PETER JENSEN: There’s become a great deal more freedom then there used to be decades ago, with mind and spirit stuff; new age religions. All the sort of stuff you see very prominently in book stores.
But there’s also been a large migrant intake into this country from people who haven’t been impacted by Western cynical secularism, but culturally have a strong belief in the afterlife and in supernatural beings; in ghosts and spirits.
And a surprising number of people therefore who are now living in Australia are quite concerned about, and fearful of I think, of this supernatural realm.
BARNEY PORTER: Do you think it also suggests that traditional religion is becoming less relevant to young people?
PETER JENSEN: No. It’s still as relevant as ever, but they think it’s not as relevant; if I can make that cute distinction.
We are actually incurably religious, and we will worship; we will dabble in the supernatural, we will think of these things. And there’s a spiritual vacuum caused when Christianity declines in any way. People search for meaning they search for purpose and of course, they’re worried about the big one – that is death itself.
Funny we never hear references to people “dabbling” in Christianity.
I’m not sure what your point is– I don’t remember anyone using the phrase “dabble in Christianity” but the idea, certainly. Indeed, one of the reasons we need to consistently proclaim the Gospel within the church, why we should “preach to the choir” is that most of us, including me, are prone to dabble. We would rather dabble than commit. We would rather have enough Christianity to be vaguely comforted, without having to actually change anything about our life, or our thinking, without having to let anything else go. Jesus said we would have to let *everything* else go.
We would rather be double-minded.
R. Eric Sawyer
My parish has had four instances of bruhettia (sp?) curses being placed in our Sanctuary in the past few weeks. This is apparently a variant of Santeria, although I can’t google anything up about it. One I knew of was a ring of ashes around the priest’s chair, which is apparently a death curse on Father. The last one involved desecration of the Blessed Sacrament and has led to some changes in security procedures. I’ve been told that finding chicken parts and feathers in the front yard has been going on for some time.
This strikes me as a good sign, if objectively a bad thing. Something good and holy must be going on for people to get riled up enough to fight back. Spiritual warfare, indeed.
There is no such thing as Christian shamanism.
On Christian shamanism — there are Christian witches or people who would call themselves Christopagans and who practice magic. I knew several when I was a Wiccan, before my conversion recently to Anglicanism. Some of them practice a form of shamanism that has more to do with the New Age than with indigenous beliefs. By definition it’s not Christian from a traditional point of view, I’m only saying they think of themselves as Christians who also practice shamanism.
Shamans and Christians hold unreconcilable worldviews. A Christian healer who practices the healing arts using traditional medicines and Christian prayer is still a Christian. A shaman who practices healing arts relies on the spirits and must discover the cause by spiritism. The latter represents a very different worldview. Arturo Vasquez has spoken to this here: http://arturovasquez.wordpress.com/2008/09/29/between-high-theory-and-low-praxis/#comments
I also have written on this here: http://jandyongenesis.blogspot.com/2007/08/shamanic-practice-and-priesthood.html
By definition, as I said, I’m not arguing with you. I’m only saying that there are people who consider themselves Christian and shamanistic at the same time. Others who call themselves Christian and Wiccan at the same time. They’re syncretists who are mostly disapproved of in both camps. And probably aren’t reading this blog or yours or Arturo Vasquez’s. I mention them only as a point of information.