Can you believe in Christianity and Shamanism?
[Our #2 most voted topic] As a Christian, can you help with Shaman ceremonies or rituals, like funerals? What boundaries, if any, are you crossing if you do?
Transcript
Today’s sermon addresses several interconnected questions about Christians and shamanism.
Can you believe in Christianity and Shamanism?
What boundaries or commands are we crossing if we believe in both?
As a Christian, can you help with Shaman rituals, like at funerals?
These are very real questions for many of us because I would guess that anywhere from 50-70% of Hmong Americans still follow the Hmong traditional religion of animism or spiritism. Some of us have immediate family and relatives who still keep the practices of what we have come to call shamanism, so questions of what Christians may or may not do as we continue to love and do life with them are very important.
Can you believe in Christianity and Shamanism?
Some people argue that Hmong shamanism is a way of life and the practices are merely cultural in nature. In fact, one Hmong term for shamanism is kev cai qub, the old or traditional rules of life. Some have argued that to be Hmong is to practice these social customs regardless of what your religion is. In fact, some Hmong converts to Christianity, both Catholics and Protestants alike, take this stance and continue to do the traditional practices while also doing Christian practices.
But the answer to Can you believe both is an unequivocal NO.
No, because shamanism is not merely a cultural practice with social customs; It is a religion.
A religion is the belief in and worship of supernatural powers or beings and is a system of faith and worship. And that’s what shamanism is.
To understand this, I need to take some time to explain Hmong shamanism.
Hmong traditional religion is animistic and shamanistic.
Animism asserts that people, animals, and things in nature have souls or spirits. There are also spirit beings called dlaab who can be good and innocuous or mean and harmful. Families and clans have their own household spirits (dlaab qhua) that watch over and protect them, along with the spirits of their deceased ancestors. Ritual ceremonies are performed to please and honor the ancestral spirits so that they will bless and protect the family.
Each house must have special altars dedicated to the spirits of wealth and health, of the bedroom, the front door, the loft, the house post, and the hearths so that these spirits will give them health and wealth.
Harmful spirits exist out in the world, and people can unknowingly trespass on their territory or do evil things that allow the spirits to harm them and even take their lives.
The beliefs of Hmong animism include the existence of 3-12 souls in each person, helpful and harmful spirits who must be appeased, the veneration of ancestral spirits, and reincarnation.
Shamanism is the use of an intermediary who communicates with both the physical and the spirit worlds. When a person is physically, emotionally, or psychologically unwell, the shaman will be called in. In a ceremonial trance, the shaman enters the dark spirit world to find out the cause of the illness; to negotiate and offer a meal, money, or sacrifice of an animal; and to return the person’s soul back to their body so they can get well. The sacrificed animal is then slaughtered and cooked to provide a celebration meal for the family and friends who have attended the ceremony.
A common ritual is soul calling, where the shaman calls the sick person’s wandering soul to return to their body. Afterward, a string-tying or khi teg ritual follows. White, red, black, or blue strings are tied around the person’s wrists to bind the person’s souls to their body and to ward off evil spirits. Words of blessing are spoken over the person as each string is tied on. The blessings are an invocation for the good spirits to bless and protect the person.
The khi teg ritual has transformed into a Hmong cultural practice of blessing people; but in whose name are you blessing people? And what does the white string do that a word could not do?
To believe Hmong shamanism is to rely on and put your faith in the spirits of ancestors and the spirits out in the world to protect and bless you.
What boundaries or commands are we crossing if we believe in both?
The first commandment of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-2) that God spoke to the Israelites is:
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
The second commandment is:
4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
As if the commandments were not clear enough, God said it one more time, in verse 22-23:
22 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites this: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven: 23 Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold.”
Tragically, the story of the Israelites, God’s chosen people, is one of constantly following the detestable (God’s word, not mine) gods of the nations and people living around them.
The term for trusting in and worshiping anyone or anything other than the true living God is idolatry. God hates the sin of idolatry! He severely punished the Israelites for it, saying in
Zephaniah 1:3-6
“When I destroy all mankind on the face of the earth,” declares the Lord, 4 “I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all who live in Jerusalem. I will destroy every remnant of Baal worship in this place, the very names of the idolatrous priests—5 those who bow down on the roofs to worship the starry host, those who bow down and swear by the Lord and who also swear by Molek, 6 those who turn back from following the Lord and neither seek the Lord nor inquire of him.”
And God will punish people for the sin of idolatry at the end of this age.
Revelation 9:20
20 The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. 21 Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.
Revelation 22:6-8
6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. 8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
It is very clear: you cannot believe both shamanism and Christianity, as that would break God’s command not to worship anyone or anything other than Him. But what if you believe in God, but your shaman relatives and friends ask for your help when they do shamanistic rituals?
As a Christian, can you help with Shaman rituals, like at funerals?
Believe it or not, first-century Christians faced a very similar situation. All of them came out of other religions—whether Judaism or paganism, with its worship of many, many gods. So, the Apostle Paul had to address this issue quite a bit.
Apparently, there was a debate among the believers about whether they could eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols. In their time, the meat offered on pagan altars was usually divided into three portions. One portion was burnt in honor of the god, one portion was given to the worshipper to take home and eat, and the third portion was given to the priest. If the priest didn’t want to eat his portion, he sold it at the temple restaurant or meat market.
Let’s look at Paul’s letter to the Christians at Corinth. In chapters 8 and 9, Paul has told the believers that eating is not wrong because idols are not real gods and have no power.
However, it is wrong to eat if you do it self-righteously and without regard for how it might affect another believer by tempting them to eat meat when their conscience tells them it is wrong to do so. Love for other believers must come before the exercise of rights and freedom.
Then Paul addresses how he has chosen not to use his rights and freedom in chapter 9.
We come then to Chapter 10, where Paul addresses the issues of eating meat sacrificed to idols, eating and drinking at idol celebrations, and the Christian’s exercise of freedom and rights.
I’m going to read all of the chapter to you again. This time, I would like you to close your eyes and just listen. Ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate and reveal to you the truth you need to hear.
1 Corinthians 10
For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” 8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.
9 We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. 10 And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.
11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!
13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
14 Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.
15 I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. 16 Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf.
18 Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? 19 Do I mean then that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. 22 Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
23 “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. 24 No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.
25 Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, 26 for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”
27 If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. 28 But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, both for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience. 29 I am referring to the other person’s conscience, not yours. For why is my freedom being judged by another’s conscience? 30 If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for?
31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 32 Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God— 33 even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.
As a Christian, can you help with Shaman rituals, like at funerals?
My understanding of what Paul says is that participating in rituals and ceremonies is joining yourself to the demons associated with those rituals. It is not just a cultural custom; it is a deeply spiritual act of worship.
What goes on at shaman ceremonies and rituals is not as innocent as it may seem because just as taking communion at the Lord’s Supper means unity and allegiance to Christ, so does participating in spirit rituals means unity and allegiance to the demonic spirits behind the shamanic practices.
Now, I do not think it is wrong to attend a shaman funeral to love and support family and friends who are shamanistic. In fact, I hope you are finding many ways to still do life with and love on your non-Christian family and friends.
But anything else beyond that will be a matter of your conscience—what God has already revealed to you is beneficial to you and helps others grow in Christ.
If you are convicted NOT to do something, but you feel pressured by family and relatives to do it anyway, then remember what Paul said, “13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. 14 Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.”
Let us pray.