Al Gore & the Goddess??
I might be a little cranky tonight … I suffered a mild concussion on Saturday and still have a bit of a headache, but something Al Gore wrote is bugging me.
Gore has been up front a lot lately, with his award winning documentary on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, winning an Academy Award Sunday night. 
In my browsing around for research on my goddess worship book, I came across an interesting quote from a book Gore wrote in ’93 called Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit. He seems to validate ancient goddess worship, claiming that it preceded our biblical heritage.Take a look:
"The spiritual sense of our place in nature . . . can be traced to the origins of human civilization. A growing number of anthropologists and archeo- mythologists. . . argue that the prevailing ideology of belief in prehistoric Europe and much of the world was based on the worship of a single earth goddess, who was assumed to be the fount of all life and who radiated harmony among all living
things. . . . [Ceremonial sites] seem to confirm the notion that a goddess religion was ubiquitous throughout much of the world until the antecedents of today’s religions–most of which still have a distinctly masculine orientation–swept out of India and the Near East, almost obliterating belief in the goddess. The last vestige of organized goddess worship was eliminated by Christianity . . . .[I]t seems obvious that a better understanding of a religious heritage preceding our own by so many thousands of years could offer us new insights . . . ." (p. 260)
This sounds so much like Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, with the same thinly veiled accusations that Christianity violently stamped out an earlier idyllic golden age of paganism centered around worship of a benevolent earth goddess.
This much is true–goddess worship, in different forms, is very old. Check out these Scriptures:
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Jeremiah 7:18-19 (where the goddess is called the Queen of Heaven)
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1 Kings 11:33 (where the goddess is called Ashtoreth)
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Acts 19:27 (where the Apostle Paul has a run-in with worshippers of Artemis in Ephesus)
But rather than bringing "harmony to all living things," as claimed by Gore, above, historical goddess worship is often associated with temple prostitution, human sacrifice (check out this Dartmouth article on the Minoan goddess cults), secret magical rites, and invoking demonic powers even to the point of inviting possession. Near Eastern cultures worshipped goddesses who were "powerful, sexual, warlike, independent, and dominant over their male consorts" (from an article by Rosemary Ruether). One particular Indian goddess, Kali, is often pictured wearing a necklace of human skulls.
So, a golden goddess age of harmony? Hmmmm . . . I don’t think so, Al.
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SUSY FLORY is a writer, speaker, and journalist who inspires and challenges women to embrace a life of passion, boldness, & adventure. In your own unique way, YOU can change the world, starting in your own backyard. 
Knowing Al Gore, he probably plagiarized Dan Brown. Does Tipper know he said this? Probably not or she would have censored him, too.
Thanks for this blurb…very insightful. I can’t believe that he wrote that.
All i can say is, “Good for Al!” He’s sure got my vote if he runs, again.
As John Mabry said in “God The Heretic”:
“Nowadays, with the archetype of the Goddess arising in the collective consciousness of the people of this planet, the Christian fundamentalists are up in arms about the Goddess “heresy” invading the church. I think we would be wise to remember the mistakes of our past, and to be open to the wind of the Spirit, especially when She ventures into unlikely places. If God wishes to be known as the Goddess for a while, why should that upset me? Instead, I should be listening close, because I wouldn’t want to miss anything! If the Goddess is heresy to the Christian fundamentalists, very well. Again, God is a heretic, a fool, a trickster, a joker, a wild card. God does not need the permission of Jerry Falwell or the Traditional Values Coalition to do His work in the world — or His play!”
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It’s pretty clear we disagree on pretty much everything, Wynn. God is the Creator and he is just, wise, kind, all-loving, all-knowing, all-present, all-powerful, pure, eternal, righteous, merciful, gracious. He is true and he is sovereign. He reveals himself through the Bible and through Jesus, his son.
That’s all.
SUSY
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Thank you so much for sharing this. I will be featuring a snippet with a linkback. Women are the bringers of life it only makes sense that our ancestors glorified her divine image within the Goddess.
I will be coming back for more .
Best to you
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Danielle, thanks for the comment. Last time I checked, though, both men and women are “bringers of life.” Women aren’t divine, although we’re made in God’s image (as are men). Only God is divine.
Blessings,
SUSY
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While it seems clear that diving into goddess consciousness is a spiritually dangerous move, I cannot help but admire those who do it. We all need to experience the religious feminine and it is clear that the church, from early on, has done what it could to keep women out of the influential positions that would have been more reflective of Jesus’ relationships with women when he walked the earth. Also, I can’t help but think that more female leaders might have been a moderating presence, when the church was making its worst decisions (i.e., the crusades, the Inquisition, the burning of witches in Salem, the support of pre-emptive war). The Christianity that we have today appears to worship a God who conquers. You may say that the Old Testament God is one who conquers. Perhaps so, but the New Testament picture of God is of the one who gave us Jesus, who put himself at the mercy of those who conquer. I think Jesus would say that his church was not to be a conquering church. However, it appears that history has proven Jesus wrong with regard the church has proven to Jesus the church, or has it proven the church wrong?
I think what you need to realize is that with your Christian world-view you will not be able to understand the concepts presented by Kali (Kali-Ma) or other “dark” Goddesses.
And yay for Al. I like him more all the time.
If you want to buy a car, you will have to get the personal loans. Furthermore, my brother always takes a student loan, which supposes to be really reliable.