Unpacking Tough Religious Words: An interview with authors Heather Choate Davis and Leann Luchinger

The church has a language problem. 

No, it isn’t because pastors are swearing from the pulpit. The issue here is with words that life long Christians may understand, but many in the unchurched, dechurched, or in-church-but-checked-out culture don’t. Indeed, whether it’s mystification, misunderstanding, or miscommunication, many of us struggle to communicate the good news of the Gospel in our preaching, teaching, and evangelism.

Heather Choate Davis and Leann Luchinger, in their new book Loaded Words: Freeing 12 Hard Bible Words from their Baggage, pay us all a favor by detangling religious words that are difficult for to understand. 

Unpacking words like “repent” and “religion,” the authors help restore truth where popular opinion and perception have threatened righteous reality. We might take their cue and try unloading emotion-laden and negatively charged words that our communities, friends, or family may simply not like to hear, or misunderstand when they do. 

The book is available exclusively on Amazon as an e-book or paperback. Having already spoke at congregations in Washington, the authorial pair will be speaking in the Phoenix area in February and headed to New York in the near future. Check out their website for more information on booking them for your church or organization. 

For now, let’s unpack Loaded Words a bit with an in-depth interview with Davis and Luchinger. 

• How can this book help the local church? 

Davis: With so many outside influences jockeying to define Christianity and its message—and not always thoughtfully or accurately—we’re not just talking about a knowledge gap that needs filling, but a vigorous and intentional reclaiming of original meaning. We hope that pastors will welcome the help with some of this much-needed translation work—both exegetical and cultural—of words that people both inside and outside of the church no longer know the true meaning of anymore.

Luchinger: To paraphrase from the back cover of the book “no one wants to be part of an old mean-sounding religion.” Loaded Words gives “seasoned” believers a new way to think about how to share, and even some words and concepts to use for themselves. For newer believers, Loaded Words can help them unpack some difficult concepts.

• My favorite chapter was “WORDS,” specifically this line: “We live in an era that is reliant on words, but our words are no longer reliable.” Unpack this for us…

Davis: We’ve essentially bankrupted the notion of a man’s word as “sacred.” Thoughtful people of all traditions recognize that this is no way to live. In the wildly popular Toltec spiritual treatise The Four Agreements, the first is “Be impeccable with your word.” Notice the choice of the word impeccable, which shares the Latin root pecco with the word sin. 

Luchinger: Semantic change/shift/drift is the more technical way to describe a word that has completely changed it’s meaning from the original definition and use. In the culture we batter words around, using, misusing, and misappropriating them because of coolness factors, or desire to have something (at least the same title) that other people have. If being “bad” is suddenly good, well then call me “bad” – or so it seems. Church words, unfortunately, seem to move in the opposite way – from good to bad. And sadly, it is the words of Christians themselves that, many times, do the most damage. These words that are meant to have a depth of meaning and emotion, offers of explanation and grace, are losing their definitions. Semantically shifting in the wrong direction. We Christians have to reclaim the Christian conversation, the Christian words, the expressions of our faith. 

• Which was your favorite chapter? Why? 

Davis: Ultimately, my favorite chapter is whichever one presents the teachings of Jesus in such a way that someone puts down the book and goes, “Ohhhhhh.” 

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Author Heather Choate Davis shares how, "[w]e are all bombarded with words/messages from culture" and some of them need unpacking and reloading. 

But, I am also fond of some of the big picture thinking put forth in the chapter on “Satan.” We use a famous scene from the movie The Devil Wears Prada to tap into the idea of “this stuff,” and how we actually need to take “this stuff” — both Jesus and His adversary— seriously. We note how ironic it is that the culture embraces psychics and tarot card readings and all forms of skull paraphernalia, but if you tell them that Satan is real they’ll just howl with laughter. I think this chapter gives people some serious food for thought about “this stuff.”

Luchinger: Given the current state of the “Church,” I think this word could be particularly helpful for two reasons: 1) those inside the church could perhaps use an attitude adjustment about what it means to be God’s gathered people. A family, filled with flawed souls, with plank-filled eyes, with pain and distress, and bad days – just like the people who share our sir names; 2) for those inside and outside the church it is a reminder that we don’t need four perfect walls to be a church. We can worship in buildings and homes, in coffee shop churches and college dorms – it is the Word and Sacraments, the body of believers, the gathering of people that make the church – not the bricks and mortar.

• Explain the way you use pop-culture references in the book…

Davis: We are all bombarded with words/messages from culture. Even if a pastor knocks it out of the park on Sunday, that brief message will likely have been drowned out in a day or two by news, work, social media, noisy children, and a thousand competing interests. The teachings of Jesus are simply not the dominant voice in the culture, but we know that He is present in all ways, in all settings, at all times through His Word and His people. To me it all comes down to the lesson of Pentecost, “that each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.” If pop culture is the native language of many people today, then we who seek to connect need to speak in their native tongue. If referencing Family Guy, Game of Thrones, or Fifty Shades of Grey, helps people understand the message of grace in a new way this does not diminish the Gospel, but rather, makes good on its purpose. 

• Wittgenstein, the famous philosophic proponent of language-game theory, argued that varying types and forms of language have different rules, which in turn determine what is meaningful. Outside of a language game a proposition or word meaning is meaningless. Wittgenstein proposed that the meaning of a word depends on its content and the rules of that context. Thus, for Wittgenstein, religious language is confessional, something that someone believes or feels, rather than consisting of claims to truth. Comment on this in light of your work…

Luchinger: I would love to understand where Wittgenstein draws the line between feeling and truth. It appears, based on your description, that feelings have no bearing on truth. Thus love, for him, could not exist because it is a feeling. It reminds me a bit of Lois Lowry’s book The Giver. In this utopian society, feelings were of no use – precision in language was modeled, practiced, and expected. The Giver, the wisest man in this society, bore the burden of holding all historic memories that might cause emotion – protecting the people it would seem, from disruptive truths. Predictably, this utopian notion eventually fell apart. As the saying goes, “better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.” Emotions give truth its vigor.

• What words did you consider and not include? Any that you thought of later or have been told you should have included? 

Davis: People kept saying “spiritual,” but I was always adamant that spiritual is not a loaded word. Spiritual is a softball word that we’ve come to use in the culture to mean we aren’t opposed to the idea of some sort of supernatural power, and it could be God, and yes, we would certainly want him on our side if it came to that, but we don’t believe we should define it too rigidly, and we don’t really practice or pursue it in any significant way. No one cringes when you use the word spiritual, which is why people use it. When we talked to pastors early on they all assumed we were going to write about words like “sanctification” and “justification” but those aren’t loaded words either. No one in the culture has any idea what those words are so they certainly don’t cause them any grief or confusion. 

• Give me an example of how you unload words in daily life…

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Leann Luchinger reflects that, "We Christians have to reclaim the Christian conversation, the Christian words, the expressions of our faith."

Davis: The Loaded Word that I unpack for people most often is Sin, because that’s what I did my thesis on. On Homo Incurvatus in Se—Man Turned in on Himself—as and entry point for the discussion of sin in the 21st Century. When I speak on the subject, I use my hands a lot to describe how we get when we are turned in on ourselves and how this connects to our modern day enslavements—anxiety, depression, a disordered relationship to technology, a broken sense of vocation/purpose. I can see people in the audience physically mirroring what I’m doing, and so I know the ideas are really resonating with them in a profound way. Icktank Press is actually publishing the thesis work now so it can be more readily available to people. Man Turned in on Himself: Understanding Sin in the 21st Century will be out by the first of the year. 

Luchinger: I recently spoke for a mom’s group and connected the time and care we put into teaching our children about our favorite sports teams to the time and care we need to give to their Christian faith. When our children are small, we dress them in jerseys and teach them to join us on the couch for the “big game.” We teach them about field positions, top players, strategy, who to root for and who to boo. We discuss and debate and learn and grow in sports appreciation. And as our children grow, they “own” their own version of fanaticism for the team. They root for the family team, they debate with their friends, decide which strategies and players they like best. Isn’t this how it should be with Christianity? When they are young we nurture and teach, as they grow we dialogue, debate and discuss – all so that our children can go out into the world and “own” their faith.

• How did working together as co-authors make this book better? What were some of the challenges? 

Davis: The strength in the book is absolutely rooted in the partnership and the hundreds of hours of conversations we’ve had about these words, orthodox theology, and the challenges of translation/communication. We aimed to put forth positions that were “clean” theologically, but also “clean” of connection to any particular political/social agenda. We both feel that this type of “noise” has been highly detrimental to the faith. 

Luchinger: Heather and I both have our specialties – or gifting – in the area of research and writing. We like to explain it this way: “Heather is the Poet, Leann is the Farmer.” I like to dig, and uncover, and mine for the original context and meaning of the words. The research drives me. Once I was satisfied that I had a strong sense of a word, or at least a good notion of how thoughtful theologians were unpacking the meaning, I would send my research to Heather and we would dialogue about threads and directions. Sometimes when things got sticky, or I thought we’d lost our way, I would go back to research a bit more to see if I could find just the right theological explanation or phrase to help us out. It is interesting, every time we really got stuck or disagreed about direction, the chapters seemed to get better.

Being an Apostolic fashionista

*A guest post from Megan Geiger. 

Thank God for winter.

Summer in Florida is not the easiest time to be Apostolic. With temperatures in the high 90’s and enough humidity to make the mosquitoes grumpy, the daily task of choosing an outfit becomes something of a test of ingenuity. 

As an Apostolic Pentecostal, I belong to a group of believers that adheres to standards of dress that promote modesty, based on scriptural interpretations of covering with a little Bible belt flavor and fashion thrown in. That means that my body is covered from my knees to my neck to the middle of my bicep in every season, no matter the heat index.

Today’s fashion world and shopping scene present some challenges to the Apostolic girl looking for modest clothing. Outfits are often feats of layering, pieced together from store-bought articles that would be considered immodest by themselves. Knee-length pencil skirts are often too tight to be worn alone, but are perfect for lengthening the hem of a cocktail dress that only falls to mid-thigh, sleeveless tops are only wearable under jackets or as a way to raise the neckline of another shirt, and thin, long-sleeved undershirts are worth their weight in platinum as all-purpose coverage under sleeveless dresses, tank-tops, and sheer materials. On any given day an Apostolic girl may leave her house wearing two or three tops and multiple skirts (never pants, by the way, as those are considered to be “the apparel of a man”). 

A solution to this problem of overdressing would be to revert to making our own clothing, sewing modest pieces from a single piece of fabric and leaving the layers for the snowbirds. But for us, an essential part of living our Christian walk “in the world but not of the world” is looking modestly stylish, approachable, and even attractive. It simply won’t do to just walk away from modern fashion and resort to homemade gingham shifts; there’s a great feeling of accomplishment that comes with taking a “worldly” aesthetic and turning it into something holy, and even haute.

That’s not to say that our style choices allow us to blend in. On the contrary, we’re supposed to stick out; as evangelicals with a world to save, the way we style our bodies is sometimes our greatest missionary resource, opening doors for non-threatening conversations with strangers. A big part of that is the hair. 

Oh, the hair. 

Based on several verses, 1 Corinthians 11 adjures women to enter sacred spaces with their heads covered and also say that long hair is a glory for females. The majority of Apostolic women choose to leave their hair uncut. While hair length depends largely on genetics and diet, many women sport tresses that fall well past their waists, some with locks that drag the ground, a living rebuttal to the myth that split ends prevent growth. For many of us, our hair is a canvas for artistic expression, a marker of our identity. 

And let me tell you, we’ve gotten good at fixin’ it. 

Anyone who believes that hair teasing died with the 1980’s has never set foot in an Apostolic rally or convention. While the days of using mini cereal boxes and paper towel rolls as structural aids to support massive beehive ‘dos are gone, big hair has never fallen out of vogue completely. Each stylist has her own set of tools and tricks to use in sculpting her Sunday silhouette. Even loyalty to particular brands of hairspray, mousse, bobby pins, clips, and volumizing products is fierce. At important events, like national conferences, women can expect to spend anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour on their hairdos, rendering striking results. Styles vary from couture, asymmetrical constructions of spirals and braids to slightly more tame arrangements that resemble something from a wedding magazine or a prom picture. Even the most ornate styles are tested before service to make sure they will stay in place throughout the vigorous worship that accompanies Pentecostal devotion; bobby pins make mean shrapnel if flung with enough speed during a good “shout song.” However, it’s expected that we’ll all leave service looking a little rough, since worship isn’t about looking pretty and the hair and clothes are less about looking good and more about being a part of the community.

To be honest, a well-layered outfit and a well-coiffed hairdo has little to do with piety and more to do with identity. It would be easy to adhere to our standards of modesty without bothering so much with fashion, and some ladies do choose to stick to more low-maintenance styles. Still, for plenty of young women, experiments in Apostolic fashion are a way to stay separated from ‘the World’ while remaining tied in to a larger community of practitioners. It’s a marker of belonging, and a common aesthetic that we can be proud of, despite feeling different in the context of mainstream American culture.

All of us Apostolic girls have at some point lived the following scenario: a familiar silhouette catches my eye in a crowded mall or at a theme park. The woman walking towards me is wearing a skirt that falls well past her knee, a long-sleeved shirt, and a contrasting camisole that covers her chest nearly to her collarbone, despite the heat of the day. I quickly check her wrists and ears for jewelry; there is none. Another covert sweep confirms that she isn’t wearing any noticeable makeup. A slightly too-ornate bun at the back of her neck seals the deal; she’s one of us. If our eyes meet, we exchange a quick smile and perhaps a small wave.

Maybe it’s a sign of solidarity, of letting each other know that we’re not alone in the struggle to be different from the norm. Or maybe it’s just an appreciation of something in others that we see in ourselves. The Pentecostal “Namaste.” 

Either way, it’s assurance for each of us that our culture is being preserved and promoted, and that our distinctiveness has neither been swallowed up by worldly fashions nor succumbed to dowdiness. It reminds us that our bodies are the billboards of our faith. Even during long-sleeved Florida summers, it’s something we prize. 

*Thanks to Megan Geiger for her guest post. Megan is a fellow graduate student at University of Florida and received her B.A. in Spanish with a dual minor in Anthropology and English Literature from the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University, where she was chosen as the Stan and Renee Wimberly Scholar for the class of 2014. Her undergraduate thesis focused on the changes in the social discourses present in an archive of sermons from a Pentecostal church, and she aims to continue in that vein of research during her time in the Master’s program. Her other research interests include Pentecostalism and immigration, Pentecostalism in Latin America, American religious history, and the role of women in Christian fundamentalism. She is an active member of the United Pentecostal Church, International.

*This post is also available at Faith Goes Pop with Read the Spirit and Sacred Duty with Houston Belief. 

The Church's language problem

The church has a language problem.

No, it isn’t because pastors are swearing from the pulpit. The issue here is with words that lifelong Christians may understand, but many in the unchurched, dechurched or in-church-but-checked-out culture don’t.

Take for example a recent exchange on Twitter between Pope Francis and an atheist.

Pope Francis: Advent is a journey towards Bethlehem. May we let ourselves be drawn by the light of the God made man. 

Atheist: Ummm…I read this like 5 times. What in the world does it mean?!?! #Religion is #awkward. 

*Read the rest of the post on "the three ways the church can better communicate with culture." 

An Epically Sacred Thanksgiving

In the U.S., Thanksgiving is a sacred meal. It can also be an EPIC meal. 

At least for this not-so-Jewish, Jewish guy named Harley Morenstein.

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Harley is the ring leader of the internet sensation turned FYI reality TV show, "Epic Meal Time." The goal with Epic Meal Time? Craft extremely high-calorie meals, preferably with an over abundance of meat products, especially bacon. Epic Meal Time has taken on just about every challenge, from a Christmas meat house to a fast-food lasagna. What about Thanksgiving you ask? 

Their menu from a couple years ago include a turkey, duck, chicken, cornish hen, quail amalgamation wrapped in bacon and placed inside a roasted pig (that's a bird inside a bird inside a bird inside a bird inside a bird inside a pig, for those wondering) with bacon croissant stuffing. It rang in around 80,000 calories. This year, they made a "Maize Dog" appetizer that involved duck and venison sausage (aka "Pilgrim Meat Log") deep fried in corn batter. Voila, instead of a "corn dog," you got a "maize dog." Happy Epic Thanksgiving. 

In the process of creating such beautiful Thanksgiving mash-up meals, the boys did do some homework about the menu at the first Thanksgiving. Which raises the question — just what did the first Thanksgiving meal include? 

Robert Tracy McKenzie, in his veil lifting work The First Thanksgiving: What the Real Story Tells Us About Loving God and Learning from History, shatters a lot of misconceptions about what the first Thanksgiving was really all about. 

*Read Stephanie Fenton's history-packed article on Thanksgiving traditions HERE.

One of McKenzie's contributions to setting the Thanksgiving record straight, and tenderizing some sacred cows (perhaps sacred turkeys) along the way, is when he goes over the menu that first Thanksgiving. 

McKenzie wrote, "almost nothing we associate with a traditional Thanksgiving meal would have been on the menu." While wild turkey was perhaps on the menu, most likely duck, goose, and venison got on there too. On the side the Pilgrims may have added fish, mussels, and clams from the frothy seas and the traditional Thanksgiving eel fresh caught from local tributaries. Trimmings would have included Indian corn (succotash mashed), collard greens, parsnips, turnips, carrots, onions, spinach, and cabbage. Sadly, there would have been no sweet potatoes (and certainly no marshmallows or brown sugar), no cranberry sauce, and (aghast!) no pumpkin pie.

Thus, as McKenzie concluded, those striving for tradition these days should serve turnips and eels this Thanksgiving. I guarantee you Martha Stewart will not have a recipe for "Mom's Favorite Thanksgiving Eel."

What McKenzie did not talk about was the very sacred nature of some of these foods for the indigenous peoples of the Americas, including the Wampanoag. Too often, the story of the first Thanksgiving in 1621 is told solely from the Pilgrim's point of view, and when the Wampanoag are included, it is usually in a brief or distorted way.

While we may appreciate how Thanksgiving came to a founding story in America's conception of its manifest divine history and of the American civil religion, what of the sacred intimations of that 1621 meal "facing east from Indian country?" (Richter, 2001)

For the indigenous peoples of the Americas, cosmology came from the ground up. Cosmogonies and sacred myths were marked in the ground and various tribes understood their people as emerging from the earth. Concomitantly the indigenous peoples of the Americas shared a common philosophy that respected nature and its cycle (as hunter-gatherers and agriculturalists this makes sense), believed in using and respecting the bounty of land and sea so that it was "preserved for the seventh generation of the unborn," and held to giving thanks to the spirits for everything they were able to farm, collect, and hunt. 

No wonder then that many foods became sacred to indigenous people of the Americas.  As the peoples harvested corn, beans, squash, avocados, cotton, and chilies each of these plant were believed to be "imbued with sacred powers and came to play important roles in the mythology, calendar, ritual, costumes, ancestor worship, and performances" of many indigenous religions (Carrasco, 2014). In North America, the foods considered sacred were animal foods, rich in fat. According to Beverly Hungry Wolf, pemmican made with berries “was used by the Horns Society for their sacred meal of communion.” Boiled tongue was an ancient delicacy, served as the food of communion at the Sun Dance. A blood soup, made from a mixture of blood and corn flour cooked in broth, was used as a sacred meal during the nighttime Holy Smoke ceremonies and bear fat was central to strength for warriors before battle. 

Most likely you won't be serving blood soup, bear, turnip, eel or sacred beans this Thanksgiving. Still, many of the foods on your plate have been considered sacred at one time or another. Here is a breakdown of the sacred nature of your Thanksgiving fare. So, as you give thanks, to whatever god, power, or person you prefer, remember just how sacred and epic of a meal you are about to enjoy. Happy Thanksgiving! 

Turkey 

Not only do some Native American tribes view the turkey as a symbol of abundance and fertility, but wild turkeys were sacrificial guests of honor in fertility and thanksgiving ceremonies. To this day,  Creek tribes still practice the turkey dance during its annual fire festivals. Down south, the turkey was thought to be sacred to ancient Mexican cultures.  Aztecs, Mayans, and Toltecs viewed the turkey as a "jeweled bird" and also referred to it as the "Great Xolotl." Elsewhere, in South Africa, turkeys are used in sanghoma ceremonies. 

Stuffing (apples)

Beyond being associated with 'the Forbidden Fruit' of the Garden of Eden (most likely a pomegranate, by the way), the apple has long represented eternal life, resurrection, and reproduction. From the Romans to the Druids to modern day pagans, apples are thought to be a regenerative source of spiritual power and able to ward off evil spirits and demons. 

Deviled Eggs

Haven't you wondered where the "Deviled" name came from? Yes, these are sinfully delicious (at least when my mom makes them), but they are known as "Deviled" because the word "devil" came to be applied to spicy, highly seasoned, dishes and foods starting in 1786. The spiciness was associated with the heat of hell and some people took this so seriously that at some church potlucks in the Midwest U.S. these devilish delicacies are renamed "angel eggs." It just doesn't have the same ring, does it? 

Corn

To the native tribes of the Eastern and Southwestern U.S., "corn was the all-nourishing sacred food, the subject of innumerable legends, and the central theme of many rituals." (Erdoes and Ortiz, 1984) The Penobscot people have a revered story of "the Corn Mother" and the Hopi say, "Moing'iima makes corn, everything grows on his body." 

In Mesoamerica, natives compared the creation of human life with the creation of corn. Indeed, the Maya believed that the human body was composed of white and yellow corn.

Sweet potato

Although this sweet delicacy was not at the original Thanksgiving and was not introduced to North America until much later, the sweet potato (known as kumara) is an important food in the cosmology of the Maori people of New Zealand (Aotearoa). It is believed that the umara was originally cultivated in the sky by the star Whanui or the god Maru, cousin of Maui. Carefully revered by the Maori because of its sacred genesis, there were ceremonies and rites to be observed if the kumara gods (stone statues set by tuber plots) were to watch over the crop and care for it. 

Pumpkin Pie

While the flaky pie crust may be heavenly and the whip cream a sweet delight, pumpkin is a sacred food for many. It is used as a sacred offering to Oshun in Santeria and other Yoruba derived practices of the Caribbean and Latin America. It is said that pumpkin seeds, because of their "waste not" nature are considered a delicacy by the Orisha who reigns over love, intimacy, beauty, marriage, wealth, and diplomacy. Sometimes you may even see pumpkins set at shrines dedicated to Our Lady of Charity, who represents Oshun in Santeria infused Catholicism in the Caribbean. 

Of course, you may have also heard of the divine intimations and religious symbolism behind Linus' unwavering devotion to The Great Pumpkin in the peanuts special. 

Cranberry sauce

Beyond being protected as "sacrosanct" on my Thanksgiving tales, cranberries (associated with crane birds) represented fidelity in China and Japan. Yet, it is the Hartung people of North America and a small, but faithful band, of "Cranlog" devotees who show the most reverence to this sacred Thanksgiving tradition. As one devotee sang, "Hark, the heavens open and sing the joys of Cranlog!" 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

*Follow Ken for more on religion, food, culture, and #FaithGoesPop

Stripper Spirituality

Ever wondered what spirituality is like for a stripper? Maybe, maybe not. But I am still willing to bet you'd be interested in the ins and outs of "stripper theology." 

In my newest post at #FaithGoesPop, I explore what theology and lived religion looks like for strippers. Drawing from both public comments, and an interview, with three strippers, past and present, who reflected on their work in New Orleans and Orange County, CA I relate stripper theology, as such, to a wider trend in American religion. 

Read more here or follow me @kchitwood for more #FaithGoesPop

This is what you get when you mix Ylvis with Gangnam Style

Seriously, there is nothing religious about this at all, but I'm pretty sure this video is going to gain a cult following really quick. 

There simply are not words to describe what happens in this video, but your life will never be the same after this.

Enjoy? 

The problem with American Muslims

The problem with American Muslims is not, necessarily, that they want to enforce the shari’ah in the U.S. Nor is it that Islam is an inherently violent religion or that Muslims in the U.S. are some sort of secret "fifth column" lurking in our midst. It is not even that Muslims are not vocal enough in denouncing acts of terror perpetrated in the name of their faith. 

No, the problem with American Muslims is not their complicity in violence, their silence during crisis issues, or their religion in and of itself. 

Instead the problem with, or rather for, American Muslims are the categories and conceptions, from within and without, that are forced upon them and within which they are required to forge their identity, and make sense of the world, according to their faith. 

What are these categories and concepts? As Michael Muhamad Knight shared at the University of Florida last month, “American Islam is still fighting for its space and contesting false dichotomies of authenticity on all sides.” On one side, American Muslims are fighting to be considered truly “American” by the country they call home. On the other, they are struggling to be considered genuinely “Muslim” as they work out how to submit to God and country, knowing full well that they are shaped by the context in which they live.  

Furthermore, Muslims are constantly barraged with questions that force them, as individuals or as minority communities, to answer for every word spoken or every deed done in the name of their faith. Their responses immediately categorize them as either violent or peaceable, moderate or extremist, fundamentalist or progressive when, in reality, what Islam is to the people who believe and practice it is shaped by their own personal experiences, the historical thrust of their faith, their current context, and an interplay and tension with the global umma (Muslim community). In a word, there are numerous Islams — structurally and interpersonally. Thus, it is unfair of outsiders (or insiders for that matter) to point the finger at Muslims and demand a response for where they stand on major crises and for their response to be gauged as authentic or not, representative or not, Muslim or not, moderate or not, American or not, violent or not, fundamentalist or not, etc. 

Indeed, it also unfair of us to do so without concomitantly interrogating our own philosophy or religion’s history, words, deeds, and present posture on such issues. 

Abdullah’i An-Naim, the Chandler Professor of Law at Emory University and an activist engaged in human rights issues, Islam, and cross-cultural crises spoke to this topic in a convincing manner last week at the University of Florida in conjunction with its Center for Global Islamic Studies.

An-Naim argued that “religious identity cannot be framed by fixed modalities” such as the ones noted above. Especially not in progressive, modern, societies such as the U.S. 

Why? Contending that Islamicity is fluid, An-Naim posited that Muslims are constantly contesting and remolding what it means to be Muslim given their current context, geo-political trends, philosophical currents, and personal experiences. Unfortunately, he intimated, too often this debate, both internal and external, is overpowered by colonial discourses still shaped by former, or present, imperial powers (implicating the U.S. here and its continual involvement in the affairs of Muslim nations for its own ends). 

An-Naim even critiqued post-colonial confabulations, saying that while this discourse was, and is, crucial to the individual and collective understanding of Muslims in the modern world, Muslims must move beyond allowing colonial powers (and their concepts and categories) to define who they are or who they could be. 

Looping back to where we started, colonial forces continue to compel Muslims to justify and explain their viability as Muslims (or Americans, peaceable people, etc.) according to colonial discourse, not Muslim conceptualizations of what it means to be Muslim.

This is why al-Dawla al-Islamiyya (a.k.a. ISIS, ISIL, IS) is so compelling to many young Muslims seeking out an identity in a Westernized, globalized, and secularized world. Feeling isolated and de-centered, many Muslims see in ISIS an opportunity to establish Islamic sovereignty along Muslim lines and to buck colonial categories and constrictions.  

In place of the Islamist, post-Islamist, Salafist, or jihadist post-colonial projects An-Naim proposes a “past-colonial” program that serves as an alternative Muslim vision that encourages tolerant public space and ample room for dissent, discussion, disbelief, and dialogue. 

To do this, An-Naim argued, Muslims must come to terms with the post-colonial and legitimize and indigenize its concepts and imperatives in a vividly Muslim way so that they can uphold them as their own and not just as a matter of course or according to colonial philosophies. 

Novelly, An-Naim suggested that the shari’ah is integral to this process of re-engaging Islamic agency in defining what it means to be Muslim in the modern world.

I ask you, in this moment, to suspend your preconceptions of the shari’ah and listen to An-Naim’s argumentation. From his perspective, the shari’ah is not a fixed institution, that it has no moment of foundation, nor is it internally or eternally consistent. Instead, he posits, the shari’ah is an evolving process of establishing Islamic law according to intergenerational consensus that seeks to make Islamic law immediately relevant to the formation of past-colonial institutions and spaces in countries where Muslims are either majorities or minorities. This means that, for An-Naim, the shari’ah cannot be enacted as a state law because, by its very nature, it denies formulaic notions in that it constantly needs to adapt to new contexts through constant consultation among numerous Muslim, and non-Muslim, constituencies. 

Certainly, An-Naim’s proposals are revolutionary for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. We are not accustomed, or at times comfortable, with this type of talk. 

The key here, to simplify his argument a bit, is Muslim agency in defining what it means to be Muslim and live in the modern world, as either a majority or minority. 

Still, I inquired of him that night, what is the role of non-Muslims (like myself) and scholars, or interested parties, in changing the conversation and creating spaces for Muslim agencies in this discourse? 

An-Naim suggested that Muslims and non-Muslims work hard at creating solidarities across religious boundaries and that non-Muslims stridently commit to not stripping Muslims of their right to decide what it means to be Muslim. 

He had this great quote for those of us in “the ivory tower of academia” that is not only applicable in this discussion, but in many areas of public dialogue and activism. He said, “academics are not just academics; they are humans too. Scholarship can never be neutral. Our feigned neutrality is in itself a position in favor of maintaining the status quo" (Islamophobia, violence enacted in the name of Islam). He continued, "we should engage this topic from our humanity and take a stance conditioned by our positioning, advocating for a change of the status quo and the need to engage in a past-colonial discourse.” 

In this solidarity and active dialouge, Muslims will need to deconstruct (and reconstruct) what it means to be Muslim and non-Muslims, especially those in the majority (in my case the U.S. as state power and Christianity as dominant religion) need to deconstruct, and reconstruct, what it means to be a hegemonic power and political force. 

Practically, where can you (myself included) begin? First, inform yourself. Take a position to correct the problematic approach we have toward the Muslim world, which, I would argue, is as much part of our American, and global human, story. Although we may pray to a different God or come from a different historico-cultural context, we share in our humanity and this must be our starting point for understanding and dialogue — not ignorant judgement, essentializing or “othering” Muslims by their very nature. 

Second, we must permit that Muslims may be changing the narrative in their own way and in a language and form we do not recognize as progressive. We should practice forbearance and trust that, from a Muslim point of view, that progress is happening. We cannot control it or coerce it according to our categories. While this may be a scary, or frustrating, proposition it is the most effective in the long run. Bombs, a barrage of insinuating questions, or anti-Muslim sentiment does not work. All it does it carve out space for Muslim post-colonial movements that set themselves up in the “clash of civilizations” (Islam v. the West) framework (e.g. ISIS, al-Qaeda, etc.). 

Informing ourselves and creating this space will involve reading, learning, creating friendships with Muslims, taking part in interfaith peacemaking, and bearing with others in patience, love, and hope. 

We cannot do nothing. While we may opine that Muslims continue to remain silent (even though they are not) or that the Qur’an says this or that (even though “texts are by themselves silent” [Michael Lambek] and require active interpretation) we cannot allow others’ inaction or failure justify our own. 

Instead, we must do what we can to create a space, specifically within the U.S., where Muslims can freely, openly, and by their own agency, determine what it means to be an American Muslim in the contemporary scene.

Muslim Brotherhoodness: Understanding the rise of the MB & Islamism in Egypt & Beyond

In Syria, the Muslim Brotherhood finds itself caught between ISIS on one side and the regime of Bashar al-Assad on the other. Receiving support from Europe it hopes to be part of a regime change and a moderating force in Islamist political restructuring following the end of the civil war. Meanwhile, in Egypt - the birthplace of the Brotherhood - the organization finds itself outlawed again and struggling to even claim a place under the current Abdel Fattah el-Sisi regime.

Whether as a majority in places like Tunisia, Morocco, and Turkey or minority in countries such as Iraq, Egypt, and Palestine how does Islamism continue to survive, and thrive, in the wake of significant political currents throughout the Muslim world? How does its historical context inform its present manifestations? 

Last week I was able to present on the rise of Islamism through the lens of the Muslim Brotherhood and its ilk. In the presentation I covered the historical context within which Islamism first emerged at the turn of the 20th-century, charted the ideological contours of Islamism's founders (principally al-Banna, Mawdudi, & Sayyid Qutb), and discussed the present state of Islamism in light of recent political turnover as a result of the various uprisings of the Arab Spring from 2011-2012. 

The content comes directly from Peter Mandaville's tome Global Political Islam. However, I also added some of my own commentary, critique, and additional input taking into account recent developments over the last few years (most importantly, the Arab Spring). 

*Follow @Kchitwood for more on religion & culture

This presentation, entitled, "Islamism on the Rise!" plays off of important and relevant headlines from Syria, Iraq, and Egypt and would be of interest to anyone wanting to understand Islamic political bodies and get a grasp of the historical context at play in current political discourse throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and indeed, throughout the Islamic world. 

You can follow along with the presentation HERE and listen below. 

I encourage you to consider the questions we discussed in class and perhaps comment below:

• What are the overarching similarities between the various ideologies, forms, and political programs of the actors we discussed? What are the key differences? 
• Does the Muslim Brotherhood, and its ilk, "speak for Islam?" Or even more specifically, does the MB speak for "Islamism?"
• In The Failure of Political Islam, Olivier Roy argues that far from being rooted in the Islamic scholarly tradition, political Islam is a reactionary movement whose ideological philosophy is rooted in Marxism, Third Worldism, & the broader revolutionary programs of the 50s, 60s and 70s. From what you heard, do you agree? Disagree? Why? 
• Discuss Islamism as a term following the events of The Arab Spring & the current crisis concerning Al-Dawla Al-Islamiyya (aka IS, ISIL, ISIS). Is Islamism still relevant? Have entered, as many have recently argued, a stage of post-Islamism adapting to broader calls for democracy, rights, and societal pluralism? How can Islamism survive and thrive in such a context? 

Nik Wallenda walks the tightrope with Jesus & Joel Osteen

Did you see it? A week ago today, Nik Wallenda made history walking two tightropes, one with a world-record setting incline, the other blindfolded, both without a safety-net or tether, between skyscrapers in Chicago.

The stunt showed live on Discovery Channel Sunday night, being beamed abroad to more than 200 countries. The exploit was, in a word, mesmerizing…almost miraculous.

Many Wallenda fans, and even the casual viewer, readily appreciate the strength, focus, and mental fortitude that Wallenda must hone in order to complete such a feat. Wallenda credits his ability to perform such stunts to prayer and faith, to stepping out on the tightrope and with his eyes focused not only on the wire below him, but his God above. 

To help him focus, he usually rallies right before the exploit with his favorite pastor - Joel Osteen. 

*See more at #FaithGoesPop with Read the Spirit

What religious bumper stickers say about you...

I was out driving the other day and I happened upon religion just over the hood of my car.

“I believe.”

In black and bold on yellow background. What did Ms. White Accord believe in?

In this case, the transubstantiation of Holy Communion. Quite a statement for a bumper!

Whether sitting at a traffic light, stuck in gridlock or zooming along the freeway, commuters’ eyes are often caught by what is displayed on other vehicles. Sometimes it’s a decal demonstrating parental pride for a child’s achievement, a custom plate for dog lovers or a decal displaying a witty aphorism.

Other times bumper stickers can exhibit more divine intimations, as was the case above.

*See more at #FaithGoesPop

From Transaction to Transfiguration

If you're involved in ministry, in a professional or lay sense, this post is for you. 

In it, I take you from supermarkets to your inner spiritual life to illustrate the ways in which we can move from a ministry defined by cold exchange to deep change, both for us and those we come in contact with. 

So read on, contemplate, connect and begin on a "trajectory of transfiguration."

*Read the post at FiveTwo.com 

I'm going to Israel, you should come too!

Pilgrimage. History. Oath. The food. Solidarity. The sights. Adventure. Religious intimations. 

There are may reasons that people embark on a journey to "the Holy Land" — to Israel. There are also many reasons that people do not — danger, conflict, persecution. 

I am going to Israel, Palestine, and Jordan, from May 22 - June 3, 2015 and I want you to come with me. For me, it is an opportunity to travel with friends (new and old) and combine a tour experience with biblical education, devotional moments, and pertinent discussions about conflict and peace.

Israel and various sites in Palestine are holy to many, There are multiple motivations and many ways in which Jews, Muslims, Christians, and secular individuals hold the land, the monuments, and the culture in honor. 

For Christians in particular, it is an honor and opportunity to step into the land of Scripture and see, touch, taste, and hear the environment from which their faith emerged and which, in many ways, continues to shape their religion today. 

Educon Travel provides you with the opportunity to experience the cultures, art and history of the world in the most dynamic and inspirational ways imaginable. The trips are sometimes called pilgrimages, others call them faith-based tours, still others call them Bible tours or Christian tours. Regardless what title one gives them, however, their tours give you an inspirational, life-experience you’ll never forget! 

This tour is particularly exciting for me, as I get to take part in the teaching and devotions and explore the land, its people, and culture with folks like you. 

So, what are the details? Here is our TOUR SUMMARY:

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While I can't promise Rhys Davies, Sean Connery, and Harrison Ford will, or will not, be on this trip you can't risk not being able to hang with these dudes on a horse in front of the treasury at Petra, Jordan. Just sayin'

• Days 1-5 Starting out from Tel Aviv, we’ll visit Jaffa, where St. Peter raised Tabitha from the dead, and Mt. Carmel, where Elijah challenged the false prophets. We’ll go to Megiddo, Jezreel and Nazareth, and we’ll celebrate the institution of marriage in Cana. We’ll visit Mt. of Beatitudes along with the other great sites of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. We’ll also explore Mt. Transfiguration, Tel Dan and Caesarea Philippi too. 
• Days 6-7 On our way to Jordan we’ll see the great Old Testament sites, Jericho and Beit She’an. In Jordan, we’ll celebrate God’s grace in baptism at Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan, where Jesus was baptized, and explore Mt. Nebo, where Moses saw the Promised Land. Before returning to Israel, we'll explore the ruins of Petra (think Indiana Jones).
• Days 8-12 Nearing Jerusalem we’ll visit the fortress of Masada, and we’ll also explore Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. With Jerusalem as our base we’ll explore the Old City, walking the Via Dolorosa, for example. We’ll also visit the sites around the Old City, like Mt. of Olives and City of David. In addition, we’ll visit the Holocaust Museum and the Shrine of the Book, where the Dead Sea Scrolls are displayed. We’ll have a day trip to Hebron, home of the tombs of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and we’ll also visit our Lord’s birthplace, Bethlehem. 
• Day 13 You’ll fly home with your heart and mind full of memories or continue with the Sinai Extension! 

Unique highlights of this trip include:

• An experienced tour guide and educator, Dr. Paul Steinbart from Hosanna Lutheran Church in Mesa, AZ and professor at Arizona State University
• Rev. Paul Frank and Rev. Ken Chitwood (that's me!) leading conversations, Bible studies and devotions.
• Elizabeth Chitwood (that's my wife!) leading music
• Discussion of archeological, historical, and cultural context for the sites we are visiting
• An opportunity to participate in an archeological dig
• Addressing pertinent issues in the Holy Land and benefiting the local economy through tourism
• A booklet put together by Dr. Steinbart, Rev. Frank, and Rev. Chitwood that is yours to keep, and refer to, for a lifetime
• Wedding vow renewal at Cana & baptism remembrance at "Bethany-beyond-the-Jordan."
• Comfortable, and unique, accommodations (we're staying in a castle...seriously)
• Fantastic food 
•  A really FUN group of people to travel with (c'mon, we'll make it tons of fun). 

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Get it. 

Despite the obvious, and awesome, benefits of going on such a trip, some are still concerned about safety, especially given recent conflict during Summer 2014. Others may feel that tourism reenforces oppression or supports terrorism and/or apartheid. Ultimately, considering these apprehensions, whether or not to go is an individual decision, but I rest assured that traveling to Israel and Jordan is both safe and advantageous. HERE is a link to a great article on safety, which included this critical outlook: 

“ultimately it is as safe as ever to travel in Israel and the situation in the south of the country is not affecting tourists who are traveling in the country.”

— The Jewish Voice

Furthermore, if you want to explore issues concerning the Middle East and conflict between Arabs, Palestinians, Israelis, Christians, Jews, Muslims, etc. one of the best ways to do this is to visit the area, talk to locals, and engage in dialogue as a group to discuss the poignant issues from a perspective of participation and observation on-the-ground. 

As a backpacker traveling in the area over the summer shared:

“While you should stay open to developments of the conflict, travel in Israel is still safe. It’s important to remember that the main tourist areas are away from Gaza, where this current conflict is taking place (and where any travel in close proximity is prohibited). You may come across very small incidents or have to follow the protocol of sirens, but you should not be put off travelling there. Travel in Israel and in the West Bank is also an opportunity to better understand this conflict from both sides – and that alone is invaluable.”

— Becki Enright

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As I said, there are many worthwhile reasons you may want to come on this trip. I pray you will thoughtfully consider joining me, and others, on this trip in May to make the most out of our time together and add to those who are already signed up and ready to go! 

*To learn more about the trip and its cost, visit Educon Travel.

*To talk to me about the trip and its details, use the Contact Form.

NEW Essays: Global Islamic Reformism & Religion in the Black Atlantic

What does conservative Islam reformism look like in Yemen? In South Asia? In Egypt? In the United States? Do they differ in significant ways? Or, is Islamic reformism an unstoppable transnational religious force that erases all signs of local adaptation and innovation in its wake? In this essay I present a mosaic approach to assessing global Islamic reformism as a way to balance the contestation and agreement between translocal and local expressions of Islamic neofundamentalism worldwide. 

Read it at Academia.edu

As is evinced by the above paper on Islam, approaches are important. The "Black Atlantic" is a diverse and wide-ranging, trans-Atlantic, and multi-hemispheric discipline that requires careful thought and various approaches to apperceive the various religious currents at work across it. In this paper, I examine four approaches to religion in the Black Atlantic, paying special attention to Candomblé, Umbanda, sorcery/witchcraft, and Vodou. 

Read it at Academia.edu

#ReformationMemes for Reformation Day

It's #ReformationDay (October 31) when Protestants, specifically Lutherans and some Reformed, commemorate the day in 1517 when Augustinian monk and Uni professor, Martin Luther, posted (either nailed to a door, or actually sent in the mail...or both) an invitation to debate on the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral.

What better way to celebrate than post a bunch of memes on my social media feed? You're right, there is none. 

To learn more about #ReformationDay and the #ReformationMemes project, check out my post at #FaithGoesPop.

Dead Pop & Sugar Skull Chic

Earlier this week, actress Kate Hudson made a splash strutting about in “sugar skull” chic, with her face painted in “homage to the Day of the Dead” as described by US Magazine.

Traditionally, sugar skulls — known as calaveras — are associated with the Day of the Dead — El Dia de los Muertos —  a hemispheric American holiday celebrated near the end of October or the beginning of November, with the official celebrations taking place on November 1 and 2 by people in Mexico, Guatemala, the United States, and some South American nations. The ubiquitous symbols of the Day of the Dead — calaveras, elaborate artistic representations of a dead aristocratic woman (La Catrina) and flowers such as marigolds — not only ordain altars in homes and cemeteries, but find their into museums, menus, suburban jack-o-lanterns, art shows, clothing, and Hollywood runways.

The traditions surrounding el Dia de los Muertos are prime examples of the process of transculturation — the processes in which people allocate elements of their native culture and meld them with ingredients of an “invasive” culture to create fresh combinations and in some way mitigate the undesirable elements of said introduced culture. 

*See more at FAITH GOES POP

Five Steps for a Friendly Christian Encounter with Other Religions

You have your Hindu coworker, your Mormon neighbor, and your agnostic nephew. There is a new mosque in town, a Sikh gurudwara in your strip mall, and a Christian Science reading room just around the corner. If you’re honest, it freaks you out.

What is a faithful Christian posture amidst such plurality? Do we engage in aggressive apologetics or pugnacious polemics? Do we protest the building of the mosque or drop tracts at the temple? Are we supposed to retreat into our sanctuaries and, like an ostrich, stick our head in the sands? No, none of this will do.

What I propose is a friendly encounter, a hospitable engagement, with our pluralistic neighbors. Below is a five-step approach for you and your congregation to consider...

*View the post HERE at LCEF's Leader-to-Leader blog

Faith Goes Pop?

Taylor Swift. My new blog venture begins with Taylor Swift. What could go wrong? 

I am excited to announce a new project I am (re)launching with Read the Spirit entitled "Faith Goes Pop." 

The aim of the "Faith Goes Pop" blog is a "bold foray into the unknown and untamable intersections between, and manifestations of, religion and popular culture." Like Taylor Swift, I am "going pop" and jumping head first to combine sightings of the intersections between "faith" and "pop culture" with winsome and witty commentary that will hopefully lead to a book project down the road. But, I need your help! 

So, I invite you to check out the blog this week and share it your friends. It goes "full launch" with Read the Spirit next week when I will be featured on their e-mail blast and magazine front page. Exciting times, thanks for coming along with me on this journey! 

*For more on religion & culture, follow @kchitwood.

*Read the Spirit is a publishing company, an online magazine and a network of writers connecting readers with the most important voices in religion, spirituality, interfaith and cross-cultural issues. Read the Spirit strives for accuracy, balance and fairness.

Deseret News National picks up piece on Christians using Diwali for Hindu outreach

An Indian Christian leader in Ohio aims to use #Diwali as an outreach strategy to reach Hindus for Christ. A Telugu pastor in Houston thinks Indian Christians should stay away. Scholars of Hinduism and Indian religion question the premise.

Then, a publication originally connected to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (a.k.a. Mormon church) picked up the piece. 

Oh boy, how fun! Enjoy the article and share your comments:

• HERE is the original post. 
• HERE is the article at Deseret News National. 

*Follow @kchitwood for more on religion & culture

Can Christians celebrate Diwali?

The lights are hung, the candles lit, the feast prepared, the New Year is almost here, families gather and the children wait to hear the dramatic re-telling of stories from the ancient past. No, it is not Christmas, nor is it Hanukkah or Kwanzaa; steeped in mythical tales, religious devotion, and socio-cultural importance it is the Hindu festival of Diwali, celebrated in India and throughout its diaspora spread across the world.

*For more on religion & culture, follow @kchitwood.

Diwali is celebrated by several religious groups including Sikhs, Jains and even some Buddhists, but its roots are thoroughly Hindu. For Sikhs it is a commemoration of “the day of freedom” when one of their revered gurus, Guru Har Gobind Ji was released from imprisonment. Jains celebrate Diwali to mark Mahavira’s moksha (enlightenment) -- the last of the tirthankara (enlightened ones). For Hindus the festival is the beginning of a New Year, a time for prosperity and new ventures, a celebration of the brother-sister relationship and the prevalence of truth over falsehood and light overcoming the darkness.

This meaning for the five-day festival is derived from several Hindu accounts. However, it centers around the account of the victory of Lord Krishna over the demon Narkasura. Other gods and goddesses, including the goddess of wealth (Lakshmi), are worshipped during Diwali, but above all it is a celebration of the victory of life, light and lightheartedness over nefarious 'Narkasuran' forces. 

With a South Asian population of about 3 million, there are significant Diwali celebrations going on throughout the U.S. this week. Local Hindu and Jain temples and Sikh gurudwaras will host Diwali celebrations featuring hundreds of lights and lanterns, Indian curries and festive music played on harmoniums (keyboard), tablas (drum) and tambours (a stringed instrument). For many Asian Indians living in the diaspora, Diwali is not only religious, but steeped in socio-cultural significance and celebrations of South Asian identity.

With this in mind Pramod Aghamkar, Executive Director of Satsang Ministries, started celebrating "Christian Diwalis" a few yeas ago in Dayton, Ohio. The Christian Diwali in Dayton is an effort on his part to immerse himself in native Asian-Indian culture and add the concepts and ideologies of the Christian worldview.

“The festival of Diwali provides the necessary framework, structure and organic occasion to proclaim Christ as the light of the world” said Aghamkar. “It gives stepping stones, clues and redemptive analogies for cross-cultural witness.”

Drawing inspiration from those Christians who redeemed pagan festivals and symbols to make Easter (eggs, new life) and Christmas (the evergreen tree bedecked with lights) what they are today, Aghamkar hopes to redeem the symbols and practices of Diwali for the sake of Christian witness. For him Diwali “is a native tool that still remains undeveloped by Indian Christians.” To tap into this potential, Aghamkar hosts a Christian Diwali in South Asian family settings each year and now encourages other Indian Christian leaders to do the same in other cities.

One city where Indian Christian leaders are not so receptive to this idea is Houston.

Asked about the possibility of Christian Diwali celebrations in Houston, a South Asian pastor from The Woodlands demurred, “it is a major Hindu festival, Christ is not part of the celebration.”

“Whenever possible I seek the Scriptures for knowledge and direction” said the pastor. “I am not sure there is any place in the Scriptures where it talks about redeeming a heathen idea.”

Another Houston man, Vidyasagar Garnepudi, feels the tension and the temptation to celebrate a "Christian Diwali." He said, "every Indian child's dream is to participate in Diwali, it's a victory over darkness, a festival of lights, it's firing off the firecrackers."

*Read a personal account of the meaning of Diwali

Despite the desire to participate in the celebration, he lamented that "as Christians we should not celebrate Diwali. However, we do rejoice with our neighbor as India is a secular nation."  

Aghamkar hears and understands these objections, but believes the practice of  Christian Diwali is still a viable custom. “Non-Hindu accounts show Diwali to be a flexible, multi-faceted festival” he said, “the form of celebration is not intrinsically Hindu, Jain or Sikh….though the principles are ‘non-Christian,’ they are not ‘un-Christian.’”

He also cautions that while the music, lights, food and stories may be similar between Hindu and Christian celebrations, the traditional Hindu gods and Sikh and Jain teachers are not lauded, but instead it is Christ who is the hero of the story who dispels the darkness and brings light and life. “It is not shifting from radical rejection to wholesale acceptance” said Aghamkar, but it is a way for “the Indian community to experience Jesus in a native way.”

Some scholars of South Asian religion and Hindu traditions I spoke with offered some perspective as they debated the saliency of a "Christian Diwali." One offered, "it's one thing for a Christian to come to a temple and celebrate the ritual, taking away the nitty-gritty of the myth, just as a general celebration of victory of good over evil...it's another to use a Hindu tradition to advance Christianity." The same individual asked, "how would a Christian react if Easter was used to further Hindu ideas and motives?"

Another participant in the academic dialogue offered that since, in India, Christianity is a minority religion, "this might be an expression of having to find their way in a world that is primarily Hindu."

Perhaps even still, this is part of a wider dialogue on the secular and/or religious nature of Diwali and whether or not Diwali is losing its religious significance in favor of more secular or purely culturally mechanic communal practices and personal rituals. 

WHAT DO YOU THINK? CAN CHRISTIANS “REDEEM” DIWALI? SHOULD THE HOLIDAY BE LEFT FOR HINDUS, SIKHS AND JAINS TO CELEBRATE? WHAT ARE YOUR DIWALI TRADITIONS?

*For more on religion & culture, follow @kchitwood.

Give me that old time "reefer" religion: the storied history of spiritual drug use

Artist Bryan Lewis Saunders made headlines a couple years ago by deciding to not only paint, or draw, a self-portrait every day, but to do so while under the influence of diffent drugs for each session. The results were vivid. As WIRED reported:

For the series based on his experiments with recreational and prescription drugs, he took everything from cocaine and Abilify to cough syrup and computer duster, then drew while under the influence. The resulting self-portraits range from intricately beautiful (psychedelic mushrooms) to insanely brutal (bath salts).

*For more on religion & culture follow @kchitwood.

Lewis himself reported that the experience brought “drastic changes…[that] profoundly affect[ed] perception of self.”

If drugs can alter “perception of self” what of the perception of the sacred? 

"Drugs" and religion may seem an odd combination, but the two share an intersecting, sometimes conflicting, and fascinating history. Religion’s relationship with mind altering substances has, at times, been constructive and other times combative and sometimes both. What follows is an overview of the taut interrelation between various spiritualities, religions, and "drugs," focusing in on three areas.  

Psychoactive Sacraments —  and Religious Experience

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Ninkasi, the original hipster, was into IPAs not only before they were cool, but before written history. 

The use of drugs in religious ritual and as a portal into the mysterious reaches of the numinous has a long history, with little doubt the practice is prehistoric. Scythians ceremonially smoked the “Sticky Icky” cannabis and Greeks used wine in rites for Dionysius and (God bless them) the Sumerians had Ninkasi, their tutelary goddess of beer to whom they sang, “It is you who pour out the filtered beer of the cask; it is like the onrush of the Tigris and Euphrates, Ninkasi!” 

Today, there are a range of religious, and spiritual, uses of alcohol, stimulants, and entheogens — “generating the divine within” — from the seemingly suspect to the sacrosanct. And before you turn up your nose to a bit of old pappy’s "reefer religion," there are governmentally approved and divinely sanctioned uses of entheogens across the spiritual spectrum. Acceptable forms for drug use in religious ritual range from the common practice of drinking wine during the Christian ceremony of Holy Communion to the use of peyote by some Native American tribes. 

The Christian sacrament of Holy Communion (a.k.a. The Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist) is a rite said to be founded by Jesus himself. The use of wine in the ceremony is not ubiquitous (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints use water and various denominations opt for grape juice, a non-alcoholic “fruit of the vine” as it were) and views on the relation of wine to the “blood of Christ” range from physical transformations to memorial representations (read about Five Views of Holy Communion here). Despite the wide range of views on the meaning, and form, of Holy Communion, millions of Christians across the world ingest a bit of alcohol every week as a core act of faith, in a sense connecting them to Christ. 

Peyote is an historic, pre-Columbian, entheogen used as a conduit for contact with the spirit world and also as a medicinal drug. From Mexico, the use of peyote wound up to the Great Plains of the U.S. and through the influence of Apache, Comanche, and other Plains Nations came to be practiced by more than 60 different tribes, with nearly 300,000 Peyotism adherents today. This spiritual use of Peyote is federally protected (under an extension of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act), is a part of the ritual rubric of the Native American Church, and is associated with the famous Quanah Parker. While Parker is best known for a call for indigenous accommodation, he called for the adoption of "eating a bitter button from the peyote cactus" as a path to salvation accompanied with all-night singing, praying for the sick, the ceremonial use of tobacco, and the recitation of Christian prayers. An Oklahoma group later organized themselves into the aforementioned Native American Church in 1918 and Parker's custom is still popular among Navajos in New Mexico and Arizona. 

Lucy in the Sky with Divinity — Entheogens and the Search for the Seraphic

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Making the peyote pilgrimage.

However, North American tribes are not alone in their practice, nor is peyote the sole entheogen used in spiritual pursuits.

Every year, many Huichol Indians of Central Mexico make an annual pilgrimage to the land of peyote — Wirikuta — in what Barbara Meyerhoff calls the “universal human quest” for “Paradise, or the original center of the world where god, human, animal, and plant were at one with each other during a primordial era.” The peyote hunt not only re-enacts, but becomes, the "original" and "primordial"  "peyote hunt" of antiquity, subsequently regenerating the individual's, and their community's identity and life force in communing with the powers of Wirikuta. For more on this pilgrimage and ritual, watch Peter Hurst’s film To Find Our Life. 

Entheogenic searches for life can also involve rubber. No, there is no sacred sniff of smoking rubber. Instead, among the early 20th-century “Rubber Soldiers” of the Amazon  basin — rubber tappers working in Peru, Brazil, and Bolivia — a certain Raimundo Irineu Serra founded what would later become Santo Daime, a hybrid spirituality drinking ayahuasca as a key part of their ceremonies. Mastre Ireneu founded this spiritual pursuit after experiencing a series of visions during an eight day solitary quest in the forest. While focused on physical healing, the ayahuasca rituals came to provide meaning, place, and community for the marginalized rubber tappers. In the words of scholar Robin Wright the ayahuasca was “a way to save community and not go bananas in the forest.” 

However, do not be tempted to think that entheogenic experiences are the exclusive property of American tribes. 

Today, the use of ayahuasca for otherworldly breakthrough appeals to a wide range of North Americans. Ayahuasca tourism features New Age seekers, and young travelers, who visit Amazonian villages, mainly in Peru, pursuing “spiritual enlightenment” under the direction of a shaman (similar to the experience of Carlos Castañeda of Don Juan and Tales of Power fame, but to a lesser degree). The practice is now distributed across the globe with Dutch churches holding ayahuasca ceremonies and dabblers in Detroit looking for enlightenment through entheogen experiences. Despite warnings about adverse consequences of use and "sham shamans," in addition to "primitivizing" effect of Western tourists co-opting a tribal ritual, ayahuasca tourism remains strong. 

In addition, according to Shalom Goldman, the Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi — a Jewish Renewal movement founder and interfaith pioneer in the U.S. — came to many of his epiphanies under the influence of "the sacramental” ingestion of LSD, which he claimed “removed the frame” for true transcendental breakthrough. 

The use of such seemingly serious drugs may seem strange. However, John J. McGraw challenges us to consider how ‘normal’ these entheogen-induced religious experiences can be. He wrote:

Most of us have the good fortune to possess a few sacred recollections— memories of some passing moments upon a mountain, in a forest, or fishing from a giant lake. Whatever the particular character of our memory, these times loom large in consciousness for in these brief pauses we felt God. Or so we thought. The experience, stripped of theology or doctrine, is ineffable—we know merely that colors shone in unearthly hues and that the vivid contrast around, above, and beneath took on a razor sharp sheen. Most important of all is the feeling—that exceptionally rare sensation—that we are not separated from our surroundings, not caught up in our typical turmoil, but simply immersed into the cosmos at large. Then we wish well to all that is. At last, we feel—we know—we are at home. These intriguing moments are not so different from those induced by the hallucinogens.

St. Mary Jane, Mother of Gong?

Still, for some, religion and "drugs" are like oil and water. One example of contemporary  import is the religious allocation and (un)acceptance of marijuana. 

Thanks to the infamous Snoop Lion (a.k.a. Snoop Dogg) and Bob Marley, the perception has it that all Rastafarians are in search of the spiritual via sinsemilla (a Spanish term meaning "without seeds" used as slang for marijuana). While not all Rastafarians use cannabis, many view smoking it as a sacramental act, and with the accompaniment of biblical study, as a cleansing ritual and an aid for communion with Jah — an Old Testament terminological derivative of ‘God,’ which Rastafarians use to refer to the Holy Trinity. 

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As part of a marijuana induced epiphany, the rap artist formerly known as Snoop Dogg, changed his name to Snoop Lion -- a reference to the Lion of Judah, associated with King David of the Old Testament and Emperor Haile Selassie I, a messianic figure in the Rastafari movement. 

Claiming that God has put in place all grass, weed, and herbs “for the service of man” (see Genesis 3:8; Psalm 104:14), Rastafarians hold that smoking weed is permissible according to the Bible.   Indeed, arguing that it is an aid to meditation and part of their religious observance, many Rastafarians feel that the illegality of marijuana is tantamount to religious persecution.

On the other side of the debate are people like Mike Hasha. Hasha, the director for a 61-member Baptist missionary church association in Florida, was “very concerned”  when he first learned of their member church’s — First Bethel Baptist Church in Lake Wales, FL — plans to lease their 3.2-acre parcel to GrowHealthy, one of America’s largest companies launching medical marijuana nursery farms. The association Hasha leads opposes any legalization of marijuana, including for medical use. They are not alone. 

As the legalization of marijuana, for both its medicinal and recreational uses, becomes mainstream, many Christian churches are caught in the middle. The NewsTribune of La Salle, IL recently polled local clergy “to gauge their churches’ positions on medical cannabis.” They reported that their “opinion was decidedly wary, with most pastors polled expressing doubt about the morality of medicinal cannabis….” 

Even though a majority of the general population (58%) supports the legalization of marijuana for medical and recreational use in the U.S., Christians are decidedly less enthusiastic. Barna Group reported that only a third of evangelical Protestants (32%) and only slightly more Catholics (39%) support the legalization of marijuana. Mainline Protestants are a bit more keen on the green, with 45% in favor. Still, juxtaposed to the majority of the U.S. population, most Christians oppose legalization citing impairment of the senses, endangerment to brain function, and habitual abuse as reasons not to allow marijuana to go mainstream. 

The above serves as ample evidence that the debate about "drugs" and the divine will continue for years to come with communities ranging in their reception and religious appropriation of alcohol, peyote, marijuana, and/or other entheogens. 

Despite the debate, rapturous rituals involving drug use are interwoven throughout religious history and the spiritual practice of many groups. Some religious leaders sanctioned such practices, others warned against them. Still others were more equivocating. One thing is certain, “reefer religion” will not go up in smoke any time soon.

*For more on religion & culture follow @kchitwood.

DISCLAIMER: The author, Ken Chitwood, does not encourage or explicitly condone the use of drugs. While he respects the legal rights of those who use drugs for spiritual purposes this essay is not meant to advocate such practices. Any illegal drug use is just that and this article should not be interpreted as an encouragement for breaking the law. The author also warns that even under legal circumstances, religious rituals involving drugs should be exercised with caution, with proper supervision and instruction, and in moderation. Furthermore, this is a blog and therefore strikes a lighter, and less pedantic, tone. Do not take any of the above to be offensive in principle and be sure to submit your own thoughts, suggestions, and censure in the comment section below.