Popular Occultism (2001-2006)

Articles:  Tolle's New Earth, The Secret | The twisted "truths" of The Shack | Toying with Death, Role-Playing Games, Freemasons

Quotes & Excerpts: New Thought & Science of Mind, The Labyrinth, Theosophy, Jung, Hegel

Charts & Scriptures:  From God's Truth to the "New Spirituality" | The Nature and Tactics of Satan, Romans 1:22-32

News Topics: Culture

 

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 America's Spiritual Slide

Mystical powers promise peace & oneness but deliver war and hate. Yet all are blending and seeping into the various expressions of the Emerging Church.

October 2006

Halloween... what it's all about: "Each year on October 31st, the Druids celebrated the eve of the Celtic’s New Year in honor of their pagan god, Samhain.... When Constantine became emperor of Rome, he made a law declaring Christianity... to be the official state religion. Having been recently converted [which might be questionable]... Constantine was zealous in his new-found faith and demanded as emperor that everyone become a Christian or face the penalty of death. Well... the churches were flooded with pagans.” See Deliver us from evil

August 2006

Paganism gaining popularity in prison: "Asatru has been gaining popularity among inmates, say religious leaders and prison experts who believe its roots in Viking mythology attract prisoners seeking power, protection and unity.... Asatru is often referred to as Odinism, although some followers believe the two are separate religions. It is a polytheistic, pre-Christian faith native to Scandinavia whose adherents worship gods including Thor and Odin. It emphasizes a connection with one's ancestors and values honor, loyalty, generosity and truth. An estimated 10,000 to 20,000 people in the United States consider themselves Asatruars or Odinists, said Stephen McNallen, director of the Asatru Folk Assembly, a leading Asatru group." See Role-Playing Games & Popular Occultism

July 2006

Psychics & Their Free Tarot Readings: "Psychic Network? You've seen the commercials on TV. These people are supposed to have special psychic insight allowing them to know what NO ONE could know. When the psychic gives her comments, the caller is absolutely amazed, right? Well, now the New York city government has found a new line of work for people on welfare: put them to work as telephone psychics.... A former employee with Psychic Hotline... gives us an interesting behind-the-scenes look." Deliver us from evil

May 2006

The Da Vinci Code: Blasphemy Hits the Big Screen: "On page 309, Brown writes of his protagonist: 'Langdon's Jewish students always looked flabbergasted when he first told them that the early Jewish tradition involved ritualistic sex. In the Temple, no less." [Yes, God's rebellious people did perform pagan rituals in His holy temple during the reign of King Manasseh. They copied the idolatry of their corrupt neighbors. That's one reason why our sovereign Lord used Babylon's armies to destroy Judah, exile His people, and tear down both Jerusalem and the desecrated temple.]   

     "Early Jews believed that the Holy of Holies in Solomon's Temple housed not only God but also His powerful female equal, Shekinah." [This abomination was part of a mystical form of Jewish occultism: the Kabbalah. It clashed with everything God had taught His people through Moses and the prophets.] See Idols and unholy gods

March 2006

Satanic logo not hurting sales of Swedish jeans: "A punk-rock style, trendy tight fit and affordable price have made Cheap Monday jeans a hot commodity among young Swedes, but what has people talking is the brand’s ungodly logo: a skull with a cross turned upside down on its forehead. The jeans’ makers say it’s more of a joke, but the logo’s designer said there is a deeper message. 'It is an active statement against Christianity,' Bjorn Atldax told The Associated Press. 'I’m not a Satanist myself, but I have a great dislike for organized religion.'” See Role-Playing Games and Popular Occultism

 

Dialoguing Da Vinci: "...it’s not really a quest for truth that will draw the mainstream to this movie but rather the marketing of excitement, adventure, crisis and rebellion, resulting in a greatly intensified polarity and outrage between Christians and the world, until a call for peace and unity goes out from the pulpits of America and a synthesized solution is offered by trained “Christian” facilitators waiting in the wings to help dispel our divisive differences and unite the “brotherhood of man.” Their solution? Dialogue.

     "What I believe we are witnessing is the beginning of rather a large-scale exercise in the Hegelian Dialectic, orchestrated by the-powers-that-be to ignite hostilities between the religious and the secular for purposes of uniting them on the common ground of a convoluted Christ through Diaprax. Already Sony Pictures has established a website they call 'The Da Vinci Dialogue."

     The next link illustrates this process: It's a call for an adaptable form of Christianity that will blend Biblical promises with animist traditions:

Madonna eyes Israel house to await Messiah: "Madonna wants to buy a house in the Israeli town of Rosh Pina, where the ancient Jewish Kabbalah tradition expects the Messiah to appear at the end of the world.... Madonna wants to renovate the building into a centre of study of mystical Jewish texts pored over by Kabbalah followers. The self-proclaimed Material Girl, a keen aficionado of the ancient Jewish mystical tradition, last visited Israel in September 2004. She turned to Kabbalah in 1997 through the Los Angeles-based Kabbalah Centre which proclaims to offer a path to spiritual enlightenment through an eclectic mix of Orthodox Jewish tradition, visualisation and positive thinking. Two years ago, she took the Hebrew name Esther."

Evidence of Children’s UFO and Extraterrestrial Encounters to be Presented at a United Nations Affiliated Conference: "After a decade of research as a professional counselor and clinical hypnotherapist, Australia’s Mary Rodwell says that there is now enough evidence to conclude that these 'beings' appear to come from other planets and other dimensions parallel to our own.... The IIIHS [International Institute of Integral Human Sciences] is a non-profit organization affiliated with the United Nations Department of Public Information. It serves over 10,000 general members and students from many nations towards the convergence of new sciences with spirituality and universal human values, creating inter-religious and inter-cultural understanding for world peace." See Aliens, Monsters and Creepy Creatures

Confronting the 'Code': "As a conservative evangelical leader, Josh McDowell is one of the last people you’d expect to urge young Christians to see The Da Vinci Code, the upcoming movie based on the phenomenally best-selling novel.... But McDowell... not only urges a trip to the theater, but also advises everybody to read the novel....

      "'I don’t attack the book,' says McDowell, who is on the staff of Orlando-based Campus Crusade for Christ. 'Let’s see where fact leaves off and imagination begins. It’s a marvelous opportunity to be positive....

      “It’s about engaging with people on their spiritual journey,” says Mark Gauthier, Crusade’s national director for U.S. campus ministry....'This is the world we live in. This is what people are thinking about.'

      ”Through Grace Hill Media, a Hollywood firm headed by Jonathan Bock... those who oppose the book’s thesis are being courted, consulted, cajoled and encouraged to voice their criticism in ways that could blunt their opposition.... 'Bock’s efforts here are that he is trying to advance a kind of dialogue between the church and Hollywood generally and more specifically a dialogue about this film.'...

     ”McDowell can’t wait for May 19. 'I look at the book and the movie as a platform for evangelism,' he says. 'A little controversy can be a marvelous tool.”

       Such dialogue serves to blend two opposite views into a new "common ground" that undermines any kind of certainty or unchanging truth. By urging Christians to see a blasphemous film based on the heretical Gnostic "gospels," McDowell, in effect, exposes them images and suggestion that will twist the truth. Is McDowell willing to compromise Biblical guidelines for the sake of unity -- and for publicity for his own book on the 'Code?' See Movie Magic and Unconscious Learning


December 2005

Mother says she killed daughter to protect child from 'spirits': "A Eugene woman has told police that she killed her 17-month-old daughter to protect the baby from spirits....Young had practiced both Voodoo and Santeria.... Since moving to Eugene a year ago, she had explored both Buddhism and Christianity." See The fall and rise of human violence

October 2005

'Satanism flourishing in Russia' No arrests in vandalism at Murmansk church: "Satanism is running rampant throughout Russia, according to a priest at a Murmansk church defaced by vandals."

 

The Meaning of Hula: "We have inherited a rich tradition of hula (dances) and mele oli (chants), full of stories of gods and goddesses, ceremonies, prayers, protocol, imagery, wisdom, and intelligence. ...It's a way of remembering and it's a very esoteric ... It was also a very sacred thing to do. So certain hulas were looked at as being very sacred and you only do it at a certain time, for a certain deity on certain moons, at certain ceremonies."

 

Darwinism & the Rise of Gnosticism: "...the British Royal Society, the Masonic institution responsible for the promulgation of Darwinism, rigorously imposed a division between science and theology upon the halls of scientific inquiry....

     "It comes as little surprise that Darwinism, which is premised upon metaphysical naturalism and materialism, is so compatible with

 

Gnosticism. Both emphasize the primacy of this material plane. Had such a metaphysical doctrine remained confined to the realm of academic polemics, it may have been harmless enough. However... the Gnostic myth of Darwinism eventually migrated from the abstraction of speculative philosophy to other areas of study. With this migration, Darwinism enjoyed epistemological primacy....

     "Inevitably, the Gnostic myth of Darwinism guides its adherents to the same conclusion… evolution requires man’s assistance.... Freemason and Darwinian apologist T. H. Huxley wrote: 'Social progress means a checking of the cosmic process at every step, and the substitution for it of another, which may be called the ethical process; the end of which is not the survival of those who happen to be the fittest... but of those who are ethically the best.'

     "In actuality, Huxley was reiterating a central mandate of Masonic doctrine: the alchemical transformation of man into a god. ...

     "The Gnostic religions of Scientology and Transhumanism represent links in an ideational chain, which finds its origins in ancient Mesopotamia. They are philosophical and religious scions of the Mystery religion." See Darwin's Black Box and Trapped in the Matrix

June 2005

'Child sacrifices in London': "Sita Kisanga, 35, was convicted at the Old Bailey of torturing an eight-year-old girl from Angola she accused of being a witch. Kisanga was a member of the Combat Spirituel church in Dalston. Many such churches, supported mainly by people from West Africa, sanction aggressive forms of exorcism on those thought to be possessed. There are believed to be 300 such churches in the UK, mostly in London.

    The report... uncovered allegations of witchcraft spells, child trafficking and HIV-positive people who believe that by having sex with a child they will be 'cleansed'. ...The scale of the problem emerged through the murder inquiry following the discovery of a child's torso in the Thames in September 2001... his background was traced to Nigeria. It is believed he died in a ritual sacrifice. ...

     "...children are being sold to traffickers on the streets of major African cities for less than £10 and then smuggled into the UK. ... We undertook a project aimed at improving our knowledge of issues impacting child abuse within the African and Asian communities of London." See Establishing a Global Spirituality

Another One Bites the Dust: "Abortionist accused of cannibalism has license revoked only because of public pressure.... Photographs obtained by pro-lifers revealed appalling conditions that included blood-soaked carpeting in procedure rooms and improperly sterilized surgical instruments, which were stored next to a blood- stained open toilet where aborted baby parts were allegedly flushed. Clinic employees told a Kansas City Police Detective that Rajanna had been seen mixing aborted baby parts into his lunch." Human Nature

Burning Man - Just One of the Signs the Occult Is Sweeping the Globe: "Across the sea in the UK, Brighton proudly wears the title these days of 'Capital of Occulture.' This year's Occulture festivities exhibited bigger than ever venues - sacred music and dance, clarivoyance, psychic and tarot readers, chakra, traditional witchcraft, tatooing, piercing, fetish satanism, shamanism, transcendent techniques, and lectures favoring paganism from the original Book of Shadows. And then there was the 'Pleasure Dome" where magicians, sorcerers and witches discussed their trade, including Mogg Morgon, founder of the Golden Dawn Occult Society, Ralph Harvey, a prominent Wiccan High Priest, and Emrys, a Shaman of the Cromlech Covenant." See The Nature and Tactics of Satan and Loving evil more than good

May 2005

A Compelling Answer to Humanity’s Biggest Question: "The greatest danger facing the world today is our misunderstanding and our misuse of God, says... author Neale Donald Walsch in his newest book, What God Wants.... He addresses hot button issues, believing that change and fulfillment can only really occur when we truly understand what God wants from us. When that happens, he says, we will have radically different ideas about life and other people, nations, and beliefs, and this will change everything.... We will live in a way which unites us, not divides us, and we will do away with Separation Theology forever.... We will understand that God does not want anyone to suffer. Ever."

     Walsh's twisted theology may please human nature, but it turns God's actual truths upside down. Reject these seductive, mainstream lies! Don't buy the book! Warn others. See Unequal Contenders in the Spiritual War Indigo Children and Conversations with 'God' and Occult: Conversations with a god

 

Been thinking about the Da Vinci code?  "The Da Vinci Code is a conspiracy theory that leaves many readers wondering whether everything they have believed about Christ and the Bible is wrong.... The ancient texts found at Nag Hammadi, however, were not 'lost books of the Bible,' as Teabing claims. They were the writings of a mystery religion known as Gnosticism....

    "But even if The Da Vinci Code doesn't stand up under scrutiny, is it possible that the Bible has been altered through thousands of years of countless copies and versions? This is the kind of question that is best answered by those who have applied the principles of science to manuscript evidence.... On the basis of such research, scholars assure us that our Bible is a highly reliable representation of the original manuscripts."

     And the evidence is far more vast and persuasive than this short article can prove. Therefore, read and delight in it. See God's eternal, unchanging Word


December 2004

School distributes satanic sex calendar: "...a school police officer handed out calendars to students that featured explicit details on satanic and sexual rituals for every day of the month....

     "'September 20th is a 'midnight host' whatever that is," said one unidentified parent reading from the calendar. 'You should have a blood-type ritual. September 23rd is the fall equinox – you should have an orgy. Activity group sex, any age, any sex.'

    "The father did not want to be identified because he feared his daughter would be punished. 'They shouldn't be teaching the kids, at 12 years of age, a calendar of satanism. It's just not right,' he said.

    "Pearland school officials say some 25 students at the junior high received the calendars."

     After decades of pagan and occult games and classroom projects under the umbrella of multiculturalism, occultism seems almost normal to many. See Establishing a Global Spirituality & Role-Playing Games & Popular Occultism

November 2004

Charting the paganism of Galen and Jung: "Jung's 'psychological' theories were 'constructed deliberately, and somewhat deceptively.... to make his own magical, polytheist, pagan world view more palatable to a secularized world conditioned to respect only those ideas that seem to have a scientific flair to them.” See Carl Jung, Alchemy and Neo-Gnosticism

August 2004

South African boy attacked for body parts: "A South African boy has died more than a week after assailants hacked off his hand, ear and penis in a savage attack police suspect may be linked to the 'muti' trade in body parts for witchcraft. Ten-year-old Sello Chokoe was searching for stray livestock in hills near his home in the northern Limpopo province when his attackers struck, hitting him over the head with a blunt weapon, slashing off parts of his body and leaving him for dead....

     "'Muti' murders, to obtain body parts for supposedly potent traditional cures and spells, happen on a regular basis in post-apartheid South Africa and often go unreported, police say. Often killings are carried out to order to obtain specific body parts required for particular spells." Historical sorcery & witchcraft

June 2004

Satanic Ritual Blamed for Death of Italian Teens: "An Italian magistrate warned against the growing lure of Antichrist cults in Catholic Italy Monday after the discovery of the bodies of two teenagers killed in a satanic sacrifice. Police announced at the weekend they had uncovered the bodies of 19-year-old Chiara Marino and 16-year-old Fabio Tollis, last seen in January 1998 leaving a pizzeria with other members of their heavy metal rock band 'Beasts of Satan.'

      "...witness statements showed Marino and Tollis died during a cocaine-fueled ritual where Marino, a petite brunette, was killed under a full moon by knife plunged into her heart. Tollis, the lead singer of the band, was killed with a hammer blow to the head when he realized the other band members were going ahead with Marino's murder and tried to stop it....

     "...descriptions of the black candles and goats' skulls decorating Marino's bedroom and witness statements of sexual violence. ... As many as 5,000 people are thought to be members of satanic cults in Italy with 17- to 25-year-olds making up three quarters of them." And what about all those who delight in the occult without joining specific cults? See Popular Occultism

February

 Norwegian black metal band shocks Poland (More bad news from my native land): "Norwegian black metal band Gorgoroth staged a special concert that made Janet Jackson's breast-baring look like nursery school antics and left Catholic Poland outraged.... On stage there was blood everywhere. About ten decapitated sheep heads and naked people, alive, on large crosses. Everyone was painted with 100 liters of sheep blood. Also there were Satanist symbols everywhere."

     See comment on Lord of the Rings. Apparently, "the name Gorgoroth was inspired from a place in Tolkien's stories."

January

A Dangerous Correlation : "In the Stanford study, sixty-two astronomers, or 5 percent, said they’d seen residual UFOs. But here’s the interesting part: Astronomers with just a few observation hours per year witnessed UFOs, while those logging more than a thousand hours per year saw nothing.... Those who are deeply involved in cultic, occultic, or certain New Age pursuits often see UFOs, whereas astronomers who avoid those things do not.

    "...these UFO encounters 'strike witnesses with intense fear, distress, and anxiety.' Others experience nightmares, visions, hallucinations, and personality changes.” See Aliens, Monsters and Creepy Creatures


August 2003

< Child cannibal killers of the Congo: "The 15-year-old boy bites into a packet of jelly babies as he tells me how he killed. First there were the mothers, after he'd raped them. Then their babies. Four of them. The eldest aged three.... Then he wanders off, having thanked me for the sweets, to play marbles with the other killers....

     "It is those armed kids who form the front line. They are the weapons of mass destruction. Anisette Birindwa, the jelly-baby boy, is one among thousands. In Africa, children kill children in huge numbers and have done so for years. In return, they are sent forward first, their battles appallingly fierce and bloody because children do not understand the consequences of their actions. And they are brainwashed.

       "Modern weapons, light, easy to use, are child's play. Bang, bang - you're dead. Two kids standing little more than an arm's length from each other, blowing themselves to pieces....

 "He says he trained as a nurse. But no ordinary nurse. He was taught magic remedies... He tells me: 'One day, we captured two women, the wives of the Interahamwe, and the commander told me to kill them. Six of us raped them. Then we stabbed them to death with machetes. It was cheaper than bullets. They begged us to spare them, but we laughed. We had orders. 'We cut out their hearts to take to the commander. Their babies were aged three months, a boy; a one-year-old girl; another boy, two; and the last aged three. We killed them and used their bodies to make medicine. I BOILED their feet and arms to grind and put in bottles. The potion has the power to stop bullets. I burned the meat into ash which you sprinkle on your body to give extra strength. The heads of the children and their mothers we gave to the commander. We ate the hearts, kidneys and livers.'

      "...Mashuruliko Mgoyi, also 13. She joined the militia when she was 10. Then she was captured by the RCD, whose commander, Gere Kola, used her as a wife. 'When he didn't use me, he put me in the front line. The first man I killed was militia.... I had to cut off his head, make a fire and burn the body and head separately." (8/20/03)

    That's the world of the occult without the softening influence of Christian values. Men become predators and women are treated as slaves. See The fall and rise of human violence But those moderating values of "Christian" cultures are now fading fast. What will the world be like when occult thinking become the norm and Biblical truth is forbidden? Popular Occultism 

 

Voodoo embeds in U.S.: "Voodoo, Santeria and other religions with African roots are drawing followers in the United States among immigrants and black Americans interested in their ancestry, their leaders say. But their practice can result in clashes with neighbors and police over rituals such as animal sacrifices and drumming — especially since they are conducted mostly at home, in residential neighborhoods....

      "When voodoo practitioners held an annual ceremony honoring their ancestral spirits at midnight, neighbors in a sedate section of Philadelphia called police as drumming started." Charts: Five Types of Religious Expressions

Druid focuses Earth's energy on road toll: "Druids have been brought in to reduce the number of accidents on Austria's worst stretch of autobahn. The Druids have put up huge roadside monoliths to restore the natural flow of 'earth energy'. ....Gerald Knobloch, who describes himself as an archdruid, used a divining rod to inspect the 275-metre stretch of the A9 in Styria and restore 'earth energy lines'." See A Twist of Faith

May 2003

Reports of Cannibalism Resurface in Congo: "... terrified witnesses on Monday describing the mutilation and eating of the dead during more than week of bloody tribal fighting.... Lendu tribal fighters killed civilians and combatants, cutting open their chests and ripping out hearts, livers and lungs, which they ate while they were still warm.... 

      "'The sight of a corpse with a missing liver and heart is horrific, especially when you know that those parts were eaten by fellow human beings and that the same could happen to you," said Acquitte Kisembo, a 28-year-old medical student....

       "The attacks are often fueled by a mix of tribal hatreds and a desire to spread terror in the region. There is also a belief among some that eating one's foes is a source of power."  My Savior

 

Female skeletons dug up in China to make 'ghost soup': "Women's skeletons are being excavated from graves in a province in China to make 'ghost soup'.... Locals in the area believe 'ghost soup' - soup stock made from the bones of women - cures a range of ailments, according to the newspaper."

        This sounds strange, but some of the superstitions that shape lifestyles in animist and shamanic cultures are now reviving in America as well. See Folk Islam

April 2003

repeat Archbishop in waiting becomes druid: "The next Archbishop of Canterbury was inducted as an honorary white druid yesterday at an open-air ceremony in Wales reminiscent of a scene from a Monty Python sketch. Dr Rowan Williams, dismissing suggestions that he was dabbling in paganism, joined blue-hooded druids ranked behind a golden harp to be admitted into the Welsh Gorsedd of Bards. ... Dr Williams, standing in a circle of stones, wore a long white cloak and headdress. As he accepted the honour, he clutched the hands of Dr Robyn Lewyes, the chief druid of Wales....

        "Dr Williams... described the award as 'one of the greatest honours that Wales can bestow on her citizens.' He added: 'The suggestion that the Gorsedd is even remotely associated with paganism is deeply offensive.'" Romans 1:22-32  Does this new liberal head of the Anglican church understand the difference between Christianity and paganism? See the next link:

repeat Occult. The British Druid Order: "...teaches and practices Druidry as the ancient native spirituality of Europe, re-kindling its sacred fire for the 21st century."

Voodoo recognised as official religion in Haiti: "Voodoo practitioners believe in a supreme God and spirits who link the human with the divine. The spirits are summoned by offerings that include everything from rum to chickens. Many books and films have depicted voodoo as black magic based on animal and human sacrifices to summon zombies and evil spirits." Chart: Five Types of Religious Expressions

 

Folk Islam? Many citizens believe Saddam has mystical powers: "Saddam, the story goes, had the stone made shortly after he came to power 24 years ago. Its powers were first tested inside a chicken. One of his soldiers pulled out a gun and shot a bullet at point-blank range. The chicken's feathers fell off, but it lived. So the dictator implanted the stone in his upper arm....

  ``Many average people here fear Saddam,'' said Ayat Jabar, 28, an Iraqi soldier who deserted in the village of Shuaiba. ``He doesn't even have to be here. They fear his ghost. Even now people are probably thinking he's watching me while I talk to you.''

  "'He has seven spirits. He doesn't die,' said Adnan Mohammad Yousef, 32.... 'It's well-known that Saddam's mother is a magician.'...

  "Saad Abdel Rida, 19, has also heard about Saddam's stone.... Spirits from the underworld talk to Saddam through the fortuneteller, informing him who's planning to kill him, said Rida, a collge student." Four Faces of Islam

March 2003

Congo cannibalism claim provides first challenge: "The first case likely to be heard by the international criminal court involves allegations of cannibalism. A UN investigation found evidence that the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC), which controls much of the north of the country, had massacred and eaten civilians." Deuteronomy 18:10-12

January 2003

Politician Caught Up in Vampire Rumors: "...a member of [Malawi's] ruling United Democratic Front was the latest victim of a bizarre rumor that the country's government is colluding with vampires to collect human blood for international aid agencies." See African Witchcraft and Deliver us from evil

Astronomer links UFOs to occultism: "Sightings are very real, but only in spiritual world.... For example, [says Dr. Hugh Ross], countries with a high degree of occult activity such as Russia during the Soviet era, France, and certain parts of Brazil also had high percentages of UFO encounters. During Russia’s Soviet period when every expression of religion except occult activity had been outlawed, he said, 'Russians were seeing UFOs at five to eight times the rate Americans were.' ....Dr. Ross said that residual UFO encounters are consistently malicious.... 'The most common impact is people have very disturbing, recurring nightmares that can lead to a deep psychosis.' Sometimes, he said, people become injured in such encounters." See Aliens, Monsters and Creepy Creatures

German Satanists 'ate babies': "Babies have been killed, sliced up and eaten by a German Satanist group, according to media reports yesterday, stirring fears that last month’s arrest of a self-confessed cannibal was not an isolated incident." Charts: Five Types of Religious Expressions


December 2002

Aid agencies' work in Malawi hit by panic over 'vampires': "Vampire rumours are part of Malawi superstition. The latest spate spread last week when The Nation newspaper reported that villagers in southern Thyolo had waylaid three Catholic priests whom they suspected of hunting for blood.... A 'blood hunter' was reported to have sucked blood from a woman and hurt her son during an attack on their home in a district of Blantyre." See African Witchcraft and Deliver us from evil

 

S.F. may soon see psychics regulated -- Pioneering proposal would ban trickery: "The proposed law... covers fortune-telling by not only crystal balls, tarot cards and astrology charts, but by 'sticks, dice, tea leaves, coins, sand and coffee grounds' as well. Fortune-tellers would be required to post rate cards and a phone number for complaints. Police say requiring permits would make it easier to keep tabs on swindlers....

      "'What a rip-off,' said Dionysia, Goddess of Light and Direction. 'It's just the city, capitalizing on folks trying to make a living.'" See My Will be Done

October 2002

Home parties bring together clairvoyants, anxious Americans: "Ann Albers, a Phoenix psychic, stopped taking new clients 10 months ago and has a waiting list of about 200 people. 'Things have been so chaotic that people are seeking a deeper meaning for life,' says Albers, a former Honeywell engineer. 'They come less for predictions and more for guidance.'" Deut 18:9-12

* Killers drank blood from shot farmer: "Four men charged with the murder of the first white farmer to die in President Robert Mugabe's violent land seizures took blood from his corpse, mixed it with alcohol and drank it, a Zimbabwean court heard yesterday. David Stevens, 48, who shared profits with workers at his farm 60 miles east of Harare, was attacked by so-called veterans of Zimbabwe's independence war in April 2000. He sought help from officers at the local police station, who did nothing to stop him being abducted and dragged into the bush, where he was tortured and shot." Call for prayer for Zimbabwe

* Bangui: the city where even lawyers believe in sorcery: "Stephanie, 13, an orphan, shakes at the sight of the sticks and tells the detective that she was tricked into becoming a 'witch'. A neighbour, she says, gave her a bowl of soup and after she had eaten it the woman revealed that it contained a human heart. Stephanie, the woman said, now possessed supernatural powers like her own...

      "Although belief in sorcery is common in sub-Saharan Africa, the Central African Republic's legal system condemns witchcraft as a crime. Alleged witches are pursued with vigour, even though accusations often stem from hearsay, gossip and score-settling. ... In the cell next to Stephanie's, Ermine Qualigon, 70, admits that she buried a piece of her daughter-in-law's miscarried baby in the hope of making the woman infertile. 'My son's wife never gave me any food,' she says...

      " At Bangui police station, a team of detectives specialises in sorcery. To make the investigators immune to the spells of their suspects, they are routinely injected with 'vaccinations' of herbs by witchdoctors. They say that this is necessary because the number of those practising witchcraft is rising. ...Only a few sceptics in Bangui acknowledge that jealousy and rivalry are at the heart of most accusations of witchcraft." See Your friendly community spies

June 2002

Kryon [a spirit guide] at the United Nations: "The Enlightenment Society is one of the fifty member clubs of the United Nations Staff Recreation Council. It was founded in 1975, and its objective is to provide divine service to United Nations staff, delegates, mission staff and guests. ... The deepest purpose of the Society matches that of the United Nations - to bring peace to our planet. Over the years it has become the place where delegates and guests of delegates may meet and experience the knowledge and energy of what we are calling the New Age. Authors, channellers, lecturers, musicians and spiritual leaders all have been called over the years to give their wisdom at these meetings...."

      While we don't like to post links to occult websites, we want to show the ties between UN ideology and Theosophy. See also Heaven is Forever, which shows (1) how (occult) channeled messages bring a common vision of interfaith unity and hatred for our God and (2) how Christians can resist their subtle distortions of truth.

 

Sect leader promised salvation via sex, teen says: "It began, the girl said, when the man they all called 'the lamb' told her that submitting to his sexual desires was her ticket to heaven. She was 12; he was 50 or 51. Nuwaubian leader Dwight York started summoning her to do cleaning chores in his home on the sect's farm in Putnam county, she said. ...

     "York and 100 to 200 of his followers came to Georgia in 1993 from Brooklyn, N.Y., where they had formed a group called Ansaru Allah Community. In New York, the group was Muslim-oriented in ideology, costume and religious practices; while in Georgia, they have adopted practice and garb from ancient Egypt and have decorated their farm with Egyptian-style pyramids, obelisks and statues. York is referred to as the 'master teacher' and 'the lamb.'" Matt 24:24

May 2002

* Man Kills Boss, Turns Her Into Pepper Soup: "A Nigerian man... Salifu Ojo, a 23-year-old farm laborer in southwest Ondo state killed Christiana Elijah, a 40-year-old mother of four, after a dispute over his pay. He chopped off her head, hands and legs, then removed her internal organs which he used as ingredients for his soup, police said. ... 'He severed her parts, made pepper soup and ate it -- all on the farm.'...

     "In Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation of more than 110 million people, many believe witchcraft involving the use of human genitals, eyes, tongues and skulls can make them instant millionaires. Although Ojo did not kill his boss for ritual purposes, police said they suspected he might have wanted to sell some body parts to ritualists." 

     Since Christianity spread throughout the world during the last two centuries, slavery and cannibalism have disappeared from ordinary sight and consciousness. In our post-Christian culture - and with the spreading hatred for Biblical truth -- we see a rapid return of the human cruelties and depravity that was evidenced by Hitler and others in bondage to occult forces. But Jesus Christ offers freedom through the cross. See Galatians 5:19-26  and What it means to be a Christian

March 2002

FBI Arrests Priests, Police for Internet Child Porn: "Catholic priests, a police officer, a nurse, a teacher's aide and a school bus driver were among those charged in a 14-month nationwide crackdown known as 'Operation Candyman' that targeted child pornography on the Internet.... FBI officials said about 90 people in more than 20 states have been charged in an undercover investigation of three electronic message groups maintained by Yahoo! Inc that involved the posting, exchanging and transmitting of child pornography via e-mail, bulletin boards and file transfers. ...They said one group... had an estimated 7,000 members, with 2,400 of them overseas. ...The Candyman Web site has been shut down...." Rom 1:22-32

February 2002

* Human Sacrifice in London?  "The body discovered in the Thames River on Sept. 21... belonged to a boy, aged 5 to 7 years old, of Afro-Caribbean descent, and it was missing its head, arms and legs. Two weeks later, police found seven half-burned candles wrapped in a white sheet... Fola Adeoye was inscribed on the candles. The names are Nigerian, common to the Yoruba people....

       "This month, a South African expert in ritualistic killings performed a second autopsy on the body of the boy, and pronounced what many people had feared. The discovery of the body, the nature of the wounds, and the way the boy was killed 'are consistent with those of a ritual homicide as practiced in Africa'.... 'Muti' is a South African word that means traditional medicine.... It is always based on the idea of taking energy from another living thing for your own....

       "And children, it is believed, have the most powerful energy... Most of the body parts taken for medicine correspond directly with the powers desired, experts said. For example, using eyeballs in a potion would be expected to increase foresight, brains would be expected to aid wisdom, and a heart — courage or sympathy... But the most gruesome part of muti is that the body parts are usually taken while the victim is alive, because death is believed to reduce the potency of the medicine. In an alleged muti murder case that took place in South Africa last October, a gang was accused of removing the facial skin, genitalia, breasts, hands and feet of a young mother while she was still alive....

       "Growing up in Africa, Benjamin Ola Akande said it wasn't uncommon to read about as many as a dozen muti murders in a year. 'It's such a common practice the [newspapers] don't write about it anymore,' said Akande." See African Witchcraft

 

Shopper Beaten For Bringing 13 Items To Express Lane: "...a 51-year-old Lowell woman was beaten and kicked when a customer behind her in a supermarket checkout line became enraged that she had brought 13 items through a 12-items-or-fewer lane. Karen Morgan, 38, was arrested Sunday at about 9 a.m. after she allegedly beat the victim on the street outside the Market Basket." 2 Tim 3:1-14

 

* Afghan Girls on Sale for 100kg of Wheat: "...young girls in western part of the war-torn Afghanistan were on sale for a 100 kg bag of wheat. ... A senior official of the IFRC said: 'Girls were offered as brides for as little as 100 kg of wheat flour.'

       "The combined effects of 23 years of war and the last three years of drought have left many people entirely destitute. ... A team member said: 'We saw children digging in the fields for roots to eat and use as firewood. Leaves from the trees were also being eaten.'  ... in many of the villages there was no agricultural activity because of the drought, no seeds were available for planting, and much of the livestock had either died or been sold off." Matt 24:7

January 2002

* Headless boy, five, found in Thames: "...The torso of the child, who had been decapitated and dismembered, is thought to have been in the river for up to 10 days. ... Police are searching for the head and limbs. Det Supt Adrian Maybanks said the body was that of a black Afro-Caribbean boy aged about five-and-a-half." See African Witchcraft and Charts: Five Types of Religious Expressions.

 

* Witch doctor link to boy's ritual killing: "Police have turned their attention to sub-Sahara Africa's dark world of human sacrifice in their search for the killer of a boy whose torso was found in the Thames. ... Scotland Yard says it has evidence that the unidentified child, named Adam by detectives anxious to give him some dignity, may have died in a ritualistic killing. If so, 'Adam' could be Britain's first known victim of a muti killing, practised by witch doctors in South Africa and the Ivory Coast. This involves human sacrifice to produce medicine or good-luck potions." [telegraph.co.uk, 26/01/02]   See America's Spiritual Slide and Chapter 8 of A Twist of Faith

 

Missing children being sold as slaves? "Nigeria is known as a link in a major West African child trafficking network. More than 1 100 people remained missing after deadly blasts at a Lagos armoury, but many children among them may be alive and held for unknown reasons by security officials....  172 people, mostly women and children, who sheltered in a Roman Catholic church on Sunday night had been forcibly removed by armed soldiers on Monday.  ... A social worker, who asked not to be named said: 'This cannot be good news in a country where child theft and trafficking are common.'" Before the spread of Christianity, slavery was normal and common in many parts of the world. Romans 1:22-32

 

* Witch doctor link to boy's ritual killing: "Police have turned their attention to sub-Sahara Africa's dark world of human sacrifice in their search for the killer of a boy whose torso was found in the Thames. ... Scotland Yard says it has evidence that the unidentified child, named Adam by detectives anxious to give him some dignity, may have died in a ritualistic killing. If so, 'Adam' could be Britain's first known victim of a muti killing, practised by witch doctors in South Africa and the Ivory Coast. This involves human sacrifice to produce medicine or good-luck potions." [telegraph.co.uk, 26/01/02]   See America's Spiritual Slide and Chapter 8 of A Twist of Faith

* Kandahar comes out of the closet: "Now that Taleban rule is over in Mullah Omar’s former southern stronghold, it is not only televisions, kites and razors which have begun to emerge. Visible again, too, are men with their ashna, or beloveds: young boys they have groomed for sex. Kandahar’s Pashtuns have been notorious for their homosexuality for centuries, particularly their fondness for naive young boys. Before the Taleban arrived in 1994, the streets were filled with teenagers and their sugar daddies, flaunting their relationship. It is called the homosexual capital of south Asia. Such is the Pashtun obsession with sodomy — locals tell you that birds fly over the city using only one wing, the other covering their posterior — that the rape of young boys by warlords was one of the key factors in Mullah Omar mobilising the Taleban." Gal 5:19-26 and Resisting the Lure of Sensuality

 

Infallible haters? (by Thomas Sowell): "...What did the Jews ever do to Hitler? The fashionable idiocy that haters must have justifications is one of those ideas that George Orwell said only an intellectual could believe -- because no one else could be such a fool. Unfortunately, we have a large supply of both amateur and professional intellectuals. They are busy on college campuses across the country, sounding off with their blame-America-first message. They are also an undercurrent in the mass media, where they must insinuate what they can say unopposed in academia....

       "Hatred and mob violence against more productive minorities has been the rule, rather than the exception, for centuries -- whether against the Jews in Eastern Europe, the Ibos in Nigeria, the Armenians in Turkey, the Germans in Russia, the Lebanese in West Africa, the Chettiars in Burma, the Japanese in Canada or the Asian shopkeepers in our own black ghettoes today."


December 2001

* Child-rape epidemic in South Africa: A bizarre belief among many African black men that sex with a virgin -- even a child or baby -- can cure HIV/AIDS is fueling what is already one of the highest child sexual exploitation rates in the world. According to the latest report by South Africa's Police Service, children are the victims of 41 percent of all rapes and attempted rapes reported in the country. Over 15 percent of all reported rapes are against children under 11, and another 26 percent against children 12-17. For the year 2000, some 58 children were raped or the victims of rape attempts in South Africa every single day. The trend is worsening. Babies as young as only a few months old are being raped almost daily."  Rom1:22-32

 

International community turns on Mugabe (President of Zimbabwe) - Global leaders lash out at dictator: "Mugabe – through both unofficial violence and official government policy – systematically has driven white farmers off their land, action resulting in a nation-wide famine. In addition, reports of rampant corruption in his administration are commonplace." Romans 1:22-32

November 2001

Child slaves today: Malians work to free child laborers (Ivory Coast, Africa):  Mombi "was working long hours for no pay, had barely any food and hadn't seen his parents in nearly a year. His master wasn't there, but Mombi couldn't escape because he didn't have any money, didn't speak French and didn't know where he was. To make sure he didn't try to leave, his master had confiscated his identity card....  On one farm north of Daloa, a farmer was forcing 13 children between the ages of 12 and 16 to work at gunpoint. 'I had never seen anything like this,' Diarra said. 'The kids were like prisoners. They were given no food, and beaten by the old man's son.'" Psalm 12:8

(Zimbabwe). Mugabe regime likens journalists to terrorists: "Correspondents for foreign media who reported indiscriminate beatings of whites a week ago will be treated as terrorists, a presidential spokesman warned yesterday. ...Mr. Mugabe's government is being strongly criticized over alleged human rights abuses and a crackdown on the opposition that have escalated since ruling party militants began violent occupations of white-owned farms in March 2000."  Romans 1:22-32

Girls, 12 and 13, Convicted of Trying to Poison Teacher: "Two girls, aged 12 and 13, have been found guilty of trying to poison their sixth-grade teacher with liquid drain cleaner. The girls, 12 and 13, were convicted of contamination of a substance for human consumption, a first degree felony. They were also accused of tampering with evidence and obstruction of official business....A third girl, 13, who pleaded guilty last month to contamination of a substance for human consumption, testified for the prosecution. ...All of the girls were accused of pouring liquid drain cleaner into teacher Nancy Wyenandt's water bottle."< Rom 12:2-9

100 Boys Escape From Hutu Rebels: "After being kidnapped Friday morning, the boys were forced to carry goods the rebels looted as they moved through the countryside toward their stronghold in northern Burundi's forests, said 19-year-old Jean Paul Nduwimana. ...Officials have said the rebels use kidnapping as a means of forced recruitment. ...Although a minority, Tutsis have effectively ruled Burundi for all but a few months since independence from Belgium in 1962. Hundreds of thousands have died in ethnic violence."  A sobering look at our capricious human nature - untamed by God's grace and values.  2 Tim 3:1-14

August 2001

Drawn to Burning Man: "The festival began Monday and reaches its pyrotechnic climax tonight with the torching of a giant wood-and-neon effigy in the rough outline of a man. The throngs of techies, nudists, performance artists, hippies, bikers and plain gawkers will go wild, then start burning everything that hasn't blown away.... This is about creating a reality unlike what most of our society knows," said Eveline Darroch, the 29-year-old creative force behind the Burning Man premiere of "The Living Mandala Man," a ghost-like modern dance and meditation. ...The theme this year is the Seven Ages, from the cradle to the mausoleum. People can slide on through a giant birth canal and become born again, Burning Man-style." Romans 1:22-32

School Vandalism Beyond Belief: "New Hampshire's top-rated elementary school for excellence is in shambles, a $100,000 disaster zone, thanks to two boys out to "have a little fun." Romans 1:22-32

July

Is America Becoming a Superpower Sodom?  "It shows up in the pressure on the Boy Scouts of America to accept homosexuality. The nation is a sinkhole of desire for illegal drugs. It has state-sponsored lotteries whose revenues never seem to be enough to cover the growing list of new government programs that clamor for funding...." See  America's Spiritual Slide and The Armor of God


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