Don't bring your Bible to school, children; instead, prepare to spend 40 minutes a day practicing transcendental meditation (TM)! 

This gasp-worthy development is the brainchild of the David Lynch Foundation. Lynch is the man who brought us uplifting and spiritually healing programs like HBO's "Hotel Room," which tells such edifying stories as these, according to one reviewer: 

"In 'Tricks' set in 1969 Moe Boca brings prositute (sic) Darlene to his room where their tryst is intrupted (sic) by the arrival of Moe's friend Louis where mind games ensue. In 'Getting Rid of Robby' set in 1993, Sasha plots to kill her lover Robert in the most unsusual (sic) of ways within the room. In 'Blackout' set in 1936, Danny brings to the room some Chinese take-out food for his wife Diane where a sudden city-wide blackout makes them reminise (sic) of (sic) their only child who drowned years before."

The man who thinks it's a good idea to bring such ghastly stories into your living room is now bringing TM into the classroom. 
 
Brought here by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, TM is a form of mantra meditation, which in Sanskrit means "a sacred utterance, numinous sound, or a syllable, word, phonemes, or group of words believed by some to have psychological and spiritual power. Mantra may or may not be syntactic or have literal meaning; the spiritual value of mantra comes when it is audible, visible, or present in thought." 

That's right -- it's Hinduism, and it's already being taught in our schools -- not to mention in our armed services, prisons, homeless shelters, and to targeted groups from women and Africans to American Indians, thanks at least in part to the efforts of Lynch's foundation.   

What's the harm? 

According to the late Caryl Matrisciana, one of Hinduism's most dangerous messages is that "man is not a sinner only ignorant of his so-called divinity. Lying to oneself that one is without sin and not in need of forgiveness from the only One Who is capable of forgiving sin is indeed an evil message of bondage." 

It's also a lie with eternal consequences for anyone who believes it; there is only one way to heaven, and this is not it. But it's being taught to thousands of American children, with tens of thousands on deck, awaiting your donations to Lynch's foundation. 

In Matthew 7, Jesus is recorded as saying, "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
 
He was certainly correct: Many (perhaps most) in our culture are scampering down the broad way leading to destruction, while relatively few are taking the difficult way leading to eternal life. 
 
The evidence is all around us. We have become a culture preoccupied by materialism and amusement (with “a-” meaning “not” and “muse”meaning “think”). Most people care only about being prosperous and busy busy busy to stomp out the boredom that would otherwise consume them. (I remember a day when my worst nightmare, as an atheist, was being stuck somewhere without a page-turning novel in hand.)
 
Here’s another piece of evidence -- the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) list of the most-played "holiday" songs of the last 50 years.   
 
As this list makes clear, Christmas is no longer a celebration of the birth of the Savior of the world. It has instead become almost exclusively a celebration of materialism and entertainment. Here are the top 10; you'll find more if you click on the link above:  

1. "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town"
2. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"
3. "Winter Wonderland”
4. "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!"
5. "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)"
6. "Jingle Bell Rock"
7. "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year"
8. "Sleigh Ride"
9. "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"
10. "It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas"

The first song relating to Jesus Christ is 1958's "The Little Drummer Boy" at #19, followed at #20 by 1962's “Do You Hear What I Hear?” And a good case could be made that they are among the least reverent of all songs in their genre. For instance, "Do You Hear What I Hear?" does not mention Jesus, nor His stated purpose of coming to earth to seek and save the lost. In fact, it was written by a then-married couple wanting to promote peace during the Cuban missile crisis. Think about the last verse:

Said the king to the people everywhere,
"Listen to what I say!
Pray for peace, people, everywhere,
Listen to what I say!

The Child, the Child sleeping in the night
He will bring us goodness and light,
He will bring us goodness and light."

Hmmmm. A king telling “people everywhere”about the Child? But Herod wanted that Child dead, and went to horrific lengths to try to achieve his goal.

“Pray for peace”? But in 1 Thessalonians 5, the apostle Paul warns, “For when they say, 'Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.” 

Maybe it’s time for Christians everywhere to focus on the eternal life that Jesus came to bring to all who repent and trust in Him – and to say “Bah humbug!” to the world’s take on this holiday.

After all, as the apostle John said in his first epistle, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” 

Dr. Jerry Bergman has just released his latest book, C. S. Lewis, Anti-Darwinist: A Careful Examination of the Development of His Views on Darwinism (Wipf and Stock, 2016). And what a happy surprise it is! I was delighted to learn that Lewis rejected Darwinism in all its forms – certainly not a given in his day, before the modern creation-science movement had begun amassing evidence that the Genesis account of our origins is true.

Dr. Bergman has done a masterful (and highly entertaining) job of documenting Lewis’s unfolding thoughts on the subject, and proving that he was indeed an increasingly belligerent opponent of evolution theory. In the process, he has peppered his report with fascinating facts to address virtually any readers’ interests.
 
We learn, for instance, that Arthur J. Balfour (whose Balfour Declaration paved the way for the restoration of the nation of Israel in 1948) was a Christian apologist and anti-Darwinist whose ideas “permeate the first five chapters of Lewis’s book Miracles.”
 
We find that Lewis posed an important question long before the oft-cited “you can’t figure out where a PC came from by examining it” advice of modern apologists: “You have to go outside the sequence of engines, into the world of men, to find the real originator of the Rocket,” he wrote. “Is it not equally reasonable to look outside Nature for the real Originator of the natural order?”
 
We see that Lewis understood only too well the motives of evolution theory’s original champions: “Does the whole vast structure of modern naturalism depend … simply on an a priori metaphysical prejudice?” he asked. “Was it devised not to get the facts but to keep out God?”
 
And we learn that Lewis’s hostility towards evolution theory grew over the years, to the point where he released a public attack on it, albeit pseudonymously, in the form of a mocking poem entitled “Evolutionary Hymn” (1957).
 
Ever since I stopped studying Lewis and started studying the Bible what seems like a lifetime ago, I have had major problems with certain aspects of Lewisian soteriology. But Dr. Bergman has made me appreciate Lewis’s writing once again – and, for the first time, his view of our origins.  

Intrigued? You'll find C. S. Lewis, Anti-Darwinist wherever books are sold, as they say -- including here at Amazon.