Pray Not For The Buffaloes

Gadhimai Festival

 Over the next day Hindu’s in Nepal will attend a sacrificial festival to the goddess Gahimai. Up to a half-million animals will be sacrificed to Gadimai who is to believed to grant devotees blessings, healing and power.  This festival wouldn’t draw much attention if it wasn’t for animal rights protest.  Bridget Bardo, writing to the president of Nepal, states "Thousands of terrified buffaloes will have their heads cut off by drunken devotees."

You’d think that in a land of vegetarian’s that this type of festival would be unpopular, yet, according to the Times of India, 75 percent of the  5 million devotees will be from India. Hinduism is not a monolithic religion and with 300 million deities the only similarity in their worldview belief is an underlying superstition and myth.

Animal sacrifice has been around since the days of Cain.  Muslims sacrifice sheep and goats every year at Eid Al Adha, to mark the end the 30 day fast of Ramadan. There was a time when our forefathers were involved in such sacrifices.  How many goats were slaughtered at Passover?  While I don’t condone the Gahimai fesitival, I give my Hindu friends a pass as they live in a world where there are few opportunities to hear about the final sacrifice secured 2,000 years ago at another sacrificial spot called Golgatha.

If one is really concerned about the buffalo in Nepal, may I suggest that they pray and support those of us who work and equip the people in that part of the world, 87% who do not personally know a Christian.  

Be Not Drunk With Wine And Other Things

As I listened to the sermon last week my attention was drawn to “control.”

The scripture is familiar to me, “Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18).  I grew up in a Baptist church and that verse is always used to teach of the evil of alcohol, which is a misinterpretation, but that’s a side issue.  That verse is seldom tied to the preceding verses, which is, “So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do” (15-17). 

People who are controlled by alcohol don’t make wise decisions, they make poor choices.  But booze is not the only thing that controls people and I began thinking about the things that has power over people these days, what is it that controls me? 

This is Thanksgiving week and you can’t think about Thanksgiving without thinking about food.  But for many people food is not just a holiday event, it’s what controls them everyday.  As my dad was fond of saying, “Some people eat to live, other people live to eat.”  Gluttony is an indicator of deeper psychological, emotional and even spiritual problems.  When one is controlled by food they cannot be controlled by the Holy Spirit.  

As the pastor spoke I made a list of things that control thinking, things that so dominate us that we make poor decisions. The Internet (especially Facebook these days), sports, TV, talk radio, music.  None of these things within themselves are wrong, but just like wine, if these things dominate us we run the risk of missing the opportunities that God would have for us if our mind were not cluttered with other things. 

Of course the darker side of alcohol leads to even more serious consequences.  So, too, does other destructive habits, like lust, which leads to pornography and illicit activity; bitterness, which leads to broken relationships; covetousness, which leads to debt; self-loathing, which leads to depression; obesity, which leads to physical breakdown and disease; fear, which leads one to paranoia and disastrous decisions; self-importance, which is another form of self-loathing which draws one away from reliance on God.

One does not have to be a “crackhead,” to be dependent, controlled.  In the days we live the addictions are subtler, but they are just as destructive.  To know the will of God, to make the choices He would like us to make, to seize the opportunities that are before us, we must have a clear mind.  Reining in wasteful habits is the path to clear thinking and being filled with the One who will guide us through a rich and fulfilling life. 

Tattoos, Cowboy Boots, Jeans and Leather

Last week I was in Texas at the Quest Church.  Jim and Meredith started this church about three years ago.  They meet in three metal buildings with two services.  Unique may be an overused word, but it certainly describes Quest. 

Church growth experts focus most of their attention on mass appeal, or the Wal-Mart model.  People who go to contemporary churches are, like Wal-Mart shoppers, looking to find their needs met under one roof.  Usually white, middle class and kids that range from one to eighteen in age, the contemporary church has become the traditional church for much of the evangelical world. 

The Quest is not a Wal-Mart but more like Hills Hardware; it’s not major corp., but boutique.  It’s earthy, blue collar with an edge.  The music is hard rock and/or country and the membership is made up of people who the traditional church will tolerate but not encourage.  The contemporary church will try to guide these people into focus groups and encourage them to attend special seminars on recovery.  While the conventional church will reach out to those who are not typical, it’s always at arms length.

As an anthropologist I am fascinated with symbols as they are indicators of worldview.  Quest people are tattooed, shaved bald, long hair, big hair, leather and jeans.  These symbols scream out that they are not interested in mainstream but longing to find a place where they best fit.  These people are not misfits; they are just more comfortable finding God on a concrete slab floor than a soft carpet.  The one thing I heard over-and-over-again last week was, “If it wasn’t for this church I wouldn’t have found Christ.  This is a place I feel I belong.”  To many of the people of Quest, the traditional/contemporary model of church is religion whereas they are a church. 

Quest has a niche audience, but, then again, probably most churches in the world are primarily niche assemblies.  The niche may be tailored to occupation, families, clans, or an age demographic.  The Wal-Mart model will stock pet food, but not horse feed. The niche church will talk about Jesus, not as much in theological terms but contextually, to the audience in their niche environment. 

In my travels I have been in many different religious cultural environments including cowboy churches, Bakht Singh assemblies, high church Russian Baptists, Indian village house churches, deaf services, African Methodist Episcopalians and with Pokot herdsmen meeting under a tree.  You won’t find many church growth books from these congregations, but, like the Quest, they are a part of that wonderful Body called the CHURCH.  

Moving from COMMUNAL to PERSONAL Faith

It is not uncommon in Indian homes to have a designated place for prayer.  Sometimes it is a small room no bigger than a closet.  My landlady kept idols at the base of her vanity desk that had a little compartment with two doors she would open each morning, light candles and recite prayers.

Muslims don’t have idols, but their concept of a communal faith is rich with ritual as they pray toward Mecca, recite prayers at the mosque or pray at the grave of saints like Nizamuddin Aluyia in Delhi.

What all of these examples represent, as well as countless other expressions of faith in animism, Buddhism and Christianity, is that many of these adherents worship communal god(s).  Prayers to these deities are not personal in nature and the motivation behind their rituals is primarily for protection and blessing.  In some cases their gods are family deities, in other situations their Supreme Being is an ethnic God, i.e., to be Wolof (Senegal) is to be Muslim.

Communal gods have been around since the beginning of time.  It’s true that initially God sought a personal relationship with man when He created Adam and then Eve.  Very soon thereafter, however, man began to worship the Creator as a distant deity that they prayed to in time of war or ritual festivals.  What is interesting about Rachel taking her fathers idols when she married Jacob was that she had an attachment to these family gods (Genesis 31:32-53).  By default, when God made Abraham the “father of many nations,” Jehovah became the communal God of the Jews as well as the collective Allah of Muslims.

One of great challenges in communicating the Gospel to others is explaining a “personal” God who loved each person individually and that He sent His Son to die for their own personal salvation.  It’s easy for many Americans to grasp the concept of the personal God as we see the world as individualists.  Cultures, which are collectivists by nature, have a more difficult time understanding anything but a communal deity.  Perhaps one way to present Christ is through a collectivist mindset.  How does one do that? 

First, recognize that collectivists are multi-individualists.  Though they live their lives in community every person has individual needs, tensions and private thoughts.  Only when the stress of individual consequences becomes a reality will a collectivist be open to a personal God who cares for them individually.

Second, the concept of a personal God is best presented through personal relationships.  A follower of Christ that has built a relationship with non-believers and who models a personal walk with God will have more impact on others more than impersonal methods of evangelism. 

Third, and the most difficult thing to do, move the collectivist toward a personal God without intentionally diminishing the gods of people who they hold as a family protector.  Missionaries make a huge mistake when they try to argue their case by dismissing the faith of others.  Successful evangelism is seldom quick.  To bring people to an understanding of a personal God is often a lifetime process.

Lastly, collectivists must not be pushed to be “extracted” from their community.  Alan Tippett wrote 20 years ago,

"In communal society where the people have an intense awareness of the social group, where the group means social cohesion, security and the perpetuity in an uncertain world, one of the greatest cultural feelings of satisfaction is the idea of belonging, or HAVING A PLACE OF YOUR OWN IN THE GROUP, AND BEING ABLE TO PLAY YOUR OWN SPECIFIC ROLE IN THE GROUP LIFE.  THIS IS WHY IT IS SO TREMENDOUSLY IMPORTANT FOR CONVERTS, WHO COME OUT OF THE PAGAN GROUP, TO FEEL THAT THEY ARE NOT WITHOUT SOME GROUP TO WHICH TO BELONG.  THEY COME OUT OF SOMETHING INTO SOMETHING" (Introduction to Missiology 1987:78).

The challenges of communicating the reality of a personal God to those who view God communally are enormous.  Our role as cross-cultural workers is to be aware of different views and finding the bridges of communication for the Gospel.

Communal God(s)

Okay, I’m putting on my anthropologist hat.  A student in Kenya sent in his project report on one of the tribes in the country.  Describing them as followers of African Traditional Religions he sated, “The people do not have a concept of a personal God but a communal God.”    My mind has been on that theme since then; the difference between having a concept of a personal God, as do Christians, Jews and, to a certain extent, Muslims, and that of those who have a concept of a communal God, such as animists, Hindu’s, cultural Christians and cultural Muslims. 

 Simply stated, a communal concept of deity is that which a collective of individuals believe in a supernatural force, which provides security (from evil, sickness) and blessing (good crops, jobs, children).  These communal deities range from trees in a forest to pictures in homes.  In anthropology, there is an evolution of religion based on economy and education, from those people who are hunter/gathers to those who are literate and technological.

My research interest in the communal God took me to this article in the American Anthropologist (Sanderson, Stephen K. and Wesley W. Roberts - The Evolutionary Forms of the Religious Life: A Cross-Cultural, Quantitative Analysis. Vol. 110, No. 4,  December 2008: 454-46).

Anthony Wallace delineated four types of cult institutions: (1) individualistic, in which individual persons perform their own private rituals; (2) shamanic, in which a part-time religious practitioner (a shaman) performs special rites for others in return for a fee; (3) communal, in which bodies of laypersons collectively perform calendrical and other religious rites; and (4) ecclesiastical, in which there are full-time priests who perform highly specialized rituals before audiences of laypersons. These cult institutions represent a typology of religious evolution.

In relation to these typologies, people’s view of God’s intervention follows:

(1) Absent or unreported, (2) present but not active in human affairs, (3) present and active in human affairs but not concerned with human morality, and (4) present, active in human affairs, and concerned with human morality.

The variable was coded as (1) Shamanic, (2) Communal, (3) Polytheistic, and (4) Monotheistic. We were guided by the following assumptions. A religion is Shamanic when a shaman is the center of most religious practice, a strong belief in animism is present, there are no calendrical rites, and laypersons rely on a shaman as the sole intermediary between themselves and the supernatural. A religion is Communal when laypersons are the center of religious practice and calendrical or other collective rites of some sort are present; although a shaman may be present, there are groups (e.g., kinship groups, age grades, or the whole society) that specialize in acting as a mediator between the people and the supernatural. A religion is Polytheistic when a hierarchically organized priestly class is present to direct laypersons in ritual practices, and the center of worship is a pantheon of distinct gods. Finally, a religion is Monotheistic when a hierarchical priestly class is present to direct laypersons in ritual practices, but there is a belief in a single, all-powerful god, rather than a pantheon of specialized and lesser gods.

Though a communal God may be a foreign concept to most Christians, I will make the case in the next post that many people unwittingly serve a Communal God.  In addition, I will explore what are the implications of this concept as it relates to witness and presentation of the Gospel.  Until then, read Genesis 31:30 –35, about Rachel and her communal gods.