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Editor’s note: This article is part of our “Time Capsule Series” that includes a cache of past stories that previously were not told.
LEXINGTON –Area clergy are warning a business about its nefarious activities and hoping the local fruit farm bears good fruit and not bad fruit. Three days before a psychic reading event is to occur at the Blueberry Patch, lead clergymen from thirty-six local congregations are alerting the business that a questionable program on Friday evening is immoral and may be associated with consumer fraud.
According to a clergy letter sent to the owners of the Blueberry Patch, the event at the 1285 Hanley Road West business has its detractors.
“Recently it has come to our attention that your business has been advertising on your signs and your coming events calendar inviting the public to an event on January 8, 2016 which includes a psychic reader,” the clergy wrote. “A handout disseminated to customers and displayed on your Blueberry Patch website reads that psychic Jen Lopez will conduct readings using astrology and numerology, that she will be accurate, and that fifteen minute readings will cost fifteen dollars.”
“As a business owner, you are free to run the Blueberry Patch however you would like. All things considered, your practices may not gain the approval of many of your customers and loyal patrons,” the clergymen said.
The Blueberry Patch is a fruit farm with a nursery and a greenhouse, offers twenty-seven different varieties of berries; and is also the largest blueberry farm in the state. It also plays a prominent role in the annual Blueberry Festival in the Village of Lexington. Faith leaders believe this upcoming psychic event should be cancelled due to is association with deviant behavior that is not in harmony with the identity of the community.
“As chaplains of this community, we strongly believe the upcoming psychic event is associated with deviant behavior, is not in harmony with the identity of our community, and will tarnish the reputation of the Blueberry Patch and therefore advise that the event be cancelled.”
Clergy letter signed by 36 Lead clergy
The clergy say the business should consider the Bible-based heritage of its clientele. They cite a 2006 study on churches in Richland County finding that nearly 47,000 people in Richland County belonged to a Bible-based congregation. The Richland Community Prayer Network, which conducted this study, states there are at least two hundred-thirty Bible believing congregations in Richland County, not counting home churches.
The letter also said that clergy in the past have publicly addressed the issue of divination and the dangers it poses, mentioning the public outcry over a fortune teller Lisa Williams that came to the Renaissance Theater in 2008. Theater CEO Terri Bergman was fired nine months later reportedly for dwindling ticket sales at the theater. Bad business is not all the clergy spoke of.
“As (36) thirty-six spiritual leaders of this area, we are convinced hosting a psychic reading will jeopardize the good standing of your business, endanger the financial well-being of the fruit farm and imperil the individuals attending your psychic event. Psychic reading is fraudulent and can involve financial scams of unsuspecting persons.”
In 2014, a Los Angeles private investigator in court was able to help psychic fraud victims recover over two million dollars. The victims were told they had to pay cash in order to ‘remove a curse placed on them.’ The psychic was sentenced to between five and fifteen years in jail and ordered to pay restitution. The same year in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, an arrest warrant was issued for a psychic who convinced a lady she needed to withdraw all her money from the bank to be blessed. The psychic ended up with twenty thousand dollars.
At debate is whether consumer fraud found in the Ohio Revised Code Section 1345.02 pertains to psychic reading. The clergy believe event attendees could hold the Blueberry Patch liable if they have to pay to ward off similar hexes.
The clergy concluded by saying, “Members of our local congregations are very familiar with the teaching in the Bible about good fruit and bad fruit. Jesus told his followers that a bad tree cannot bear good fruit and a good tree cannot bear bad fruit (Matthew 7:18). Our hope is that your fruit farm bears good fruit and fruit that remains. With that being said, it is our moral responsibility to warn you so that you take steps to have as bountiful of a harvest as you had in 2015.”
Copies of the letter were also given to the Washington Township Board of Trustees, Mayor of the Village of Lexington, and the President of the Richland Area Chamber of Commerce.
The Bottom Line:
The Bible says in Leviticus Chapter Nineteen, “Do not turn to mediums or necromancers, do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them. I am the LORD your GOD.”
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