmet. There was a level of selfishness that was
being exposed in the crucible of marriage and family life that I did
not know how to shift or change. There were emotions from past
pains and current disappointments that I did not know how to
resolve. There was a performance-oriented driven-ness that I
did not know how to quiet and a longing for more, but more of what?”
“I
had tried everything that had been offered in my own Protestant
tradition—more Bible study, praying harder, trying harder, better
sermons, Christian self-help books—to fix what was broken and to
fill what was lacking, but to no avail. In the midst of the outward
busyness of my “professional” life there was an inner chaos that
was far more disconcerting than anything that was going on
externally. But this was not a good time to admit to any
kind of spiritual emptiness or acknowledge any kind of serious
questions about my faith. As an emerging leader, it was a time
for being “good,” for being available when people called, for
maintaining outward evidences of spiritual maturity commensurate with
the responsibilities I carried and the opportunities that were coming
my way. It was a time to do what was needed in order to keep climbing
the ladder to professional success and I knew it; yet (sic) my
interior groanings were real and needed attention.” (Ruth
Haley Barton – from her Transformation Center web site.)
God’s
word, prayer, and anointed preaching and teaching has for the
entirety of Protestantism been sufficient to minister to individuals
with her level and type of needs and much greater needs. It has
been sufficient to bring millions of lost souls into the kingdom of
God. Millions have been delivered from various bondages and
sin. Millions have been healed, delivered, and had needs met
miraculously. Innumerable Protestant Christians have faced
imprisonment, torture, and even death being sustained by the very
factors that Barton claims were inadequate. Further, some of
the greatest Christians in history have come from the ranks of
Protestantism. Additionally, I have personally
experienced the power of God through His grace, love, and other
avenues of His touching my life through many difficult
circumstances. Barton declares that none of those things could
help her.
The
truth is that God is not going to become an enabler by feeding our
need to feel good and right when we have become a serial bad-choice
maker. It’s not about praying “harder”, whatever that
means, or searching for a cure in self-help books, or in “Protestant
tradition”. The answer is in putting God first, which leads
to putting ones family, emotional, and spiritual welfare before ones
ladder-climbing ambitions and other busyness. For example, imagine a
professing Christian choosing to eat whatever and whenever of an
abundance of food. Just because he or she is a professing
Christian does not mean health problems will not occur. Ones
“Protestant tradition” may certainly fail him or her when obesity
and subsequent health issues occur. It would be unfair to blame
it on God or Christianity when the consequences of bad choices come a
calling. Besides, it does not appear that contemplative prayer
solved her insatiable ambition, but perhaps has given her the means
to somehow block the reality of its consequences.
Consequently,
Barton rejected Protestantism to seek the help of a Roman Catholic
clinical psychologist, who was also a “spiritual director”
involved in pagan mysticism at The Loretto Center. The Loretto
Center is advertised as a convent and retreat in Wheaton Illinois
that was “founded and is supported in part by the Institute of the
Blessed Virgin Mary”. However, it more resembles a New Age
center of pagan mysticism.
“It
was almost twenty years ago now when, as a young leader, I crept into
a spiritual director’s office desperate for help. “
“For
me, help came through a spiritual director, although I didn’t even
know what one was at the time. Our paths crossed because she
was a psychologist. I sought her out for therapy because I
assumed that my problems were psychological in nature and could be
fixed at that level. Psychological insight and process were
indeed valuable—to a point. Eventually, however, she observed
that what I needed was spiritual direction and suggested that we
shift the focus of our times together to my relationship with God.
She told me that the questions I was raising were actually an
invitation to deeper intimacy with God and needed to be dealt with in
the context of that relationship. It was a welcome invitation and so
we made the shift.” (Spiritual Direction with Pastoral and
Corporate Leaders, Ruth Haley Barton, April 08 2013)
After
making the “shift”, Barton gravitated with whole abandon into
Roman Catholic/ New Age mysticism. She seems to be obsessed
with luring as many Protestant Christian leaders as possible under
her spiritual direction.
I
am convinced that some of us need to function as spiritual directors
outside of existing church systems and corporate structures so that
there is a safe place for leaders to go. I have offered spiritual
direction in my home and more recently, in my office at a nearby
retreat center (the Loretto Center). (parenthesis added) (Spiritual
Direction with Pastoral and Corporate Leaders, Ruth Haley Barton,
April 08 2013)
In
my opinion, this is a subtle attempt to separate Christians from
God-ordained ministers and draw them into the same deception Barton
was drawn into. Remember, Barton believes that the traditional
church with all its benefits failed her. Therefore, she is not
going to lead anyone to Christ the true Savior. The concept of
a “spiritual director” is simply another Roman Catholic attempt
to put an individual between God and us. The fact is that no
true Christian needs a spiritual director no more than he or she
needs a priest. Barton of course would disagree. In her
view, Protestants are too preoccupied with words to really get to
know God intimately. In fact, she almost contemptuously rejects
the idea that any Protestant can be anything significant in God
unless they practice contemplative prayer. Barton has not to my
knowledge claimed to have converted to Roman Catholicism.
However, she has beyond all doubt in practice made the “shift”,
as she puts it, away from “unspiritual and helpless”
Protestantism to the New Age/pagan allure of Roman Catholicism.
Evidence of this is in her many references to the insufficiency of
Protestantism, especially when it comes to spirituality.
All
of this is somewhat predictable given the fact that, as Protestants,
we are known by what we protest. But when the early reformers
protested some of the excesses of the Catholic Church, they also
threw out elements of the spiritual life that we couldn’t afford to
lose—and we have been the poorer for it.” ((Make a Joyful
Silence, by Ruth Haley Barton,
Sojourners Magazine, February 2009)
When
confronted with the fact that her doctrine and practices are
non-Christian, Barton expresses surprise that anyone would label them
as such. She defends them as having a biblical nature.
However, in the same context of defending her teaching, she exalts
some of the main individuals that are disseminating pagan/New Age
doctrines and practices into Christianity. Consider the
following from her web site.
“There
are still many who are suspicious, even antagonistic. A couple of
years ago as I was preparing to speak at Biola University about
spiritual disciplines, someone circulated a warning e-mail with the
subject line “Buddhism at Biola!” This language was stunning to
me, given the biblical nature of everything I was teaching. Those who
feel it is their duty to warn Christendom about contemplative
practices also disseminate diatribes, on the Web and elsewhere,
against spiritual leaders such as Dallas Willard, Richard Foster,
Eugene Peterson, and Brian McLaren. (Feb 05 2009, Make a Joyful
Silence, Ruth Haley Barton, Transforming Center web site)
Actually,
there is no “biblical nature” in what Barton teaches, but only
the support of ancient and not so ancient New age/Roman Catholic
heresy. However, heresy does not progressively become truthful
with age. Therefore, ancient heresy is no more qualified than
modern heresy to support a new doctrine. At the heart of
Barton’s heresy is the concept that God dwells in every
individual. Thus, we do not find God unless we look within
ourselves. This Buddhist and New Age belief is antithetical to
God’s word. She insists that the practice of contemplative
prayer will unlock our life that is “hidden with Christ in God”,
enabling us to become what God designed us from the beginning to be.
The following statements are evidence to the fact that she believes
that humanity is inherently good.
“Before
calling has anything to do with doing, it has everything to do
with being that essence of yourself that God called into being
and that God alone truly knows. It is the call to be who we are
and at the same time to become more than we can yet envision.
Our calling is woven into the very fabric of our being as we have
been created by God, and it encompasses everything that makes us
who we are—even those things that have caused pain and confusion.
This would include our genetics, our innate orientations and
capacities, our personality, heredity and life-shaping experiences,
the time and place into which we were born. As Parker Palmer
points out, ‘Vocation does not come from a voice ‘out there’
calling me to be something I am not. It comes from a voice ‘in
here’ calling me to be the person I was born to be, to fulfill the
original selfhood given me at birth by God.’” (Apr 08 2013,
Spiritual Direction with Pastoral and Corporate Leaders, Ruth Haley
Barton, Transforming Center Web Site)
"You
are so right! …It is not the true self that experiences
humiliation–only that which is false within us. It is good to
remember during this season that we have nothing to lose on the
spiritual journey except the false self which is not “real”
anyway (it just feels real) and everything to gain–the true self
which is hidden with Christ in God and which God is always calling
forth. How wonderful that you are experiencing this truth so deeply."
(Ruth Haley Barton, March 30, 2011, responding to a comment on her
article, Lent 2011: The Wilderness Within, Mar 29 2011)
Of
course, this is not the biblical definition of our calling or
vocation in God. God calls the weak things of the world to
confound the mighty and whom He calls He equips and qualifies.
Without God, we are by nature “children of wrath.” God’s
word declares that nothing good dwelt in us before salvation.
God’s word also declares that our self, the person we were born as,
is the real problem. That is why Paul declares that we must die
to self. We were born in sin, but by the grace of God we are
re-born into His kingdom. We must yield to God who delivers us
from sin through the blood of His only Son, Christ Jesus.
Further,
there is no kernel of God deep within Christians and even
non-Christians that one must find through contemplative prayer.
According to her agreement with Parker Palmer’s explanation of
"original selfhood", our life is hidden with Christ in the kernel of
God within us, and God is always calling that "selfhood" forth.
To believe Barton, we would have to reject the biblical plan of
salvation and the work of the Holy Spirit. We would also have to
reject every other great doctrine of God’s word and submit to an
alternate plan that gives us charge of our own salvation.
As
I watched her go through the steps into contemplative prayer on
YouTube, I felt nothing but pity for her. I could see the
sadness, the total control of the demonic spirit that in my opinion
has her in a death grip. I have known many individuals deep in
that grip of darkness, some of them before I became a child of God
and some afterward. All of them were as if suspended a few
centimeters above a vast bottomless pool of misery. They know
that if they fall in they will lose their lives and their souls.
In order not to fall in, they will do whatever the demon (spirit
guide) tells them to do. However, eventually Satan discards
them like worthless trash. When he has gotten all that he can
get out of them, and deems their deaths of more value than their
lives, he cruelly cuts the thread by which they are suspended.
A
person without Christ cannot avoid the misery of lostness. He
or she needs everything Satan has to offer to endure the dearth of
light. Subsequently, some vociferously chase the toys and
frolic in the pleasure pools of the world system until their minds or
bodies can no longer run the trail. Other ones are enlisted as
attractors, luring more individuals into the rat race. All
along the way God calls to them to exit the insidious roller coaster
Satan has lured them to hop on. Presently, the world society
has reached the point to where multitudes of individuals are seeking
relief from misery of lostness by religious means. Satan will
always find someone to do his bidding. Barton is willing to
distribute his falsehoods to avoid punishing torment. Her soul
void of God’s love is filled with the eerie shadows of false
knowledge and bleak deserts of heresies. I feel much pity for
her. At the end of her life there awaits judgment. All
she has is to enjoy her material possessions and what small comfort
she gets from her fame. That could all end in an instant.
While
my pity for her lostness compels me to pray for her soul, I must also
pray that she will not be allowed to lure anymore individuals into
the spiritual dungeon with her. Hopefully and prayerfully she
will be exposed fully enough that most Christian leaders will come to
their senses. To the extent she has been exposed by her own
words, I am astonished that she continues to be accepted into the
inner circles of leadership in Christianity. I realize that
some of the ones who promote her are themselves in need of
deliverance. However, many leaders of major denominations are
gullibly accepting her heresies without blinking. Never mind
the fact that she is an extremely erroneous and inept expositor of
the Scriptures, her open confession to diabolical practices and
doctrine ought to set off alarms in every true Christian.
Sadly, it has not been the case. God help us if that is an
indication of how weak modern Christians are in biblical knowledge
and spiritual discernment.
The
facts indicate that Ruth Haley Barton rejected Protestantism, declaring
that it had failed her, and ran into a convent of Roman Catholic/New
Age mysticism. There she visited a clinical psychologist that
was also a New Age spiritual director. Under her tutelage,
Barton learned how to contact the demonic realm. Barton then
ran into the waiting arms of the Shalem Institute of Spiritual
Formation. No worse quagmire of New Age heresy could she have
found. In the Shalem Institue, her spiritual formation from a
believer in Christ to a New Age heretic was completed. From
Shalem, she went on staff at one of the most heretical churches of
our generation, Willow Creek Community Church. Now she stands
on the final rungs of her “ladder of success” atop the heap of
the spiritual rubble that was once called Christianity and beckons
the ones who have thus far escaped to “Come, follow me.”
I pray that no one else answers her call.
Thank you for this research.
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