.:. Ken's Live Journal: Syncretism

It’s a slap in the face to the Resurrection and the Gospel! The idea of Cristo-paganism first grabbed my attention at a cultural training center in North Carolina. It wasn’t until we arrived in Mexico that the reality of syncretism really hit home. This fusing together of indigenous paganism with Catholicism is why we have seen nuns preparing an altar for the Day of the Dead, the Aztec calendar and the serpent god Quetzalcoatl at the basilica in Mexico City, idols sold alongside crucifixes, and indigenous dances in church courtyards.

Syncretism hasn’t just become in vogue. It’s been around since the days when the Spaniards brought their priests and monks. History tells us that the indigenous peoples were forced to convert to Catholicism, and that while complying they did not abandon their practices nor their gods. In an effort to bring about conformity these gods were given names of the saints. Consequently, pagan beliefs were absorbed into the Church, and a new belief system began emerging.

The Amparo Museum in Puebla provides the perfect backdrop to confirm this history. Not only is it filled with abundant supply of Pre-Hispanic gods and Post-Hispanic religious images but proudly declares, “Indigenous groups appropriated for themselves the images of the Virgin, Christ and the saints. They integrated them into their world views which included masculine and feminine principles that govern life. They were also familiar with use of sacred objects to symbolize and signal the presence of the divine, which is not so different from some of the functions of images in Christian traditions.”

Today the outworking of this historical syncretism provides a lush greenhouse for the continued blending of other belief systems. We are seeing a leap from pre-modernism thought over modernism into post-modern thinking. Of course that doesn’t mean there isn’t technology, fashion and advanced medicine, but that the mindset of people hasn’t become humanistic and atheistic as it has in much of the western world. When it comes down to the supernatural verses the scientific, the supernatural not only can still win out but the majority of time probably does. An example of this comes from a missionary friend (another country) who told us he had a highly educated professor who wore a dead bird tied around his waist because it had been prescribed by a witchdoctor to cure his sickness.

So what we see is a widening incorporation of various other beliefs in Mexico. We meet Hare Krishna missionaries, encounter groups who help “achieve complete self-realization…providing instruction in meditation and other yoga practices” and see an array of Buddhist, Hindu and Egyptian images. Recently I met a lady who believes that her spirituality is wrapped up in positive energy and that when she goes to ritual sites she is tapping into the positive energy of pilgrims who have gone there before her.

Having said all that about Mexico, I do wonder what we will encounter when we arrive back home. Will we get a good dose of the same post-modern relativistic syncretism? Are there Hindu temples and New Age sanctuaries being erected along side of our churches? Has vampire theology and avatar theology been absorbed into the Christian worldview? Are we passively blending mother earth sympathies into the purity of the gospel?

I really, really hope that the answer to all these questions is a resounding “no.” Thankfully, if not, Paul has given us clarity in this whole syncretistic mess, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel – which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!”