In a regular segment for his 700 Club program, Pat Robertson answers viewer questions about “what it means to be a Christian.” In them, Robertson regularly urges viewers to avoid entertainment “glorifying” the “occult” like Harry Potter, television shows like Medium and Ouija boards.
During a May “Bring It On” segment, a viewer wrote that “my pastor says we shouldn't read the 'Harry Potter' series because it contains magic. But how is that different from the Narnia series, which contain the same?”
“Well, Narnia is different. It's not glorifying magic and the occult,” Robertson replied. “The lady who wrote Harry Potter [J.K. Rowling], I understand, was deeply involved in some of the occult things.”
“You don't need to involve yourself in witchcraft, and the occult,” Robertson later added. “It's dangerous. It will - it is seductive. It is seductive.”
Robertson offered a similar response in 2007. When a viewer asked if people were being “exposed to evil” by partaking in the Harry Potter craze, Robertson said that Rowling is a “very fine author but she was deeply engaged in various type of white magic, or that kind of thing, the occult. And the book takes from that sort of background.”
“I think it's leading us down the wrong way,” Robertson concluded.
In another recent segment, a viewer asked Robertson if it's “wrong that I enjoy” a “TV drama that features a medium who dreams and 'talks' to murder victims” -- an apparent reference to the TV show Medium.
Robertson replied that shows like that have “an attractiveness that Satan puts on 'um. Is it wrong to watch them? I think so.”
ROBERTSON: I tell you what, you know, they used to have in the paper, psychic predictions, you know, and you'd read those things. And they have an absolute draw. You can feel it. It is satanic and it pulls you, and I think these psychic programs have that - there's an attractiveness that Satan puts on 'um. Is it wrong to watch them? I think so because you get involved in the plot structure and you assume that what is being said is correct. And it's not correct.
TERRY MEEUWSEN (CO-HOST): You start believing --
ROBERTSON: You start believing it and so you suspend disbelief, and you don't want to do that. [CBN, The 700 Club, 4/19/11]
Last month, a viewer said that something talked to her through a Ouija board, causing her to wonder, “who was I talking to?”
“It was demonic,” Robertson replied. “Demons can control a Ouija board, and you begin to deal with the occult, that's who you're dealing with. You're not dealing with Jesus, you're not dealing with God, you're dealing with demonic.”
Robertson's co-host, Kristi Watts, added that families shouldn't only be concerned about Ouija boards but with “witchcraft” on television as well:
WATTS: Don't play with that stuff, whether it's Ouija boards -
ROBERTSON: Oh yeah.
WATTS: -- or it's witchcraft on shows, or television. Switch it. Don't even let it [inaudible] -
ROBERTSON: Well, these kids, you know, are into séances --
WATTS: Right.
ROBERTSON: -- and levitation, and all this stuff, and they think it's cute.
WATTS: And magic, Pat, you turn on cartoons now and there's so many witches and it's all about magic. Don't give an entryway into your heart, your family's heart, or your child's heart.
“Amen,” replied Robertson.