Janet Parshall Commentary

No hocus-pocus

         The comedian Steven Wright once said, ““I stayed up all night playing poker with tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died.” While the dry-witted comic was poking fun at the use of tarot cards, far too many Christians are playing with them.

         For some time, the Pew Research Center has found a growing number of Americans calling themselves “spiritual” who have been drawn to New Age practices.  One of those practices is the use of tarot cards.

         Starting in the 15^th century, tarot cards have been used for fortune-telling. Usually, a psychic draws the cards and interprets what the cards mean for a recipient.  The reader of the cards draws on a ‘spirit’, which is known as divination. Using the images on the cards, the reader then tell the recipient’s future.

         A fall 2024 Pew Research Center survey finds that 30% of U.S. adults say they consult astrology (or a horoscope), tarot cards or a fortune teller at least once a year. Some do so just for fun, and some Americans say they make major decisions based on what they learn along the way.

         In a more recent survey, Pew found 27% of U.S. adults say they “believe in astrology (the idea that the position of the stars and planets can affect people’s lives).” In 2017, when that identical question was asked, 29% answered the same way. Gallup polls from 1990 to 2005 consistently found that between 23% and 28% of Americans believed in astrology.

         Younger adult women are more likely to use astrology or horoscopes. 43% of women ages 18 to 49 say they believe in astrology. That compares with 27% of women ages 50 and older, 20% of men ages 18 to 49, and 16% of men who are 50 and older.  About half of LGBT Americans (54%) consult astrology or a horoscope at least yearly – roughly twice the share among U.S. adults overall (28%). And lesbian women are more likely than homosexual men to consult astrology at least yearly. 

         So where do Christians fall in this survey?  Pew Research found that one out of every four “Christians” use this stuff.  27% consult astrology, like horoscopes, at least once or twice a year, with 9% turning to tarot cards and 6% to fortune tellers.

         Christians should have nothing to do with these practices.  Deuteronomy 18: 10-11 remind us:

“Let no one be found among you…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”

And Ephesians 5: 6,7 says:

“Do not let anyone fool you by telling you things that are not true, because these things will bring God’s anger on those who do not obey him. So have nothing to do with them.”

Throw away the horoscopes, tear up the tarot cards and learn to trust the One who has already planned and prepared your future.

Those are my thoughts.  I’m Janet Parshall.