Gavin M. over at Sadly, No! is a champ with the "Shorter..." motif, and gives us his take on Marsha West's screed against John Edward. I am terrible at making anything shorter, but I don't really see a need to go into too much detail about this batshit piece of muddled paranoia. There's just one part of it that reminds me of an issue I often have with Christians who continue to use biblical passages to rail against witchcraft, and I feel compelled to share.
For the record, I believe pretty firmly that John Edward is full of crap. He's a great showman, which is fine so far as it goes, but his brand of terribly sincere world-wisdom reads to me more as charlatan than seer. This, however, does not cause me to agree in the least with Marsha, who gives the following lesson on why John Edwards is obviously in league with Satan.
"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 his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead" (Deuteronomy 18:9-11).
Could God be any clearer than that?
The Greek term used for contacting the dead is "necromancy." According to Wikipedia.com, "Necromancy is a form of divination in which the practitioner seeks to summon 'operative spirits' or 'spirits of divination,' for multiple reasons, from spiritual protection to wisdom. ... [S]ince the Renaissance, necromancy has come to be associated more broadly with black magic and demon-summoning in general, sometimes losing its earlier, more specialized meaning."
Now for the definition of witchcraft: "Witchcraft (from Old English wiccecræft "sorcery, necromancy"), in various historical, anthropological, religious and mythological contexts, is the use of certain kinds of supernatural or magical powers."
Now, I would bet that Marsha is one of those ignorant fundamentalists who believes that her chosen translation of the Bible is the actual Word of God™, superior to all other translations, including the ones it was translated from. I can't do anything with that. That's the kind of conversation-ending stupidity that fundamentalists always run to, driving rational Christians like myself crazy. But whatever. Marsha has probably already been informed that English translations of the Bible were targeted to turn people against regional pagan religions in the drive to convert England completely to Christianity, and that different translations of Hebrew words create profound differences between biblical interpretations. She can't hear that. Okay. But surely she can understand a simple timeline.Deuteronomy was not written in Greek or in Old English. Etymology does not apply, since these are not examples of language slowly changing over time but being translated from one established language to another. No matter how many links you can conjure up between the meaning of the modern word "witch" and Hebrew words like "m'khashepah", the simple fact remains that the Celtic pagan earth worship of Europe, which is what the word "witchcraft" commonly refers to, did not exist at the time Deuteronomy was written. The concept that the Old Testament references celtic paganism, or eastern mysticism for that matter, is about as believable as the concept of Jesus the carpenter giving lessons on using a table saw. Regardless of how you feel about translation, it's just not plausible based on simple chronology.
I'm always amazed that, when questioned, these people can't adequately explain why celtic pagan rituals count as witchcraft, but similar rituals of Shintoism, Hinduism, Native American religion, Kabbalah and even Christianity do not. You'd think this is something you'd have to ponder before damning the followers of a belief system.
Frankly, it's astounding how many people believe that the bible literally condemns any actual or believed communication with the dead, and yet pray to Jesus on a daily basis.
