Culture Not Morally Neutral

            In a recent edition of The Chicago Tribune (“Family Helps Adopted Haitian Children Keep Their Spiritual Heritage,” www.chicagotribune.com) I read of a family from one of the northern suburbs who in 2002 adopted two children from Haiti, a boy and a girl.  Every night since the horrific Haitian earthquake four weeks ago, this couple has been leading their two children in voodoo prayers for the people of Haiti, invoking a spirit called Papa Legba.  The couple believes that the ritual incantations help “preserve their children’s ties to Haiti through a religion they argue has been misinterpreted and unfairly portrayed.”  With all due respect to this couple, who have done a wonderfully generous thing in opening their home and hearts to these children, if we study voodoo practices in depth at all, it really is hard to escape the conclusion they do not involve destructive contact with demonic spirits.  The conclusions this husband and wife draw about voodoo arise from a common American presupposition that all cultural and religious practices are basically neutral.  It is a function of political correctness that refuses to judge cultural practices as harmful or even evil.  However, even New York Times columnist David Brooks admits that Haiti’s practice of voodoo makes economic progress in that island nation difficult, because voodoo “spreads the message that life is capricious and planning futile” (David Brooks, “The Underlying Tragedy,” www.nytimes.com).  Our prayer is that for his glory, Almighty God will free the Haitian people from superstition and animistic religious practices to believe the gospel, so that they might know the truth, and the truth would set them free (John 8:32).

 

Let God Sweat the Details

            There are two wonderful passages in the Book of Exodus that remind us God does not forget to take care of any of the details of our lives.  He really does have all the hairs on our heads counted (Matthew 10:30).  In Exodus 23:23-28 the Lord promises the Israelites that he will drive the Canaanite peoples out of the Promised Land.  However, in that day the land was filled with wild animals like lions.  The average Israelite might have worried that if the Lord really did drive the inhabitants out of the Promised Land too quickly, then wild animals might begin to multiply rapidly and take over the land.  The Lord, however, had not forgotten to think of this possibility.  “I will not drive them (i.e., the Canaanites) out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and wild beasts multiply against you” (Exodus 23:29).  By giving his people the Land of Canaan little by little, God would assure that the Israelites would be free from the threat of wild beasts.

            The second example of God’s care for the details comes from Exodus 34.  God in Exodus 34:23 repeats his command that all male Israelites are to appear before him at the Tabernacle for the three great annual feasts of the Jews: Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles.  “But,” the average Israelite male may have worried, “if I leave my family and my land to go up to the designated place for the three feasts, is it not likely that foreigners or criminals or even corrupt Jews might try to seize my land?”  Again, the Lord has thought of the details.  “I will cast out the nations before you and enlarge your borders; no one shall covet your land, when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year” (Exodus 34:24).  In other words, God was promising that during the absence of the males, he would protect their lands supernaturally. 

            These passages should encourage us that when God calls us to obey him in particular ways, we can be sure he has not only thought of the big picture but also about the details as well.  What a supremely wise, careful, and thorough God we serve!