# I don't believe it!



## LadyCalvinist (Aug 11, 2008)

Recently a course catalog from the local community college arrived at my residence. Out of curiosity I decided to flip through it when I spotted an unusual course. It was to course to teach people how to be MEDIUMS. I could not believe it. There were several other courses encouraging new age/occult practices.


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## JBaldwin (Aug 11, 2008)

Yikes! This just shows where things are going in this country. Our local high school was offering a class in witchcraft.


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## BJClark (Aug 11, 2008)

thank you Lord, that our high schools and local Jr. College hasn't begun offering such things..


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## TimV (Aug 11, 2008)

Sorry in advance, but I can just picture the instructor. Tie-dyed shirt, Dead Head bumper sticker, stringy hai....Oh, forget it, I'll just stop


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## BJClark (Aug 11, 2008)

Was just checking the course catalog for UF, they offer such courses as well..
I'll have to look up UNF and see if they offer these type classes too..

God help this nation


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## Jerusalem Blade (Aug 12, 2008)

This is the legacy that comes with the Potter books. By the pen has been done what could not have been by the sword: removing our defenses to the occult, and opening our culture to witchcraft.

It is now respectable to hold to witchcraft, sorcery, and wizardry. True, the Potter books were interesting and arresting, the characters appealing....but deadly snares also have these qualities.

Art is a powerful weapon -- which either camp may use.


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## Christusregnat (Aug 12, 2008)

Jerusalem Blade said:


> This is the legacy that comes with the Potter books. By the pen has been done what could not have been by the sword: removing our defenses to the occult, and opening our culture to witchcraft.
> 
> It is now respectable to hold to witchcraft, sorcery, and wizardry. True, the Potter books were interesting and arresting, the characters appealing....but deadly snares also have these qualities.
> 
> Art is a powerful weapon -- which either camp may use.



It may also be that Christians have opened the door up to the occult by the acceptance of "magical" stories, such as those by CS Lewis and Tolkein. Let us not forget that they include both "good" and "bad" wizards, magic, elves, etc.

That said, Steve, you are right about what a powerful medium art can be on either side.

Controversially yours,

Adam


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## Pergamum (Aug 12, 2008)

What's the big deal - they've been teaching that we came from protoplasmic use for years. I think I would rather have some supernaturalism taught them pure naturalism.


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## DeoOpt (Aug 12, 2008)

I remember a few years back when I was going to meet my friends at a resturant wich was located in a Hotel, passing by the conferrence rooms I noticed a meeting going on and there was a lady standing outside to greet people I asked her what was going on she replied that it was a psychic meeting, she had a necklace on with her name, -Stephany- on it, I asked is your name stephany, she was soo shocked she say'd "How did you know my name are you a medium"? I sayd - "no Im an extra large."


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## Backwoods Presbyterian (Aug 12, 2008)




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## Jerusalem Blade (Aug 12, 2008)

Christusregnat said:


> It may also be that Christians have opened the door up to the occult by the acceptance of "magical" stories, such as those by CS Lewis and Tolkein. Let us not forget that they include both "good" and "bad" wizards, magic, elves, etc.
> 
> That said, Steve, you are right about what a powerful medium art can be on either side.



Good to meet you on this neutral turf, Adam!

Do you not think there is a difference between Tolkien's saga and Rowling's? (I can't really speak about Lewis', as I never got into those books — I was turned off by his space trilogy early on, and didn't read him much.)

Yes, Gandalf is a wizard — technically speaking — but in the genre Tolkien places him — Faërie, or sacred myth — he typifies not occult types, but the godly. Perhaps the most devastating critique one might make of _Lord of the Rings_ is that it was written by a Roman Catholic. I wonder if a work of art can transcend the belief system of its creator?

The "magic" is — again — not occult stuff, but typical of spiritual / ethical themes and events. When the books became better known, in the '60s, it was loved by the counter-culture, who intuited a profound spiritual conflict much in sync with real life, and took it to heart. It changed the spiritual perceptions of a generation, or some in that generation.

I have my criticisms of it (albeit mild), but its merits are significant. From something I wrote a while back:

Tim Keller gave a lecture for the International Arts Movement (IAM), _The Significance of J.R.R. Tolkien_, which posits an unusual point of view. He explores the philological basis upon which Tolkien built his story, his delving into the etymological similarities in ancient European tongues, deriving from them — these ancient words and the beings depicted by them — a linguistic reconstruction of ancient imaginary worlds and the beings which inhabited them. Tolkien started first with the meanings of certain names in these old north European languages, names depicting elves and dwarves and wizards, not as we perceive them today, but, as with the elves, creatures of unimaginable beauty, names which eventually became characters in the story. Likewise he explored the names of malign beings — orcs, for instance, referring to a kind of “dark elves.” The story was built first upon the old names, and the characters they suggested. Was this reconstruction of a pre-Christian or mixed Christian/pagan apprehension of the spirit worlds? Keller notes that in an interview filmmaker Peter Jackson opined that Tolkien was creating, for the first time in many centuries, not fantasy, but mythology, according to an ancient, and in essence timeless, worldview.

We have, Keller asserts, ancient worldviews from many peoples — Asians, Hebrews, Africans, Greeks and Romans, Persians, etc; but of ancient northern Europeans very little, as their books and stories have largely been destroyed and lost, save some scant stories, and a few fairy tales and nursery rhymes. The power of LOTR then, is from the potency of a mythic world brought to life again, a myth not an escape from reality, but a window into it. Dr. Keller also shows the profoundly complex view of good and evil Tolkien wove into the story (despite the critics ignoring these moral depths), a view only derivable from the gospel of Christ and its profundity.​


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