So Tom Brady says his wife is a witch and her rituals helped the Patriots win the Super Bowl.
But she’s a “good witch, “ Brady laughingly told the media. There’s actually no such thing and Brady’s reckless ignorance will now help promote witchcraft and sorcery to an American public that’s already confused enough.
According to Brady, Gisele Bundchen, his supermodel wife, devises rituals for him with miniature altars, special stones, a magic potion, and repeated mantras to bring about the Patriots’ gridiron successes.
Astrology is also in there somewhere, which makes one wonder why, if she’s got all this supernatural power, Gisele didn’t warn Bob Kraft in advance about engaging the services of prostitutes. The Patriots’ owner was recently arrested in Florida.
Football’s star couple will now unfortunately help advance witch public relations down the field in America.
Whatever works – right?
No, not right. Let’s never forget what people who engage in such superstition are doing. Even “good witches” have dismissed Almighty God in a quest for unlimited power and control to direct life circumstances, even if it involves incomprehensible forces.
Defying express biblical prohibitions against sorcery and witchcraft (Deuteronomy 18: 9-10; 1 Samuel 15:23; Leviticus 19:31 and elsewhere), practitioners may dabble in these practices casually or experience a power boost (“empowerment”) and summon demonic spirits, intentional or not. These enemy spirits disguise themselves as “angels of light” (2 Cor. 11:14) but at some point turn to their end game, which is destruction.
How long before players gather in pre-game circles on the field to invoke, for instance, the Hindu god Ganesh? Brady told the media in 2015 he kept a statue of this pagan idol in his locker as a “remover of obstacles.”
How long before sports betting has a sorcery component? After all, if Brady and his wife can effect a win (or so he believes), why can’t gamblers seek such foreknowledge and reap the monetary rewards?
Ah, the sleazy face of modern prophecy. Elijah would recognize this for what it is—false faith in direct rebellion against the Lord.
Does God really care about professional football? If it gives a platform for Christian testimony or develops the peacetime skills of wannabe warriors, it may serve a purpose. Otherwise, the secular pastime of football consumes scads of masculine time and energy that might be better used, and remains mostly devoid of long-term godly goals.
A warning to Brady’s Patriot teammates and coaches: don’t stand too close to him on the field. Or sit too close to his wife. Just sayin’.
Typical of sorcery adherents, Brady has a history of self-worship. He fathered a child with an old girlfriend just as he was leaving her for Gisele, his Brazilian model wife of ten years. They have two children of their own.
Gisele’s roots in Brazil may be significant here. The country is awash in pagan ritual, from voodoo to Santeria, Candomble, Macumba and Umbanda.
I wrote about Brazil a few years ago in a chapter I contributed to the book, On Global Wizardry: Techniques of Pagan Spirituality and a Christian Response.
The goddess Yemanja, honored by some two million people in Rio on New Year’s Eve, is said to bring good fortune to those who make offerings and sacrifices to her at midnight. Yemanja is sometimes interchangeable with the Virgin Mary, in a blending of Catholic tradition with the Afro-Brazilian orishas (gods). Spiritists pepper the beach with sacred shrines, while drums and dancing “raise the energy.” Sold to foreign tourists as the hottest New Year’s party on earth, unwitting novices enthusiastically join the pagan event, most even donning the traditional white apparel. But the “bride of Christ” this is not.
This is the climate where Gisele grew up. Shrines and rituals are commonplace throughout Brazil in a confused amalgam of unbiblical beliefs and practices.
Gisele wrote in a recent Instagram post, "Words have power. If love and kindness lie behind these words, they become charged with positivity and can have a magical effect. But if thoughts and words arise from anger or jealousy, they can do a lot of damage….”
Fromanother post in January on the occasion of the lunar eclipse:
“Tonight is a perfect time to release what no longer serves us and refocus on what we want to manifest. Take a moment to be with yourself, quite [sic] your mind, meditate, journal and celebrate how far you have come. Envision what you want to create and plant those seeds. We are capable of manifesting whatever we choose to focus on… ”
Gisele is a follower of Don Miguel Ruiz, a Mexican spiritualist, author of The Four Agreements. He espouses a New Thought “neoshamanistic” philosophy which believes that words have power. So not to speak something is to refuse to give it power. And of course, you can always give something you want power by dwelling on it, saying repetitive phrases (“mantras”) and other self-centered techniques of control outside the realm of God’s will and obedience to Christ.
It’s “I will” instead of God’s will. And many of us will recognize in this ideology current progressive actions to shut down conservative speech and viewpoints.
Satan hates authentic freedom of speech.
Another tenet of “New Thought” is that each person possesses a divine nature, and one achieves “Christ consciousness” at some point, mostly by proclaiming that it’s true.
What’s wrong here? It’s a direct contradiction of authentic Christian faith, where we rely on our loving, omnipotent God for the future, and petition Him through prayer, not rituals, amorphous “energy” or false gods. We seek our heart’s desires that are in line with His will, knowing that ultimately, it’s His decision. And true believers rest in His guidance, because we love and trust Him as Lord and Savior.
We are not divine, we do not create reality, and it’s heresy to believe otherwise. Lots of New Thought adherents are quite well-known --Oprah, for instance.
But fame and influence don’t impress God. Just ask Jezebel.
Tom and Gisele might want to remember this. Pray for their repentance.
