Unity School of Christianity, also known as Unity (with
headquarters on a 1,400-acre campus in Unity Village, Missouri -- near Lee's
Summit, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City), was "founded" in 1889 (with the
publishing of a national monthly magazine called Modern Thought --
renamed Unity Magazine in 1894) by Charles S. Fillmore (1854-1948), a
spiritist with no Christian background, and Myrtle (Paige) Fillmore (1845-1931),
a Methodist; this was after Myrtle said she was healed of tuberculosis by
repeating an occultic mind-over-matter affirmation, "I am a child of God,
and therefore I do not inherent sickness" (she had been dabbling heavily
in Christian Science). It was later incorporated as a church in 1903 by the
Unity Society of Practical Christianity. In 1948, the control of Unity was
assumed by the Fillmore's two sons, Lowell and W. Rickert Fillmore, and has
since experienced tremendous growth. Unity currently claims about 200,000 U.S.
members and 1.5 million members worldwide.
Unity's leader is now Connie Fillmore Bazzy, a great-granddaughter of the
founders. She controls everything from publishing Unity's magazines to the
24-hour Silent Unity Prayer ministry that generates the majority of
the organization's approximately $30 million in annual income. Charles R.
Fillmore is the grandson of the founder and acts as Chairman of the Board for
Unity.
Unity's roots are to be found in the ministry of Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer, who
practiced what was called "animal magnetism." His work involved manipulating the
"subconscious"
mind, and he was the first modern user of
hypnotism
(hence, the term "mesmerism"). Some years later, Unity joined the International
New Thought Alliance (along with Christian Science and New Thought) from which
many of their doctrines have emanated.1
The Fillmores studied Spiritualism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Brahmanism,
Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, New Thought,
Christian
Science, and other Mind Science religions, believing that there was some
good in every religion. (They did disagree, however; with the Christian Science
doctrine that matter is not real.) Charles Fillmore admits that he and Myrtle
had taken "more than forty courses (in metaphysical subjects)" (The Story of
Unity, James Dillet Freeman, Unity Books publishing, pp. 35, 41-42). The
Fillmores also took "several courses" from Emma Curtis Hopkins to further their
understanding of New Thought. Hopkins had been an editor on the Christian
Science Journal, Mary Baker Eddy's publication (The Story of Unity,
pp. 43-45).
Charles Fillmore chose the ancient Egyptian winged disc, an
occult symbol, as the symbol to represent Unity. Steeped in Hinduism, Fillmore
felt that he had been associated with the symbol in previous lives. (He believed
he was the reincarnation of the Apostle Paul!) A Unity video states that this
symbol is a representation of the "Earth being lifted in consciousness."
Unity Magazine says it is "a soul giving wings to the body." These are
thoroughly pagan ideas. (Frank Yurco, an Egyptologist at the University of
Chicago, says the "winged disc" symbol represents "a fear of demons and evil
gods. ... It represents the sun-god, Ra, as he flees across the sky.")
This occultic fixation eventually led to the formation of a group which would
pray, or meditate, for the healing of others. This became the Society of Silent
Help, later changed to Silent Unity, that extolled the virtues of creative
thinking and the power of the human mind to cure any ailment. The Fillmores
never thought of starting a church, so they took the name "Unity School of
Practical Christianity." "Practical" was dropped from the name in 1914, at which
time the Unity Tract Society and Silent Unity incorporated under the name of
Unity School of Christianity. Fillmore, during a time of silent prayer, is said
to have received the name Unity. Fillmore explained he heard the name "just as
the voice of Jesus was heard by Paul" (The Story of Unity, p. 61).
Today the "school" is a centralized group with churches in many areas. They
distribute millions of pieces of literature a year; their most popular
publications (with a total circulation of about three million) are Unity
Magazine (articles on metaphysical topics) and Daily Word
(their daily devotional magazine). There are many "authoritative" Unity
writings, two of which are Mysteries in Genesis and Christian Healing,
both by Charles Fillmore. They also air a number of radio broadcasts. They have
over 500 churches and/or study groups in America, with an additional 100 or so
congregations and study groups in 15 foreign countries.
Unity's doctrines are a mish-mash of borrowed teachings from different religions
and philosophies -- Hinduism, Spiritism, Theosophy, Christian Science, and
Christianity. At the heart of Unity's teachings is a
"health and
wealth" philosophy so popular to many in the professing Christian church
today. But according to a Unity booklet by Elizabeth Sand Turner, What
Unity Teaches, Unity has no dogmatic statement of faith to which
the people must adhere. Instead, the follower is to "accept what he finds
helpful to lift his consciousness to a higher level." Nevertheless, Charles R.
Fillmore, grandson of Charles S. and Myrtle, wrote The Adventure Called
Unity in 1963, which clearly delineates Unity's teachings.
Below are the highlights of what Unity believes concerning its source of
authority, the Godhead, Christ, sin and salvation, hell, sickness, and
reincarnation:
1. Source of Authority. Because of Unity's philosophy that all
religions teach truth, the Bible is simply another book of Scripture. Charles
Fillmore wrote, "It is not necessary that you despise the scriptures of the
Jews, of the Hindus, or of any people, but you are to take them for what they
are: the records of men as to what their experiences have been in communing with
the omnipresent God" (The Twelve Powers of Man, p. 115). Unity does not
believe that the Scriptures are the complete and absolute authority, but that
they are merely the "testimonials of men." They do not even consider their own
teachings to be permanently binding, but believe that such teachings are always
open to new revelation. They teach that the Bible is an "allegory" -- i.e., that
experience, if you are 'in tune' with God, is more accurate and reliable than
the Bible. They give metaphysical interpretations to many obvious truths in the
Bible so that the normal meaning is twisted and the passage then fits their
theology. (In other words, Unity says the Bible doesn't mean what it says.) They
consider reason and "logic of the mind" to be their final authority.
[HJB]
2. Trinity. Unity has given a metaphysical meaning to the word
"trinity"; they say the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit refer to "mind, idea,
and expression." They believe that God is Universal Law or divine Principle, not
a person. [HJB] They teach the New Age/Pantheistic idea that
God is All and All is God. They explain, "God is Spirit, or the creative energy
which is the cause of all visible things. God is not a being or person having
life, intelligence, love, power. God is that invisible, intangible, but very
real, something we call life. Each rock, tree, animal, everything visible, is a
manifestation of the one Spirit -- God -- differing only in degree of
manifestation; and each of the numberless modes of manifestation, or
individualities, however insignificant, contains the whole" (Lessons In Truth,
H. Emilie Cady, pp. 6, 8).
3. God. Under the heading "spirit," Unity's Metaphysical Bible Dictionary states, "A name for God. Spirit and Mind are synonymous; therefore we know God-Spirit as Mind, the one Mind, or Intelligence, of the universe." The Dictionary continues with "The Father is Principle. Thus, we might also say, Father is Being in the absolute, the unlimited, the unrelated" (p. 629). "Childlike, untrained minds say God is a personal being. The statement that God is principle chills them, and in terror they cry out. God is the name we give to that unchangeable, inexorable principle at the source of all existence. To the individual consciousness God takes on personality, but as the creative underlying cause of all things, He is principle, impersonal; as expressed in each individual, He becomes personal to that one -- a personal, loving, all-forgiving Father-Mother" (Lessons In Truth, p. 11).
4. Jesus Christ. Unity teaches that Christ is an idea, the
essence of "divine Mind." They claim that Jesus was merely a perfect man who
fully possessed the Christ principle, which He obtained by advancing "through
many reincarnations" (What Unity Teaches). They say that every
person is potentially perfect, and that Jesus expressed that perfection, and
while we are still only working toward it, we are part of the divine universal
consciousness, and therefore, divine by nature. They believe that we can do
anything Jesus did, in effect raising mankind to the level of the divine, and
making us equal with Jesus Christ. [HJB] Unity tells us that
studying about God and Jesus Christ is not enough. We must discover the Christ
principles of successful living and then be ready to apply them to our own daily
living. In summary, rather than viewing Jesus as the Savior from our sins, Unity
views Him as merely the "Way Shower."2
Unity believes in the Second Coming of Christ, not in the flesh, but as the
out-pouring of the Holy Spirit to all who are prepared to receive it. The Holy
Spirit is a latent power within every man. This, they believe, is the
fulfillment of the promise of Jesus to his disciples (e.g., Unity says, "In this
day of great spiritual awakening, when the hearts and minds of many are turning
to God, the Second Coming of Christ is taking place for them.").
5. Holy Spirit. Charles Fillmore, again in harmony with the
Pantheistic ideology of his day, stated that the Holy Spirit was not a personal
being, but rather only an impersonal force. He wrote, "The Holy Spirit in Divine
Mind corresponds to our thought in our minds. So we can ideate the unlimited
Divine Mind, but when this Mind is brought into our world or consciousness it is
limited to our conception of it" (Atom-Smashing Power of Mind, p. 99).
6. Sin and Salvation. Unity denies the reality of sin and evil.
They do not recognize man as being sinful or in need of salvation, because they
believe that every person is part of God. They teach that we can overcome
weaknesses and mistakes through wisdom and right thinking, not by a personal
relationship with Jesus Christ. [HJB] Instead, Unity tells us
that man's mind is his connecting link with God, and that if man is to control
his spiritual growth and fulfillment, he must control his thinking. They teach
that the atonement is the reconciliation of our minds with the Divine Mind.
In Talks on Truth, Unity says: "Salvation is finally attained when
the cycle of rebirth is broken and man comes to birth no more. The true
spiritual body is to replace the physical body and the man becomes like Christ.
This is to be done on earth ... eternal life means conscious existence in the
body." For Unity, then, salvation and true religious growth are "do-it-yourself
projects" (The Adventure Called Unity, pp. 6-7).
7. Hell. With the Unity concept of the power of positive thinking,
there is no talk about sin, and therefore, no eternal hell and no eternal
punishment. They deny that hell is a real place, but claim that both heaven and
hell are "states of mind," not geographical locations, that people experience as
a result of their thoughts, words, and deeds. [HJB] Unity,
thereby, is one of the most dangerous cults, because it lulls followers into
thinking that they will never have to face the living God of the Bible.
8. Sickness. Unity claims that pain, sickness, old age, and
death are not real. Instead, they teach a process of healing that uses "denial"
and mental power: "Unity believes in the creative power of thoughts and words.
We can have neither good nor ill unless we think and speak it into
manifestation. ... what we think and speak will act to lift the consciousness to
a higher level" (What Unity Teaches).
9. Reincarnation. Unity goes a step beyond Christian Science in
its teaching of "transmigration of souls." Unity believes in reincarnation,
i.e., that through a long process of rebirths we eventually reach perfection and
immortality. (Unity teaches that Christ had been David, Moses, and Elijah in
previous lives.) This was borrowed directly from Hinduism, in effect, lifted
right out of Hindu's sacred writings. (However, unlike Hinduism, Unity's
reincarnation is only to a new human body, never to an animal body.)
They claim that God never intended for man to die, but that reincarnation was
His merciful provision (cf. Heb. 9:27). They teach that once we reach
perfection, we become part of the "Divine Mind," an eternal state of peace and
tranquility [HJB]. Fulfillment, for the Unity adherent, is to
come to the end of countless reincarnations, because one has then finally
arrived at his Christ-like perfection state -- "The second birth is that in
which we 'put on Christ.' It is a process of mental adjustment and body
transmutation that takes place right here on earth." [From Unity's Statement of
Faith, Article 22: "We believe that the dissolution of spirit, soul and body
caused by death, is annulled by rebirth of the same spirit and soul in another
body here on earth. We believe the repeated incarnations of man to be a merciful
provision of our loving Father to the end that all may have opportunity to
attain immortality through regeneration, as did Jesus."]
10. Summary. Following are quotes from Charles Fillmore's book Christian Healing (Unity School of Christianity, Unity Village, MO). They are found at the end of the chapters in his book and are meant as summarizations and points of meditation:
"God is the name of my good" (p. 17);
"God is the name of the everywhere Principle, in whom I live, move, and have my being" (p. 17);
"I am the son of God, and the Spirit of the Most High dwells in me" (p. 29);
"I am the only begotten son, dwelling in the bosom of the Father" (p. 29);
"I am the Christ of God" (p. 29);
"I and my Father are one" (p. 29);
"I am one with Almightiness" (p. 29);
"God is good, and God is all, therefore I refuse to believe in the reality of evil in any of its forms" (p. 60);
"My perfection is now established in Divine Mind" (p. 83);
"Holding continuously to the reality of things spiritual establishes them in mind -- they become mental substance" (p. 84);
"I see the light of Christ consciousness always" (p. 106).
11. Biblical Response.