Toxic Concepts I (Un)Learned from Church - The Devil is in the Unknown
This post is a part of a larger series, which can be viewed here.Let me tell you about one of my favorite people on this side of the sphere: Ebony Janice of the Free People project. In addition to her vlogs, justice work, and philanthropy, Ebony Janice is the author of a few books. #PutyourfriendsonFridayThe point is that in one of these books she coins the term #ChristianDemonicFilter. This is the notion that everything that is not EXPLICITLY in the Bible with EXPLICIT EXPLICITNESS in all EXPLICITRY... is not just unknown... it's demonic.And anyone who grow up under the influence of folks who interpreted the Bible literally knows exactly what I'm talking about:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5YoMELOozMUnder this type of teaching, you begin to (either ignorantly or arrogantly) think that the only acceptable spiritual practices happen within the confines of Evangelical Christianity.
This post is not intended to debate on whether malevolent forces are real. It's to share a personal understanding: the devil, demons, and / or malevolent forces are not involved in every thing we do not OR willingly refuse to... understand.When I was in high school, there was a "minister" who came to prominence by the name of G. Craig Lewis and Ex Ministries. In high school Bible study, we watched one of Lewis' dvds (lol) in which he posited that hip hop music & artists were demonic. As in... literally transferring demons through our "ear gate".Ya'll think I'm kidding. I can feel it through the computer screen. Yes, this is a real dude. Yes, he really taught such drivel. And yes... this was the topic of an entire high school Bible study. #IdontlooklikewhatIbeenthrough (LOL).It seems far-fetched now, but I can see how this type of teaching came to prominence at the time. It was the time where everything, anything could be cause to cry out "Demonic"! And unfortunately, some of this rhetoric still persists. It often confounds me.https://www.facebook.com/terrynredd/posts/10112928424670214?pnref=storyhttps://www.facebook.com/terrynredd/posts/10112928704624184?pnref=storyFor more on this, consult Bartlett's 2006 work, Rachel Pollack's 1998 work, and Katz & Goodwin's 2015 works (to name a few).https://www.facebook.com/terrynredd/posts/10112929196179104?pnref=storyAs a note, if it was not clear, these same spaces are where some of our chakra centers are!Given this logic, we could also have an entire conversation here on the ideas of cultural arrogance / dominance that comes from Christian religious privilege. Because these are practices that have also been in place for thousands of years. For now, I will say that this is a thing... and folks have to do better about acknowledging it - and fixing it.According to this logic, there are thousands of trap doors - thousands of levers that the enemy can pull. So, as you can imagine, this gives way to a dominating fear... a fear that renders people incapable of exploring anything outside of their own understandings of the Bible (oooorrr their pastor's understanding).This simply wasn't a sustainable way to live for me. The concept was toxic because it bred fear, constant penance, and even a bit of arrogance. And this is not the type of person, I believe, we are actualized in the earth to be.I've benefited from a variety of spiritual practices through the years but in the past 3 years I have been increasingly vocal about it. My friends will tell you, if you come into my home with low vibes... we're doing an aura cleansing at the door. Saging or burning palo santo happens at least once a week in my home and as we speak, my crystal is charged to assist me in the work I'm doing on my crown chakra.I've learned to sit in meditation and it's absolutely necessary and non-negotiable for me to do this. It calms me, grounds me, helps me remember why I'm here. And I do all of this in addition to prayer and other forms of charismatic spiritual practice I grew up with in the nondenominational (but Pentecostal-leaning) Black church (the irony is that those things aren't spelled out literally in the Bible either... they are a product of cultural / ancestral lineage i.e. shouting, "catching" the Holy Ghost, etc). These aren't necessarily "new" practices for me - it's simply that for a while, I had to go through the process of being unbothered. It is through pursuing these practices that I have found no slippery slope - simply more expressions of & languages for the Divine / G-d in my life!This year, I decided to fully embrace the things that once caused me inordinate (and unnecessary) amounts of fear. I decided to trust that God was within me; that God would guide to me the things that served me... and away from the things that would harm me. This year, I decided to pursue the "spiritual technologies" that called out to me the most (Lomax, 2016).Through reading & speaking with various ministers & healers, I also began to understand a bit more about my social location as a Black American Christian. Perhaps you can imagine my *mind-blown* moment, when I realized that in a not-so-distant-past, Black ministers were often diviners as well. There was room for spiritual syncretism (and there still is, in many traditions). For example, in the 1997 text Conjure and Christianity in the Nineteenth Century: Religious Elements in African American Magic, Chireau unpacks:
"For generations, magic has persisted in black culture, often obscured but deemed compatible with other spiritual traditions. Its widespread appeal is attested to by numerous accounts describing conjuring relics, supernatural rituals...among African American churchgoers. From slavery days to the present, practitioners and clients of the magical arts have moved freely across ecclesial boundaries, drawing copiously from the symbols and language of Christianity". (p. 226)
Yet, given all this, I don't think it's a coincidence that I've been asked "But are you still 'saved' (in the Evangelical sense)" more than enough this year. I've realized that this question is not necessarily about me and that it is, to some level, socialized into people. On an individual level, there will be (and are) practices that we may be uncomfortable with. However, I think it's time to (at least) consider that there's toxicity in believing that everything unknown, unexplored through evangelical Christian lenses or fundamental Christian lenses = demonic.Read the rest of the 'toxic concepts' series here.Additional Resources:Yvonne Patricia Chireau. (1997). "Conjure And Christianity In The 19th Century: Religious Elements In African American Magic". Religion And American Culture. Volume 7, Issue 2. 225-246. http://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-religion/38Lomax, T. A. (2016). “Technology of Living” Toward a Black Feminist Religious Thought. The Black Scholar, 46(2), 19-32.