God's been bringing these Little Things to my mind more and more. These posts were supposed to be occasional, but I can't stop noticing them of late. This post is about one little thing that makes my heart sink when I see it.
I'm sometimes clumsy when I confront people, so I hope that I'm not accusatory in this post. Think of this as a challenge to purity of conviction then. We've become inured to the whole issue, and anything we're inured to is for all intentions invisible. 
The diabolical part about this particular Little Thing is that it's astonishingly prevalent. I want to believe it's just because it's so ingrained in American culture that we don't think about it at all.
It's being a Zodiac Blogger.
It may seem like a little thing, but my informal poll of people who listed "Christianity" or "Jesus" as a topic of interest in their Blogger profile shows that two-thirds of them have their zodiac sign listed.
God says this:
And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.
—Deuteronomy 4:19 ESV
And also this:
…but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.
—1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 ESV
Horoscopes and astrology fail the test of the above passages. The Father desires that we have no other gods before Him.
This look at Little Things is about just that: the little things that keep us from walking in fullness of life. They may not seem like much, but they still speak to our allegiances. I don't want to show the world I have any allegiances to worldviews that are against the worldview of Jesus Christ. Honestly, I wish I had no idea what my astrological sign was. But this I do know: I definitely won't be putting it out there for others to see. I don't want anything to disqualify my witness for Christ, so I just avoid anything astrological altogether.
If you have a Blogger profile that includes your zodiac sign, consider removing that sign. It may not seem like all that much, but I think God would be pleased if we eliminated those things that might hold us back or divide our hearts.
Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
—Philippians 3:13-16 ESV
Update: I've been told—I assume the sources to be good here—that Blogger automatically puts up your zodiac sign if you fill in your birthdate in your Blogger profile. I did not know this. Still, it's a product of the times that these things are assumed as being desirable to know. If I were in the position of displaying that sign, I'd still consider removing my birthdate if all it's doing is generating a zodiac sign.
Some of the commenters here have said that this may be too little a thing to be part of this series, but I don't feel that way. I'm a big advocate of grace and grace will cover these things if we are ignorant of them. But I believe we still need to think about them because too many things like this add up to us being held back by the world.
I've long been convicted of the narrative in Joshua 7 that found the army of Israel being routed in their battles against the Amorites. When Joshua fell on his face before God and asked why, God told him that someone in the camp had taken as plunder of war items that were dedicated to the Canaanite gods, items that God had said must be destroyed (after a previous military victory.) That man, Achan, had hidden these in his tent. Joshua took Achan, his entire family, and all his animals, and stoned them to death. Then he burned everything that had been associated with Achan.
God takes these things seriously. Thankfully, we don't have to suffer stoning for what we've done. I know that I'd be under a pile of stones for the things I've done in my life. But it doesn't mean we should tolerate those things, either, especially when we consider their source.
This last year the Lord has been showing me what I need to purge from my life, more things than ever before. I think what has changed is that I no longer desire anything that will hold me back from being all that He can make me, so now He can get down to work. I'm sharing some of those issues in this series and Cerulean Sanctum, in general. I'm simply hoping my comments on this will help others out there. Whether people can accept these things or not, I understand.
Have a blessed day, all of you.
interesting thought Dan…
I always look at Zodiac signs as a bit of a laugh – mainly from a scientific background. If you were to go back to the time of moses – you would be born under a completely different “star sign” due to the constantly moving universe..
The only reason I ever look at zodiac predictions is again as a joke – to see which is the most ambiguous (or if I can fulfil them all).
I’d rate this as a much “littler thing” compared to the excuses and lack of prayer when you’ve said you will. (Perhaps you need a “medium things” category for those sort?)
Actually, I’ve been trying to figure out how to get it off my bio since the day I launched. Blogger doesn’t ask you — it just puts it up there, and the onus is on you to get it off. If anyone knows how to do this, please let me in on the secret!
OK, I did a quick search and figured it out. If you list your birthday, it automatically adds it in. There is no Blogger option to list your birthday without the related zodiac info.
Indeed!
I think that speaks volumes about how prevalent and popular the zodiac is: on blogger it is automatically linked to your birthday date being published – the implication being that if you wanted your birthday listed how could you possibly NOT want your starsign up there?
I agree it is a bit of a niggle. I’d love it if anyone can help with a related problem. I have a Samsung mobile phone and when you switch it off it shows, for a couple of seconds, a logo of a witch flying away on a broomstick. Justabout everything about the phone is customisable except this bewilderingly pointless piece of occultalia. I guess your average samsung owner finds it humourous or cute.
Dan,
I read your blog regularly. You have commented on many important spiritual insights. I don’t believe this to be one where you should waste your considerable talent. How influential someone’s zodiac sign might be is debatable of course. I am sure that some evangelical reading a blog that has such information in the bio may assume that the author was an idolator and thus may cause a breach of community. Unfortunately if avoiding offending some seeker after truth is an operating principle then I am afraid the list of offences is pretty long. For example if you list your name someone will be offended because you are male or female. If you list your political leanings we all know that can kill any hope of community. If you list your nationality ditto. My point is that your zodiac sign is related to the date of birth and is completely outside your control. From the comments that follow it appears that the zodiac sign is added automatically so that too appears out of one’s control. I realize that people, especially Americans, wear their feelings on their sleeves and have large numbers of “hot button” issues but we are becoming ridiculous if a zodiac sign destroys our witness for Christ. As an aside, I believe I remember a radio series by D James Kennedy,pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, back in the 90s on the zodiac sign. I believe (don’t hold me to this) that the zodiac sign initially was thought to be some Godly type of symbolism before it was usurped by the occult – sort of like Christmas and Saturnalia in reverse.
Dan I believe it was you some weeks ago that commented on how the Christian community of bloggers was too quick to burn the heretics. Surely there is sufficient grace to ignore such uncontrolled “facts.” I am sure some will read and think I am jumping on you Dan. That is not the case. Astrology is not Christian and is not part of the Christian worldview. I do not quibble with your facts or reasoning. My point is that everything that we find askew does not require public discourse. Someone as mature as you are in your faith has more important fish to fry. Sorry if that last sentence sounds like a judgement. I guess it is.
Pilgrim
Another great post. I am amazed at how lax Christians are about the occult. I saw a blog that debated doctrinal issues in between reviews of harry potter and steven king books trying to show the redeming qualities of them.
Absolutely perplexing.
Oh, don’t get me started on zodiacs and horoscopes! 😛 When I was a subeditor (am a gung ho field journalist once more) I had to edit the horrorscope. What agony – because we have to really carefully read them, you realise that they’re very inane (and very obvious), and it’s a wonder why people buy into them. (none of them came true for me, and even if they did, it’s because it’s so openly worded it could happen to anyone on any day!)
We subs hate to edit the horoscopes.
We call them “horror-scopes” 😛
I actually know a guy who writes them for a paper in the midwest. He’s a college English professor and barely looks at a starry sky, much less studies them. He considers it humor. I would venture very few newspaper astrology reports are written by people who believe what they write.
When I get Chinese food, is it okay to read the fortune cookie?
Isaiah 47:13- Stargazer and monthly prognosticators- directly ties in to horoscropes. I was wondering when someone on the blogs would make note of this. There is nothing funny about the Zoidac. King Josiah rid himself of this practice (2 Kings 23:5), and the word planets here in Hebrew means the 12 signs of the Zodiac. In heaven, mediums will be rare, but in hell they will be well done. A different kind of well done my good and faithful servant will be how Satan greets them.
Dan,
A good point. When I started using Blogger, I wondered why my zodiac sign showed in my profile as well. It may be a small detail, but I removed it after considering the link with my birthday tag. We glorify God not only in our actions, but in what we choose not to do.
I came across ur blog in a google search to remove zodiac signs. Thanks brother for your courage to share.