Several recent events in the media made it crystal clear to me that, although we may coexist in the world together, Wiccans and Muslims do not serve the same God as I do. To wit, a group of witches in Iowa conducted a variety of pagan rituals to put a hex on the Stanford rapist, Brock Turner, his father, Dan Turner, and the presiding judge, Aaron Persky.

The group of approximately 13 Iowan witches were seeking justice for what they felt was an unfair sentencing for the accused rapist. When they posted it on Facebook, it went viral and more than 600 witches participated in the hexing on June 7, 2016. The hex, sent out to the 1,000 people in the group, used this text:

Brock Allen Turner we hex you.
You will be impotent
You will know constant pain of pine needles in your guts
Food will bring you no sustenance
In water, your lungs will fail you
Sleep will only bring nightmares
Shame will be your mantle.
You will meet justice.
My witchcraft is strong. Our witchcraft is powerful. The spell will work. So Mote it be.

For the record, I agree that the sentence was unjust and I am happy to see the outrage and subsequent move to oust Aaron Persky, the lenient judge who recently ran unopposed for his seat.

What I disagree with is using spiritual entities (which certainly do exist) to exact justice. As a Christian, I believe that God is the ultimate judge. “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’” says the Lord. (Rom. 12:19)

We live in a sinful and evil world and those serving as our judges and administrators are fallen women and men, but that does not mean that there will not be a reckoning. “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”(Heb. 4:13)

Then there was the suspension of Miss Puerto Rico, Destiny Velez, for her “viscous anti-Muslim” twitter “rant.” The 20-year old was deemed unacceptable to wear the crown for daring to tweet: “Islamic God is not the same God of the Christian and Jews.” Velez posted the tweet in reaction to Michael Moore’s protest regarding Trump’s comments on suspending Muslim immigration to the United States where he was photographed holding up a sign that read, “We are all Muslim,” outside the Trump tower in New York City.

Although I agree that using your platform as a national beauty queen to air your religious views wasn’t too smart, it is disturbing that the inclusive, politically correct left will simply not suffer a dissenting voice from the approved talking points. The God of the Jews is the same God as the Christian God, but obviously, Jews, like Muslims, do not believe that Jesus was deity but rather a teacher. Therefore, fundamentally, Velez gets it wrong.

Velez goes on in her twitter to say that Christians and Jews do not blow up buildings or promote violence in their sacred texts. Velez gets it wrong again. There is certainly plenty of violence in the Bible and the Quran condones the killing of non-Muslims. That’s not to say that I miss the point that she was trying to make, albeit feeble.

Despite the feel-good bumper sticker that we should all coexist, historically it will never be without peril. A house divided against itself will not stand. A person’s beliefs dictate their behavior, their world view, and ultimately, public policy. No one states the existence of demons and a divided house better than Jesus, Himself:

“Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. And all the multitudes were amazed and said, ‘Could this be the Son of David?’

“Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, ‘This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.’

“But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: ‘Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.  If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?  And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges.  But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.’’’ (Matt. 12:22-28)

And Jesus has plenty to say about unjust judges and retribution: “There was a certain judge in a certain town who did not fear God and did not respect people.  And there was a widow in that town, and she kept coming to him, saying, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary!’  And he was not willing for a time, but after these things he said to himself, ‘Even if I do not fear God or respect people, yet because this widow is causing trouble for me, I will grant her justice, so that she does not wear me down in the end by her coming back!’

“And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unrighteous judge is saying!  And will not God surely see to it that justice is done to His chosen ones who cry out to Him day and night, and will He delay toward them? I tell you that He will see to it that justice is done for them soon!’” (Luke 18)