Tuesday, March 03, 2009

SME's Book of the Month: "Ravaged by the New Age", by Texe Marrs

This book is HILARIOUS. But it's also kinda creepy, because far from fading back into obscurity like other purveyors of '80s and early '90s Satanic Panic, author Texe Marrs is still very much with us. His latest book, Mysterious Monuments, has a full-page ad on the back cover of Paranoia magazine, and he's a regular guest on the Alex Jones Show out of Austin (his hometown). His radio interviews and his "Power of Prophecy" video sermons are all over Google Video and YouTube. Creepier still, Marrs's worldview hasn't evolved much since Ravaged by the New Age came out in 1989.

I won't mince any words here. Texe Marrs is a complete dumbass. He sees in art and architecture a "Colossus of the Illuminati", and he interprets nearly every gesture imaginable as Satanic and/or Masonic signals. For years, he's been saying that Pat Robertson was making the Masonic "Lion's Paw" hand signal on the cover of Time (Feb. 17, 1986). Turns out Pat Robertson not only isn't a Mason, he's an anti-Mason just like Marrs. He insists Helen Keller was a Satanist because the "I love you" sign she "invented" symbolizes Satan's horns, even though sign language was brought to America 60 years before she was born. He also thinks the FOX media conglom is named after Satan, likened to a fox in the Bible. It's named for founder William Fox.

Marrs is also a raging anti-Semite, churning out video "sermons" with goofy titles like "Cauldron of Abaddon: From Jerusalem and Israel Flow a Torrent of Satanic Evil and Mischief Endangering the Whole World".

For the record, I found Ravaged by the New Age at a secondhand bookstore. There is no way I would put one penny in Texe Marrs's pocket.

Anyway, here are some choice bits from Ravaged by the New Age:
  • On Michael Murphey, founder of the Esalen Institute: "What Murphey fails to explain, of course, is that the only dance steps New Agers know are the ones that permit them to dance with the Devil, their unworldly Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers substitute dancing instructor."
  • "The New Age doctrine of reincarnation provides the perfect excuse for abortion." He also says reincarnation implicity encourages child molestation and incest, since parents and their children might have been spouses in previous incarnations.
  • "To 'think globally, act locally' means that the New Age disciple is to visualize and work for a... one world religion, a one world government, a one world economy."
  • "The New Age Community is, in reality, the body of Satan.... Therefore, Christian parents and families are, in fact, separatists. Praise God!"
  • "Look also for government-funded daycare facilities to be run by Satanists, homosexuals, lesbians, and others who hate Christianity."
  • "The horrible truth - the ultimate secret - of the New Age is that children will eventually be taken away from their parents."
  • "Laws are now being tested that will make traditional Judeo-Christian lifestyles illegal."
  • In his list of New Age cults, Marrs lists "Masonic orders" and "Native American Indian religious groups".
  • "Because of its deceitfulness, few realize that the New Age is in fact hard-core occultism and devil worship."

5 comments:

mister anchovy said...

Colossus of the Illuminati huh? Wow.

Wandering Coyote said...

Oh my God...Sounds better...or worse, depending on how you look at it...than Hubbard's dianetics book I read in the hospital last year.

S.M. Elliott said...

Yeah, this guy is...um...
It IS entertaining reading, at least. I haven't laughed so hard in ages.

The Zombieslayer said...

Wow. Some crazy stuff there.

I love reading about conspiracies. You see them on the Left, on the Right, or in the Middle. You see them in almost every religion.

New Age people were always nice to me so I have no problem with them.

Funny about him saying that about Robertson. I'm no fan of him either. Robertson's not exactly a friend of my music.

Speaking of Helen Keller, I told a Helen Keller joke today. You know how you torture Helen Keller? You rearrange her furniture. Ha ha.

Or, you know why she always wears yellow socks? Because her dog was blind too.

OK. That was wrong.

S.M. Elliott said...

Helen Keller jokes? Man, there's a niche market for everything, isn't there? ;D

I love reading about conspiracy theories, but having to put up with people who totally buy into them can be frustrating as hell. Conspiranoids always talk about "going down the rabbithole" like it's a good thing, ignoring the fact that everything in Wonderland was freakin' NUTS. I think, "Well, you just have fun painting those roses while I go back to reality for a while..."

You're right about everybody on the political/religious spectrum having conspiracy theories. What's funny is they sometimes have the same ones, but with different players. For instance, fundie nutbars like Robertson talk about a socialist/Leftist New World Order, while leftist conspiracy theorists rant about a neocon/Christian New World Order. And both side accuses the other of plotting to put them in FEMA camps. Sure, there are some theorists who try to apply the Hegelian dialectic to the right-left paradigm (though they call it "problem-reaction-solution", like David Icke), but secretly they still suspect the "other side" from whatever side they're on of being the real baddies. It's just how we're made, I guess.