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{"id":12587,"date":"2025-05-29T15:46:19","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T20:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/?p=12587"},"modified":"2025-05-29T15:46:19","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T20:46:19","slug":"black-magic-among-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rogereolson\/2025\/05\/black-magic-among-christians\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Magic Among Christians?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

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Recently, according to news reports, a leading mega church pastor and evangelist with close ties to President Trump promised followers that if they sent her ministry $1K she would provide them with \u201cblessings.\u201d One such was to be making God their enemies\u2019 enemy.<\/p>\n

What follows here is my opinion, not of the pastor-evangelist herself or of her character but of her promise.<\/p>\n

While many have criticized her for this, few, if any, have recognized this promise as a promise of black magic. Black magic is the occult practice of using powerful words and gestures and rituals to harm someone. Sometimes it includes calling forth evil beings to wreak harm (theurgy).<\/p>\n

I am not claiming that the pastor-evangelist knows she is promising to use black magic for money. However, that is a form of black magic whether she knows it or not. She is (perhaps unwittingly) dabbling in evil; she is using \u201cGod\u201d for Satanic purposes. Or at least claiming to be able to manipulate God for harm to people she doesn\u2019t even know. If that isn\u2019t blasphemy, I don\u2019t know what would be.<\/p>\n

What should happen? A group of concerned and influential evangelical Christians, more influential than I am, should coalesce to help her recognize the very serious error of her ways and restore her spiritually and theologically. If she does not cooperate, she should be denounced as \u201coutside the camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clearly, we need a kind of evangelical magisterium who can do this. Of course, they would not have any power to do anything other than persuade people to believe them and act accordingly. Their two purposes should be to clarify what evangelical Christianity is and is not and to help people who go astray become restored through correction and reformation.<\/p>\n

*Note: If you choose to comment, make sure your comment is relatively brief (no more than 100 words), on topic, addressed to me, civil and respectful (not hostile or argumentative), and devoid of pictures or links.*<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"