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To: Vanders9

That’s a very old and unresolved issue in Christianity. In its first thousand years, much of what priests did outside of church was to provide protective amulets, prayers, and atonement for sin as well as blessings to ward off evil.

The point being that there was no real distinction between real, physical evil conducted by people against people, and less visible evil that still caused harm, from a less obvious direction, such as a peculiar disease.

It was a major leap to make that distinction, but it was never complete, because it really couldn’t be.

For example, in this case, the woman really hates Perry and wants to harm him. She is using voodoo dolls as a symbol of that hate to rally others to hate him as well. So there is some real evil intent.

However, while the casting of a voodoo spell itself isn’t illegal, if she is threatening to do him physical harm, it may be; as well as if she is encouraging others to do him physical harm. So even the law is a bit nebulous on the subject.

However, Christianity reenters the picture because it does recognize that some things tend to ward off evil. Holy water, the crucifix, sanctified soil, salt, and yes, mirrors, along with many other things are seen as “Christian magic” to thwart witchcraft, not witchcraft itself.


37 posted on 08/25/2013 5:55:42 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy (Be Brave! Fear is just the opposite of Nar!)
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy
CERTAIN strands of Christian thinking recognise things like that - but there is a a large variation in attitudes. I personally do not subscribe to such superstition at all because I dont want to encourage it. It gives the forces of evil more credence than they deserve. You start off having a holy mirror to "deflect" evil and the next thing you know youre avoiding walking under ladders, burning black cats and checking chickens entrails to see whether you should move house or not! :)

The only real Christian "magic" is prayer, and that's not specifically designed to ward off evil.

I agree with your legal analysis (very thorough and informative in fact - well done). However, consider that the casting of spells is only illegal because we dont believe in their efficacy. Once we do start thinking they can really adversely affect people, then the next stage is to make them illegal, and before long we are back, literally, to witch hunts.

I agree there is evil intent here, and possibly incitement to commit harm (which definitely is illegal) but that's going to be hard to prove.

40 posted on 08/26/2013 2:49:47 AM PDT by Vanders9
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