JOHN MOREHEAD and Friends- Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing? 
by Carol Guffey

Morehead's deviant teachings are at odds with God's clear Word to us that all things occult are an abomination to Him and strictly forbidden to His people. Due to his position of influence among the church and youth, it behooves us to take a closer look at the man and what he is teaching.

John Morehead, a member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for seven years, left the group in 1983 as a result of reading works on Mormonism by the late Walter Martin and claims to have received Jesus Christ. "Shortly thereafter, he began studying new religious movements, theology, apologetics, and missions. Licensed as a minister through the Southern Baptist Convention, he taught on new religious movements as an Interfaith Witness Associate with the SBC’s Home Mission Board. He served as interim pastor for two Southern Baptist churches. Mr. Morehead is the associate director of Neighboring Faiths Project, a cross-cultural missions ministry to new religions and alternative spiritualities."

"Mr. Morehead is a contributing author and editor to several book projects dealing with new religions including Encountering New Religious Movements: A Holistic Evangelical Approach (Kregel, 2004), a book that he co-edited and co-authored. This book was nominated as a 2004 Christianity Today Book of the Year Award finalist. He has also contributed to the forthcoming The Baker Dictionary of Cults.

"He is the co-founder and co-editor of the e-journal Sacred Tribes: Journal of Christian Missions to New Religious Movements. Mr. Morehead has also provided expertise on mission strategy to new religions as unreached people groups with the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization at their meeting in Thailand in 2004. Mr. Morehead has also served as adjunct instructor in new religious movements, theology, and apologetics at Capital Bible College located in Sacramento, California.

"Mr. Morehead's speaking and teaching schedule brings him before thousands of people each year in seminars and workshops at churches, Bible colleges, and conferences. He has appeared as a guest on radio and television programs. (Cornerstone Magazine, The Voice of Jesus People USA.)

John Morehead was disassociated from Watchman Fellowship, an organization that specializes in new religious movements, for his straying from orthodoxy. Long dissatisfied with mainstream Evangelical outreach to "cults," John helped found the Sacred Tribes Journal, Journal of Christian Missions to New Religious Movements, as a way of exploring a more sensitive and holistic approach to understanding and communicating with non-traditional religious groups.

"As a part of his approach to religious groups, John is especially concerned with a more sophisticated understanding and interpretation of the symbols employed by groups and entire cultures. Thus his interest dovetails neatly with the [Cornerstone’s] Imaginarium, which follows C. S. Lewis and friends in taking a more mythic angle on the popular arts."

Morehead’s 2005 Seminar at Cornerstone Festival gives us a taste of his promotion of the occult to Christian youth..

Seminar Title: "Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh and Fantasy Gaming." 

Description of Seminar: "Card-gaming, based often on characters and settings from Japanese animé, has become a world-wide phenomenon, from Pokemon to Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh. Some religious believers equate the magic in these card games with occultism. John Morehead takes a more comprehensive and levelheaded approach to popular gaming magic, in the process critically-engaging both these imaginative games and wrong-headed critiques." (Cornerstone 2005).

Tarot Cards

Morehead presents the use of Tarot Cards as Biblically inspired and a means for personal spiritual exploration. In his Sacred Tribes Journal Morehead has a special edition devoted to the subject of Pagan spirituality. 

In this issue, Morehead reviews the book Beyond Prediction: The Tarot and Your Spirituality, by John Drane, Ross Clifford and Philip Johnson. Johnson is Morehead’s colleague and co-editor of Sacred Tribes Journal. He writes:

"Some find the deck’s elaborate and ornate pictures very appealing. Many are enchanted by the cards’ mystique that they possibly carry in symbolic for the spiritual secrets of the cosmos…With the book Beyond Prediction we find a unique treatment of the subject written for those already using the tarot, or those who are interested in learning more about it.

"The authors are disciples of Jesus and consider themselves Christians," states Morehead, "…While most people associate the tarot with fortune telling, the authors’ historical investigation reveals that the cards were not used for divination until the 19th century. Further, most tarot enthusiasts today use the cards for counseling and self-exploration rather than divination.

"…in this book", Morehead continues, " the authors focus on …the set of cards known as the Rider-Waite deck. The biblically-inspired imagery of this deck provides an interpretive scheme that the authors later draw upon in interpreting the meaning of the cards for the reader. But before exploring the meaning of the symbolism…the authors lay some important groundwork by discussing universal human ideas expressed symbolically by different cultures.

"They state: Jung believed that we all carry within us images or symbols that related to fundamental themes of life. Moreover, he found that these inborn images or archetypes were common to all human beings and cultures, and since these symbols were universally experienced …he referred to this common fund of motifs as the archetypes of the collective unconscious- archetypes which, being embedded within us, are hidden or masked until we come into direct contact with the symbols themselves." (p.30).

"In our own time these symbols have been expressed through books, games, and movies. The authors provide examples of this in Tolkien’s mythology, Harry Potter…They also note that various "archetypical insights run right through the Tarot and the Jewish-Christian sacred writings" (p. 34).

"They conclude with an invitation: "The Tarot beyond prediction is a call to broaden our horizons beyond our consciousness and to reconnect our souls with the divine source of all life. Let’s dance."

Morehead concludes by saying:

 "Critics should remember that the authors’ do take note of the divinatory use of the cards in its history" but as "most tarot practitioners use the tarot for personal spiritual exploration and not for divination... the book moves beyond prediction to explore the deck’s symbolism, its interpretation, and application to the individual. …The result, in this reviewer’s estimation, is a cutting-edge exploration of an important spiritual phenomenon that may serve as an example for other disciples of Jesus to follow." 

Reader, in case you are asleep at this point, let me remind you, John Morehead is one of the voices speaking to and leading our youth today. He is advocating the use of Tarot Cards as a means of self-exploration for the believer! Can you honestly say your child is growing in the knowledge of Jesus Christ with speakers who are teachers of the occult? But let’s look further.

"My third session brought a three-part concluding analysis. This included noting that many evangelical and fundamentalist Christian portrayals of Halloween focus on the Pagan historical influences through Samhain while ignoring other influences, and a process of cultural development and modification in the holiday over time. In addition, I noted that conservative Christians also demonstrate faulty reasoning in their analysis of the holiday with simplistic formulas such as "Pagan influence = occult = off limits," or "horror film pop culture influence = occult = off limits."

"As to the first formula, not everything that comes from Pagan cultures should be dismissed as negative (in this case the Christian devil is too big, God too small, and Pagans too evil). In the second formula, it is inappropriate to dismiss a broad genre with sweeping labels. In both of these formulas some conservative Christians are quick to dismiss Halloween as "occultic" demonstrating a serious lack of understanding of both Western esotericism, Pagan cultures, and popular culture as well. For these and other reasons I believe the evangelical and fundamentalist critique of Halloween often misses the mark.

"The third session also offered a contrast of Halloween and the Day of the Dead in North American and Mexican cultures. I noted that in America the Halloween celebration functions on a superficial level in the culture in ways that entertain aspects of popular culture from an individualistic perspective as participants engage in costuming and identity play. But the secular Halloween celebration really does not deeply and meaningfully engage death. By contrast, the Mexican Day of the Dead provides a religious festival for individuals and the culture to engage the reality of death and the continued connection of the living and the dead through a rich reservoir of symbol and ritual. It would seem that North Americans can learn a lot from our neighbors to the South in terms of cultural festivals.

"A highlight of the Imaginarium was an evening celebration of Cornerstone's version of the Day of the Dead. Authentic sugar skulls from Mexico were passed out to participants, along with pens and labels, and people were given the opportunity to write the name of deceased loved ones and friends on them before placing them on the altar as a way of memorializing and expressing our continued connection with the dead. When this event was planned there was no way to know what the response would be, but as this portion of the night continued more and more people came forward to remember their loved ones through this ritual. Some were deeply touched emotionally, demonstrating a serious shortcoming in the American way of dealing with death (including the way we respond in our churches), and the value of learning from the festivals and rituals from of cultures.

"I was privileged to be able to be a part of this year's Imaginarium. While a few brethren of the ultra-conservative variety found it necessary to pass out tracts decrying the Imaginarium's Days of the Dead theme, and a few also found it necessary to engage in a "mission trip" to Cornerstone, these folks were the minority, and their perspective and efforts demonstrate three things. First, as Lint Hatcher writes in his booklet on Halloween such folks are obviously missing the "spooky gene" which enables some of us to entertain a robust Christian faith while also enjoying aspects of Halloween and horror fandom. (I don't have the "Nascar gene" or the "country music gene" anymore than others have the "spooky gene," so perhaps we should appreciate our peculiar genetic makeup and diversity rather than pointing fingers of disgust and sounding the alarms of heresy.) Second, while concern over evil is commendable an undue focus on such things ends up crossing the line from sound discernment to zealotry and boundary maintenance.

"Third, one of the reasons why Imaginarium explored this theme was to explore how evangelicals are missing out on important aspects of what it means to be human. In our knee-jerk Reformation reaction against ritual and symbolism we are missing important aspects of expression, not to mention a lot of fun. In the process we end up missing out on participating in the fullest dimensions of the human experience, and we deny the full implications of the incarnation. "The Word came in the flesh to live among us and to participate in culture, including its ritual and symbolism. Evangelical overemphasis on the rational and the textual ends up denying the fullness of the incarnation that also embraces the imagination." Posted by John W. Morehead at 1:17 PM

Image sources: http://www.faustosgallery.com/deaders/paperskulls/02b.jpg and http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead/images/lacatrina.jpg

(Sponsors of Cornerstone Festival include World Vision, Wycliff, Tooth and Nail, Teen Mania, Acquire the Fire Ministries.)

Cornerstone Magazine- the Literary Voice of Jesus People USA

Cornerstone Magazine, the parent of the Cornerstone Music Festival, the literary voice of Jesus People USA, offers alarming features, articles and sections.

Photo: Jon Trott, editor of Cornerstone Magazine, contributing editor of Sacred Tribes Journal, member of Jesus People USA.

Cornerstone Magazine’s companion website, High Romance, offers Trott’s romantic/erotic meanderings. Click on the link you are greeted with the image of a naked couple intertwined in the palm of a large hand, the words:

Articles presented in Morehead/Trott’s’s Sacred Tribes Journal include The Erotic Imagination:

Christians, Sex, and Art by John Peck, "I think that Christians should be able to develop some kind of consensus on the issue of sex in art, within a Christian worldview. We have got to work at that together. I say this because Christians nowadays often tend to react to pornography, for instance, with expressions of emotional disgust. This is understandable, of course, although it seems to me that they are reacting to the artwork's obscenity rather than its morality, and that the moral issue is often imposed on top of that. Other Christians want to show that they embrace the tolerance of our culture, so they will demonstrate a kind of codified toleration for the same artwork that disgusts others."

"John Donne, a seventeenth- century English poet, wrote an amazing erotic poem…he works through her charms in considerable detail… Donne was a devout believer, but I don't think contemporary Christians are capable any longer of producing that kind of literature. We would be frightened. Maybe I'm wrong, but certainly we have problems producing erotic literature for our generation that is really true to the biblical vision of sex. Our generation desperately needs that vision.

"For art to be effective, it must be suggestive…. It has to be illusory…. Art therefore has to produce, in a sense, an illusion of reality…. It creates a situation which we know isn't true, but we pretend is….The illusion must be maintained.

"We must not let sin hold goodness ransom. Otherwise we wouldn't enjoy anything. To begin with, Christian erotic art will be more interested in the sexual relationship than in the act… pornography is bad art. It violates this principle. Pornography presents the recipient with erotic stimuli which arouse real-life response; it introduces the very thing which breaks the illusion. And this intrudes a reality into the "let's pretend" world. In a way, pornography is a kind of physical version of what propaganda is to the mind. It pre-empts the necessity for the recipient to work things out, and so make choices about a response.

"Christian eroticism again, as in John Donne, it will always preserve some element of privacy and, hence, of mystery. Of course it will also imply a respect for womanhood as sharing in the divine image--not as something to be possessed but as someone to be adored, to be approached in an attitude of worship. (Article appeared in Issue 121 of Cornerstone Magazine and an edited and enhanced version of a speech John Peck delivered in 1998 at Regent University, Virginia. Pat Robertson.)

Erotic Desire in Art: A Catholic Perspective, by Father Andrew Greeley

"Open Communal Sex: Some Gently Skeptical Questions by Jon Trott, a member of JesusPeople USA since 1977. Community is a world of experimental relationship, an attempt to crash through what sociologist Anson Shupe calls the "contractual view" of relationship held by mainstream America. Instead, many communities seek a "covenantal view" of relationship based on either religious goals and principles or philosophical/psychological concepts. In such a model, then, boundaries between individuals are far more porous than the boundaries between individuals in a contractual view. The members of JPUSA as well as members of many other communities desire great personal transparency, honesty, and self-revelation, and believe they have found a supportive (though of course imperfect) environment to experience such transparent relationships. Believing that the covenantal view of relationship is far better than the contractual "I'll do for you if you do for me" norm, there is still the question of defining just where the boundaries lie between the individual and community, I know of virtually no community, for instance, that would allow a violation of sexual boundaries between adults and children. Neither have I heard of any communal group that would allow for sexual relations between human beings and animals. How about sex between an adult and his father's wife? In short, sexual boundaries of some type--"taboos" to use the old term--exist everywhere. Are these taboos absolutes? Why or why not? For many, both within and without intentional community, the term "consenting adults" is a border collectively agreed upon. Yet does a majority vote determine what is or is nor appropriate sexual behavior? Who created "adult consent" as a definition? Is it absolute? In what is perhaps the world's oldest recorded community--the nuclear family-there are also questions of definition.

"From a historical perspective, it remains baffling as to how interrelationships function properly within a communal context when various "open" sexual relationships are practiced. Could it be that too much sexual sharing actually impedes rather than enhances transparency between individuals? I suspect such a communal life would be very exciting in the short run, yet turn out sadly unfulfilling in the long march of years.

"I suggest that there is a delicate balance between the identity of any community and the identity of the individuals making up that community, one which certainly becomes blurred and distorted when the community's sexuality invades the personal.

"Jesus People USA has held to a "middle road" view of family and sexuality agreed on by many Christians, namely, that sex is good, a gift of God to be fully and luxuriously enjoyed by a man and woman married solely to one another in a life-long commitment.

"Of course, all these assertions can be argued with, and dialogue, we believe, is crucial. Each individual is responsible for her or his own choices and decisions, even in the midst of a communal experience. Was it Socrates who said, "The unexamined life is not worth living!" I respectfully suggest that we communitarians closely examine both our sexual and communal commitments in light of exactly why we exist, what we think we are to do, and who, if anyone, wishes us to do it. My wife and I, along with other couples involved with JPUSA, can affirm that there is great joy, sexual and otherwise, in finding one's identity and meaning in Jesus Christ." (Sacred Tribes Journal, High Romance.)

The Burning Man Festival, held annually outside Reno, Nevada has acquired a reputation for wild uninhibited pagan revelry, nudity and drugs, Morehead however, offers that the festival offers Christians meaningful opportunities for self-expression and spiritual transformation.

"While the popular media and evangelicalism frequently dismiss the Burning Man Festival as little more than an excuse for hedonism," Morehead writes, "careful analysis reveals that the festival represents a complex and meaningful experimentation with alternative forms of self and community. Most importantly for the American church, this experiment in intentional community represents a significant social expression of the rejection of various facets of modernity, including Christendom culture. With the Western cultural shift to post-Christendom and a move from an institutional form of religion to a spirituality of seeking, Burning Man is missiologically instructive.

"Several of the major world religions trace their origins to transformative religious experiences in the desert. Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad each had significant spiritual experiences in the desert which presaged or inaugurated their respective calls to prophethood or ministry. Other individuals who have sojourned in the desert have likewise had dramatic spiritual experiences which have brought them to new understandings of self and community. The possibility for personal and spiritual transformation in the desert continues into the 21st century, although in a sense which differs significantly from what many Americans have come to be comfortable with in traditional expressions of religion. For thousands of people from throughout the United States as well as the international world, an experiment in intentional community surrounding a burning effigy in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert provides the siren song for a week-long expression of creativity, festivity, spirituality, and a new sense of self. … I hope to convey my conviction that Burning Man is a significant cultural, social, and spiritual phenomenon worthy of our careful consideration.

"We must also keep in mind that the challenges to Burning Man in the areas of identity and community within post-modernity are also shared by the church in the West which inhabits the same social space. What kind of community must the church be in order to speak meaningfully to Burning Man and similar expressions of alternative culture? We may not like the answer. The kind of Christian community that is waiting to be built in the twenty-first century West must be radically different than what many conservative evangelicals are likely to be comfortable with if it is to resonate with Burning Man as a Bohemian arts-inspired community. A robust Christian community in this context must be qualitatively different as a sacred space that encourages social experimentation and which embraces the values and ideals of self-expression, creativity, festivity, sensuality, art, care for the environment, and which challenges rampant consumerism…I wonder what Burning Man might be saying to the church, for those with ears to hear.

"Evangelicals tend to" …view…"Burning Man as expressions of Paganism and Satanism. As one evangelical website described it:

The Burning Man is a no-holds-barred New Age "Woodstock" style festival, where neo-pagans, wiccans, transvestite entertainers, and back-slidden Christians go to trance, perform rituals, burn sacrifices to pagan gods and goddesses, dance in the nude, engage in sex, and otherwise "express" themselves and become one with Gaia.

"A careful analysis of Burning Man reveals that this characterization is inaccurate and unfair," states Morehead. "Scathing descriptions such as these perhaps say more about evangelicals than about Burning Man participants. Such misunderstandings and mischaracterizations of alternative spiritualities and new religious groups and movements are not limited to isolated and independent efforts by evangelicals, but may also be found in the counter-cult community….This unfortunate tendency where the new religions are concerned is not limited to these spiritualities that are interpreted in threatening fashion by evangelicals in light of perceptions of "Judeo-Christian America."

Morehead relates a conversation with a Burning Man attendee whose description Christians and Christianity is too crude to print, albeit, Morehead does print it, as a criticism that because we [Christians] are perceived as narrowminded, intolerant, ….’s, it is the church who must adapt to the world.

"At the beginning of this paper I mentioned ethnographic reflexivity, a process whereby the study of another culture provides the opportunity to step outside of one’s usual conceptions of cultural normality in order to not only understand another culture, but also to critically reassess one’s own culture and social location in light of the encounter with the cultural other. I would ask evangelicals to adopt this posture of cultural self-criticism so that they might carefully reassess not only their understanding of their social location within "mainstream" American culture, but also their understanding of the evangelical sub-culture within it."

"The presence of new religious movements and alternative spiritualities in a religiously pluralistic environment presents a challenge to evangelical educational institutions preparing students for effective ministry. Irving Hexham, a religious studies scholar, has recognized this situation and lamented that generally, This failure to understand modern culture reflects the …narrowness of contemporary theological education which, in general, leaves ordinands totally unprepared for meeting people of other faiths (Hexham 1992, 162).

"Not only does the current state of theological education fail to prepare Christian ministers to adequately grapple with religious pluralism and the interreligious encounter, Alister McGrath has noted a failure to adequately address such issues apologetically:… the emerging church simply must attempt to come to a greater awareness of the presence and significance of new spiritualities in post-modernity. For increasing numbers of people, alternative spiritualities, such as those experimented with at Burning Man, represent attractive pathways for experiencing spirituality. Sound theological and missiological engagement of alternative spiritualities are crucial for the emerging church if it is to have not only cultural relevancy, but also theological and missiological integrity."

Reader, in conclusion I would remind you, Jesus was never concerned about cultural relevancy or the world’s perception of Him or the gospel of Salvation He preached. He did not integrate pagan practices into His ministry. He did not adapt nor broaden His gospel to coddle or include alternate paths of spiritually, religious exploration via the occult or religious pluralism. He was not popular with the world- the world hated Him and in fact, still hates the true Jesus of the Bible, as well as His true followers. John 7:7 "The world cannot hate you (who are of the world); but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil."

You can dialogue all you want, strain to demolish, re-image, re-imagine and re-fashion the old fashioned gospel so as to be acceptable to all cultures and religions, but you will be left with a false gospel, for the Bible clearly states there is salvation in no other Name than Jesus Christ—only one path leads to eternal life, narrow is the way and few there be that find it. The alternative is eternal separation from God in a literal Hell. We do no one any favors by failing to proclaim the good news of the Gospel, that people can be free from the chains of sin, hopelessness and despair through repentance and turning from sin and darkness unto the Living Son of God, Jesus Christ, who alone gives Life!

…………………………

Information herein has been provided to warn and inform concerned believers of the deception going forth in this hour of great apostasy. We are witnessing an astonishing departure from sound Biblical teaching right before our very eyes. ….Carol Guffey, November 2007