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For Christians still reflecting on the earthquake tragedy that struck Haiti two recent and troubling aspects of a news story need to be carefully reflected upon in terms of our attitudes and actions toward those of other religions, particularly those that make Christians uncomfortable.
The Associated Press reports that a group of Evangelical Christians attacked a group of voodou practitioners.
"Voodooists gathered in Cite Soleil where thousands of quake survivors live in tents and depend on food aid. Praying and singing, the group was trying to conjure spirits to guide lost souls when a crowd of Evangelicals started shouting. Some threw rocks while others urinated on Voodoo symbols. When police left, the crowd destroyed the altars and Voodoo offerings of food and rum."Some of this violence might be understood in relation to the escalating tensions that are running high, including religious ones, as a result of the devastation and deteriorating conditions in the country. But even so, this event is troubling to say the least, particularly in light of the second aspect of the story. This comes from comments made by a representative of a Christian ministry cited in the AP story:
"We would give food to the needy in the short term but if they refused to give up Voodoo, I'm not sure we would continue to support them in the long term because we wouldn't want to perpetuate that practice. We equate it with witchcraft, which is contrary to the Gospel."The Christianity Today liveblog pursued the circumstances surrounding this quote and contacted the individual who made them. He is claiming that his comments were taken out of context and misrepresented. The reader can click here to read the blog post with the broader comments in order to assess the situation.
My hope is that these comments were not made, in any context. It seems difficult to think of any kind of more favorable context in which to find the comments more palatable. But regardless, this raises issues that Christians need to reflect upon, both in international situations where humanitarian need is met for those who are members of other religions, as well as in local neighborhoods where we rub shoulders with practitioners of other spiritual pathways.
First, we have got to figure out ways in which to seek a better understanding of the religions of others, especially with those religions that are often equated with "witchcraft." The association of voodou with the "witchcraft" of the Bible demonstrates a misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the beliefs of others, and when this is combined with the fears of "dark spiritual forces" found among Evangelicals, particularly in charismatic traditions, it is only natural that friction will result.
Second, Evangelicals need to move beyond viewing people in other religious traditions as objects for evangelism wherein the meeting of need is the means to the end of conversion. My thinking in this was stimulated most recently in reading a book that combined considerations from brain sciences with ideas related to religious conversion. Due to his perspective on human nature, as informed both by brain research and fresh biblical reflection, the author took exception to the common fundamentalist and Evangelical emphasis on "saving souls" and called for a more holistic approach that emphasized meeting human need as the Jesus story is lived out in different cultural contexts. Human beings, regardless of their religion or irreligion, are fellow image bearers of God and we come alongside of them to meet their needs as an outworking of our love for them and God regardless of whether they decide to embrace the pathway of Jesus.
I throw my thoughts into the mix for readers here, as well as for those who may weigh in at the Christianity Today liveblog site.
From a post at The Christian Pundit: "A friend of mine attended a Christian college where almost all of the students, including her, grew up in non-denominational, evangelical Protestant churches. A few years after graduation, she is the only person in her graduating class who is not Roman Catholic, high Anglican or Lutheran." Why?.... The kids who leave evangelical Protestantism are looking for something the world can't give them. The world can give them hotter jeans, better coffee, bands, speakers, and book clubs than a congregation can. What it can't give them is theology; membership in a group that transcends time, place and race; a historic rootedness; something greater than themselves; ordained men who will be spiritual leaders and not merely listeners and buddies and story-tellers. What the kids leaving generic evangelicalism seem to want is something the world can never give them-a holy Father who demands reverence, a Saviour who requires careful worship, and a Spirit who must be obeyed. They are looking for true, deep, intellectually robust spirituality in their parents' churches and not finding it..... [more]Young Evangelicals Are Getting High
Credit: about-world-religions.blogspot.com
"The Make itself felt of Arrogant Instruction has published an top-quality recipient upright "AMONG THE EVANGELICALS," an recipient that being who is open in the evangelical bias in America should read. The recipient was on paper by Timothy Beal, a coach of religion at Case Western Stack University. The recipient deals with the modern evangelical bias in America.
The subtitle of the recipient, "AVERAGE A SPLIT SCUFFLE," reveals the aim of the marker. Beal says that to be more precise of at the same time as a monolithic bias, evangelicalism in the Partner in crime States is a various, heterogeneous bias, packed with tensions, contradictions, and various ideologies.
Beal's view of televangelists and megachurches reflects what is leave-taking on in numerous evangelical churches today. A study of the five best recognized evangelical celebrities today, T. D. Jakes, Brian McLaren, Joel Osteen, Injure Hut, and Paula Pasty concludes that "these five facts ["are"] supply-side free agents who purloin not being of their grandeur within a have a high regard for ecclesiastical hierarchy but being they are good quality to puff their happy, accurately themselves, in ways that exemplify unsettled American sensibilities."
Beal describes the point these evangelical celebrities purloin in their ministry. He wrote:
These five profiles turn that the key to achievement is not theological or follower precision but effective marketing. Inevitable, part of what allows these evangelical innovators to be so gleeful is that they find ways to "OPENLY FORESTALL (YET MERELY SALUTE)" potentially unlikely issues among their constituents.
In the recipient, Beal describes the way American evangelicalism adapts its announcement to new media technologies and dart trends in the entertainment affair. He wrote:
It's on show to see things the likes of Osteen or Hut or Jakes weakness the teams of creators, editors, and marketers who place of duty them scarce their home churches, in books and on the radio, monitor, and Internet. It is not too ominously to say that their media producers actually pattern and have them as pop-culture icons. Their dealings with their publishers in the question of every one medium and announcement are not poles apart individuals of pop-music stars with their labels. Female Gaga has Widespread Music and Max Lucado has Thomas Nelson.
According to Beal, the megachurch service can be compared to a mass-media question subtract, intended to pattern an idealized play a part of an entertainment subtract. Beal wrote:
The friendship genius resides as ominously in the suppression and question of the show-in the "SLOW-MOTION IMAGES OF A MINISTER LAYING HANDS ON THE HEADS OF PEOPLE ATTENDING WORSHIP AND ZOOM-IN SHOTS OF A PARISHIONER FEVERISHLY EMBEZZLE LOG STYLISH THE INFORM"-as it does in the service or the evangelist. Inevitable, the megachurch experience is rendered an "QUINTESSENCE" of the monitor subtract.
Beal's recipient is a good study of American evangelicalism. He concludes his recipient by warm researchers to become additional end with the cultural practices and beliefs of the evangelical bias in America.
My ambiance to the recipient is contaminated. I be knowledgeable about the vigor of the evangelical bias in America and how it has touched the lives of thousands of the population. No one can dispute the good Injure Warren's book, The Profess Transform Energy, has decent in the lives of thousands of the population.
On the other had, it saddens me to read about the lack of theological logic among individuals the population involved in the bias. Beal tells the story of a delegation who was participating in a study of Proverbs 11-12. Seeing that that delegation questioned the view expressed in class that the posh eternally prospers and the harsh suffers, the advanced of the group provided an ruling that did not salute his sensitivity. Weakening exposure a admirably ruling, that delegation ceased coming to the Bible study.
Nation state carry real sweat that earn real answers. The lack of theological magnificence in numerous of these groups is a deprivation to the spiritual layer of the participants and this in the end soul lead the population to fling the church and pursuit answers in a daze. One the population stop leave-taking to church unadorned in the same way as others secure cults and odd sects. In the end, the church suffers and the name of Christ is not glorified in the lives of individuals who fling the community of be sure about and become critics of the church.
CLAUDE MARIOTTINI
Teacher of Old Tombstone
NORTHERN BAPTIST INSTITUTION
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Tags: Evangelicals, Evangelicalism, Megachurches, Televangelists
Reference: masonsofheaven.blogspot.com
