Book - Muslims, Magic and the Kingdom of God
I said that I wanted to read more, so yesterday I finally finished my first book of the year. Pity I started it about two months ago! I saw Rick speak back in October at the National Vineyard Missions Conference in Colorado Springs. He was involved with Frontiers, but is now tied in with the Vineyard Missions Task Force. Rick is dealing with a peoples group that he calls "folk Muslims" - those that are doctrinally Muslim but practically animist. As Rick writes: "Folk Muslims confess Allah but worship spirits and are more concerned with magic than with Muhammad". According the the book, more than three quarters of the world's Muslim population are folk Muslims.The book was interesting, although slow in some parts. What got me thinking was how many people in the west would be considered "folk Christians"? Throughout the book, Rick points out the disconnect between what people say, and what their actions are. For example, there seems to be no contradiction for this people group to claim that there are no other god's than Allah and at the same time be a part of a "spirit feast" where they attempt to appease the spirits - or other gods of the world. I wonder if we deal with the same thing within our own culture. There was one quote in the book that really got me thinking:
I got thinking about these religious rituals. We may not have the same types of "religious ritual" in our culture as with folk Muslims (although, I have seen and heard of some of this in several contexts here in the states), but we do have ritual's. It got me thinking about the things that I do, the rituals in my life and how they correspond to my stated Christian beliefs. Where are the disconnects in my life? Where am I hypocritical? I think that last sentence is the litmus test for us. It's not what we say we believe, it is actions - the rituals of our lives, that truly show our faith.. LinkEffective church planters must understand these broad social functions of religious ritual. However, their primary concern should be to understand ritual as it relates to folk Muslims' perspective of the spirit realm. In this sense, ritual is "the heart of religious behavior...'the meat which goes on the bones of...beliefs'". To understand a people's religious ritual is to comprehend what they really believe. (page 178 - italics mine)
