Christianity and the Paranormal, Part III

The Spiritual Materialist: In the world and of it

Our final category (for now) involves what I think is probably the most ironic type of mindset we’ve considered thus far. It is also probably the most common. It involves Christians scoffing at all paranormal claims reflexively because “everybody” knows things like that don’t exist.

I say this is ironic, because if ever there were a people who had reason to take paranormal claims seriously, it would be Christians. In theory, our entire life is based on the existence of a world beyond the natural realm, from which incredibly powerful non-human entities regularly enter in order to influence our reality. Of course, the ultimate example of this is the Creator of the Universe passing into our space-time to sacrifice Himself and pay for the sins of our world, but there are plenty of other instances. We also say we believe in angels, demons, cherubim, seraphim, prayer and miracles. The list could go on for some time.

And yet, if someone comes up and claims to have seen anything out of the "ordinary," what is the average western Christian's most common reaction? Denial. Sometimes mockery. In short, they react very much like your average atheist or secular humanist We see this beautifully illustrated in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, when Lucy first returns from Narnia and tries to convince her siblings of where she’s been. Edmund immediately declares her to be “Batty!...Quite batty,” while Peter and Susan come to believe that she’s mentally ill.

The end result is that those who are best equipped to look at the world beyond the normal—the paranormal—through the lens of spiritual understanding are in fact blinded by a bias that has nothing to do with what they really believe.

I think the reasons for this sad state of affairs varies from person-to-person. Many people have absorbed so much of the pseudo-scientific nonsense spouted by the secular world that they have accepted the false idea that in order to be “intelligent” one must reject the supernatural entirely and think wholly as a materialist. At the same time, they hold to Christian beliefs that positively require the presence of the supernatural to make any sense. Both of these mutually exclusive propositions somehow co-exist inside their heads until such time as one or the other wins on a practical level. From my experience, very rarely are either thought through.

All this reminds me of definition from Donald T. Williams' excellent foray into the mind of Hell, The Devil's Dictionary of the Christian Faith: "Liberal 1 (n): One who believes that Jesus never said most of the words or did any of the deeds attributed to him, but that, for some reason which remains unclear, we should follow him anyway" (52). It is one of the best ploys of Screwtape's "Father Below"; the "faithful" do not have to actually believe in much of anything in any practical way beyond mere hypothetical assent. They never expect to really meet any of these entities, and when they do, the refuse to accept them. That means they are prevented by default from developing any tangible relationship with a Christ in whom they have no real belief, and are not on their guard against interference from devils who they do not think exist. From Hell's perspective, it is a perfect arrangement.

Clearly, I’m not suggesting that Christians are somehow bound by honor or logic to accept every half-baked claim of a supernatural occurrence that somehow floats our way. Far from it. We are told, in fact, to “test the spirits.” Demons are not hiding behind even a large minority of bushes. Still, we should at least be consistent enough with our own presuppositions to keep a truly open mind and not preclude any possibilities for no other reason than vague preference or mindless prejudice.

Besides, I think a Christian who, in practice, does not allow for the existence of spirits or the supernatural in some real way has some serious self reflection to do on what, and in whom, they actually believe.

Christianity and the Paranormal, Part I

While I admit that I haven’t had much time to look more recently, I’ve thus far found that many Christian responses to paranormal phenomena are lacking. In my own experience, the stereotypical Christian reactions fall into at least three broad categories, each of which falls short of the mark, I think. (I could probably come up with more, but this is more than enough to get on with, I think.) For purposes of classification, we’ll call them a. the Pagan-Wannabe, b. the Hyper-Literalist, and c. the Spiritual Materialist.

With apologies in advance. I don’t intend to offend, but I’m sure I’ll manage it somehow. I also want to reemphasize that I don’t think this classification is exhaustive. There are surely as many shades of belief as there are believers.

The Pagan-Wannabe: The Worst of Both Worlds

This position is for all of us who really don’t like taking stands or who are terrified of being called “right wing” or “fundamentalist” (Angels and ministers of grace defend us!). Essentially, it argues that one can, at the same time, swallow the random tripe currently associated with paranormal studies and yet still remain a dedicated, thinking Christian.

The problem here is that, as Christ said, no “one can serve two masters” (Matt. 6:24, Luke 16:13). One cannot be a Christian without being fully dedicated to the person of Christ, constantly striving (though not necessarily perfectly succeeding) to bring ourselves into closer alignment with Himself and His Will. The simple fact is that much of what passes today for paranormal “research” will pull you in precisely the opposite direction. The Bible has laid down some pretty clear guidelines about what you are and are not supposed to participate in, and we ignore them at our own peril. Any observer of popular paranormal culture need not think long before coming up with multiple examples of what I am talking about here: witchcraft/Wicca, spirit channeling, various forms of non-Wiccan magic, summoning of spirits, even willfully opening yourself up to invasion by various entities. Like it or not, there is an inherent spiritual contradiction here.

And that is why this particular position ends up failing: it is neither here nor there. It is impossible to dedicate one’s life to true Christian spirituality and at the same time embrace philosophies that undermine it. The effect is somewhat like asking someone to somehow train for both the sumo ring and the long jump at the same time. Anyone so engaged will do neither well.

I tend to think that’s what happens to most Pagan-Wannabes. They sell out the things that they claim matter most to them, but in return they can achieve only mediocrity.

Sending the message that there is nothing that sets Christianity apart from the rest of the world not only compromises one of our missions as Christians (namely, to draw others closer into a saving knowledge of Jesus), but it also serves as a disservice to the paranormal community. How? By failing to provide it with anything more than bland Christianese translations of existing theories and jargon. Fields of study are most often moved forward by bold (preferably polite and honorable) original thought that critiques the status quo. The best the average Pagan-wannabe can offer all too often resembles the stereotype of contemporary Christian music: Whatever the world did five years ago modified with Christian lingo. Worse, it also involves serious danger to the participant’s immortal soul.

So why do I say that this is the position for anyone afraid of taking a stand? Because (and I could easily be wrong here) I tend to think the ultimate origins of this position are emotional. Intellectually, we have a number of mutually exclusive propositions (mentioned above). The result is that one cannot arrive at the Pagan-wannabe position by logic and coherent thinking. It means, essentially, that in order to believe it, we must turn off our brains at key points of conflict. That only happens through the emotions. The feeling most likely to produce these results is the desire to be liked by both Christians and non-Christians, to be able to move with both sets and never have to face any uncomfortable questions or discrimination.

I have two thoughts in reaction to this, and then we will be done with the Pagan-wannabe:

For us to expect that we can avoid persecution in general is clearly unrealistic. Christ Himself said that the Gospel is offensive and that we will face tribulations. Period. To compromise on our message just to obtain and then maintain some warm fuzzies is a first rate betrayal of Christ and the Great Commission. If you find yourself constantly shirking your identity as a Christian to avoid nasty looks, taunts, or even ostracism (which is all I hope we would face in the field of paranormal studies), you need to re-examine your commitment to Christ and try to ascertain precisely how serious you are about it.

So, do I think we need to take the paranormal world by storm, beating random people over the heads with pulpit Bibles? Of course not, and that has to do with my second point.

Paul himself said that he tried to be “all things to all men” (1 Cor. 9:22) I take that to mean that Paul tried to reach out to people where they were, not self-righteously wait for them to come to him. I think we can take a similar tack in our studies of the paranormal. I have no problem befriending a Wicca practitioner, a medium, or even a Satanist. That is what we are called to do by the Great Commission. Once the door was open, I would not see any point in demanding that they suddenly abandon their beliefs on the simply because I had entered the room. A jack-ass is still a jack-ass, even if he/she justifies it with Christian rhetoric.

But it doesn’t follow that I would simply drop my own beliefs for fear of offending someone. The courtesies I would extend to them, I would expect in return. If I were forced into a corner (i.e. compromise your witness in order to be a part of the group) I would recognize my priorities and be willing to politely walk away. At least that is the way I hope it would work.

In all, it calls for quite a bit of tact, but I think it also has the best chances for seeing results. The hardcore paranormal believers I have seen have studied more than enough religion to know the basic facts about Christianity. They don’t need a sermon; they need to meet Christ personally, living in you. That introduction will bear more fruit than all the denunciations in history.

In the end, it may be that the study of the paranormal (in general, but definitely as part of a mixed group) is best left to mature believers, secure in their faith. Many of the pitfalls I’ve discussed here are elementary mistakes made by people who, for one reason or another, have not yet “put away childish things.” We’ve all been through that stage (I’m not confident I myself am out of it), and there is nothing wrong or shameful about it. One might as well scold a baby for liking milk. The problem comes when we arrogantly bite off more than we are prepared to chew.

Whatever happened to discipleship, eh?

Up next: The Hyper-Literalist.