Kevin Fobbs
Crystal ball boom while churches go bust
By Kevin Fobbs
"Magic Mirror on the Wall, who is the fairest one of all?" was uttered by the wicked Queen in the 1937 Walt Disney animated movie 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.' Do you remember that poignant little snippet from the movie that became a childhood classic for generations?
The nation did not necessarily embrace the evil Queen as a hero but some were on the edge of their seats wondering if the truth or the continued lie would ever come out.
The question which many have speculated over was whether or not this movie's focus on the dark side of magic acted perhaps as a springboard for reliance on other-world forces to forecast the truth? Or was the future set into motion by a reliance to turn away from faith and God and toward occult or then ever-growing spiritualist movement?
I am not speculating that the Disney movie somehow had some occult message buried within it. What I am saying is that Americans of the time — as Americans in any period of our nation's history — were influenced, in part, by certain suggestive practices, which in and of themselves may raise a seemingly innocent dark curtain for those without benefit of religious faith to believe as well as embrace.
The movie came out in the midst of what had been our nation's worst depression. Now we have a severe economic downturn that is sending a growing number of Americans away from the comfort of the church to the open and welcoming arms of the crystal ball practitioners. "Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God." Leviticus 19:31
According to a recent Fox News report, there is a notable increase by Americans to rely upon fortune-tellers, and psychics as people desperately search for guidance for their family's economic future. This growing reliance on the occult instead of guidance from God and the welcoming fellowship of the church during trying economic times is an alarming trend that has precedent in our nation's history.
In a rapping that was soon to be heard around the world, according to spiritualist author Ruth Brandon who wrote The Spiritualists: The Passion for the Occult in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, the spiritualist movement made its 19th century debut between the end of the Great Depression in 1843 and the Economic Panic of 1857.
Spiritualist research experts conclude the movement had its origin on March 31, 1848, on the New York farm of Mrs. John Fox of Hydesville as she "summoned her neighbors to hear strange knockings that were disturbing her." Soon similar observances were being raised by countless others who felt they too had special abilities. Whether they were charlatans or innocent victims thousands began to embrace their supposed abilities.
Many Americans of the time found no difficulty in admitting the intervention of good or evil spirits in human affairs because they became so accustomed to departures from accepted belief. This led to the creation of the spiritualist organization called the New York Circle that was formed three years later in 1851 after the historic farmhouse rapping.
Just imagine with more than 150 years of economic booms and busts in the nation's economy since that 1848 day, spiritualism has had an opportunity to roll out Satan's agenda with its reliance on crystal ball gazing and a new twist: atheism. As more and more Americans allowed atheists to set our nation's moral agenda in the 1930's and 1940's it became easier to replace God and the church as an "acceptable faith" that Americans could put their trust in.
Our nation's moral compass has been litigated or voted away by those who oppose God or Jesus' teachings in public and in the schools, and an attempt to legislatively silence our ministerial leader's discussions of morality in our houses of worship has been on the rise as well. This effort had its birth over 50 years ago.
In 1954 then-Congressman Lyndon Baines Johnson, the future President of the United States, helped to initiate a law that would strip hundreds of thousands of religious leaders and their brothers and sisters in faith of the U.S. Constitutional Right to Freedom of Speech and thereby sentence them to self-imposed silence on political and moral issues of the day. He successfully worked to prohibit religious leaders from discussing politics from the pulpit. "They say to the seers, 'See no more visions!' and to the prophets, 'Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions.'" Isaiah 30:10
W. Bradford Wilcox, a professor of sociology at the University of Virginia commented in a recent Wall Street Journal article that suggested church attendance among young adults is at its lowest level in decades. He cited The Program on Public Values at Trinity College's study which revealed that "secularism, or those claiming no religion, has almost doubled since 1990." It also found that "the number of Americans claiming no religion now stands at 15%, up from 8% in 1990 and 2% in 1962."
The secular tide appears to be running strongest among young Americans. Religious attendance among those 21 to 45 years old is at its lowest level in decades; only 25% of young adults now attend services regularly compared with about one-third in the early 1970s.
So you see it is of no small wonder why crystal ball gazing is growing. Americans have been massaged with the message of secularism as its accepted faith over decades so that in times of economic strife we don't turn to the Bible but rather to the darkness of crystal balls and mediums.
I am an eternal optimist because I firmly believe that many young adults are on the right track like my good friend Lauren Michelle Gibby of North Carolina, who is a young adult Christian and certainly is representative of those of this new generation who embrace the teachings of God and his son Jesus Christ.
Lauren emphasizes a great point in commenting on the growing trend toward crystal ball gazing as a solution to seeking answers and truth. "It really blew my mind how people are turning to things like this instead of God. I don't know if it was just me or not. I thought it was crazy that people think that they have to pay to find out their future when all they have to do is pray and God doesn't charge." "When they say to you, 'Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,' should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?" Isaiah 8:19
She is absolutely correct. God does not charge. Let's pray that there are millions of others across our nation who have the courage of their religious convictions. God is listening.
© Kevin Fobbs
November 12, 2009
"Magic Mirror on the Wall, who is the fairest one of all?" was uttered by the wicked Queen in the 1937 Walt Disney animated movie 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.' Do you remember that poignant little snippet from the movie that became a childhood classic for generations?
The nation did not necessarily embrace the evil Queen as a hero but some were on the edge of their seats wondering if the truth or the continued lie would ever come out.
The question which many have speculated over was whether or not this movie's focus on the dark side of magic acted perhaps as a springboard for reliance on other-world forces to forecast the truth? Or was the future set into motion by a reliance to turn away from faith and God and toward occult or then ever-growing spiritualist movement?
I am not speculating that the Disney movie somehow had some occult message buried within it. What I am saying is that Americans of the time — as Americans in any period of our nation's history — were influenced, in part, by certain suggestive practices, which in and of themselves may raise a seemingly innocent dark curtain for those without benefit of religious faith to believe as well as embrace.
The movie came out in the midst of what had been our nation's worst depression. Now we have a severe economic downturn that is sending a growing number of Americans away from the comfort of the church to the open and welcoming arms of the crystal ball practitioners. "Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God." Leviticus 19:31
According to a recent Fox News report, there is a notable increase by Americans to rely upon fortune-tellers, and psychics as people desperately search for guidance for their family's economic future. This growing reliance on the occult instead of guidance from God and the welcoming fellowship of the church during trying economic times is an alarming trend that has precedent in our nation's history.
In a rapping that was soon to be heard around the world, according to spiritualist author Ruth Brandon who wrote The Spiritualists: The Passion for the Occult in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, the spiritualist movement made its 19th century debut between the end of the Great Depression in 1843 and the Economic Panic of 1857.
Spiritualist research experts conclude the movement had its origin on March 31, 1848, on the New York farm of Mrs. John Fox of Hydesville as she "summoned her neighbors to hear strange knockings that were disturbing her." Soon similar observances were being raised by countless others who felt they too had special abilities. Whether they were charlatans or innocent victims thousands began to embrace their supposed abilities.
Many Americans of the time found no difficulty in admitting the intervention of good or evil spirits in human affairs because they became so accustomed to departures from accepted belief. This led to the creation of the spiritualist organization called the New York Circle that was formed three years later in 1851 after the historic farmhouse rapping.
Just imagine with more than 150 years of economic booms and busts in the nation's economy since that 1848 day, spiritualism has had an opportunity to roll out Satan's agenda with its reliance on crystal ball gazing and a new twist: atheism. As more and more Americans allowed atheists to set our nation's moral agenda in the 1930's and 1940's it became easier to replace God and the church as an "acceptable faith" that Americans could put their trust in.
Our nation's moral compass has been litigated or voted away by those who oppose God or Jesus' teachings in public and in the schools, and an attempt to legislatively silence our ministerial leader's discussions of morality in our houses of worship has been on the rise as well. This effort had its birth over 50 years ago.
In 1954 then-Congressman Lyndon Baines Johnson, the future President of the United States, helped to initiate a law that would strip hundreds of thousands of religious leaders and their brothers and sisters in faith of the U.S. Constitutional Right to Freedom of Speech and thereby sentence them to self-imposed silence on political and moral issues of the day. He successfully worked to prohibit religious leaders from discussing politics from the pulpit. "They say to the seers, 'See no more visions!' and to the prophets, 'Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions.'" Isaiah 30:10
W. Bradford Wilcox, a professor of sociology at the University of Virginia commented in a recent Wall Street Journal article that suggested church attendance among young adults is at its lowest level in decades. He cited The Program on Public Values at Trinity College's study which revealed that "secularism, or those claiming no religion, has almost doubled since 1990." It also found that "the number of Americans claiming no religion now stands at 15%, up from 8% in 1990 and 2% in 1962."
The secular tide appears to be running strongest among young Americans. Religious attendance among those 21 to 45 years old is at its lowest level in decades; only 25% of young adults now attend services regularly compared with about one-third in the early 1970s.
So you see it is of no small wonder why crystal ball gazing is growing. Americans have been massaged with the message of secularism as its accepted faith over decades so that in times of economic strife we don't turn to the Bible but rather to the darkness of crystal balls and mediums.
I am an eternal optimist because I firmly believe that many young adults are on the right track like my good friend Lauren Michelle Gibby of North Carolina, who is a young adult Christian and certainly is representative of those of this new generation who embrace the teachings of God and his son Jesus Christ.
Lauren emphasizes a great point in commenting on the growing trend toward crystal ball gazing as a solution to seeking answers and truth. "It really blew my mind how people are turning to things like this instead of God. I don't know if it was just me or not. I thought it was crazy that people think that they have to pay to find out their future when all they have to do is pray and God doesn't charge." "When they say to you, 'Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,' should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?" Isaiah 8:19
She is absolutely correct. God does not charge. Let's pray that there are millions of others across our nation who have the courage of their religious convictions. God is listening.
© Kevin Fobbs
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