re: #974 Obdicut

Well, his point is a very valid one: Christianity has taken in a lot of various pagan traditions unto itself. Even the continued belief in actual demonic possession and exorcism is to me, indistinguishable from witchcraft. I know it’s not a major part of Catholic theology, but it is in there.

Furthermore, there are a lot of other more mystical sects that engage in things like laying on of hands, snake-handling, and other things that are more directly obviously ‘witchcrafty’. So the fact that it’s Christianity blended with some other tradition doesn’t make it non-Christian.

Jesus believed in actual demonic possession. He made a distinction between himself and witchcraft. You’re not required to be able to distinguish it - you’re not Christian! But just because you can’t distinguish it doesn’t mean that He didn’t make a very clear distinction.