Fall/Winter 1999

Spiritual Counterfeits Project, Inc.

--a letter from the President--

Dear Ally and Friend,

Since I last wrote you in November of last year, things have been speeding along here at our Berkeley headquarters. We hope you have had a rich and rewarding year in every aspect of your life. We wish you a blessed Christmas, New Year, indeed, New Millennium.

Meanwhile, as the world rockets into the future--especially passing into this new millennium--our challenge will likely be widening dramatically. We already see masses of people eagerly embracing the latest waves of delusion while old pillars of truth seem to fall with almost no resistance. Combine postmodernism with leaps in technology and you end up with a mind-shaping force that no previous generation has ever faced. It reminds me of a virtual reality game that grows more powerful by the day, creating ever more realistic and invasive illusions.

On "the SCP challenges" front, we find ourselves trying to reach a generation that is intoxicated with all the various alternatives to God, delighting in brightly packaged lies. Deception has almost limitless funding in the marketplace these days (The big movies this summer: The Sixth Sense, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, The Matrix, Eyes Wide Shut, The Blair Witch Project). Consider the following email from one of our writers, Alison Lentini, who wrote me about a particularly potent deception entering the cultural landscape:

"Tal, I have a new SCP article idea that I'm very excited about pursuing for the next issue, if it fits with the theme. You may be aware that a trilogy of children's books, the "Harry Potter" series (by an unknown Scottish woman who has never written a book before) are at the pinnacle of the international bestseller lists--#1, #2, and #3 right now on the New York Times list, already in 28 languages, garnering cover stories in Time and features on 60 Minutes, book reviews by modern literary "gods," and comparisons to CS Lewis and George MacDonald. These books are totally rocking the publishing industry--leaving Stephen King, John Grisham, and Tom Clancy in the dust in terms of numbers.

So what's the subject matter? What else? Witchcraft . . . and a post-modern cosmology in which good and evil are not exactly opposites--just fluctuating poles of spiritual utilitarianism. In my generation, after reading Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, we young readers opened every candy bar with the secret hope of finding a golden ticket that would let us enter a wondrous candy factory; after reading Lewis, we never looked at a closet or wardrobe the same way, always hoping for an entree to the world where we could see Aslan face-to-face.

The Harry Potter generation, in turn, waits in eagerness for the mysterious envelope that may some day arrive, inviting them to enroll in the "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Kids from Japan to Iraq to Germany to Nebraska are all immersed in this world. Corporations are fighting to use Harry Potter logos or product tie-ins to promote their wares. 7.7 million books so far have been sold--oh, that's for Britain and the US only.

I want to look at the traditional role of literature to 'delight and instruct,' and work with CS Lewis and GK Chesterton sources to expose the occult and commercial co-opting of the spiritual instruction of the next generation."

Needless to say, I responded with an eager "Yes" to Alison's article proposal, grateful for her prodigious gifts among our greater network of talent. It makes my job so much easier to have a group of gifted self-starters around me who love the truth and are vigilant by nature. And I emphasize gifted. The last journal featured articles by a Harvard Phi Beta Kappa and a Princeton Summa Cum Laude graduate among others. Such depth and quality is extremely rare in today's Christian subculture. Ministries whose annual income surpasses ours by ratios of up to 1,000-to-1 (and I am not kidding), do not have the commensurate intellectual horsepower or zeal found in SCP's talent reserve (some ministries seem to be richly rewarded for becoming professional money raisers who market image over substance). Meanwhile, may our network of talent grow.

We have had a full year with too much happening to recount here. But one high point was in May when I spoke at Cambridge University to a mixed crowd of Christian and non Christian students. The talks were packed and I was reminded of the fact that there is nothing quite as exhilarating as being in the public arena, pressing for truth, and seeing the tangible effects of making inroads! We did not leave empty-handed. And I sense we will be back.

The key is engaging one's culture and not retreating due to fear, shame, or some announced catastrophe (of which the latest is Y2K). We would prefer take our chances in the arena than risk being sidelined at the height of our ministry. And it is a risk worth taking, especially when doom-sayers have been wrong repeatedly over recent years. No, they won't always be wrong. Eventually catastrophe will come, because a mocking generation will incur judgment and God's timetable will say "enough is enough." But we will not pull away from the front line until God convicts us on the deepest level (Note: We have seen doom-sayers and their followers later emerge from their bombshelters and rustic hideouts in the past, and the world has usually passed them by while they have forfeited the chance to be relevant to their own generation.).

Our guiding rule is not to let the spirit of fear or discouraging evidences of the "state of things" intimidate us. Nations worse off than ours have been turned around. And if we cannot turn those of our generation, at least we can make them accountable--like the good servant who contends for the Faith regardless of appearances.

On the personal front, I made a decision this year to abandon a well-known evangelical publishing house because I thought they were asleep at the helm and ineffectual in reaching the greater secular world. Why recycle stuff to the already converted, I asked? (especially dreamy novels that are irrelevant to the growing crisis of our age). So in Manhattan last year, I walked the streets and was briefly treated to lavish talk from agents and editors within breathtaking publishing empires. I had entered the steeples of our multicultural age and knew it was not a level playing field, especially when Christianity brings quiet contempt from urbane editors posing as open-minded. It was all a futile diversion. So I took a leap this summer and started End Run Publishing with my own private resources. The first published book will be the full version of my Indian bestseller, Avatar of Night--a 400 plus page book with 180 photographs and graphics. It is in production now and should be in print by December. The major Internet vendors such as Amazon.com & Barnes and Noble.com, among others, will sell it! We will keep you posted.

Above all, SCP continues to reach out to that "people's group" of secularists, humanists and New Agers who are at the helm of our culture. We have been dealing with these postmodern doubters trapped in the illusion for years. In reality, they live in castles made of sand, and when the storms inevitably come, their lives will be upended. Perhaps then we will see that seeds planted earlier will come to fruition. That is our hope.

We feel called to be on the forefront of this rescue effort and are grateful for your own efforts as well as your loyalty and support. God Bless you.

Yours in gratitude,

Tal Brooke

President/Chairman of SCP.