Jumping right in

I'm finding that many of my thoughts these days are of a “religious” nature. I am struggling in my relationship with God & how i relate to God in my life. It has reached the point where i feel i need a new blog to expand that because it is beyond the scope of my older blog which is just about “this 'n that” of our everyday lives. Not that my relationship with God is outside the scope of anything in my life, but that i want to expand on it further than i normally would in that blog. I'll write about the title of this blog at another time.

I've been reading a blog called Refine Us that focuses on the marriage of a Christian couple. They write on the mistakes they have made & what has worked to restore their relationship. One post recently was of the desperate feeling the husband had to help prevent others from making the same mistakes. Which i understand fully. But i also believe that sometimes in desperation we resort to things of witchcraft. I made that comment. The response was ??? & wondering if i had scripture to back that idea.

Which in turn made me back up & focus on it.

I have for a long time had a pretty broad definition of “witchcraft.” That is, i define witchcraft as any action we take to try to change or influence that which God has not given us the power, permission, or ability to effect. Weather is an easy example of that. (Although who tries to influence weather these days?)

But in my definition, i would term behaviors as witchcraft which are trying to influence others, especially against their will. That would include manipulation in an emotional or passive-aggressive manner. I suppose that could be taken too far: the mother who legitimately attempts to influence her children, etc. But there are really bad uses of this too. I guess by my own definition, even saying something like, "If you really loved me you would . . ." becomes witchcraft. Manipulative, yes, but a bit of a stretch for more.

So, the question might be, why do i see it this way?

Well, our culture is fascinated with control, with the "supernatural," with possessing powers that are not given us.

I honestly have no problem with these stories. I've watched a few of the programs. I see it starting long ago with Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, The Munsters, The Adams Family. It probably began far before that as well (old books & stuff & even older horror movies), but as far as TV viewing, this is where i see it starting.

I've watched a couple episodes of the tv show Charmed. My husband & i used to sometimes watch Supernatural. One theme i saw in both these shows was that they wanted to fight evil with their own strength & power (& i lost interest in the programs quickly because of this). On the program Supernatural the men were destroying demons on their own power, at one point angels from God showed up & they were about as evil as the demons, & one of the characters didn't actually believe in God (tho he definitely saw the demons & knew evil).

Frankly, i find this very interesting. "I'll fight evil. There is no God." ???

Guess it comes down to this: when we try to do things - even for a good reason & with good intentions - things that are outside our scope of ability - then i see that as a form of witchcraft.

I guess i see it as "witchcraft" because it is a form of trying to control. I believe that much of our fascination with different stories like Harry Potter is that we like to think about having that kind of control. I don't see the stories as a problem - they are fiction & imagination. But if someone believes that making a pact with the devil so that they can have that kind of power & control over other people, that is Evil. I think, that even with good intentions, it is easy to cross the line from trying to influence people to trying to control people. That is wrong, it is evil.

But i think Justin is correct in challenging my jump to feeling that what he was doing was akin to witchcraft.



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