{"id":145,"date":"2005-04-20T22:34:53","date_gmt":"2005-04-21T04:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escamoteurettes.com\/blog\/?p=145"},"modified":"2005-04-20T22:46:21","modified_gmt":"2005-04-21T04:46:21","slug":"the-gospel-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.escamoteurettes.com\/blog\/2005\/04\/20\/the-gospel-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gospel truth."},"content":{"rendered":"

Religious tolerance<\/a> has to be the oxymoron of the twenty-first century. (Oxymoron<\/a>, by way of clarity, isn’t a toothpaste for idiots.) It, and its first cousin, “diversity,” may have their roots in good intentions, but have had their respective meanings twisted all out of shape.<\/p>\n

One would expect that, in this enlightened society so many fervently believe they live in, diverse opinions would be celebrated, embraced, discussed, and — I hope you’re sitting down for this — respected. Well, that didn’t even work in several incarnations of Star Trek<\/a> so you know<\/em> it’s not going to work here in the real world.<\/p>\n

Maybe I’m in the minority on this, but I find I am perfectly capable of having an enjoyable and pleasant conversation with anyone who isn’t intent on doing me bodily harm. I do my best not to discount out of hand someone’s point of view simply because I happen to have a different political point of view on some matter, or because my religious beliefs happen to be in contravention to someone else’s. Once I find someone is from planet earth<\/em>, I figure we have more in common than not, and surely there’s something to talk about. I guess I’m just silly that way.<\/p>\n

But not everyone agrees with that way of looking at life. So, in keeping with that theme, I bring you: Gospel magic.<\/p>\n

This is a piece I’ve been writing in fits and starts for many years. For some, the subject matter is as much an enigma as, say, Ryan Seacrest’s<\/a> star on the walk of fame or the relative popularity of Jessica Simpson<\/a>. For others, it’s part and parcel of why they entered — and stayed<\/em> — in the world of magic.<\/p>\n

“Gospel” and “magic” juxtaposed? Seriously? Well, yes, seriously.<\/p>\n

Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, I fully understand the concept of not preferring<\/em> a particular aspect of performance magic. For instance, when I see someone produce doves on stage, first I begin to itch. Then I experience an overwhelming — almost uncontrollable — urge to shove my fingers deep into my eyeball sockets and wiggle them around, all the while hurling epithets containing calculus terms. I’m sitting here trying to think of some aspect of magic I dislike more than a tux and tails act with silks, and doves and, well, I’m drawing a blank.<\/p>\n

I feel the same for much of what passes for stage illusion these days (or, properly enunciated, “stage illooooooooooooosion<\/em>“.) If it weren’t for the chicks dancing around the perfectly normal boxes<\/em> I probably wouldn’t stomach stage illusion at all, period.<\/p>\n

Card magic? I have seen very little of what I could honestly call card magic<\/a><\/em>. I’ve seen loads of card tricks<\/a><\/em>, but not much card magic<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Bizarre magick? I fully grok<\/a> the bizarre part. But my chalice dothn’t runneth overeth with magick, that’s for sure.<\/p>\n

So I understand why some people would have something of an issue with Gospel magic. Except, for many, it doesn’t seem to be with the magic<\/em> part so much as ridiculing the Gospel<\/em> part. I find that imbecility<\/a> just part of today’s tolerant<\/em> and diverse<\/em> society. I mean, that’s what it means to be tolerant of diversity, isn’t it? I either believe what you believe, or if I dare to disagree with you it’s considered “hate speech.” Isn’t that the way it works?<\/p>\n

Whatever.<\/p>\n

There are so many aspects of magic, so many interpretations, so many avenues — it’s an artform, for pity’s sake — I’m not sure why it is that some people find the need to denegrate this particular aspect of magic. Given everything that makes up the wide and long cloth of magic, certainly there’s room for a brand of magic that caused the following to be written in the prelude to a book on the subject:<\/p>\n

“I believe in this unique method of teaching great and important religious truths.<\/p>\n

“In the early history of the church false teachers used the art of magic to disturb the peace and confuse the thoughts of the faithful. This they did by the performance of false miracles and a sham display of supposed supernatural powers. In this book the author who is a famous illustrator has employed the art of magic to illuminate and illustrate the holy truths of our faith and so in this day of light and grace magic has become a teacher and defender of Christianity.<\/p>\n

“I have personally known Rev. C. H. Woolston, D. D. for a number of years. He was a close student of the art of magic under my own personal instruction and we consulted together as to the mechanical and magical effects described in the chapters of this book.<\/p>\n

“I take great pleasure in saying that these mechanical and magical effects are both dignified and in accord with the highest branches of both ancient and modern magic. It is my candid opinion that they can all be reproduced by intelligent and painstaking practice. I am most happy to welcome to the literary world this volume of demonstrated truth. ”\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That, by the way, was Howard Thurston<\/a> who, if memory serves, may have known a thing or two about magic.<\/p>\n

What’s really the point to Gospel magic? Well, that depends upon who you ask.<\/p>\n

I’ve heard and read it said that Gospel magic uses illusion to illustrate some Christian teaching — magic with a Message. In fact, much of what you’ll find in the Gospel magic books put quite a bit of emphasis on object lessons. Some are even good and entertaining.<\/p>\n

If you are a student of the Bible as either the basis of your religious point of view, or simply because it’s an interesting book and subject of much discussion in and out of religion, you’ll find it is filled with object lessons. For many, many years schools have employed object lessons in teaching because it works so well. Outfitting a magic trick with a Gospel message engages many children — and adults, too — so it works in that venue where, say, a sponge ding dong<\/a> might not.<\/p>\n

In this case, magic is used in the same way I have used it in the corporate arena: not as the message<\/em>, but as the vehicle<\/em> for the message.<\/p>\n

It’s my opinion that there’s not much in the way of really great Gospel magic. And this is where I agree with some of its detractors: bad magic is just bad magic, regardless the intent. I’ve found too many cases of attempts at shoe-horning a Gospel message into a traditional magic routine and…it just doesn’t fit. (And as we all know, if it doesn’t fit, you must acquit<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

I’ve found the best Gospel magic performances are just great magic performances, period. They don’t necessarily fill the routine with any type of message other than fun and entertainment. (Remember those aspects of magic?) Believe it or not, there’s a huge market for good wholesome entertainment devoid of unfortunate language or inuendo. I was disappointed in the David Copperfield performance I saw not so long ago because of the borderline blue material contained in it. Hey, it’s his show and he can script it however he likes. I don’t have much interest in seeing it again, though.<\/p>\n

Occasionally I’ve come across people who can’t find harmony in the words “Gospel” and “magic” used in the same sentence, let alone on the same stage. Often I find this is a result of taking the English translation of the word “magic” in the Bible and applying it to our present-day meaning of the word. The “magic” of the Bible is not the magic that is the subject of this blog. But, feel free to apply that mistranslation if it makes you happy.<\/p>\n

I’ve also run across people who simply don’t care for Christianity at all and, therefore, are opposed to Gospel magic. Well, obviously I’m not a very big fan of dove magic, but you don’t see me going around biting the heads off doves<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And then there are some of the practitioners of Gospel magic themselves. (Some, not all.) Again, like some of Gospel magic’s detractors, it’s not so much the magic<\/em> as it is the Gospel<\/em> part. I’ve never found many people who were just beside themselves with delight to be beaten about the head and shoulders with the Bible and being told they were going to hell — even if it was true. They may have the Good News, but their delivery sure sucks. Some of these people would do well to spend some quality time with another type of bible, one written by Dale Carnegie<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I was talking with my friend Jim Short<\/a> the other day and I repeated one of my very favorite religious quotes:<\/p>\n

“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s a quote from Bennan Manning<\/a>. It’s bothersome to some of my Christian brethren mainly because it’s true. I like it so much I use it as a bookmark in my own Bible.<\/p>\n

The phrase “card magic” or, more accurately “card tricks” causes more than one person to recoil not because card magic is inherently bad, but because they’ve experienced some awful performance of card magic in the past and that’s shaped their opinion of it. That is human nature and extends to religious and political matters as well as card tricks.<\/p>\n

I’ve stated this before and I think it bears repeating: you can’t use the word magic<\/em> without qualifying what you mean. Card? Coin? Rope? Stage? Three-meter? Close-up? Street? Mentalism? Comedy? Bizarre? And yes, even Gospel has its place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Religious tolerance has to be the oxymoron of the twenty-first century. (Oxymoron, by way of clarity, isn’t a toothpaste for idiots.) It, and its first cousin, “diversity,” may have their roots in good intentions, but have had their respective meanings twisted all out of shape. One would expect that, in this enlightened society so many […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.escamoteurettes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.escamoteurettes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.escamoteurettes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.escamoteurettes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.escamoteurettes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.escamoteurettes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.escamoteurettes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.escamoteurettes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.escamoteurettes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}