Development

The Earth Charter Commission approved the final text of the Earth Charter in 2000, and it has since been embraced by the United Nations, many religious leaders around the world, the majority of world governments and countless Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) and activist groups. Following the release of the Charter a series of international forums, called The Earth Dialogues were held at the United Nations to discuss how the general public could be convinced to adopt the “covenant with the Earth” in a real and personal way.

Perhaps most revealing was the forum for Inter-Religious Groups and Spiritual Leaders. As stated in the forums official meeting minutes, the intent was to deal with "the ethics of intolerant righteousness and the greed of short term gain, as these cannot lead us to sustainable development. It is clear that our religious institutions have barely begun to articulate the core values of sustainable development. In their fundamentalist - fanatical forms, religions throughout history have justified terrorism, jihads and crusades against people who hold different beliefs and against the Earth itself." So we can clearly see who they consider their enemy to be.

While supporters of the Earth Charter consider traditional mono-theistic religions to be the main obstacle to peaceful coexistence and sustainable life on Earth, they do not propose doing away with spirituality. The Earth Charter goes into detail about the need for faith and spirituality in human life. The preamble of the charter states "the spirit of human solidarity and kinship with all life is strengthened when we live with reverence for the mystery of being, gratitude for the gift of life, and humility regarding the human place in nature."

So what exactly does this Earth Charter contain? Compared to most UN publications it is very short, only four pages long, direct, and to the point. It clearly lays out the Constitution for a New Green Order. "The choice is ours," it states, "form a global partnership to care for Earth and one another or risk the destruction of ourselves and the diversity of life. Fundamental changes are needed in our values, institutions, and ways of living."

In closing the Earth Charter concludes:

"As never before in history, common destiny beckons us to seek a new beginning. Such renewal is the promise of these Earth Charter principles. To fulfill this promise, we must commit ourselves to adopt and promote the values and objectives of the Charter. This requires a change of mind and heart. It requires a new sense of global interdependence and universal responsibility. We must imaginatively develop and apply the vision of a sustainable way of life locally, nationally, regionally, and globally. Our cultural diversity is a precious heritage and different cultures will find their own distinctive ways to realize the vision. We must deepen and expand the global dialogue that generated the Earth Charter, for we have much to learn from the ongoing collaborative search for truth and wisdom."

"Life often involves tensions between important values. This can mean difficult choices. However, we must find ways to harmonize diversity with unity, the exercise of freedom with the common good, short-term objectives with long-term goals. Every individual, family, organization, and community has a vital role to play. The arts, sciences, religions, educational institutions, media, businesses, nongovernmental organizations, and governments are all called to offer creative leadership. The partnership of government, civil society, and business is essential for effective governance."



"In order to build a sustainable global community, the nations of the world must renew their commitment to the United Nations, fulfill their obligations under existing international agreements, and support the implementation of Earth Charter principles with an international legally binding instrument on environment and development. Let ours be a time remembered for the awakening of a new reverence for life, the firm resolve to achieve sustainability, the quickening of the struggle for justice and peace, and the joyful celebration of life."



Unlike Agenda 21, which is a hard law document, the Earth Charter lays out the principles which laws and regulations will have to promote and enforce. The Charter "was drafted in coordination with a hard law treaty that is designed to provide an integrated legal framework for all environment development law and policy." This hard law treaty is called the International Covenant on Environment and Development and is being prepared by the Commission on Environmental Law at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a behemoth agency which oversees 700+ governmental agencies worldwide. Interestingly, Maurice Strong (busy man!) is on the IUCN's Board of Directors.

Again, unlike Agenda 21, the Earth Charter is not being forced on local communities from above. The United Nations is quietly fostering a grass-roots mainstream movement where people personally commit themselves to the Charter. They believe that this personal commitment will be necessary to bring about the societal transformation that the Charter requires. The primary tool being used to permeate society with awareness and acceptance of the Charter is the Earth Charter Initiative. This is another brain-child of Strong and Gorbachev.

According to their own description “The Earth Charter Initiative is the collective name for an extraordinarily diverse, global network of people, organizations, and institutions who participate in promoting the Earth Charter, and in implementing its principles in practice. The Initiative is a broad-based, voluntary, civil society effort, but participants include leading international institutions, national governments, university associations, NGOs, cities, faith groups, and many well-known leaders in sustainable development.”

The Earth Charter Initiative is located in, and managed by, the United Nations University of Peace. The governing council of this University contains some very interesting names. Many of its top academics are members of the Club of Rome. In fact the infamous Maurice Strong is the President of the University and its Rector, Martin Lees, is the Secretary General of the Club of Rome. The founder and current Chancellor of the University is Robert Muller, former Assistant-Secretary of the United Nations, and its #2 ranked official. Dr. Muller is very active in the educational and spiritual aspects of the Earth Charter and apparently he has the power of God behind him to give his voice much more moral authority.  From his own website Good Morning World you can read the entire list of ideas he has conjured and bounces off God for approval. (scroll down to bottom, and on the way down notice that prior to his final stamp of approval from God, he has been dialoguing with "Earth".  Robert Muller Schools are springing up all over the world

God:
"Dear Robert, congratulations for having finished your 4000 ideas. May I ask you: which one do you consider the most important?"

I:
Well, my most important idea and conclusion after all my adult life as a world civil servant is this:

THE UNITED NATIONS MUST BE VASTLY STRENGTHENED TO RESOLVE THE MAJOR GLOBAL PROBLEMS HENCEFORTH INCREASINGLY CONFRONTING HUMANITY AND THE EARTH. IT MUST BE EMPOWERED TO ADOPT AND ENFORCE WORLD LAWS AND REGULATIONS.

God:
"Thank you, dear Robert, for what you are recommending. Perhaps after all, the greatest jewel of my Creation, the Earth, can be saved.

Pervading Society

Millions of Americans were justifiably shocked and outraged over the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' notorious ruling on the Pledge of Allegiance. "Can our courts really have sunk this low?" people asked. "How can little Johnny and Suzie violate the Constitution by uttering the words 'under God' while reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in a public school?"

Yet that is what the Court said in its June 26th, 2002 decision. This ruling was a continuation of an ongoing subversive campaign aimed at expunging all mention of God and all Christian symbols from the public sphere. Judicial activists have ordered our students not to invoke the Almighty's name in prayer on school property. Posting the Ten Commandments on classroom walls is also supposedly a major no-no. Traditional Christmas carols with religious themes are out, as are Nativity scenes. Christmas and Easter vacations have been de-Christianized to, respectively, winter and spring breaks. Many textbooks have dropped the traditional "Christocentric" dating system of B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini, In the Year of Our Lord) in favor of B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era).

Many Christians concerned about this trend are looking hopefully to the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the 9th Circuit's ruling, as it has done with some of that court's previous radical rulings. Even if that were to happen, developments at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (also known as Earth Summit II) could ultimately undo any Supreme Court reversal. If the Earth Summiteers have their way, Johnny and Suzie will not be able to pledge allegiance to "one nation, under God," but they will be able to pledge to "One World, under Gaia" -- that is, Mother Earth. They will not be allowed to have the Ten Commandments or the Holy Bible in class, but could soon be bowing before the pagan "Ark of Hope," reading the "sacred" Temenos Books, and reverently intoning the text of the new UN Earth Charter.

Those decrying the 9th Circuit Court's harmful decisions will take little comfort in learning that senior 9th Circuit Court Judge J. Clifford Wallace was among the jurists attending the Johannesburg Summit's Global Judges Symposium. That meeting was hosted by several globalist institutions with a pronounced hostility toward the United States. The participants, which included judges from Communist regimes, pledged to "apply new legal instruments in keeping with the principles of sustainable development' and the international "Rule of Law."

One of the documents designed to advance this process, the long-awaited Earth Charter, was formally unveiled to the world at Johannesburg. Crafted by a conclave of "Wise Persons" headed by former Soviet dictator Mikhail Gorbachev, it is set to become the Holy Writ of the UN's new "global spirituality." Although the Earth Charter is not a legally binding document, its impact may prove damaging and pervasive. Its benign-sounding verbiage and symbolic nature camouflage its dangerous purpose. The Charter is intended to become a universally adopted creed that will psychologically prepare the world's children to accept the necessity of world government to save the environment. It is also an outrageous attempt to indoctrinate your children in the UN's New Age paganism.

Blasphemous Symbols

Weeks before the start of Earth Summit II, the Earth Charter arrived in Johannesburg for a series of rituals, celebrations, and promotions aimed at setting the spiritual tone for the global conference. The venerated Charter is housed and transported in the Ark of Hope, a blasphemous mimicry of the biblical Ark of the Covenant, which held the two tablets containing the Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses. The Ark of Hope is actually designed to look like the Ark of the Covenant and its devotees carry it around with worshipful solemnity. Accompanying the Charter and the Ark are the Temenos Books, containing aboriginal Earth Masks and "visual prayers/affirmations for global healing, peace, and gratitude," created by 3,000 artists, teachers, students, and mystics. According to the Temenos Project, which launched the effort, a temenos is "a magical sacred circle where special rules apply and extraordinary events inevitably occur."

The Ark, Charter, and Temenos Books were placed on display at the UN summit site and then put to work building the new global ethic. Day after day, UN acolytes carried the sacred objects from school to school, where tens of thousands of children already had been prepped with Earth Charter propaganda. Public ceremonies with mayors and celebrities augmented the school events.

The summit's opening day featured a four-hour symposium entitled, "Educating for Sustainable Living with the Earth Charter." Steven Rockefeller, a religion professor and scion of the fabulously wealthy banking family that donated the land for the UN headquarters in New York, was preeminent among the presenters. Professor Rockefeller is also chairman of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Earth Charter International Drafting Committee. According to Rockefeller, the way to go about "building peace on earth" is through the "inclusive, integrated and spiritual approach" of the Earth Charter.

Covering the summit for USA Radio, Cathie Adams told THE NEW AMERICAN that Rockefeller described the Charter as an effort to incorporate the "wisdom of the world's religions." Razeena Wagiet, environmental adviser to South Africa's national minister of education, was one of the presenters who followed Rockefeller to the podium. According to Wagiet, astrologers have foreseen that the world is about to enter a "Golden Age, a New Age, an Age of Aquarius."



Earth Charter Integration

Outlining how the Earth Charter is to be integrated into lifelong education for all, Hans van Ginkel, chairman of the International Association of Universities, told the symposium: "We must mobilize all in education about sustainability; that's how we meet the next generation." Sixteen million teachers must be trained, he noted, and "the only way to move forward is by integrating the Earth Charter into curriculum."

The Stong-Gorbachev Earth Charter effort is already fast at work on that score. Their website declares:

"The Earth Charter values and principles must be taught, contemplated, applied and internalized. To this end, the Earth Charter needs to be incorporated into both formal and non-formal education. This process must involve various communities, continue to integrate the Charter into the curriculum of schools and universities, and constitute an ongoing process of life-long learning."

According to the same website, the Earth Council, UNESCO, and the Earth Charter Initiative folks already have many of the curriculum materials and programs prepared; in fact, they're already up and running in schools across the globe. Some American schools got an advance start on the rest of humanity with Charter activities, coinciding with the journey last year of the Ark and its contents to the UN in New York. The pilgrimage began in Vermont, where Steven Rockefeller, in his role as dean of religion at Middlebury College, held a sacred Earth ceremony. Joining him and the other worshipers was Jane Goodall, the celebrity chimpanzee expert who has become a fixture at forums sponsored by Mikhail Gorbachev and the UN. The Charter was carried on foot, by car, and by boat, arriving in New York City on November 8th, to be greeted by Pete Seeger, the leftist folksinger. On January 24th, the Ark and Charter were carried in a procession from the Interfaith Center of New York to the United Nations Church Center Chapel, a distance of about 15 blocks.

The Charter's authors are not shy about the importance of their handiwork. "My hope is that this charter will be a kind of Ten Commandments, a 'Sermon on the Mount,' that provides a guide for human behavior toward the environment in the next century and beyond," Gorbachev stated in a 1997 interview with the Los Angeles Times. Canadian billionaire socialist Maurice Strong, who presided over the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, is somewhat less tentative. "The real goal of the Earth Charter," said Strong, "is that it will in fact become like the Ten Commandments." Mr. Strong had high hopes that the Charter, conceived in 1987, would be adopted by the world at Rio. It was decided that the world was not ready for the release of a charter to invigorate the world into embracing a paradigm of sustainable consciousness.  My interpretation of this hesitation is simply due to the fact that the notion of man-made global climate change had not been indoctrinated thoroughly enough to start cramming something as radical as the Earth Charter down everyone's throats without threat of massive resistance.

In his opening address to the Rio summit, Strong directed the world's attention to the "Declaration of the Sacred Earth," which was part of the pre-Summit ceremonies. "The changes in behavior and direction called for here," said Strong, "must be rooted in our deepest spiritual, moral, and ethical values." According to the declaration, "The [ecological] crisis transcends all national, religious, cultural, social, political and economic boundaries." "The responsibility of each human being today is to choose between the force of darkness and the force of light," Strong exhorted. "We must therefore transform our attitudes and values, and adopt a renewed respect for the superior laws of Divine Nature."

The "Sacred" Text

"The protection of Earth's vitality, diversity, and beauty is a sacred trust," the Earth Charter asserts. However, "an unprecedented rise in human population has overburdened ecological and social systems. The foundations of global security are threatened." Thus, "we urgently need a shared vision of basic values to provide an ethical foundation for the emerging world community."

The Charter is making its way to schools, city governments, state legislatures, teachers organizations, civic groups, professional associations, judges, and law schools. The aforementioned Global Judges Symposium concluded its summit activities by issuing the so-called Johannesburg Principles on the Rule of Law and Sustainable Development. "We recognize," it states, "the importance of ensuring that environmental law and law in the field of sustainable development feature prominently in academic curricula, legal studies and training at all levels, in particular among judges and others engaged in the judicial process."

The judicial symposium was sponsored by the United Nations Environmental Program (largely supported by U.S. tax dollars) and the Environmental Law Institute, one of the principal eco-activist legal groups supported by U.S. tax-exempt foundations.

For the amount of time, effort, and money invested in the Earth Charter program over the past decade, its profile at the 2002 Johannesburg Earth Summit was remarkably subdued. Apparently, the plan is to orchestrate a global stealth campaign for the Charter among a sympathetic core constituency. As the campaign picks up steam, activists will obtain signatures and public support for this new global ethic from local, state, and national governments, schools, and organizations - without stirring the suspicions and opposition of churches, pro-life, and pro-family forces. Once a critical mass of support has been built among students, teachers, journalists, and public officials, the Charter will appear to be universally accepted and unstoppable.

Transformation of the Soul

As many of you are aware there is an ongoing onslaught against traditional Judeo-Christian religions and values, while simultaneously seemingly embracing Islamic values.  In fact, all of our usual 'players' (Al Gore, Maurice Strong, Mikhail Gorbachev, et al) claim to be devout disciples of the Baha'i Faith.

Baha'i literature proclaims the following:

"National rivalries, hatreds, and intrigues will cease, and racial animosity and prejudice will be replaced by racial amity, understanding and cooperation.  The causes of religious strife will be permanently removed, economic barriers and restrictions will be completely abolished, and the inordinate distinction between classes will be obliterated.  Destitution on the one hand, and gross accumulation of ownership on the other, will disappear."

Baha'i grew out of Islam, and is in fact a stepchild of the Islamic faith, albeit a despised one.  Rather than naming Muhammad as the greatest of the prophets as the Muslims do, Baha'is hold Baha'u'llah to be the greatest of the prophets while extolling the virtues of Gaia, Mother Earth.

The Baha'i faith has become a popular religion in an environment of ecumenism, inclusiveness and political correctness.  Embraced eagerly by the United Nations and other interfaith organizations, Baha'i is a growing humanist influence on our world.  There are currently 17,148 Local Spiritual Assemblies of the Baha'i faith in the world and 4,515 in the United States alone.  Members claim a presence in 235 countries and their literature is translated into 700 languages with a total world membership estimated at 5,000,000.  The Baha'i Faith maintains chapels and meditation rooms within the United Nations.

Notice how their mission statement dovetails with Agenda 21?  Let's expound on this a bit, using our good buddy Maurice Strong as an example.

Maurice Strong, founder and Secretary General of the United Nations Environment Programme and Senior Advisor to Kofi Annan. Founder of the Earth Council and the Earth Charter Initiative, and former President of the United Nations University of Peace. He, more than anyone else, has been the architect of the Global Green Agenda. Strong is a devout Baha’i and from his lofty positions within the UN has permeated the organization with Gaian theology.

He is the author of most of the key UN environmental policies and plans including Agenda 21, the Earth Charter, the Kyoto Protocol and the UN report on Global Governance. While he chaired the Rio Earth Summit, outside his wife Hanne and 300 followers called the Wisdom-Keepers, continuously beat drums, chanted prayers to Gaia, and tended scared flames in order to “establish and hold the energy field” for the duration of the summit. You can view actual footage of these ceremonies on YouTube. He founded the Manitou Institute where various Hindu, Buddhist, and New Age groups perform rituals to heal Gaia. The Institutes Mission is “to perpetuate the ancient tradition of peoples of many tribes journeying here for a sacred connection to the Earth.” Very Gaian!!

The Baha’i faith sees the United Nations as the vessel by which the unifying of the world’s religions into one faith will come to fruition. Their plan for the future of our world and the role of the United Nations overseeing a regionalised world mirror almost directly the proposal outlined by Maurice’ Strong Commission on Global Governance. Baha’i writings state “the oneness of humanity implies an organic change in the structure of present-day society, a change such as the world has not yet experienced. It calls for no less than the reconstruction and the demilitarization of the whole civilized world – a world organically unified in all the essential aspects of life, its political machinery, its spiritual aspiration, its trade and finance, its script and language.”

In a statement to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in August 2002, the Baha’i Community wrote, “despite significant achievements, the United Nations has yet to grasp fully both the constructive role that religion can play in creating a peaceful and prosperous global order, and the destructive impact that religious fanaticism can have on the stability and progress of the world. The UN must work untiringly to exorcise religious bigotry and superstition from within their faith traditions and renounce claims to religious exclusivity and finality.” In other words Christianity, Judaism and traditional Islam are forms of religious bigotry that must be exorcised from the world system.

The Baha’i organization claims to have a close working relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO) and with the United Nations Environment Programme. It is also involved in joint activities with UNIFEM and UNICEF as well as many other religious, environmental and social programs within the UN. The Baha’i spiritual beliefs mirror almost exactly those described by the Lucis Trust and AAC described below. They too are waiting for the imminent arrival of an ‘Enlightened Being’ who will lead humanity into a ‘new world order’ and maintain a presence within the U.N.

“For Baha'is, the term "new world order" has a special and clear-cut meaning. More than 100 years ago, Baha'u'llah invoked the phrase to categorize a future series of momentous changes in the political, social and religious life of the world. "The signs of impending convulsions and chaos can now be discerned, inasmuch as the prevailing Order appeareth to be lamentably defective," He wrote. "Soon will the present-day order be rolled up and a new one spread out in its stead. Baha'is understand that the dramatic changes and transformations we have witnessed over the last century - and which we are continuing to see - have been initiated by the coming of a new Messenger of God and influenced by the breaking light of a new Revelation.” – link

The Aquarian Age Community

The AAC was founded by the Lucis Trust (subsidiary of Lucifer Publishing Company) and describes its mission as “preparing the way for the imminent appearance of the World Spiritual Teacher.” They are an official consultative NGO in association with the United Nations’ Department of Public Information and their website is sponsored by the UN. On their website they state:

“We have an informal network at the UN, a humanity underground. It consists of those who are committed, aware, and striving to bring the New World to birth. It consists of people in high places and in low. The patient Secretary who has been 30 years with the UN, but lives with the vision and the spirit; of the professionals, and undersecretaries and heads of departments who are acting out the imperatives that their own inner vision gives them.

Some few are conscious of the sources of their inspiration; most are not. They are the Karma Yogis of our time - those whose path of spirituality is to achieve through doing - to grow through serving. They are found not only in the secretariat but also in the delegations to the UN, among the diplomats and their staffs, and also among folks like us, representatives of non-governmental organizations around the UN.” – link

No doubt the ‘patient Secretary’ refers to Robert Muller who served as Assistant Sec-Gen of the UN for decades, or perhaps Maurice Strong who also served in this position. The AAC has a startling website that clearly outlines their goals and influence within the UN. Even a brief perusal leaves little doubt of their true agenda. Articles on their site include:

THE SPIRITUAL IMPULSE BEHIND THE UNITED NATIONS
PLANETARY INITIATION AND THE WORK OF THE UNITED NATIONS
THE NEW WORLD ORDER AND THE WORK OF THE UNITED NATIONS
SPIRITUALITY AT THE UNITED NATIONS
PREPARATION FOR THE REAPPEARANCE OF THE WORLD SPIRITUAL TEACHER

It would take a hundred pages to analyze all the material on the ACC site so I encourage the reader to take a look at the articles listed above for themselves. Perhaps the most interesting pages are the minutes from their meetings discussing how they will “recognise the World Spiritual Teacher and introduce him to the world.” Top UN officials attend these meetings!

Conclusion

Obviously to fully understand the implications of the Earth Charter one must wander down some dark labyrinthine corridors that could generate entire books unto themselves.  All I could do within this article is give sketchy overviews that hopefully enable the reader to discern for themselves how all the pieces are fitting together. In my previous article, Artificial Paradise, Inc. I listed some of the organizations that are committed to promulgating the spiritual/educational aspects of Agenda 21 via the Earth Charter. We will never know if these people actually believe this stuff, or merely recognized how convenient it would be to have everyone else subscribe to this paganism.  Whatever that case may be, it is obvious that Earth worshippers would gleefully embrace policies that serve to protect her. When the Earth Charter is considered in conjunction with Agenda 21 then the achievement of a total transformation of the world can be more fully comprehended.  Global citizenship, ecological stewardship, social equity, and all these new-age terms take on meaning with much greater significance.

It is hard to point to the Earth Charter alone and ascribe to it just how insidious it is, for it must be weighed against all the beliefs of the individuals and organizations that are promoting it.  I hope I succeeded in bringing more clarity to this endeavor.

There is nothing wrong with spiritual enlightenment as they portray it, however, they are merely the repeater of words and seek to have others "think" accordingly.  This is NOT enlightenment. Just as one could be quite adept at quoting the Bible and the words of Christ, this does not necessarily make them in any way Christ-like. What should be glaringly obvious to anyone is that enlightenment is a process that requires a complete regression of developmental structuring of the ego.  It is a lifetime journey that defies a 'thought-process'.  Perhaps it would be nice to have the spiritual connections of the Nav'i as portrayed in the movie Avatar, but this is an evolutionary process and cannot be the outcome of mandates, rules, regulations, or laws.  As moving as the concepts may be intellectually, mankind is a long ways off from this experience of 'satori'.  In fact, although we have evolved greatly in our scientific/industrial capacities, mankind on the whole hasn't changed much since the beginning of recorded history.  The current divorce rate in the United States is approximately 45% and another estimated 25% that wish they could get divorced but because of a variety of reasons they stick it out.  We can't even get along with the 'loves of our lives' for an extended period of time, yet they purport how the world is ready to come together in a blissful union.  It is recognition of the fact that contrived psychologies may be intellectually stirring for some period of time, but they can never be transformative, that gives me hope that eventually this whole house of cards will collapse.  We are in for some tough times, but in the long run 'individuality' will prevail.