An Appropriate Symbol

Scripture References: Exodus 22:18; Acts 8:9-13

Could any symbol be more appropriate for an occult practitioner than a Barbie doll? One woman considers herself the channel through whom Barbie speaks in response to inquiries. She appreciates and understands Barbie, she claims. She feels that Barbie has been maligned by being forced to be just a pretty face year after year.

Incredulously, people take the woman’s advertisements in a psychic magazine seriously, enclosing a $3 fee with their requests. Letters, stacked in a big pile on the woman’s floor, request information about careers, future events, and relationships. The channeler replies on pink stationery, all the while surrounded by a dozen Barbies, obviously badly worn from the mauling of youngsters unimpressed with her wisdom.

Can anyone be so frivolous as to represent a doll? Or so superficial as to consult one? The occult is among us, and more deeply entrenched than Christians would think. Television advertisements of psychics use famous singers, columnists, and actresses as spokespersons to give the practitioners credibility. The millions spent by adherents on psychic practitioners staggers the mind. Barbie is a symptom, really. That a people who established this nation by looking to God could become a people desperate enough to consult a doll or psychics for guidance offers proof of an irremediable malaise in our spiritual life.

Courtesy of Speaker’s Sourcebook of New Illustrations by Virgil Hurley © 1995 by Word, Incorporated.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.