CHANGING BELIEFS and VALUES

Barbara Whitehorse started seeking answers after her son asked a typical question: “Mom, can I get Pokémon cards? A lot of my friends from church have them.” Much as she wanted Matthew to have fun with his friends, she gave a loving refusal. Matthew’s tutor had already warned her that the Pokémon craze could stir interest in other kinds of occult role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons. At the time, she wondered if the tutor had just over-reacted to some harmless entertainment. After all, the cute little Pokémon creatures looked nothing like the dark demonic creatures of D&D. But when she learned that a local Christian school had banned them because of their link to the occult, she changed her mind. Later, during a recent party for Matthew, Barbara heard two of the boys discussing their little pocket monsters. One said, “I’ll just use my psychic powers.” Already, the world of fantasy had colored his real world. So when some of the kids wanted to watch the afternoon Pokémon cartoon on television, Barb again had to say “no.” It’s not easy to be parents these days.

Cecile DiNozzi would agree. Back in 1995, her son’s elementary school had found a new, exciting way to teach math. The Pound Ridge Elementary school was using Magic: the Gathering, the role-playing game called which, like Dungeons and Dragons, has built a cult following among people of all ages across the country. Mrs. DiNozzi refused to let her son participate in the “Magic club.” But a classmate gave him one of the magic cards, which he showed his mother. It was called “Soul exchange” and pictured spirits rising from graves. Like all the other cards in this ghastly game, it offered a morbid instruction: “Sacrifice a white creature.”

“What does “summon” mean?” he asked his mother after school one day.

“Summon? Why do you ask?”

He told her that during recess on the playground the children would “summon” the forces on the cards they collect by raising sticks into the air and saying, “Spirits enter me.” They call it “being possessed.”

Strange as it may sound to American ears, demonic possession is no longer confined to distant lands. Today, government schools from coast to coast are teaching students the skills once reserved for the tribal witchdoctor or shaman in distant lands. Children everywhere are learning the pagan formulas for invoking “angelic” or demonic spirits through multicultural education, popular books, movies, and television. It’s not surprising that deadly explosions of untamed violence suddenly erupt from “normal” teens across our land.

Occult role-playing games teach the same dangerous lessons. They also add a sense of personal power and authority through personal identification with godlike superheroes. Though the demonic realm hasn’t changed, today’s technology, media, and multicultural climate makes it easier to access, and harder than ever to resist its appeal.