A new board game marketed as a ‘Christian’ version of the Ouija board has sparked quite a controversy among clerics, with one priest describing it as a ‘trap from the devil’.

It sounds like a clever April Fools prank for Christians, but it turns out that the Holy Spirit Board is an actual game that anyone can find on sites like Amazon. It’s basically a Ouija board, only instead of demons, ghosts and other unholy beings, ‘this is a one-way ticket straight to heaven’ that relies on the classic planchette system to allow users to communicate directly with “our lord and savior Jesus Christ!” The layout of the planchette is similar to that of a Ouija board, only it is decorated with Christian symbols like Jesus crucified on the cross, three angels, and a dove. Oh, and instead of the triangular pendant moved on the Ouija board, the Holy Spirit Board uses a golden cross.

“GET THE ANSWERS YOU NEED!” the board game’s description reads. “The Holy Spirit Board can answer all of life’s most important questions, straight from the man himself! “Unlike other spirit boards, this one will NEVER contact evil ghosts or demons, so you can ask your questions with an assured sense of safety.”

You can see how the above can be viewed as blasphemy by conservative Christians, so it’s no wonder that a known exorcist has come out and publically warned people not to play around with the board game, going as far as to call it a “trap from the devil”.

“The devil is always looking for different ways he can trap all the victims that he can take for him. And this is one,” Roman Catholic Father Ernesto Caro of the Diocese of Monterey, Mexico, said in an interview with EWTN’s ‘News Nightly’. “Ouija games and all this are forbidden in the Bible.”

“If the triangle is moving by itself, be careful, it’s not God who is moving, it’s the devil,” Caro, who is known to perform exorcisms, warned.

Asked what people who bought the controversial board game should do, the exorcist said that they should get rid of the board as quickly as possible, go to confession, and  ‘repent and ask God for liberation’. They should also ask a priest to give an extra blessing for protection, just to be safe.

Here at Oddity Central, we don’t take things like the Holy Spirit Board seriously, and we suspect the motivation of its creators was little more than tongue-in-cheek humor, but going over the product’s Amazon reviews, it’s easy to see many people see it as an actual threat.

“Shame on Amazon for allowing these products to be marketed and sold on its platform. I did not nor would I ever recommend that anyone buy this product!” one person wrote.

“Pure evil,” another commented.

The Holy Spirit Board first started making waves online at the end of last year, but it really went viral last month after Father Ernesto Caro’s comments were picked up by Christian news media.

 

While you’re here, may we interest you in a video game where you play as Jesus Christ and perform biblical miracles?