Rebuttal and Response to “Voodoo as Evangelism”
by François Miville-Dechêne   fmiville AT sympatico.ca

by Phillip Snyder  philsnyder  AT sbcglobal.net

 

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F. Miville-Dechêne: I generally don't loose my time in fruitless controversies, but to my opinion the foremost satanic influence in Haiti comes from the American-imported sects (both so-called Christian and new-age), not voodoo.  The hallmark of satanic influence is money power, political power, and fascination, especially in intellectual circles.  If voodoo were of Satan more than another religion, either Haiti would be a rich country, the voodoo practitioners being the richest, either while being poor it would be politically influential like former Soviet Union or culturally influential like India. 

 

The voodoo people are among the poorest, the rich Haitian elite having nothing but contempt for that practice (there is much black magic in Haiti, but it has nothing to do with voodoo, which rather warns against all its methods in great detail, it is of the same kind as in England or France, because it is of colonial origin, and by the way there is far more black magic in England or in California than in the Caribbean).  In order to enter a voodoo fraternity, you have to undergo a very straightforward initiation process: one year long you are treated by a nanny exactly as a toddler, being spoon-fed and spanked.  The following year you spend begging in the poor district streets for food.  The last year you spend helping the poor you have been among formerly (it would be good for international aid givers and missionaries to undergo the same process, I think).  Then comes a final banquet.  You are entrusted no secret knowledge: in the process you become like a child and realise the fairy tales are maybe less wrong than what passes as modern science.  So don't say there is no humility in that thing. 

 

There is a low-profile but definite hierarchy and those at the top must have no desires but childlike marveling at everything, those being still interested in mundane matters such as love, finances or social problems being at a low rank and vowing obedience to those at the top who possess nothing (really, living on bare ground, wearing worn-out shirts and eating only rice and peas everybody in the same plate, not pretendedly as the modern priests do).  Of course as in other religions there are many fakes who bring it into disrepute, the same can be said about Christianity.  Moreover, many Haitian Christians of all denominations are fond of voodoo festivals, and most voodoo servants are also devout Catholics on church holidays.  It is true Haiti has always been a poor country, but the blame cannot be put on voodoo because the misery has been intensifying as American Christianity settled in and displaced voodoo somewhat. 

 

It is true voodoo discourages modern progress in many respects, and is wary of so-called development, but it does not promote misery, it promotes a sober, hard-working but healthy country life, as the best old-fashioned American protestants such as the Quakers and the Amish also used to do.  Voodoo, together with many small afro-American things, is just too small and poor in the world to be of satanic origin, Satan rather uses things big and of good repute among the establishment.  Last but not least, voodoo is not magic (except maybe for the trance thing where you enter the wavelength of other real people of the relevant condition to be informed by, as a kind of primeval telephony): the solutions the servants and entranced dancer propound are down-to-earth, not esoteric, and logical, not magical explanations are provided for when the consultant asks for. 

 

Voodoo medicine uses plants for their physical, not magical properties, and when a voodoo servant works in America as for instance a nurse, he works with the modern knowledge he avails of, even know he uses it in a defter way.  As for the sacrifices of cocks, the beasts are well treated and the ceremonial is done in a way such as not to make the bird suffer.  You Americans eat birds that have endured martyrdom in the poultry factory.  The voodoo loas are not gods in the pagan sense, not fallen angels, they are groups of real people under the purview of a patron saint, these entities are neither from above (except the patron saint) nor from below but of this plane, among the very human condition you have to deal with.  Some of them are cool, others hot, but you have to love humans of all types.  Loa comes from the French gloire which means glory and the Bibles say woe to him who insults the glories, for he doesn't know what he's talking about.  All glories, even the most controversial, have in fact a motto to apply that most often comes from the Bible or can be found there, relevant to such or such human condition.

 

I forgot to say one thing: I am not a voodoo myself for the very reason I lack the prerequisite virtue, humility and courage to undergo the initiation process without which no one can be called such, but these virtues are, especially as regards becoming like a little child, Christian in the extreme even if under another name.  I am what you would call a non-practising catholic having also admiration for old-fashioned protestant groups such as the shakers and quakers.  I have misgivings about religions that dabble in politics and with finance generally, that used to be the case with old-fashion Catholicism and is now the case with many born again movements. 

 

I would rather be in favor of smaller country-style churches where a few families would meet in intimacy.  I like also the model of certain (not all) black churches of America.  I pray Jesus to help you, together with all his saints on earth and in heaven, to foster a life of more love, joy and creativity for all kinds of people, to foster a life of marveling at everything Gods make happen, that is to say, a life under Grace.  All God wants for us, in the both new and eternal covenant of always, is to marvel at everything life produces, and all that pushes to this marveling is good religion; all that thwarts this marveling is sin.

 

REPLY from Phillip Snyder

 

I have come to understand voodoo as a highly respectable religion. For the most part, it is a simple theology to help the most ignorant of men understand and respond to the joys and tragedies of everyday life.

 

I have not studied it thoroughly; there is no "Voodoo Bible."

 

I have, however, studied it in the lives of those who practice it.

 

My basic debate is this.

 

There is only One true Creator (a Trinity in fact), He who designed the heavens and the earth, and all that is within it. His desire for man was that man might have free will; this would set him apart from all creation. It was the Creator's desire that man should choose 'Love'. Man's choice to Love would be the foundation of a perfect, infinite world, someday.  

 

To accommodate free will, darkness was introduced as well. Darkness comes in many forms, but is anything that "exalts itself above the Most High God."

 

Religion was screwed up to begin with in Haiti when slaves were forced to practice the Catholicism of their masters. It is no wonder voodoo was introduced and "married to" the catholic church of that era and environment. It was by accident that this 'marriage' was the primary leverage that led to the unification of the overall slave population and the ensuing revolution that led to Haiti's independence.

 

The voodoo influence led to a nation dedicated to Satan. It’s in the history books under Boukman.

 

Two hundred years later we witness Haiti as the poorest nation (materially) in the Western Hemisphere. But to witness her personally, intimately, one would quickly agree, she is the richest spiritually. 

 

Most Haitians would agree, the glory days are over for voodoo. Most Haitians would also agree that any progress that has strengthened the nation and its people has come from Western Christian influence. Most Haitians would also agree that voodoo has intimidated and held the population captive to exploitation. Haiti is little more than a slave state now, as it is.

 

Those who are finding true liberty are finding it through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. For whom the Son sets free, that one is free indeed.