I do not perform gospel magic nor am I a christian.

However, I do perform a multiple selection routine in my stand up act based on the seven deadly sins.

I talk about my great aunt who used to condemn my parents for letting me have a copy of "the devil's picture book" in the house and how disappointed I was when I realised she was only talking about playing cards.

I then perform a tounge in cheek routine designed to attempt to get the playing cards to live up to their nickname.

Seven cards and selected and each are found in the manner of a sin. (e.g. the gluttony card is in my mouth, the greed card in my money clip etc.)

The routine pokes a little fun at religious extremists but is mostly a fun and creative way to produce the seven cards.


I've never had any complaints (including a performance with four ministers in the audience) but....

My question for my gospel magicians is, would you find this routine offensive to your religion?

Not Greatly Nick, As long as you are not mocking my religion. I quite like the idea of the card productions, how do you do the card productions for the others though.

I am stuck trying to think of the sloth one?

I'm trying to picture Lust . . . .

You produce it last and as slowly as possible. Or you have someone else produce it saving you the trouble.

I want to know how he handles lust

Nicholas,

Let me start by saying how much I appreciate you asking if a routine would be offensive to Christians. In a world that seems to becoming obsessed with how much and how far they can go to be offensive to Christians, your question, my good friend, is refreshing and you are to be commended. Thank you for asking.

Just as long it is done in good taste, toungue in cheek, and does not offend or make light of the Holy Trinity, I say go for it. It looks as if you have already had good feed back from the four ministers.

David Williams

I can't guarentee good taste but I am certaining going for tounge in cheek with no intention of making light of anyone's religion.

From a philisophical standpoint the 7 deadly sins are not a copyright to any one religion. The Catholic Chrurch happened to be a great marketer and well the rest broke off and you know the rest. Every culture has a list of most extreme sins and these 7 happened to be general enough to apply to all. In complete reality they are not taught anymore as it really isn't a focus of Christianity. The true nature of Chrisitianity is message of Jesus which is love your God with all your mind, heart and soul and love your neighbor as yourself. All the rest is the details.

Personally if you don't use the word Christian or a denomination then I don't think you could offend anyone. No one uses the 7 sins in thier doctrine so I say have some fun with it. Thanks for being considerate, another lost art in humanity. If you want to use the religion angle then you might want to say some religions believe in deadly sins or sins that cause great harm to people. It is general enough that you can play on people's experiences and not offend anyone. The word religion is a such a misnomer anyway.

Thanks all!

BTW, if anyone can think of a good "sloth" production I'd really appreicate. I'm too lazy to come up with anything myself.

How about that in itself?

Either don't produce it and say something like, "I was going to produce the card for this next one, but I just don't feel like it today so I'll just tell you what it is, it's....."

or...

Indicate that you're just to lazy to do the next one and tell the spectator that he can pull it out of ---- (wherever you chose) if he wants to see it.

I don't know, just a thought you can play with.

Or maybe doing it really, really slowly.

Hold the bus there, Tomcat!
My pastor (non-denominational church) just did seven weeks on the seven deadly sins. Sin (and Christ's sacrifice for man's sins) isn't central to Christianity? I've spent time in a lot of churches, but that's one sermon I missed.