The New York Times - Voodoo Apologist

Leave it to the New York Times.

The newspaper that has never encountered a Catholic-bashing story that it did not like is now serving as a voodoo apologist.

"Myths Obscure Voodoo, Source of Comfort in Haiti" attempts to convince readers that voodoo's poor reputation is simply bad PR--bad PR resulting from myth-spreading. Writer Samuel Freedman blames these myths on the Catholic Church's "antisuperstition campaigns in the 1860s" and on films from the 1930s and 1940s, such as "White Zombie". He also includes a quote from a USC professor who suggests that racism may be the source guiding this negative portrayal of voodoo. (No surprise there. The Times seems incapable of printing a column without referencing racism, homophobia, or--to a lesser extent--sexism)

The myth-spreading argument is specious, as evidenced by Freedman's failure to provide concrete examples. He belittles portrayals of voodoo as "cartoonish" and as nothing more than "intolerant cliches", but other than mentioning Pat Robertson's accusation that Haiti signed a pact with the devil, he fails to provide a single example of alleged voodoo beliefs and practices that worshipers argue is a myth.

Not one.

And a review of voodoo's beliefs and practices reveals why.

• Voodoo was brought to Haiti by slaves from Africa and is "is believed to have started in Haiti in 1724 as a snake cult that worshiped many spirits pertaining to daily life experiences".
• Bondye is the Creator of the universe, but he does not interact with Creation, so voodoo adherents direct their worship to lesser spirits called loa. The most influential of the loa are "Papa Legba (guardian of the crossroads), Erzulie Freda (the spirit of love), Simbi (the spirit of rain and magicians), Kouzin Zaka (the spirit of agriculture), and The Marasa, divine twins considered to be the first children of Bondye."
• "Talismans are bought and sold as fetishes. These could be statues representing voodoo gods, dried animal heads, or other body parts. They are sold for medicine and for the spiritual powers that these fetishes are believed to hold. The dark side of voodoo is used by participants to summon evil spirits and cast hexing spells upon adversaries."
• "The priesthood of voodoo is held by both men and women. There are stages of initiation into its priestly duties. Their functions are primarily: healing, rituals, religious ceremonies to call or pacify the spirits, holding initiations for new priests or priestesses, telling fortunes, reading dreams, casting spells, invoking protections, and creating potions for various purposes. These potions are for anything from love spells to death spells"
• Rituals include "spirit possessed dancing". Anthropologist Alan Tippett says: "Probably there is no better extant example of [demonic] possession phenomena in the whole world than the form known as voodoo, especially the variety in Haiti."

University of Wisconsin Professor Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, a voodoo expert and voodoo priest, suggests that just as the Japanese often adhere to both Shinto and Buddhism, many Haitians practice both Catholicism and voodoo. The New York Times column failed to cite a Catholic expert on the issue, probably recognizing that even a nominal Catholic would know that syncretizing voodoo beliefs and practices with Catholic worship is a blasphemous perversion of Catholicism.

Demonic possession. Worshiping spirits. Talisman.

No, it is not myth-spreading that is responsible for voodoo's poor reputation; it is voodoo's occultic beliefs and practices which can take credit for that.

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It's Only Make Believe

“It’s only make believe. Nobody really believes it”

Those of us concerned about the growing influence of the occult on American society have heard this refrain regurgitated ad nauseum. But so overt is that influence becoming, especially among our children, that it will soon be difficult for anyone to deny.

The amount of occult fiction polluting our cultural landscape is truly staggering:

• Harry Potter series: Extraordinarily popular series of novels about a teen wizard who uses white magic to defeat evil. The series of seven books has sold over 400 million copies. The movies have generated approximately $7 billion dollars worldwide.
  
• Twilight Saga: A series of “vampire-based fantasy romance novels” (Wikipedia.com) catering to adolescent girls. It has sold approximately 50 million copies. Twilight, the first book in the series, was made into a film and earned $385 million domestically in gross revenues.
• True Blood: An HBO vampire series based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries. Among the concepts featured in the series is the American Vampire League, which seeks to earn equal rights for vampires.
• The Vampire Diaries: CW Television program that the IMDb (Internet Movie Database) defines as a series about a “high school girl torn between two vampire brothers.” The program is also based on a book series.
• The Wizards of Waverly Place: One of Disney’s most-popular children’s programs. In a recent set of episodes the eldest son dated a vampire. He was also bitten by a werewolf . . . In one Halloween episode spirits were conjured to create a scary haunted house.
• The Wolfman: The film debuts in theaters on Friday.

Even television programs that have nothing to do with the occult have employed the genre in their story lines, such as the Disney Channel's show “The Suite Life on Deck”. In this week’s episode Cody’s girlfriend, Bailey, becomes possessed by a spirit.

Occult fans will argue that the supernatural has been a cultural presence for centuries . . . and they are correct. However, the difference between our generation and past generations is in how the supernatural is portrayed.

In Shelley’s Frankenstein, Stoker’s Dracula, and Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the creatures are portrayed as perversions of Creation. Readers are to view them with horror. Even the creatures themselves are consumed with self-loathing:

• “I abhorred myself. . . . When I run over the frightful catalogue of my sins, I cannot believe that I am not the same creature whose thoughts were once filled with sublime and transcendent visions of the beauty and the majesty of goodness. But it is even so; the fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone.” (Frankenstein, p 194-195)

• “It was no longer the fear of the gallows, it was the horror of being Hyde that racked me.”(The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, p 92)

Today’s representations are different. Vampires, for ex., are heroic, sensitive, and superhuman . . . and they can even serve as lovers. They are creatures to be admired. “Defining Deviancy Down” was the title of a 1993 essay former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote for the American Spectator. The essay’s subtitle read, “How We’ve Become Accustomed to Alarming Levels of Crime and Destructive Behavior.” We’ll we Americans have now embraced the ultimate deviancy—Evil—through our continued fascination with the occult. But it should not come as a surprise to anyone since the fastest growing “religion” in the United States, and the biggest proponent of the occult, is the New Age Movement.

A major element of New Age belief is that Satan (Lucifer) is the hero of Genesis, not the seducer as portrayed in Christianity. By convincing Man to eat the forbidden fruit Satan releases Man from the shackles of God. Man is freed to become the god he is meant to be.

Think I am exaggerating the link between the occult and Evil, between the occult and Luciferian worship? A group called “Living His Life Abundantly International, Inc” has listed some of the video games available in the market today for teens. 30 or 40 years ago, had video games existed, it would have been unthinkable that these would exist.

• Tecmo’s Deception: Invitation To Darkness (Playstation) – Players “make an unholy pact and sell their soul to Satan in exchange for power”
• Nocturne (Playstation 2) - A game in which the hero (a demon) destroys the three archangels St. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, then goes on to destroy God.
• Devil Summoner (Playstation 2) – Involves communicating with and recruiting demons. One demon tells the player, “That Catholic Church is such an eyesore” and in the end of the game, blows up the Church.
• Shadow Hearts (Playstation 2) - The hero uses his power to intercept and destroy God and “save the world.” Some games in this series are rated “T”.

And let us not forget Dante’s Inferno, which advertised on CBS during the Super Bowl. The game’s official site says that “the hero of the game (Dante) is a soldier who defies death and fights for love against impossible odds.” It adds that the goal of the game is to retrieve the soul of Dante’s love from Hell. Sounds pretty good, right? What the ad fails to mention is that the game contains a level where the hero kills “knife-wielding unbaptized babies”.

Oh, and for girls who are less interested in video games, there is the pink Ouija Board sold by Hasbro and Toys R’ US. Milton Bradley’s advertising for its Ouija Board says the following: ““Evil spirits! Wake the dead! Consult the board of omens!”

These are dark times. And they are growing darker because of society’s rejection of the Light.

I am reminded of Christ’s words in Luke 18:8: “But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"
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Need a PR Specialist? Perhaps my 13 years of PR experience can satisfy those needs. I have publicized world champions such as Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield, and mega-events like Lewis-Tyson and De la Hoya-Vargas. Contact Donald Tremblay (The Rain Maker) at 718-664-3405 or at dtremblay@earthlink.net. For more info about me visit my LinkedIn Profile.