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Richard Foster and the Be Still DVD
by Ray Yungen
Richard
Foster, one of the speakers in the new Fox Home Entertainment
Be Still DVD,
is highly regarded and well respected in much of the evangelical
community. His book, Celebration of Discipline, has
had a massive influence on Christendom for many years. And
yet, Foster has a long history of drawing from spiritual
wells that reflect eastern mystical beliefs. But with names
such as Beth Moore (see Beth
Moore statement) and Max Lucado on the Be Still DVD
label, most people will automatically trust the content
of this program. This means that tens of thousands of people
will be introduced to Richard Foster's spirituality with
a sense of security that what they are watching is biblically
sound, relevant for their lives and accepted by those whom
they have long trusted and looked up to.
In
order to understand the magnitude of this, we need to examine
what Richard Foster does indeed teach and promote. In 1994,
I had been alerted to Foster by a youth pastor friend who
had read Celebration of Discipline and began to practice
its contemplative methods. The youth pastor became alarmed
when while repeating a phrase over and over, he began to
drift into an altered state of consciousness and realized
such a mystical practice was more of an eastern style method
than one endorsed in Scripture. It was after this that I
attended a local seminar where Richard Foster was speaking.
At the end of the meeting, I approached him. Wanting to
know more about Foster's beliefs, I asked, "What do you
think about the current contemplative prayer movement?"
Foster emphatically told me, "Thomas Merton tried to awaken
God's people!" It was then I knew my concerns about Foster
were right—for you see, I had been researching and
studying Thomas Merton and knew Merton believed the Christian
church was missing what he considered one essential element,
something the Buddhists had but we didn't—contemplative
prayer (i.e., mantra meditation). It was this mystical element
Merton had hoped to "awaken" God's people to.
With
further study, I became convinced that Foster was in sync
with Merton. Merton, who at one time said he was impregnated
with Sufism1
(Islamic mysticism) and said he wanted to become the best
Buddhist he could be, likened the contemplative experience
to an LSD trip.2
And yet, of Merton, Foster says: "Thomas Merton has perhaps
done more than any other twentieth-century figure to make
the life of prayer widely known and understood
His interest
in contemplation led him to investigate prayer forms in
Eastern religion. Zen masters from Asia regarded him as
the preeminent authority on their kind of prayer in the
United States."3
Throughout
the years, Foster has shown great consistency in promoting
this eastern style meditation of Merton's. Starting with
Celebration of Discipline in 1978, Foster said that
we "should all without shame enroll as apprentices in the
school of contemplative prayer."4
And yet, Foster himself
says this is a dangerous prayer method that can invoke demonic
activity and requires special protection. From Foster's
book, Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home, Foster
says: "I also want to give a word of precaution. In the
silent contemplation of God we are entering deeply into
the spiritual realm, and there is such a thing as a supernatural
guidance that is not divine guidance. While the Bible does
not give us a lot of information on the nature of the spiritual
world [not true], we do know
there are various orders
of spiritual beings, and some of them are definitely not
in cooperation with God and his way!
But for now I want
to encourage you to learn and practice prayers of protection.
'All dark and evil spirits must now leave.'"5
Such
a notion is hard for former New Agers to understand. Of
Foster's warning, one former New Ager says: "Why would God ask us
to become involved in a type of prayer that could bring
exposure and harm from demonic influences? Foster warns
that a novice Christian should not engage in it.
Why would
Foster or any believer want to practice such a form of prayer?
Could it be they are infatuated with the seductive feeling
that accompanies it—and like other contemplatives,
feel the need to get closer to God? But this presents a
dilemma, for it is the finished work of Christ on the Cross
that allows us access to the throne of God, and that access
is immediately available to us the moment we are born-again.
It is not just for an elite group of people who are "mature"
enough to handle it; no, it is for all who have been born
of the Spirit and justified by faith."6
In Celebration of Discipline, Foster tells us "we
must be willing to go down into the recreating silences,
into the inner world of contemplation," later saying that
the "masters of meditation beckon us."7
Who are these masters he speaks of? Throughout his writings
and over and over through the years, Foster talks about
and promotes these "masters of meditation." All one has
to do is find a copy of Prayer: Finding the Heart's True
Home where Foster talks favorably about Sue Monk Kidd
(who teaches New Age goddess spirituality), Basil Pennington
(who said the Holy Spirit is the soul of the human family)
and Thomas Merton. In two of Foster's books, Spiritual
Classics and Devotional Classics he has gathered
the writings of 52 authors in each book of whom he describes
as great devotional writers. Both books are filled
with the writings of pantheists (god in all), universalists
(all are saved) and mystics. Foster lists more of these
"masters of meditation" on his website in a list
he calls "100 Spiritual Classics." The list includes
mystics and pantheists like Meister Eckhart and Tilden Edwards.
Some
may be asking right now, "Ok, Richard Foster endorses and
promotes those who teach mantra meditation. But does he
actually teach this himself?" The answer is a resounding,
yes! Throughout his writings, Foster promotes this spirituality.
Let's look at some of his comments on the subject:
"[W]e
should stop to reflect and to treasure the words, to turn
them over and over in our minds, repeating them."8
"Spend
some time this week listening to contemplative music designed
to quiet you, settle you, deepen you. (Compact discs and
tapes from the Taize
Community, John Michael Talbot, and the Monks of Weston
Priory are especially helpful.)"9
"Christians
have developed two fundamental expressions of Unceasing
Prayer. The first
is usually called aspiratory prayer
or breath prayer. The most famous of the breath prayers
is the Jesus Prayer. It is also possible to discover your
own individual breath prayer
.Begin praying your breath
prayer as often as possible."10
In
a 2004 Youthworker Journal (Youth Specialties) article,
contemplative advocate Mike Perschon related the following
encounter. He was about to teach a group of Christians contemplative
prayer when one woman asked, "Isn't that New Age or
Buddhist?" He responded with, "Well, Buddhists
do meditate, and there are many New Age meditative practices,
but what I am going to teach is Christian meditation."
She then asked, "What's the difference." He responded,
"Well, on the surface, nothing." Then he explained,
"The Buddhist empties the mind for the sake of emptying
it. The Christian empties the mind to fill it with Christ."
This is an oxymoron. However, the Bible nowhere says to
empty the mind in any way. It does say to fill it with Christ,
but no meditative practice is required to do this. Perschon
adds, that this "growing interest in the disciplines"
is largely due "to the huge and continually growing
success of Richard Foster's book" (Celebration of Discipline).11
This
is my very point.
It
is clear that Foster does indeed promote contemplative prayer,
and it is even more clear that his philosophy on contemplative
prayer aligns with that of Thomas Merton. So the questions
must be asked, is Thomas Merton's spirituality compatible
with that of Christian leaders like Beth Moore and Max Lucado?
And should Merton's and Foster's spirituality be represented
on a DVD that is supposed to be for the evangelical church
at large? Maybe a better question would be why are trusted
Christian leaders on a DVD that highlights and focuses on
a spiritual discipline that emphasizes the teachings of
Foster? At one time these answers would have been quite
obvious, but today such lines of distinction have become
blurred and obscure.
The
Be Still DVD focuses on the silence. Richard
Foster, in speaking of this silence, says: "Contemplative
Prayer immerses us into the silence of God. How desperately
we in the modern world need this wordless baptism!
Progress
in intimacy with God means progress toward silence."12
If
Foster's silence becomes the standard vehicle for going
deeper with God, the Christian of the future (perhaps the
near future), may soon resonate with Thomas Merton, who
said: "It is a glorious destiny
to be a member of the human race, ... now I realize what
we all are .... If only they [people] could all see themselves
as they really are ... I suppose the big problem would be
that we would fall down and worship each other ...
At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which
is untouched by sin and by illusions, a point of pure truth
... This little point ... is the pure glory of God in us.
It is in everybody."13
That is the crux of the controversy. If one takes
the time to research the contemplative prayer movement in
its totality, one will certainly find that the above observation
by Merton is not just an anomaly but is the standard perception
and outcome of contemplative spirituality. That is where
Foster's silence will lead those who follow it. It is the
ultimate compromise of the Gospel and it simply cannot be
ignored.
1. The Springs of Contemplation, p. 266.
2. Interview with Matthew Fox, http://nineoclockservice.tripod.com/mattiefx.htm.
3. Spiritual
Classics, p. 17.
4. Celebration of Discipline, 1978,
p. 13.
5. Prayer: Finding the Heart's True
Home, p.157.
6. Running Against the
Wind, 2nd Ed., p. 145.
7. Celebration of Discipline, 1980,
p. 13.
8. Celebration of Discipline, 1980,
p. 13.
9. From Renovare Perspective Newsletter,
http://www.renovare.org/readings_perspective_archive.htm.
10. Prayer: Finding the Heart's True
Home, p. 122.
11. Disciplines, Mystics and the Contemplative
Life by Mike Perschon, http://www.youthspecialties.com/articles/topics/spirituality/desert.php.
12. Prayer:
Finding the Heart's True Home, p. 155.
13. Conjectures
of a Guilty Bystander, pp. 157-158.
For
more information on the Contemplative Prayer (i.e., Spiritual
Formation) movement, see Lighthouse
Trails Research.
FOR
MORE ON BE STILL
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