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{"id":3098,"date":"2015-06-01T20:40:25","date_gmt":"2015-06-02T01:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithonthecouch\/?p=3098"},"modified":"2015-06-01T20:41:46","modified_gmt":"2015-06-02T01:41:46","slug":"the-devil-made-the-do-it-was-charlie-challenge-a-movie-marketing-campaign-does-it-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithonthecouch\/2015\/06\/the-devil-made-the-do-it-was-charlie-challenge-a-movie-marketing-campaign-does-it-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"The Devil Made Them Do It. Was Charlie Challenge a Movie Marketing Campaign? Does it Matter?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"charlie4-3\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Eonline is reporting the so-called Charlie Challenge was just a viral marketing campaign by Warner Bros to promote a new horror film.<\/p>\n

A new teaser for Warner Bros. upcoming horror film<\/span>\u00a0The Gallows\u00a0was released right in the thick of the Charlie Charlie brouhaha, and it featured a much creepier version of the game with a much more upsetting outcome than just students shrieking and running from the room.<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

People who are comforted by this news, I would argue, are still missing the point. \u00a0A lot of commenters to my original Charlie<\/a> posts<\/a>\u2013especially atheists\u2013attempted to pooh-pooh all the original fuss by simply saying, \u201cIt\u2019s not a demon. \u00a0It\u2019s just someone blowing the pencils\/physics\/gravity.\u201d \u00a0In their haste to make fun of the naivete of Christians, these so-called \u201cbrights\u201d, as usual, missed the elephant in the room. \u00a0I agreed then that the Charlie Challenge\u2013whether a manifestation of spiritual or human manipulation\u2013was a lot of silliness, but that was never the point. \u00a0As I particularly noted in my second post last week on the \u201cCharlie Challenge\u201d <\/a>,\u00a0the real problem with \u201cgames\u201d like this is that they are inappropriate attempts to satisfy a spiritual longing that can only be satisfied by God. \u00a0Whether these methods of divination are \u201creal\u201d or just cons, they are still evil, because they turn our hearts and minds away from the only source of true knowledge about living both an authentic and abundant life.<\/p>\n

Of course,<\/em> 99.9% of fortune tellers, seers, horoscopes, and other forms of divination are complete and utter frauds. \u00a0But the fact that something is fakery doesn\u2019t mean it is not dangerous\u2013spiritually or otherwise. \u00a0Is it really \u201cnot dangerous\u201d if a mom who can barely make ends meet spends her family\u2019s hard earned money on some con woman with a crystal ball who promises she can give the mom the spiritual inside scoop on her life? \u00a0Is it really \u201cnot dangerous\u201d to teach a bunch of kids to value superstition over prayerful discernment by allowing them to play a game that purports to help them know the mind of a demon\u2013even if that \u201cdemon\u201d is just some kid shaking the table? \u00a0Is it really \u201cnot dangerous\u201d to encourage a person who is suffering with real medical issues to receive quack treatments like Reiki which, even if they aren\u2019t spiritually suspect (which they are), have no medical data to support them?<\/p>\n

The point is, even when we are playing at divination, it is still problematic because we distract ourselves from turning to God and other legitimate, natural sources for guidance and healing and we make a mockery out of spiritual realities that deserve our respect.<\/p>\n

Christians shouldn\u2019t live in fear of the devil living behind every corner, but they shouldn\u2019t make a game out of discernment and spirituality. \u00a0To do so leads us and our kids to believe that the spiritual life is little more than a vending machine. \u00a0Push this planchette, mutter these formulas, get your spiritual candy bar. \u00a0 But that isn\u2019t what the life of faith is all about and pretending that it is\u2013even if it doesn\u2019t directly involve evil spirits\u2013is still demonic.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"