Can Christians Talk to a Medium?

 Friends, we’re now in week 3 of 4 of Stump the Preacher 2026, sermons requested by you and then researched and delivered by me! This topic is another one that I saved from last year because I got so many requests that I couldn’t quite squeeze them all in. This one came from our friend Terri: Can a Christian talk to a medium? 

Good question!

I addressed a similar question during Stump the Preacher 2018, back when I was serving at the Avon church, and a friend asked if the UMC has any official teachings or advice about Ouija boards, psychics, and crystal balls.

I’m going to start this sermon the same way I did that one 8 years ago. First, but commending Terri for posing such a great question! Second, with an acknowledgement. I can’t say that I come to any of these Stump the Preacher sermons leaving my preconceived ideas at the door, and for a topic like this one, my long-held beliefs are very strong and present. I also don’t think those beliefs will be unique to me. You bring up any number of sources that claim to be able to predict the future, or show us the past, or connect us with the dead, and I say, “Yeah, ok Miss Cleo.”

I expect that a lot of you got that reference, but just in case you didn’t, because you didn’t own a TV in the 90s, Miss Cleo was a TV personality from 1997 to 2003. She claimed to be a Jamaican Shaman, and she ran a pay-by-the-minute service called the Psychic Readers Network. Her infomercials ran constantly. She made a ton of talk show appearances, and even voiced video game characters and appeared in car dealership commercials. The trouble began when the FTC sued her company for fraud and deceptive billing practices. In the process of those lawsuits, Miss Cleo herself got outed: she wasn’t born and raised in Jamaica, she was from LA, and her real name was Youree Dell Harris. Also, she wasn’t really a Shaman. Despite that major blow to her public reputation, she still found work here and there as a psychic, and wrote a book. She died in 2016 after battling colon cancer.

Now, it’s not that the Miss Cleo scandal was particularly formative in shaping my opinions on this matter, it’s more that it’s a controversy a lot of us remember, and it perfectly illustrates my skepticism on all of this stuff. As your pastor, I’m less concerned about a theological line you shouldn’t cross, and much more concerned that anyone who claims these kinds of supernatural powers is just taking you on a ride to get your money.

But, with all of that said, is there a theological line to be crossed? Can a Christian talk to a medium, or a psychic, or a fortune teller, or a palm reader, or a person sitting in front of a crystal ball?

There are really no official United Methodist teachings on this issue. Neither our official rule book, the Book of Discipline, nor our book on social policy, the Book of Resolutions, have articles on these topics. Both of those sources get updated every four years, as the UMC is constantly revisiting how we can follow Jesus in a modern world. It’s a never ending conversation. You can find several volumes, from different publication years, of those two works in our church library, and please, be my guest. Read away. You’ll find some interesting stuff in both books. You’ll also find some stuff so painfully boring that it will put you to sleep faster than counting sheep.

The next wrinkle that came up in my research of this topic has to do with Christianity’s relationship with ancient pagan practices. Because if I’m going to raise questions about mediums and psychics, the next logical questions are going to be about Tarot cards, spells, rituals, and various other practices of magick. And this is where we enter very delicate territory.

My more conservative counterparts will raise up what we find in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 18, verses 10-12:

10 No one shall be found among you who makes a son or daughter pass through fire, or who practices divination, or is a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who casts spells, or who consults ghosts or spirits, or who seeks oracles from the dead. 12 For whoever does these things is abhorrent to the Lord; it is because of such abhorrent practices that the Lord your God is driving them out before you.

A strict, literal read of those three verses would say that the answer to Terri’s question is a hard “no”. No mediums, no seances, no psychics, not even a Magic 8 Ball. The reasoning, per a conservative read of these three verses, being that God doesn’t approve of those things, and we don’t want to be on God’s angry side.

The caution I will give all of you sitting here, though, is that those verses have been used as clobber verses–not as personal life advice for me to use to be my best self, but as a weapon, in case I’d like to tear out this page from my Bible, roll it up, and turn it into a makeshift club to hit people, especially those who have ever looked into neo-pagan faith practices like Wicca or Druidry. The Bible is not a weapon. If we’re using it to attack people, no matter how sincerely held our convictions may be, we’re in the wrong.

The most benevolent part of me, the person who can put the Miss Cleo stuff aside for a second and operate from a curious place, is less concerned about there being an official rule to follow here. I’m more inclined to respond to a question with a question: why do we engage with these things? What are we looking for when we break out the Ouija board, flip through Tarot cards, call a psychic hotline, or talk to a fortune teller at a county fair?

There’s so much in this life that we don’t know, and can’t understand, and we’re curious. Healthy curiosity, mixed with an ounce of slumber party mischief, if what would make me and my friends break out the Ouija board when we were kids. I’m going to tell you that I simply don’t buy any theories about the pointer moving on its own. It moves because you’re pushing it. One of your smart aleck friends may be subtly pushing it toward creepy answers for their amusement, or you may be subconsciously pushing it because you want the board to tell you what you want to hear. The latter was what I experienced the day I took out my sister’s Ouija board, at the tender age of 9, because I wanted to talk to my grandfather who died when I was 2. I was sad that I never really knew him. 

Not knowing can be more than frustrating, it can be very painful. Real, raw grief is what compels folks to call in to morning talk shows when the special guest is “The Long Island Medium”, because they want answers that they know they’ll probably never get in this life. Do my loved ones think about me in heaven? What really happened to them in their final moments? What stories did they take to heaven with them?

It can be very hard to look at our departed family members, whether they passed recently or long ago, and feel like we’re left with far more questions than answers. I feel this way looking at our spiritual ancestors, especially from the early chapters of Genesis. This morning’s OT story is about Abraham, Sarah, an elderly married couple that God promised to build humanity through, and their slave, Hagar, who they treated abysmally. In this story Sarah and Abraham kick Hagar and her son Ishmael out of their estate because Sarah is so jealous and threatened by Ishmael, and Hagar and Ishmael nearly die in the wilderness before God saves them.

Ring ring ring, Miss Cleo? Yeah, listen, I’ll pretend you’re really a Shaman for a sec. Can you connect me with Sarah and Abraham? K, thanks. Hey, Sarah and Abraham? Yeah, quick question–what is wrong with you?

When we uncover the past, and put together the scattered limbs of our family tree, we don’t always love what we find. In fact, it can be incredibly disturbing. And relying on the faith that we have at our disposal often feels like it’s just not enough. Especially when we’re reading verses like this morning’s NT reading, Jesus proclaiming that he came not to bring peace but a sword, that he would turn families against one another. Yikes, Jesus. That’s not any more comforting than that OT story I just read about Abraham and Sarah’s cruelty. That’s the kind of thing that’s gonna put me right back on the 1-900 number with the psychic, asking why some of my family don’t get along with me because of my faith, how Jesus knew that was going to happen, and where I can go bury my face in a big bucket of ice cream?

But, before we call a psychic out of despair, and risk giving our money away when we’re vulnerable to those who would exploit that vulnerability, let’s rewind, back to verse 26 of that reading: “nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing is secret that will not become known.”

God loves us, and a loving God won’t allow us to live in so much uncertainty that we can’t take it. We can cope, because God loves us. And right now, there’s a lot we don’t know, but that won’t be true forever. Someday, when we’re ready, we’ll know.

In the meantime, though, what about those mediums? If I’m sad, or scared, or just plain curious, can I talk to someone who claims my long dead grandfather has a message for me?

My pastoral answer would be that this has nothing to do with being a Christian. You’re not betraying your faith by exploring this curiosity. But don’t come to that kind of thing naive. Know that the Miss Cleos are out there, and they don’t have your best interests at heart. They have their wallets at heart. 

Also know that you know your deceased loved ones better than any medium, and most of the answers to your questions about the past and the future are already sitting in you. I didn’t need a Ouija board to tell me that my grandfather loves me and hopes I’m living a good life. You don’t need a medium to tell you that your friend who died is on the other side of the veil waiting for you in life eternal. And you don’t need a Magic 8 Ball to know that it’s going to turn out ok. You can trust in Divine timing on that.

Amen.