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Please Contemplate This

T.A. McMahon

Suppose you were introduced to a promotion promising a direct line of communication
with the Creator of the universe.

Let's say you're initially skeptical, but you also find the idea appealing. After all, who
wouldn't want to be able to hear from and speak with God as though He were on one's cell phone?
As you listen to the deal being pitched and peruse some of the literature, you realize that the key to
this is the use of a ouija board. You push the literature aside and head for the exit.

Virtually every evangelical Christian would quickly reject the proposal, especially if he
were aware that a ouija board is an instrument of divination, a device for contacting spirit entities,
which the Bible explicitly condemns in Deuteronomy 18:10. The basic problem with divination is
that, even though the diviner is sincerely attempting to contact God, the entities with which one
ends up communicating with are demons (posing as Jesus, God, angels, departed loved ones, ali-
ens, gods, etc.).

Discernment regarding the above example is for the most part, as my kids would say, "a no
brainer!" However, that's rarely the case in today's spiritual market-place. In particular, the "new
and improved" or "revived" ways of communicating with God promoted among evangelicals are
highly deceptive and very seductive. God has given His Word and His Holy Spirit to help us dis-
cern what is of Him and what is not. It's particularly disturbing that a lethal potion of the "what is
not" has entered the arena of our evangelical youth. Under the guise of "spiritual exercises that in-
vite direct experiences with God," and with the assurance that they are "classical forms of biblical
meditation," growing numbers of our "church" kids are being led unwittingly into the occult.

As I researched what I consider to be an extremely dangerous "spiritual" trend in the body
of Christ, my empathy and concern deepened for the young people and youth pastors involved. I
have little doubt that the motivation common to most of them arises from a desire to know God
more intimately. That is not only what every biblical believer wants but, more importantly, that's
what the Lord wants for us. Furthermore, no true Christian can deny the experiential aspect of his
personal relationship with Jesus Christ. So what exactly is the problem? God's way is being for-
saken for man's way -- and worse.

Programs and practices rife with occult methodologies and techniques have been in the
works at churches and youth ministries around the country: Taize, Lectio Divina, The Labyrinth
(prayer walk), Renovare, guided imagery, Walk to Emmaus, Cursillo, Centering Prayer, Ignatian
Awareness Examen, The Jesus Prayer, and The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, to name but a
handful. Two significant reasons for the appalling growth of these and other similar activities are
that 1) they have an inside track with established parachurch organizations, and 2) increasing num-
bers of evangelicals are acquiring a taste for things Catholic.

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