{"id":43037,"date":"2013-03-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/psychic-says-hes-helpful-fraud\/"},"modified":"2013-03-25T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-03-25T00:00:00","slug":"psychic-says-hes-helpful-fraud","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/psychic-says-hes-helpful-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"Psychic Says He&#8217;s a Helpful Fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In his book <em class=\"citation\">Psychic Blues: Confessions of a Conflicted Medium<\/em>, psychic Mark Edward offers some fascinating thoughts on the hunger in our culture for community and spiritual truth. Edward admits that for decades he peddled what he called &quot;junkyard superstition &hellip; to the gullible, the lonely, the hopeful, and the dim.&quot; Among his many roles, he&#39;s been a dial-a-psychic with the Psychic Friends Network, a party psychic, a mentalist, a rent-a-psychic, a palmist, a fortune teller, and a graphologist. Edward admits that he has no paranormal powers, and neither does anyone else. Edwards just relied on his intuition, common sense, and genuine empathy.<\/p>\n\n<p>But Edwards still claims that he helped out a lot of lonely people (or what he calls &quot;lost souls&quot;). He always kept a thorough list of 800 help-line referral phone numbers, which included help for everything from addictions to domestic violence. He&#39;s even saved a few lives. On one occasion, he helped a female caller put down a loaded gun (aimed at herself), deal with her alcoholism, and even start school so she could eventually become a nurse.<\/p>\n\n<p>So although Edward admits that he&#39;s basically a kind-hearted fraud, he still believes that he&#39;s meeting a legitimate need. In his words, &quot;[I have offered] the meaning that many folk feel that they need, but cannot find elsewhere.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\"><em>Possible Preaching Angles: <\/em><\/h2>\n\n<p><em><strong>(1) Psychics; False Teaching; New Age Religion<\/strong>; (2) <strong>Spirituality, Spiritual hunger<\/strong>&mdash;This illustration also shows the spiritual hunger of people in our culture&mdash;a hunger and a cry for help that isn&#39;t always being addressed by the church.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3478,3726,3743,3745,3897,3948,3954,4194,4394,4536,4742,4798,4906,5062,5065],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-43037","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-belief","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-deceit","tax_ctp_tags-deception","tax_ctp_tags-evangelism","tax_ctp_tags-false-beliefs","tax_ctp_tags-false-teachers","tax_ctp_tags-hunger","tax_ctp_tags-lostness","tax_ctp_tags-new-age","tax_ctp_tags-psychics","tax_ctp_tags-religion","tax_ctp_tags-seekers","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-thirst","tax_ctp_tags-spirituality"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Psychic Says He&#039;s a Helpful Fraud - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/psychic-says-hes-helpful-fraud\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Psychic Says He&#039;s a Helpful Fraud - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In his book Psychic Blues: Confessions of a Conflicted Medium, psychic Mark Edward offers some fascinating thoughts on the hunger in our culture for community and spiritual truth. 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