Thursday, September 07, 2006

Superstitious Christians

Sitting at the table late tonight I discussed superstitious Christianity with Mizumi. She had just come home around midnight from her long hours as a Home Depot manager in Reading.

I believe in all the experiences of wild mysticism which are found in the Bible - prophets seeings angels and demons, miracles of healing and exorcism, dreams which come from God, and even the trance-like visions such as the Book of Revelation or Ezekiel. Yet I have to ask myself when it is that one passes over from being a practical mystic into the more dangerous realm of being a superstitious Christian kook.

I know superstitious Christian kooks, and in fact have experienced the destructive power they wield when they sit in seats of power.

I tend to believe that superstition in Christianity has some common starting points: 1) a belief in the intrinsic supernatural power of physical items, events, and/or locations, 2) an over exaggeration of the importance of circumstances, 3) a frequency of attributing supernatural sources to mundane events, or 4) an unresonable fear of people involved in occult practices.

I have seen all of these things happen in churches. Are we becoming too superstitious?

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