The video is out there: search for "Bishop Thomas Muthee" or just look at this blog that has the clip.
She wasn't "healed" -- he prayed that she'd win her gubernatorial race. She did. The laying on of hands is an important aspect of Pentecostal faith and it isn't a secret that she's at least been to Pentecostal services.
I don't have headphones at work today (never loan anything to interns. Hmph.) but my sense from the video is that it would be hard to characterize her role as more than "being a good sport"--it isn't like she went and sought out his healing hands.
More to the point, though, I take issue with the characterization of Muthee as a "witch doctor" -- technically is praying that she'll be protected from witchcraft.
I think it is hard to talk about one set of irrational religious practices without calling them all into question. Imagine Rosh Hashanah services taken out of context -- blowing into horns and bowing and chanting in a foreign tongue. Think about the Catholic sacrament of Communion -- lining up like birds to receive some stale cracker? These religious practices only seem normal to us because we've been exposed to them before.
Religious pluralism ought to go beyond faiths that start with the Old Testament, and shaministic prayer that combines Christianity with traditional animism is part of that pluralism.
2 comments:
Wow, how have we not seen this yet? Is that considered not-ok for TV or something?
The video is out there: search for "Bishop Thomas Muthee" or just look at
this blog that has the clip.
She wasn't "healed" -- he prayed that she'd win her gubernatorial race. She did. The laying on of hands is an important aspect of Pentecostal faith and it isn't a secret that she's at least been to Pentecostal services.
I don't have headphones at work today (never loan anything to interns. Hmph.) but my sense from the video is that it would be hard to characterize her role as more than "being a good sport"--it isn't like she went and sought out his healing hands.
More to the point, though, I take issue with the characterization of Muthee as a "witch doctor" -- technically is praying that she'll be protected from witchcraft.
I think it is hard to talk about one set of irrational religious practices without calling them all into question. Imagine Rosh Hashanah services taken out of context -- blowing into horns and bowing and chanting in a foreign tongue. Think about the Catholic sacrament of Communion -- lining up like birds to receive some stale cracker? These religious practices only seem normal to us because we've been exposed to them before.
Religious pluralism ought to go beyond faiths that start with the Old Testament, and shaministic prayer that combines Christianity with traditional animism is part of that pluralism.
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