Former medium-turned-Christian apologist Jenn Nizza recently sat down with Don Veinot, president of Midwest Christian Outreach, to discuss what happens when believers show up at Paganicon, an annual convention for pagans, Wiccans and spiritual seekers, in the name of Jesus.
In a recent episode of Nizza’s podcast, “Ex Psychic Saved,” titled “Outreach to Cults, Pagans, and Atheists: What Happens When Christians Show Up at Paganicon,” Veinot shared how he and his team regularly attend the annual pagan spirituality convention to share the Gospel with those mired in deception.
Raised by an atheist father and a spiritually curious mother who was into astrology and fortune telling, Veinot shared his journey from disbelief to Christianity.
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“I couldn’t really be honest and be an atheist,” he said. “Because there’s a claim to know something I can’t know. I can’t know God doesn’t exist, right?”
Veinot came to Christ after reading books recommended by his wife, Joy. “I thought, I’ll go with the guy who raised Himself from the dead instead of the guy who just thinks he knows stuff,” he recalled.
Listen to the Ex-Psychic Saved podcast
Eventually, the couple began ministry work by reaching Jehovah’s Witnesses through audio tapes and hotline support. One family left the Watchtower Society after listening to Joy’s tapes, including a man who had been a Jehovah’s Witness for 35 years.
“We are in a ministry because of that woman’s prayer. That’s how it started,” Veinot said.
That same heart for outreach would eventually lead Don and Joy into more unconventional spaces, including Paganicon.
“So that’s how we got started in kind of reaching out to Wiccans,” Veinot explained. “You need to grow in your faith. You need to understand the Scriptures. You need to be discipled in the faith. Because there literally is a cult or religion out there for you.”
Nizza added, “This is something that’s serious. … This is a lie that has been going on for a very long time, and really sucks a lot of people in.”
The episode unpacked the rise of the “divine feminine” and neo-pagan trends in pop culture. “We are in the age of re-enchantment,” Veinot said. “And you know, a lot of people don’t even know what it is I’m talking about when we say that.”
Reflecting on the broader cultural shift, Veinot said, “It took about 300 years for the church to transform a pagan society into Western culture. For the last 200 years, pagans have been trying to return the favor.”
“The decline of Christianity occurred simultaneously with a growth in spirituality, which suggests the future of the West will not be one of atheistic, secular materialism, but of re-enchantment and Neo-Paganism,” he said. “So that is where we’re heading, especially if the Church doesn’t sort of get its act together, because the Church becomes a stabilizing influence in culture, even if people are not Christian.”
Veinot described Paganicon as a spiritually diverse gathering, where Wiccans, satanists, Druids, and New Agers converge. “We are going to their house, right? We’re a guest in their environment,” he said. “Which means we have to be respectful.”
“We’re going to share the Gospel. That’s primarily what we’re doing. But … this isn’t for everybody,” he added. “I wouldn’t recommend every Christian run out there.”
He emphasized the importance of preparation and humility. “We ask questions. People like questions,” Veinot said. “They don’t feel attacked.”
The team, he noted, discovered that around 80% of Paganicon attendees come from Christian backgrounds. “They were in extremely legalistic kinds of churches … they weren’t really getting the answers to the spiritual questions they were asking, and they were put down for even asking them,” he said.
Nizza responded, “That sounds like a fun club. And in our club, there are no wrongs, there is only your truth.”
The conversation turned toward truth and ethics. “We did an article … titled ‘Why Not Burn Witches?’ … If everything is one and everything is god … there’s no absolute truth or morality or ethics,” Veinot explained.
“I would defend Wiccans from being harmed in physical ways. I don’t think that’s right. Why? That comes from a Judeo-Christian ethic,” he added.
As the episode neared its conclusion, Nizza asked Veinot if he’d received any testimonies of lives changed from Paganicon outreach.
“Yes, we have,” he said. “From time to time, we’ve had individuals either contact us by phone or by email to remind us of a conversation that we had five years ago, maybe.”
One story stood out: a satanist who had previously cursed Veinot later approached him in repentance. “He comes running over and he goes, ‘Are you OK?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’m fine. Why?’ ‘Well, I was so angry at you, I cast spells on you … I needed to tell you I have become a Christian. You impacted me just by your demeanor.’”
“You can’t beat people into the Kingdom,” Veinot added.
Nizza responded, “We have to remember these are people that are lost, people as we once were.”
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
