Marcia Montenegro Radio Interviews

 BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION 

Marcia Montenegro is a former professional astrologer, now a Christian writer, researcher and public speaker. Before becoming an astrologer, Marcia was involved with various New Age, occult, and Eastern beliefs and practices, including Inner Light Consciousness, Tibetan Buddhism, Zen Buddhism, Hindu teachings and meditation, and psychic development classes. During these years, she also participated in past life regression, numerology, Tarot cards, spirit contact, seances, astral travel, and received a spirit guide through a guided visualization.

Since becoming a Christian, Marcia has become a full-time missionary with Fellowship International Mission and does her ministry with the support of her church, as well as through donations from fellow Christians. Marcia's website is CANA/Christian Answers for the New Age, and is an informational and outreach ministry. Marcia has a Masters in Religion from Southern Evangelical Seminary, Charlotte, NC. Marcia has been published in many Christian publications (including Rose Publications), and is also the author of SpellBound: The Paranormal Seduction of Today's Kids (Cook, 2006) (soon to be  released as an ebook).


 RADIO INTERVIEWS 

Crosstalk-VCY America
Topic: "Wellness: The New Age Trojan Horse in Healthcare" (4-26-11)

Issues, Etc.

Topic: Interview About Feng Shui (1-25-2012)

Topic: The Occult and Witnessing to Those in the Occult (11-5-2008)

The Janet Mefferd Show
Topic: The Occult (10-31-2011)
Topic: A Discussion on Panentheism (9-24-2012)
Topic: A Discussion About "Mindfulness" (10-23-2012)
Topic: A Discussion About Panentheism (11-19-2012)
Topic: A Discussion About Mindfulness in Schools (3-4-2013)

Apologetics 315
Topic: Testimony,  General Differences Between the New Age and the Occult, How to Witness to Those in the Occult (6-13-2011)

Blog Talk Radio
Topic: Discussion about the paranormal and Marcia's book Spellbound: The Paranormal Seduction of Today's Kids (1-28-2014)
Topic: Biblical Answers to Counter Occultic Activity Such as Hypnosis, Transcendental Meditation and more (7-26-2012)
Topic: Is Yoga For Christians? (11-8-2012)
Topic: What Is Wicca? Can Wicca and Christianity Co-Exist? (5-19-2012)
Topic: Halloween, the Occult, Witchcraft, Wicca, Neopaganism and more (11-1-2010)
Topic: Testimony, Caller Questions (5-12-2012)
Topic: Testimony, General Discussion About the Occult (9-16-2010)
Topic: Exorcisms, General Discussion About the Occult, Differences Between Magic in Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia (5-25-2013)

Stand For Truth Ministries
Topic: What Is Reiki? (9-7-2013)

Echo Zoe Radio
Topic: In Depth Discussion About the Occult - Part 1 (Testimony, Experiences in New Age and Occult, Spirit Contact, Divination, Astrology, TV Shows and Movies Featuring Occult Themes, Feng Shui, etc.)  (3-25-2012)
Topic: In Depth Discussion About the Occult - Part 2 (New Thought, Therapeutic Touch, Wellness, etc.) (9-22-2012)

Stand Up For The Truth
Topic: Testimony, the Paranormal, the Occult in Popular Culture (10-12-2011)
Topic: "That's Entertainment?" A Discussion about Astrology in Popular Culture (11-4-2011)
Topic: The Dangers of Mindfulness (2-24-2012)

Olive Tree Views
Topic: Marcia Montenegro's book, "Spellbound: The Paranormal Seduction of Today's Kids" (to be released as an ebook November 1, 2013) (10-13-2007)
Topic: Testimony, Differences Between Biblical Meditation and Occult Mediation (12-12-2009)

We're All Hindus Now?

Posted by Christine Pack

Dr. Peter Jones
Truth Xchange

Christian talk show host Janet Mefferd recently had Dr. Peter Jones of the Truth Xchange on her show to discuss the growing influence of Hinduism in America, even among professing Christians. This is a very important topic, because in my experience, many Christians today seem to grasp the religious syncretism and idolatry of the Old Testament at only an intellectual level. You would get head nodding all 'round if you brought up the topic of religious syncretism, with your Christian friends affirming oh yes, that would be bad, very bad indeed, if Christians today were to try to syncretize their religious practices with forbidden pagan religious practices! Of course, the problem is that they might say this while they're tucking their yoga mats under their arms and heading out the door for a yoga class. This is the kind of disconnect that Dr. Jones addresses in this very informative interview. From the show:

"(Newsweek author) Lisa Miller cited polling data (in the 2009 article We Are All Hindus Now) showing that, conceptually at least, (Americans) are slowly becoming more like Hindus and less like traditional Christians in the ways we think about God, ourselves, each other and eternity. We do see it on a superficial level, of course, with our culture mainstreaming terms like karma, and yoga, and nirvana, avatar, and mantra.......How did this happen? And where is this trend headed? And most importantly, how should Christians think biblically in this day and age to avoid the spiritual pitfalls of openly - or unwittingly - embracing Hinduism." 

Janet Mefferd's interview with Peter Jones can be listened to in its entirety here.


 Additional Resources 

"Christian" Yoga?

Julia Roberts: "I'm Definitely A Practicing Hindu"

Doctor Prescribes "Therapeutic" Yoga For A Christian Woman

Yoga Can Be Hazardous To Your Health

Yoga Alliance Shows Its Hindu Teeth

Universalism: The Gospel Message of Emergent and New Age Spirituality

Southern Baptist Seminary President Al Mohler on Yoga: "It's Not Christianity"

Karma Just Doesn't Cut It

The "Om-School" Movement

Yoga Can Be Hazardous To Your Health

Posted by Cathy Mathews and Christine Pack

Because we have written with such frequency about the spiritual hazards of yoga, many of our regular readers might be tempted to look at the title of this article and think that we will again be discussing the spiritual dangers of yoga. Not so. Today we want to point you to an article in the New York Times (How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body) which enumerates the potential physical dangers of yoga. You didn't know yoga could be dangerous? Please read on from the article:

"A healthy woman of 28 suffered a stroke while doing a yoga position known as the wheel or upward bow, in which the practitioner lies on her back, then lifts her body into a semicircular arc, balancing on hands and feet. An intermediate stage often involves raising the trunk and resting the crown of the head on the floor. While balanced on her head, her neck bent far backward, the woman 'suddenly felt a severe throbbing headache.' She had difficulty getting up, and when helped into a standing position, was unable to walk without assistance. The woman was rushed to the hospital." 

"(A) 25-year-old man was rushed to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, in Chicago, complaining of blurred vision, difficulty swallowing and controlling the left side of his body. Steven H. Hanus, a medical student at the time, became interested in the case and worked with the chairman of the neurology department to determine the cause (he later published the results with several colleagues). The patient had been in excellent health, practicing yoga every morning for a year and a half. His routine included spinal twists in which he rotated his head far to the left and far to the right. Then he would do a shoulder stand with his neck 'maximally flexed against the bare floor,' just as Iyengar had instructed, remaining in the inversion for about five minutes. A series of bruises ran down the man’s lower neck, which, the team wrote in The Archives of Neurology, 'resulted from repeated contact with the hard floor surface on which he did yoga exercises.' These were a sign of neck trauma. Diagnostic tests revealed blockages of the left vertebral artery between the c2 and c3 vertebrae; the blood vessel there had suffered 'total or nearly complete occlusion' — in other words, no blood could get through to the brain." 

"The first reports of yoga injuries appeared decades ago, published in some of the world’s most respected journals — among them, Neurology, The British Medical Journal and The Journal of the American Medical Association. The problems ranged from relatively mild injuries to permanent disabilities. In one case, a male college student, after more than a year of doing yoga, decided to intensify his practice. He would sit upright on his heels in a kneeling position known as vajrasana for hours a day, chanting for world peace. Soon he was experiencing difficulty walking, running and climbing stairs. Doctors traced the problem to an unresponsive nerve, a peripheral branch of the sciatic, which runs from the lower spine through the buttocks and down the legs. Sitting in vajrasana deprived the branch that runs below the knee of oxygen, deadening the nerve. Once the student gave up the pose, he improved rapidly. Clinicians recorded a number of similar cases and the condition even got its own name: 'yoga foot drop.'"

The article can be read in its entirety here. (Please note that this article does not address the underlying religious roots of Yoga; it only addresses the potential harm it can cause to your body.)

photo credit: lululemon athletica via photopin cc


 Additional Resources 

Yoga Alliance Shows Its Hindu Teeth

Christian Yoga an Oxymoron? 

Yoga Training: Not Just Exercise

Yoga For children: Not Child's Play

Yoga: From Hippies To Hip

Yoga: Its Spiritual Roots Can't Be Separated From Its Physical Movements

"Christian" Yoga?

Julia Roberts: "I'm Definitely A Practicing Hindu"

Doctor Prescribes "Therapeutic" Yoga For A Christian Woman

Universalism: The Gospel Message of Emergent and New Age Spirituality

Southern Baptist Seminary President Al Mohler on Yoga: "It's Not Christianity"

Karma Just Doesn't Cut It