<94456@cup.portal.com>, mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson)

Today's _The_700_Club_ was an eye-popping expose of Halloween
and its role as a door into New Age occultism.

It began with a historical background by "occult researcher"
David Brown. He says it came to the U.S. during the Irish potato
famine, when large numbers of people practicing ancient Druid
rituals came to America.

23-year-old Joel Zovar from West Bend, WI talked about his
experience as a vampire. He says his familiar spirits drove him
to drinking blood.

Matthew Klumb, former "Satanist" talked about animal sacrifices
and divination he used to do. He said Halloween was their
favorite time of the year.

David Brown says the face on the pumpkin represents a damned
soul. According to him, occultists believe that the boundary
between the physical and spiritual worlds is at its thinnest
at Halloween. For many children, Halloween is their first
exposure to the psychic world.

"Christianity is being pushed down in American society and
what is filling that vacuum is paganism and the occult." said Brown.

CBN is offering a free booklet _Hallowed_or_Harmful?_ about
Halloween. Call (800) 759-0700. They also offer three other
books you may as well ask for at the same time: _New_Age,_New_
_Life_, _Angels,_Demons,_and_the_End_Times_, and _Dungeons_
_and_Dragons_.

In the next segment, a story about Fran Anderson of Houston TX,
a 26-year-old single mom who was feeling depressed and went
to see a psychic. Amazingly, the psychic picked up that her
parents had been divorced and that that was a hard time for her.
She predicted that her son's feet must not touch water, or the
water would go directly to his lungs and cause pneumonia. And
right away her son did catch pneumonia!

Because the psychic cost so much (initially $65/hr., later
$100/45 min.), Fran began casting Tarot cards and burning spell
candles herself. But no matter how much she did it, it just
didn't seem to be enough.

One night while she had a candle burning, Fran saw a hideous
face as a sort of shadow on the wall and felt an evil presence.
(This was accompanied by a dramatization with special effects.)

Her luck went from bad to worse. In just a few months, her house
was broken into five times and she was in two car wrecks.

But then, she saw Pat Robertson on _The_700_Club_ and accepted
Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. She took all her psychic stuff
and burned it, so nobody else could ever use it. Hallelujah!

The last story was about a teenage warlock.

Andrew Kadenza (sp?) as a child was told by the principal of
his school that the Bible wasn't true and he should just
believe what he's taught. He took an avid interest in occultism,
and by the time he was a teenager he could summon demons at
will and control them, and he was the head of a witches' coven.

He got out of occultism when he happened to tune in to _The_
_700_Club_ just as Ben Kinchloe (who often fills in when Pat is
off writing a book or something) was speaking directly to the
camera, saying there was a young man involved in Satanism
and in great danger. Andrew called the CBN number and accepted
Jesus. Today he is the only member of his coven who is alive.
All the others stayed in Satanism, and all of them are dead
today. "Satan always double-crosses his children." said Andrew.