Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - REPLAY: The Rise of Millennial Witches

Episode Date: June 26, 2020

Today we focus on the confusing consequences of godlessness. First, we break down atheist Richard Dawkins’ contradictory take on eugenics. Then, we analyze a troubling trend among young women: witchcraft. Today's Sponsors: Try Genesis 950 to remove pets stains & odors from your carpet. Use code BLAZE for a discount: https://genesis950.com/ Hydrant is the fastest way to rehydrate. Use promo code ALLIE to save 25% off your first order: https://www.drinkhydrant.com/

Hey guys, welcome to relatable. Happy Monday. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. So for those of you who have missed Theology Mondays, you are in luck today. We are going to be talking about two things that have happened, one cultural trend. And then one thing that a very famous atheist said, and we are going to see what the Bible has to say about these things, what truth has to say about these things. And to analyze how we should take a look at these things. two phenomenon from a phenomenon. I think that is the plural form of that from a Christian perspective. And we're not talking about the primary today. You might be wondering how can you skip on something so big that just happened? The reason that we're not talking about the Nevada caucus or Nevada caucus, one of you from Nevada, messaged me and said that I said Nevada and that was the wrong way to say it. So the Nevada caucus is because I'm actually recording this the week before. So as I'm recording this. I don't actually know the results. So I don't, I'm not a prophetess. And so I don't have the ability to be able to guess what is going to happen then. But on Wednesday, we will talk

about that. We will break that down and all that good stuff. But for today, we are going to look at one central theme. And that is the effect and the inherent nonsensical nature of godlessness. Before we get into all of that, I want to tell you guys once again about Genesis 950. So if you were considering replacing your carpets that are stained by your pets or just smell bad because of your pets before you spend all of that money buying new carpets or buying new rugs, you should try Genesis 950. It is an amazing pet stain and odor remover.

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That is promo code. Promo code blaze at Genesis 950.com. Okay, let's get into all this. So I want to talk about something that Richard Dawkins, he is a very famous atheist, something that he said on Twitter that caused a lot of uproar, not just from Christians, not just from conservatives, but from people all across the spectrum. We'll talk about why. So he said, it's one thing to deplore.

eugenics on ideological political moral grounds it's quite another to conclude that it wouldn't work in practice okay of course it would it works for cows horses pigs dogs and roses why on earth wouldn't it work for humans facts ignore ideology so people freaked out about this now i will say it has 25 000 500 likes and 4 000 retweets so there were some people who thought that hey this is a really good idea. I'm so glad that Richard Dawkins brought this up. But it did get ratioed. It got a ton of replies from people saying, why would you say this? What was the point of saying this? This is totally just something that we didn't need to see today was one tweet that I that I saw. And of course, I agree with that. But I'm actually glad. I'm glad that he said this because

he is saying the quiet parts out loud, which is why wouldn't we? What's wrong? He doesn't say this part and I'll get to this in a minute. But really, for the atheist, what is wrong with eugenics? So eugenics, the process of basically breeding out any kind of imperfection. So breeding out any kind of disability, whether it be autism, whether it be, you know, down syndrome, spina bifida, any of those things trying to create a perfect human race. So people could jump higher, could run faster, could be smarter, whatever. Obviously. this was endorsed by Nazi Germany to try to create a perfect Aryan race. And so it doesn't really have the best history.

But here we've got Richard Dawkins. His gift to us on his Twitter was to say, you know, eugenics would probably work. Now, when people freaked out and the reason why people freaked out across the ideological spectrum is because it doesn't matter what your political background is. Everyone knows someone with special needs. Everyone knows someone who is imperfect because we're all imperfect in some way. And when you think about some kind of higher government power deciding who is most valuable, whether it's based on race, whether it's based on sex, whether it's based on your IQ, some kind of other cognitive ability or personality, whatever it is, if we get to the point where you can even start to determine all of that kind of stuff in the womb, is it possible to be able to cut out a portion of the human race that doesn't fit this arbitrary standard of perfection that some kind of. of bureaucratic power decides upon.

The reason why we freak out is because we all know someone, maybe even ourselves, that probably wouldn't fit into that arbitrarily decided definition of perfection. So people freaked out at him. People started replying and saying, you know, this is ablest, this is bicketed, this could be racist, this could be sexist. Of course, all of this is true. We've seen what the one child policy,

did in China where you've had thousands and thousands and thousands of aborted babies up until the point of nine months old. That's not just a, you know, a hyperbolic scare tactic that is true. You should watch the documentary. One Child Policy. I think it's on Amazon Prime. It is extremely eye-opening. So we've seen the effects of at least if it's not called eugenics, eugenic type thinking and eugenic type policy. People don't like that. Whether you are on the right or the left, whether you are a Christian or you're an atheist, it kind of makes you feel icky. Because it is all of the things that the left says that they don't like. It is condescension based on some inherent quality. So the color of your skin, the type of ability that you have,

the sexual organs that you have. And the right doesn't like it for the most part because we believe, at least Christian conservatives believe that human beings are made in the image of God, and therefore, we are inherently valuable and not just inherently valuable, but inherently more valuable than any other species. And so we are against the idea of eugenics. We don't believe in some kind of perfect human race. We don't believe that people are more valuable based on their capability, based on their talent, based on their cognitive ability. We believe that someone who is completely, physically disabled and totally mentally disabled, someone who needs help to do everything physically, mentally is unable to emote. We believe that that person is inherently and infinitely more

valuable than the most capable, the winningest horse or any kind of animal that you find capable or majestic or valuable. Any kind of human being, regardless of their capacity, regardless of their capability, regardless of their accomplishments, the Christian believes, is inherently and infinitely more valuable than any other member of any other species. However, if you are an atheist, although there are a lot of atheists that say what Richard Dawkins says, you know, that's so gross, why would you even say that I'm completely morally against this? Here's the thing. And here's the point that I want to make. The atheist really has no reason morally to be against this. And Richard Dawkins, I think, knows this, but he lives in this

crazy constant state of contradiction and paradoxes in his mind where he pretends to be a moral person. He pretends that righteousness, objective righteousness exists. He pretends that an objective good exists. And yet he denies the existence of a standard bearer. He denies the existence of an objective moral arbiter and yet he purports that some kind of objective goodness and objective badness does exist and we see that. So he was very frustrated that people were ratioing him, that people were saying, why would you even say this? And he said, for those determined to miss the point, I deplored the idea of eugenic policy. I simply said deploring it doesn't mean it wouldn't work. Just as we breed cows to yield more milk, we could breed humans to run faster or jump higher, but heaven forbid that we do it.

So he is trying to back up and say, whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm not saying that we should do it. I'm saying that we could do it, that we have the capability to do it. But I'm totally morally against it. First of all, if that's true, why even bring it up? Like, yes, sure. There are lots of things that people could do, but we don't talk about it. And we don't say, hey, just FYI, everyone, this morally reprehensible thing is possible, but we shouldn't do it. why even bring it into the conversation, but he thought that this was a good enough thought,

not just to consider in his own mind, not just to say in private conversation, not to, you know, I don't know, talk about privately in some other way or write an article about. He actually thought that, you know what, this is good enough to tweet and to go out there and to make sure that people share and like and see thousands of times. That's how highly he thought of this consideration that he held in his mind. And then he realized that human beings, whether Richard Dawkins wants to admit it or not, are all inherently moral because we are made in the image of God. And so whether or not we deny objective morality, all of us, as image bears of God, have this instinct in us when something is wrong, when something is icky, when something we know is corrupt or depraved,

and we're not even sure why. That speaks to the fact that we are made in God's image that all. all of us have an objective morality that is buried deep inside us that God gave us at. When he realized that, oh, yeah, people reacting this way because they don't like this, because they have a higher view of the human race than this, he backs up and he says, oh, no, no, I don't think that we should do this. This is, no, this is wrong. This is wrong. And here's the question, why?

Why is it wrong? For Richard Dawkins, who is an atheist, for any atheist that is mad at Richard Dawkins saying, that we should, or that we could do eugenics. If he said we should do eugenics, why would any atheist be mad at that? If you believe in evolution, like if you believe that we came from the Big Bang, that that is, that we are just one grand cosmic accident. If you believe that human beings have no inherent value outside of our capability, if you believe that we are no more important than any other animal.

In fact, we are just animals. Like if you don't believe that we have souls that give us value, if you don't believe that we are made in the image of God, if you don't believe that there is at least, at the very least, a higher power that is saying, this is the objective standard of right and wrong, then why? Why do you believe that eugenics is wrong?

What would be wrong with it? If you believe in survival of the fittest, then why not create a human race? according to atheist thinking, survival of the fittest thinking, why not create a human race that has the best capability, it's the largest capacity for success, the largest capacity for health. What is wrong with that? And then that just goes to the bigger question. What is morality?

What is a should or shouldn't? Because the fact of the matter is, in the atheist worldview, there is no objective should or shouldn't, beyond what you feel or beyond what advances the human race. According to the atheistic thinking, everything that we feel, everything that exists, or everything that we do, we do because it at one time helped our ancestors survive and carry on. If that is the case, what to you is wrong with eugenics? Not even speaking about the fact that actually there's a lot of studies that say eugenics wouldn't work with the human race because we're actually a lot more common.

complex than an ape or some other animal. But that's the question. What is a should? What is a shouldn't? What is a moral right? What is a moral wrong? If you do not believe that there is a moral arbiter, if you do not believe, as C.S. Lewis said in Mayor Christianity, a grand, a supreme moral lawgiver. And it's funny because Richard Dawkins, obviously he famously denies the existence of God. And then he goes on to say that it's wrong, that it's wrong, that we shouldn't do eugenics with human beings. Well, why? Why? If you are an atheist, why not? If you don't believe that there is any inherent value in human beings beyond what they can do, what would be wrong with creating a perfect human race. But atheists exist in this world of paradoxes that they cannot reconcile

because they are unwilling to say why they believe in a morality, why they believe in a right and wrong, why they believe that there is any kind of objective standard of righteousness or goodness or decency. Now, they do, they do believe in morals. They do have standards, as Richard Dawkins says. He does think that eugenic policy is wrong, but he can't tell you why. And that's the problem with a large portion of the scientific community and even the technological community is that the capability to be able to do something scientifically or technologically with technological innovation grants a lot of people in that community the license to actually do it. So it's never a question of, is this good for people? Is this good for society? But can we do it?

And if we can do it, then we will do it. And so I find Richard Dawkins's argument very weak. That's his argument that we can do it, but we shouldn't do it on the basis of nothing except for feelings. I just don't find that very compelling. I would love for Richard Dawkins to give a good argument for why morally it is wrong to do what he is proposing we can do and not use some kind of higher standard of morality that is given by a higher standard bearer and not use that as the basis of his argument. It's just impossible. Again, if you believe that the only standard of morality is what has ever been.

advanced a humanity starting with our ancestors to now, then you're going to have to answer that question. What's the reason? I actually had an atheist reach out to me not that long ago. And he's like, he was like, you know, I am an atheist. I'm kind of an agnostic. And I've pondered this question forever of where I get morality, why I believe some things are right and some things are wrong. And I don't know. I just kind of feel it. To me, that takes so much more faith. I mean, atheists laugh at Christians all the time for having the belief in the things that we do or they laugh at anyone who believes in God and just says, oh, that's, you know, I get this a lot. Oh, just your Sky Daddy, which is just a funny phrase. And you just believe in this fairy tale book

and this fiction. Well, you, your beliefs honestly take a lot more faith than mind you. Now, I don't know if that's objectively true, but it takes faith. It takes faith to believe in the atheistic worldview that we're all just doing everything that we're doing for basic survival and based on feeling. I don't believe that. I believe that we were all made in the image of God and therefore we've all got the same instinct for morality and this all, all the same instinct against the things that God calls bad.

Now we are sinful human beings. We are fallen human beings. And so we resist that. And without Christ, we are dead in our sin. And so we don't know which way is up. That's how you get someone like Richard Dawkins purporting this kind of stuff and the other crazy things that he puts forward. But I think that that is a much more, a much more formidable idea than the idea that we're just all kind of moving along by some accidents and figuring out morality as we go. I think that's just a little, a little bit too far-fetched for me.

But this is the nature of godlessness. The nature of godlessness is confusion. Thankfully, according to the Bible Christians, serve a God of peace, not a God of confusion. And without God, you constantly see confusion. You constantly see contradictions. And we're going to talk about another contradiction that we see and another symptom of godlessness in our society in just a second. But before we get into that, I want to tell you guys about hydrant.

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drinkhydrant.com promo code Allie A-L-L-L-I-E. So here's a trend that I've been wanting to talk about for a long time. And that is the upward trend of witchcraft that is very prevalent among young women. So you and I, all the young women that are listening to this podcast and I are the target audience for witchcraft these days. Now, it's not the witchcraft of yesteryear. It's not the pointy hats like hocus. Pocus type thing where people have this like, you know, steamy cauldron and they're putting, I don't know, chicken feet and sawed off fingers into it and casting spells from a spellbook from 1482. That's not what witchcraft looks like today. It looks a lot trendier. It looks a lot prettier. It looks a lot lighter. It looks a lot more fun. It looks like a bunch of celebrities that we really admire, uh, circling up and setting their intends.

tensions for the year. And if you're thinking, oh, that's not witchcraft at all. You are just being dramatic. Well, I want to read to you from an article. This is the reason why I'm talking about this from the Atlantic titled, Why is Witchcraft on the Rise? So we are going to kind of analyze that article and talk about what it says about witchcraft, what it says about our society, what it says about godlessness. And then what the Bible has to say about all this stuff. Because I think a lot of us, we're just kind of waiting through culture and letting culture happen to us. We're letting society evangelize to us. We're letting society share its gospel with us.

And before we know it, we find ourselves accepting these things without even realizing it. Like we don't, you know, say the prayer that society wants us to say and walk down the aisle that society wants us to walk down and accept society as our Lord and Savior. We don't do that in an obvious way or in a deliour. way or even all at once, but over time, it's like the frog and the boiling water, we start to believe the things that society is telling us. That certainly is what has happened with the whole self-love culture, with the whole trendy narcissism culture is what I call it, that Christians have started to believe the gospel of self that is being propagated by the world.

And we have started sounding like the world rather than the world sounding like us. So when you see churches talk about, oh, you are. are enough. You just need to love yourself before you can love other people. If that sounds, if that sounds suspiciously like every secular non-Christian artist and non-Christian, you know, outlet resource that you know, that you read, that you follow, that's because the church, unfortunately, has been evangelized to by the world for so long that we have started sounding like the world. And so as Christians, it is our obligation. It's our responsibility. it is our privilege, it's our right to push back against that with truth.

And truth that is so much better than all of that self-love crap. Sorry if you didn't want your kids to hear that word. That's exactly what it is. It's trash. So I want to talk about how witchcraft being on the rise is actually connected to the gospel of self. This world of trendy narcissism that is so popular, that is so pervasive in a world today. And you might be thinking, no, no, no. at least self-love is pure. It is the culture of self-love is about motivation. It's about taking

charge of your life. At least it works. Witchcraft is dark. It's of Satan. It's not the same at all. Well, remember, what we've talked about on this podcast is that there's no such thing as neutral ground. There's no such thing as neutral ground. So Ephesians 2 says that Satan is the prince of the power of the air. He has real power here on earth. And even though we as Christians know that he who is in us is greater than than he who is in the world, Satan does have real power. And so there's no such thing. Satan would like us to believe that there's neutral ground that, okay, some of the things that aren't biblical that the world says, they're not necessarily wrong. They're not necessarily sinful. They're not necessarily bad. They're just neutral. We can just take a minute. I think self-love falls into that.

It might not be biblical. The Bible might not tell us to love ourselves, but no, it's not satanic. It's not from hell. It's not demonic. It's not bad. It's just neutral. Well, again, like the frog in the pot of boiling water, we just start to accept all the neutral stuff until we are full blown into the world. And we sound exactly like every non-Christian friend that you've got talking about how much we love ourselves

and how we can save ourselves and all of that absolute madness. And here you get witchcraft. Okay. So if you don't think that witchcraft has become trendy, if you think I'm exaggerating, I'll give you some examples. So it's become really cool to call yourself a witch. So creating altars, burning sage, astrology, yes, that is part of this, casting spells. They've all become something that young girls have gravitated toward as a form of rebellion, as a form of self-empowerment. It is very intertwined with feminism.

The history of witchcraft, you can read that anywhere is very intertwined with female rebellion. Cosmo published an article a couple years ago titled Influencer Witches of Instagram. These are women on Instagram who have hundreds of thousands of followers, teaching people to be witches, commercializing witchcraft, and so offering their services for some sort of payment. Young women who, young women on Instagram,

they claim that they can help you cast spells, manifest your intentions. Now that's something that you've probably heard from people who don't claim to be witches. Read your future. Help you understand your zodiac signs, your birth charts, how to cleanse your space. It sounds like witchcraft is,

identical to all the new age stuff that your friend from spin classes into. That's because it is. So here are three recent articles published by Teen Vogue. Love spells and the basics of love magic. How to do magic and other questions you might have about being a witch. A witch's guide to the new year. Practical magic 2020. Here's one in Cosmo. How to date a witch? Now, interestingly, all of these articles that I just listed and I just kind of went through looking for recent witch and witchcraft articles. All of these articles are written by the same person. Her name is Lisa Stardust. I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's probably not her real name, but that is what she goes by. Here's what she says in her Cosmo article. My parents were new age junkies and our bookshelves were filled with bright

and glossy, iridescent tomes about astrology, meditation, crystals, and waves. And ways. to use spices to boost magical vibes with titles like the complete book of magic and witchcraft, crystals and healing and astral projection. I don't even know what that is. But before this sentence, she says, I guess I was born witchy. And the reason why she believes that she was born witchy and born into a witchy family is for the reasons that she lists. So from a witch, she is saying that there is a connection between witchcraft and New Age, meditation, astrology, crystals, the using of spices to boost magical vibes. Okay? And so this is not just me saying that there's a connection between all the new age, self-empowered, self-centered, self-focused stuff that we see in witchcraft. This is coming

from a self-proclaimed witch herself. So I just wanted to, I just want you to hear the words of a witch making that connection. The episode that I did with Doreen Virtue a couple weeks ago about the dangers of the new age, it's extremely pertinent to the conversation that we're having today. And if you have not listened to that, I highly recommend that you do. It's actually the most listened to episode. It's only been out a couple weeks. The most listened to episode of relatable dangers of the new age with Doreen Virtue. The reason why it's the most listened to is because it is so relevant to everything that's going on in the lives of young women, everything that's going on in social media and pop culture, I highly recommend you go listen to that, whether you're a young

woman yourself or whether you've got a daughter, a sister, or a friend that you think that it would be relevant to. I really recommend it. I came across the article, like I said, in the Atlantic, which really made me start thinking about all of this. Why is witchcraft on the rise? And I found it fascinating. So we're going to go through that now, and white matters to us and what the Bible has to tell us about all of it. So this article is by Bianca Bosker. So she's talking to this witch influencer and someone who makes hundreds of thousands of dollars, apparently, selling her witchy services. This is what the article says. Diaz sells anointing oils and intention infused body products in her online store, instructs more than 8,900 witches enrolled in her online school, leads witchy workshops that promise to leave attendees feeling magical AF. In 2018, Diaz, the author of the bestselling book, Witchery, Embrace the Witchery, Embrace the Witches, Withes, Withes, Withes,

then earned more than half a million dollars from her magic work. So what does that tell us that tells us that witchcraft is lucrative? But over the past few years, witchcraft is what the article says, long viewed with suspicion and even hostility. It's so funny, the attitude of this article, like all the people that are angry at witchcraft are in the wrong, has transmuted into a mainstream phenomenon. So what we see here is that it is pervasive. A witchcraft is not just lucrative, but it's also pervasive.

2014 Pew Research Center report suggested that the United States adult population of pagans and wikins was about 730,000 on par with the number of Unitarians. I wonder if there's any crossover there. These days, Diaz told me everyone calls themselves a witch, which is so true. There are so many young women who think it's cool to call themselves a witch. So not only is it lucrative, not only is it pervasive, it's also popular. And that's a little bit different than pervasive. So it's trendy in that all of the cool people nowadays are calling themselves a witch. She said, being a witch, this D.S person said, being a witch is, listen to this, an embodiment of her truth in all its power.

That's how this self-proclaimed witch describes what being a witch is. So that's the second witch that we have heard, reiterate a phrase from this world of self-help and self-love and self-focused. That is, we wouldn't automatically identify as being witchcraft. But this is what she says, being a witch is, an embodiment of her truth in all its power. How many well-meaning fitness gurus, lifestyle bloggers, motivational authors, even Christian teachers. Do you hear saying things that reflect directly what this witch is saying being a witch is? She said, among other magic practitioners, a witch might embody a religious affiliation, a political act, a wellness regimen, hot new Luke, or some combination of the above. The Instagram's reigning witch influencer, this article says, Brea Luna has more than 450,000 followers, has collaborated with coach, with her.

Refinery 29 and Smashbox for which she recently introduced a line of cosmetics inspired by the transformative quality of crystals. Now something that Doreen Virtue and I said and we pointed out the same thing as essential oils, crystals, oils God made both. There is nothing inherently wrong with crystals. There's nothing inherently wrong with oils. Oils might have some kind of calming effect on your life and you know, that's all good. You might like the smell of it. Whatever. That's fine. God made these things. They're not impure in and of themselves. But using them for some kind of healing power, of course, we know that is paganism, that is idolatry, that's some sort of pantheism, thinking that God is in everything and in everyone. That, of course, is not a biblical perspective.

You can go to Sephora, by the way. There is a witch, like, startup kit where you can buy, I don't even know what it is. Sage, crystals, oils, different kinds of things to manifest your intention. So this stuff is very commercialized. It is lucrative.

It is pervasive. It is popular. It is commercialized. All of those things kind of tie together. So just in case you doubted that this is mainstream, doubt no more. It is.

If you are a mother and you, your daughter is on social media, she's in the age where she could be influenced by this stuff, just make sure that you're paying attention and just be aware of the fact that the stores that you go to, that the accounts that you follow, that the celebrities that you like or that she likes, they are going to try to one in one way or another, whether it's through the elevation of the self or outright witchcraft, they are going to try to influence her in this way. The article also talks about the wick of faith. And I think it's interesting that it refers to it as

faith. This is something that does require an amount of faith and an amount of belief in absolute lunacy. The belief in witchcraft is so widespread and so enduring that one historian speculates it's innate to being human. That's what this article says. And I would say that's true. I would say our fallen nature seeks to distort what God has made a desire for him. So God made us to need us to something higher than ourselves, to need a power that's higher than ourselves, to be not enough inherently, to desire help, to desire salvation, to desire some kind of power, to desire some kind of refuge. And we can only find that reliably in him. We can only find that ultimately in him. But when we reject God, because we hate God, that's what enemies of God do. Everyone who is

not in Christ is an enemy of God. And whether they say it or not, they hate God because they are in enmity with God, which is what the Bible says, then they are going to look towards another power in order to help them. That is what we are created to do. So this article is correct. This historian is correct. It is innate.

Witchcraft is innate. It's just a distortion of a God-given desire for something higher than ourselves. This is also important for us to note that this includes, so the last, latest witch renaissance coincides with a growing fascination with astrology, with crystals, with tarot cards, which like magic practitioners consider ways to tap into unseen, unconventional sources of power, which of course, that is exactly what it's about what we just said, to tap into unseen sources of power. Astrology, guys, is not something that Christians should ever be a part of. Like, you don't need to know your zodiac sign. I'm sure we all do know our

zodiac signs. I remember when I was little. I didn't know that any of this stuff was bad. And I was like, oh, I'm an Aquarius. That's so exciting. But I remember my mom telling me at some point that that's not something that we care about. That's not something that we read about. That's not something that we're fascinated by Christianity. And astrology does not go hand in hand. They cannot coincide. They're completely perpendicular to one another. If we see this in an article about witchcraft over and over again, that astrology, your birth chart, all of that stuff, your zodiac sign, which I guess is within all of that. If we see that perpetually as being claimed by witches, it should at least make us take a step back and say, hmm, maybe this isn't something that I should be a part of.

Anytime you go to anything other than God for power, for self-understanding, for healing. Now, that's not to say that God can't give us medicine or God hasn't allowed medicine to be invented. Of course, these things can be gifts of common grace. But when we go to something outside of biblical Christianity, when we go to something outside of God and the things that he has given us for their intended purpose, we end up with idolatry. That's exactly what astrology is. You're looking for some kind of power. You're looking for some kind of direction. you're looking for some kind of wisdom, some kind of insight, some kind of self-understanding that is meant to be found in God.

All of the things that we truly seek ultimately underneath them all is a desire for God, a desire for true salvation, for true wisdom, for true direction, for true purpose, for true meaning to truly be filled. We are going to false idols like astrology to find those things. and you'll notice that people who are obsessed with astrology, they're very unsatisfied. Like they're constantly looking at new astrology posts. Like they're constantly looking at new insights. They're constantly trying to find a way to fit this zodiac reading that really doesn't align with their personality at all. Like really doesn't align with their life at all.

They're trying to constantly find a way to make it fit into their life so they can keep putting their faith in it because, again, we are made to put our faith in something. and it feels more tangible to them. It feels more like they're able to control it. And astrology is all about you. It's all about why you're special. It's all about your life. This is another reason why witchcraft is so popular

because it's about you, empowering you, freeing you. And the Bible, Christianity is not about that. It is about denying yourself, taking up your cross and following Christ. As Philippians 2 says, it is looking at others as more important. than we look at ourselves, honoring others more than we honor ourselves, helping others at our own expense. And that is the opposite of what something like witchcraft is for. Whichcraft is all about

how can you reign the powers of darkness in to help you to manifest the successes that you want? And if you are thinking, wow, that kind of sounds a lot like the prosperity gospel. That's because it is. there was a really interesting article in an outlet called the American Interest, and it talked about AOC, and AOC releasing her birth chart. So let me read this. More importantly, however, AOC's Gambit taps into the way. So she tweeted out her birth chart. That's the context. Taps into the way in which progressive millennials have appropriated the rhetoric, imagery, and rituals of what was once called the new age from astrology to witchcraft. So again, we see astrology associated with witchcraft. as both a political and spiritual statement of identity. For an increasing number of left-leaning millennials, more and more of whom do not belong to any organized religion, occult spirituality isn't just a form of personal practice, self-care with more sage.

Rather, it's a metaphysical canvas for the American culture wars in the post-Trump era, pitting the self-identified Davids of seemingly secular progressivism against the Goliath of nationalist evangelical Christianity. So this really creates an intersection of all of the things that we talk about. Now, this is not to say that everyone on the left, everyone who's a Democrat, everyone who is anti-Trump is engaged in witchcraft. I'm not saying that.

But this is why it matters for Christians to care about politics. This is why it matters for Christians to have a holistic worldview, why it matters for us to care about what's going on in culture, and why we should allow the Bible to inform all of these things, because they are connected. They're always connected. Our worldview, how we view God, how we view the self,

it affects everything we believe, including politics. So let me read that again. So for an increasing number of left-leaning millennials, many of whom do not belong to any organized religion, occult spirituality. Occult spirituality isn't just a form

of personal practice, self-care with more sage. It is a metaphysical canvas for the American culture wars in the post-Trump era, pitting the Davids of secular progressivism against the Goliath of nationalist evangelical Christianity as an aesthetic, as a spiritual practice, this article says, and as a communal ideology, contemporary millennial witch culture defines itself as the cosmic counterbalance to Trumpian evangelicalism. Isn't that interesting?

Progressive occultism, the language of witches and demons, of spells and sage, of cleansing a bad energy of stars and signs has become the de facto religion of millennial progressives. The metaphysical symbol set threaded through the worldly ethos of modern social justice activism. I mean, this is just everything we talk about in this podcast. Its rise parallels the rise of religious nuns. That's N-O-N-E-S, which we've also discussed on this podcast, and with them a model of spiritual and religious practice that's at once intuitional and atomized. Marie Claire's, this is how real life resistance, which is say they're taking down the patriarchy, and broadly is how the socialist feminist of which use magic to fight capitalism proves exactly what this article in American interest is talking about.

This stuff is connected to politics. It's connected to the godlessness that we see rising among millennials. It's connected to the SJW movement that we see that is so prevalent in millennials. It is this glorification of self. It has to do with the entitlement that a lot of young millennials see. It has to do with the trust in the government rather than God that we see among millennials. This is, whether you want to call it witchcraft or not, it's just the effect of godlessness, that we are always looking to put our faith in something.

And people feel that they can put their faith in magic and that it's going to help them manifest the successes in their lives. This is also something that we see with Jennifer Aniston. She talked to the New York Times about a goddess circle that she's been doing for 30 years, that it's some kind of spiritual routine that you'll probably see across your Instagram with a lot of celebrity influencers that you know. You sit in a goddess circle and you're supposed to manifest some sort of magic. You've got sage burning.

You've got all these kinds of rituals that are supposed to manifest the success in your life. and of course, Jan Aniston might say that this has been very effective for her. She obviously has a lot of success, a lot of money. But it doesn't matter whether or not this stuff is effective, which, by the way, it might actually work because Satan is real and demons are real and the power of darkness is real. And so people might get the things that they are manifesting. People might get the things that they have set intentions for. They might get the things that they did a candle service for or red tarot cards for.

I mean, Satan is very real. And he very much works. And he might give people the things that they cast spells for or whatever or use witchcraft for in order to get them to keep following him. But guess what? All this stuff leads to hell. It leads to hell forever. And so, yes, it might attract some people.

It might give you some success for a little bit. It might be effective for a little bit. But the place where it leads is not a place where any of us want to go. And so this is not neutral ground. This is not something that Christians ignore. This is not something that we say is just harmless. We say this is a path that leads to eternity in hell and a place where no one wants to go, a place where we don't want any of our friends to go, the people that we love to go.

It doesn't matter if people are happy with it now. People say, well, it's happy. It makes me happy or it works or I've been successful. I've manifested these things. It doesn't matter whether it's done these things. The fact of the matter is that it can't save you. and in fact, dams you. It's not that this in particular dams you.

It's that your lack of faith in Christ, which has led to these things, condemns all of us. This is what the Bible has to say about witchcraft. Deuteronomy 18, 9 through 12 says, when you enter the land, the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there.

Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire. So against child sacrifice, that's good. By the way, let me just say, in Uganda where witchcraft unfortunately is very pervasive. They have had a terrible epidemic of child sacrifice. There's been a very stark uptick, a very sharp uptick in child sacrifice in Uganda over the past 10 to 20 years because of these witch doctors that come through in villages and say,

you know, we'll pay you X amount if you sacrifice your child to us. And so they literally take these children, they kill them, writ their hearts out. well maybe I shouldn't get so graphic. Sorry if you need to turn this off if you've got kids in the car, but it's probably too late for that. Cut their limbs off, cut their genitalia off, and they offer it to whatever gods they think they're worshipping as a form of witchcraft because they think it's going to give them good luck or power. And that's obviously not working out very well for them, but working out very well for these evil witch doctors who are making money off of all of this. So this is the God of the universe telling his people thousands of years ago, we're not supposed to do that.

Stuff that's still going on right now. So no one should sacrifice their son or daughter in the fire. There should be no one who practices divination or sorcery. No one who interprets omens. No one who engages in witchcraft or cast spells or who is a medium or a spirit is or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord. So even though Christians don't follow all of the cleansing laws that God has in the Old Testament, we still follow his moral laws.

We can still look at the principles that he put forth for his people in the Old Testament and say, that's the same God. That's the same desire that he has. It's the same principle today as it's ever been. God doesn't want us to have anything to do with witchcraft. Exodus 2218, you shall not permit a sorceress to live. So it was a death penalty for people who practice witchcraft. Leviticus 2027, a man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death.

They shall be stoned with stones. Their blood shall be upon them. First Chronicles 1013. So Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the Lord in that he did not keep the command of the Lord and also consulted a medium seeking guidance. So Colossians 516 24 says this. So this is the New Testament now, talking about all the things that God, has that God has been saying since the beginning that we should have no part in the unfruitful works

of darkness. The New Testament reiterates this. Colossians 516 through 24. But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh, here we go. Now the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the spirit, and this is the verse that most of the most of the, most of the world, us know the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things, there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desire. So typically we just extricate verses 22 through 23 say these are the fruit of the spirit and we don't pay any attention to the stuff around it. Equally as important, maybe not equally as important, but very comparably important as important to the fruit of the spirit are the fruit of the flesh, the fruit of darkness, which is idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, all of these things.

And witchcraft being sorcery is included in all of that. And so if you are of the flesh, Paul is saying, the Holy Spirit through Paul, you are going to have an affinity for the works of darkness. You are going to have an affinity for things like sorcery, an affinity for things like witchcraft. So if you are a Christian who is taking part of any of this stuff, you need to ask God to give you the power to repent and you need to have nothing to do with it. Nothing to do with astrology, nothing to do with mediums, nothing to do with tarot cards, nothing to do with ascribing power to crystals, ascribing power to oils that are not inherently there that God did not intend in any other. think any of us may be doing it and I'm evaluating my own life anything that we are doing that is giving power to things or giving power to the self in a way that God did not intend. The through line

through the new age, through the self-empowerment, self-love stuff that we are hearing by people who did not purport to be witches, the through line between witchcraft, new age, self-help, self-love, self-care. That's not to say that getting your nails done is bad. People always ask me about that, but the empowerment of the self, the focus on the self, the similarity between witchcraft and that and the new age, the way that it all comes together, the through line is the self. Anything that empowers the self that tries to elevate the self to the place of God, whether it's through sorcery and witchcraft and mediums and tarot cards and these intention setting candle ceremonies, whatever they are, or any kind of motivational mantra that tells you to believe in

yourself, to save yourself, to discover yourself, to fulfill yourself. The through line is the self. And that is Satan's lie. And it has been the lie since the very beginning. That is the same lie that he gave to Eve in the Garden of Eden. Don't submit to God. Submit to yourself and you will be like God. And he was partially right. Satan is always partially right, by the way. Satan is always partially telling the truth. Eve did become like God in knowing good evil, but the consequence of her sin was suffering and physical death. And in elevating the self, whether through traditional self-help or female empowerment or out-great witchcraft, you might find success, you might lose weight, you may get in a relationship, but that way is the wide

gate that leads to a place that none of us want to go. So Satan saying the same lie that he always had since the very beginning shows that he is cunning, but he's not creative. He is insistent, but he is not innovative. He has the same lie dressed up in a million different ways, some seeming more neutral and some seeming darker than others, that we as Christians are obligated through the wisdom of God to be able to point out and to resist with all of the strength the Holy Spirit can give us. Read Ephesians 6 and see the armor of God, that he gives us through Christ to be able to fight these battles. Again, there is no neutral ground. The time has come and gone for Christians to be able to accept mainstream messages as having any sort of redeeming value in them.

The time has come and gone for us to be able to not pay attention. The time is come and gone for us to be apathetic. We have to care. We have to pay attention. We have to know our Bibles. And we have to be able to confront these cultural messages with the truth of God. So I don't think that we should constantly be looking at the world of witchcraft and we should constantly be observing the works of darkness that are happening in the rest of the world. I think, frankly, all we need to do is to know our Bibles, to pray hard, to be aware of these things, to be as innocent as doves, to be as cunning as a serpent in that to be as knowledgeable or to be as knowing, to be as perceptive as what the Bible says. a serpent is like. So that's our responsibility as Christians to know that this stuff is going on to not worry about it because like I said earlier, he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. And we know that Jesus is going to defeat Satan once and for all, that he is going to rule

a perfect peace forever, that we don't need to have anxiety about any of this stuff. We don't need to have fear about any of this stuff because we have the power of Christ within us. And because of that, We are enslaved to righteousness. We are empowered to do righteousness. We are ambassadors of Christ. We are the aroma of Christ. We are givers of light. So we don't need to worry about this stuff, but we do need to be aware that it's happening.

We do need to fight darkness with the light that Christ has given us. And we need to make sure that we are not being apathetic and we are not being complacent. And we are not the frog in the boiling water accepting the messages of self-empowerment, not realizing that it's just a witchcraft-like lie from the pits of hell. So that was a really long podcast. I should have just done the witchcraft stuff, but you just never know how long I'm going to go. Okay, that's all I have today.

I'll be back here on Wednesday. I'll see you guys then.