Raleigh Adams, a student at Yale Divinity School, who experienced first-hand this orientation ceremony, recounts how the students were sat down in a circle and told to recite a spell written by a self-professed witch, Adrienne Maree Brown, someone who is described in contemporary literary covens as a “mixed race Black queer American writer, community organiser, facilitator, witch and - may I say - goddess.”
This, the first activity of orientation, was a small group activity and the discussion opened with a set of “Restorative Circle Rules,” which included a warning to be open-minded and that all viewpoints were expected to be heard.
Adrienne Maree Brown’s radical gratitude spell is available on her website. Have a look at it yourself: while the words of the spell may seem innocuous and sentimental at first sight, it teaches reliance on the god self and is in fact completely opposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ, which teaches us that we must turn away from self to the Lord Jesus, who alone can save us from our sins. (Luke 14:26)
Adams says a second year student expressed a deep concern over this spell being included in the orientation, and that a Catholic graduate of the school told her in a ‘tongue in cheek, yet serious manner, “the very campus of the Divinity school needed prayer.”’
In the comments below the article, one of the commenters makes the point that if students were compelled to recite the Apostle’s Creed every day, the professor would probably be fired.
Raleigh Adams herself says she felt very uncomfortable reciting a witch’s spell at her orientation, and that she did not feel able to withdraw from this exercise due to the power imbalance between herself and the course facilitators.
…the preference for diversity comes at the expense of the sanctity of other students’ faith. While it was proclaimed that “you only have to take what you want from this circle,” personally I did not feel safe to opt out of the spell, being all too aware of the power imbalance and the risk of social stigma against me in this completely new environment. I cannot imagine myself being the only one to feel this way.
I would suppose that when the Israelites worshipped Baal in the temple in the period before the Babylonian exile, they probably saw the people who might be shocked and upset by this blasphemy as not open-minded enough. But worshipping other gods didn’t end well for the Israelites.
Unless the leadership repents, it will not end well for Yale Divinity School either; some day these Professors may well end up wishing they had been thrown into the sea with an ox-grindstone attached to their legs, before they caused even one of their students to stumble, as Jesus warns in Matthew 18:6-8.
It is good, however, that Raleigh Adams had the courage to write this article, for the Lord Jesus also said, “I tell you, everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man will also confess him before the angels of God.” Luke 12:8
Image source: https://www.ted.com/talks/adrienne_maree_brown_and_baratunde_thurston_how_to_imagine_a_better_future_for_democracy?subtitle=en
The discussion in the Ted talk linked to seems innocuous, but there is a clear subtext of hostility towards those who hold traditional Christian/ Catholic/Biblical beliefs. There will be a new heavens and a new earth one day, which will be where righteousness is at home. The only righteousness we can have is not our own righteousness, but the righteousness of Jesus, shared freely with us so that we can have the benefits of His righteousness, when He died on the cross.
Why do I include discussions of theology as fact checks in this substack?
Christian theology is deeply factual, because it concerns the incarnation of Jesus Christ, who is both fully a human being and fully the divine Word of God, in the physical world 2000 years ago in the town of Bethlehem during the reign of Augustus Caesar and his subsequent crucifixion under the procuratorship of Pontius Pilate, and physical resurrection three days later.
It might be objected that the Bible makes a distinction between truths in the physical universe and spiritual truth, but this is only because the spiritual dimension of truth can only be seen by those who have been given spiritual eyes to see. The spiritual truths are even more “true” than truths in the physical world, because they are ontologically foundational.
Or, rather, Jesus Christ Himself, the Word of God, is ontologically foundational.
The puritans who founded Yale and Harvard have long rolled over in their graves.