The Diocese of Niagara is promoting a book by Bishop Carlton Pearson called “God Is Not a Christian, Nor a Jew, Muslim, Hindu … God Dwells With Us, in Us, around Us, as Us”.

Pearson was declared a heretic by his church in 2004 and  now espouses a treacly new-age universalism laced with generous helpings of meaningless gibberish such as “Self Actualization” and “Expanded Consciousness”:

Stand with our Movement to inspire Self-Actualization of Soul and Self and Expanded Consciousness. Support us in our stand for global freedom from extreme religious tyranny, unreasonable dogma, and fear-based theologies. Help us reclaim, recover and inspire radically inclusive love on this planet to activate and inspire the best and most accurate spirituality!

The Diocese of Niagara is attracted to this sort of thing like a moth to a flame:

God Is Not a Christian, Nor a Jew, Muslim, Hindu … God Dwells With Us, in Us, around Us, as Us

by Carlton Pearson (Atria Paperback, 2010)

Rob Roi

In the preface the author writes, “Christian, Jewish, and Islamic theologies teach us that we are all created in the image and likeness of God. If this is even close to the truth, then to believe in God is to believe in yourself — in your own soul.”

Bishop Carlton Pearson dares to ask questions we Christians don’t ask, or even think about: What is God? Where is God? Who is the true God? Questions about the divinity of Jesus, and the real political motives of the church. He claims that living in Christ consciously has nothing to do with rules, rites or rituals, and even less to do with what has become to be known as Christianity.

Bishop Pearson respects the bible, pointing out that it is a book of history and allegory — a book of myth, magic, and miracles that sheds light on our interpretations of God and the actual, unfiltered wisdom of Jesus.

The Bishop ends his book with, ”No, God is not a Christian, nor a Jew, Muslim, or Hindu, but you can be one, or anything else you’re inclined to be, as long as you don’t let whatever that is obscure the magnificent, mystical, and transcendent spirit you are and will always be!”

The Reverend Rob Roi is a parish deacon at St. James’ Dundas.

No sane person thinks God is a Christian, Jew, Muslim, or Hindu: that would be a category error, confusing creator with creature and founder with disciple. What Pearson is getting at is that he thinks there is no difference between Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Hinduism, an idea that makes nonsense of them all.

At the bottom of all this rubbish is the age-old temptation that was Satan’s downfall: I will be my own god; I will be like the Most High.

We seek to help teach and remind people of their personal and powerful and often forgotten Divinity…Jesus said, “Ye are gods.”

[….]

I believe in my own Self and Soul, my own Spirit, my own destiny, and my power to create, co-create and re-create it.

It appears to be the Reverend Rob Roi’s downfall, too.