The vexed issue of the Ouija board surfaces from time to time as was the case earlier this autumn when the discount store, Poundland, added the Ouija/Spirit Board to its stock of Halloween merchandise on sale throughout the UK.
Harmless nonsense? Spiritually dangerous? From comments on social media platforms it would appear that Christians (including evangelical Christians) were divided on how to respond. This confusion is nothing new of course. As far back as the early 1970s the games maker Waddingtons hit the headlines by adding the Ouija board to its Christmas stock alongside Monopoly, amidst mixed responses from the church. Interestingly, the board was removed from stock after high-profile cases in which large numbers of people were treated for mental breakdown and, tragically, some resorted to suicide following Ouija sessions.
As an Adviser in Deliverance and the Paranormal within the Church of England, I head up a multi-disciplinary team, including clergy and a Christian consultant psychiatrist, which ministers across a diocese in this broad and often inadequately understood area of Christian ministry.
