Elizabeth Olsen, the actress best known for her role of Wanda Maximoff (The Scarlet Witch) in the Marvel Comics films franchise recently told an interviewer that, although she doesn’t practice witchcraft, she’s very familiar with it since she’s seen it practiced firsthand by her friends.
“I am witness to it. I don’t practice it but I have friends that do and people around me who do,” Olsen, 33, recently admitted to Pedestrian.tv.
“I do feel though that I and some people in my life are a little bit witchy,” she said. “And I think that that has something to do just being connected to nature and to allowing certain thoughts, or surprising dreams, like actually allowing — (taking) them in. And I think there is something about that in itself that is very witchy.”
‘Making Satanists the Heroes’
As CBN News reported, comic book superheroes have fascinated kids and adults for decades. But some of the characters have grown darker and darker through the years, causing serious concern over evil themes that glorify sorcery and Occultism.
Now, millions of young children and even many Christians are being indoctrinated with the idea that it’s normal to channel other realms and entities which are ultimately demons. In fact, witchcraft and the occult have become so mainstream that people no longer seem to be shocked by their blatant presence in entertainment.
Joe Schimmel, senior pastor of Blessed Hope Chapel in Simi Valley, CA told CBN News that Marvel’s latest flick, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is “pushing the envelope” by “making Satanists the heroes.”
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Schimmel said Marvel mixes in Christian themes to make the movie seem ok, “Making the bad guys have elements of Christ. Many Christians are putting their guards down, not realizing the darkness.”
The pastor, who is also a documentary filmmaker, explained that the anti-God focus and the evil messages in Marvel films and DC comics are obvious.
“It’s in plain sight. They are influencing families and children. Our parents grew up with comics. Now, it’s superheroes, but they’re not the same comics from back then … they’ve become far darker,” he told CBN News.
“God uses stories and song in scripture. Jesus taught through stories. We have to make sure we’re putting on the armor of God and being discerning … not to be ignorant of Satan’s devices.”
The new Multiverse of Madness movie is laced with countless scenes of the heroes casting spells, using Occultic methods and eastern religious elements, and interacting with demons. But one of the more mild scenes is actually being described as especially sacrilegious to Christians who have seen it. In the scene, Doctor Strange swipes his hand over a cup turning water into wine, making the spell-casting warlock appear to be like Jesus Christ.
Ex-Witch: ‘Jesus Came Running After Me’
Hollywood has long glorified the practice of witchcraft in the television series and movies it churns out. This type of entertainment has even led to some young people dabbling in the Occult because it looked like fun.
Jenny Weaver, a former teenage witch, told CBN News she thought dabbling in the Occult as a teenage witch would be “fun” like she saw in the movies. Instead, the torment that followed throughout her life became so unbearable that Jenny wanted to die.
A product of an abusive home, she felt powerless and unloved. At the age of 13, Jenny started cutting and smoking pot. Then she saw a movie about teen witches that showed her how to cast spells to take charge of her life. Soon, she was pouring over books about witchcraft, Wicca, and the Occult, and trying spells with her friends.
“Wiccan religion is, ‘Do what you want, but do no one any harm.'” Jenny said. “It’s kind of like, ‘Oh, it’s the good witch.’ I felt like I had power. And, so, I’m looking at this like, ‘Oh, this is the most amazing thing ever.'”
At 17, after a fight with her mom, Jenny ran away and dropped out of school. Bouncing between friends’ homes and drug houses over the coming years, she got into harder drugs, sometimes blacking out for days.
Then she moved in with a girl who came from a family of witches. Her new friend showed her the things she thought were harmless and fun opened the door to a dark, sinister, and very frightening world Jenny only thought existed in books and movies.
“You would feel demon spirits literally walking by you like a human being was walking by you,” says Jenny. “Touching you. Scraping the wall. It went from, ‘Oh, this is gonna be really fun,'” says Jenny, “into, ‘I’m gonna choke you out until you die. I’m gonna take your life.’ All the time. Constantly tormented.”
Terrified, she stopped practicing witchcraft, but the demon of addiction would continue to haunt and torment her for years to come.
“I would just say, ‘If I just die now, I just die now.'” says Jenny. “And-and I would just lay there and go, ‘I-I just hope I just die. I hope these drugs—they—these are the ones that just take me out this time.'”
At 26, she was living with her boyfriend, Stephen, and hopelessly addicted to meth. Then she got pregnant. One day, seeing no hope for her or her baby’s future…
“I just fell on my knees and I screamed out as loud as I possibly could, ‘God, help me!!!'” says Jenny. “And it was like the loudest, longest scream. I remember just like groaning, ‘Ohhhh, please.’ And I didn’t see lightning, I didn’t see any of that, but I felt a peace,” says Jenny. “And that was the first time I felt the Lord saying to me in my heart, my heart, ‘I’m gonna help you. I’m gonna help you.'”
Jenny says that help came in an unexpected way: two days later she was arrested, sent to jail, and ordered to complete a drug treatment program. There, she began to hear about a different God, a heavenly father who was loving, merciful, and ready to forgive through his son, Jesus Christ. One night, Jenny whispered a prayer.
“I just cried, and I said, ‘God, I-I just want You to help me,'” cries Jenny. “I really want to love people, but there was such a hardness. And I just asked the Lord to take it. And I said, ‘God, I’m just gonna give You my life today,'” says Jenny. “And I surrendered to the Lord.”
Today, Jenny is a homeschool mom, entrepreneur, and worship leader, sharing her music and her passion for the Lord.
“Jesus came running after me,” says Jenny. “When I cursed at Him when I literally said the worst kind of words you can imagine at God, and the whole time Him calling my name saying, ‘No, she’s my daughter. I’m coming after her.'”
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