Animism and the Prosperity Gospel

I keep hearing, both first hand and from others, evidences of a theology of the prosperity Gospel creeping through the Thai church. Certainly not all Thai Christians think this way and I don’t want to overgeneralize but I hear enough of it to be concerned. By the term “prosperity gospel”, I mean this type of “Christian” teaching that tells people that God wants them to be healthy and wealthy, and to see health and wealth as sure signs of God’s blessing in their life. I grant that God’s gracious provision of good health and financial prosperity are blessings from God but Biblically speaking, the pursuit of these things should not be the goal of the Christian life (1 Tim 6:10 “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil”) but rather, we should be content with what we have (Phil 4:10-13), and trust God to provide for our needs as we make obedience and faithfulness to God our primary concern (Matt. 6:33).

In many Thai churches, part of the worship service is a time for people to get up and give testimonies of God working in their lives in during the past week. There is certainly a place for praising God for giving physical healing, helping in times of financial difficulty, and other practical matters. But when these are nearly exclusively the types of praises that people are giving, then there is a problem. I asked an elderly Thai Christian, who has been a believer for twenty to thirty years, “Since you became a Christian, how have you seen God change your life?” He replied, “I was rather poor but now I am lower middle class.” I was hoping for more but that was it! I was talking with a fellow missionary who told me about the weekly “testimonies” of a church elder at the church where she and her husband worship. I know this church elder personally and he is a very kind grandfatherly type of man who in many ways is a great blessing to that church. However, at the same time, he is getting up in the worship service each week telling the people how God has blessed him financially, flashing money and new electronic gadgets as evidences of God’s blessing.

When I hear Thai believers who talk about God’s blessings in almost entirely financial terms, I can’t help but think of the prosperity gospel from the West which is making in roads in Thai churches. However, I also wonder if the animist mindset which saturates Thai culture is also influencing their thinking. On paper, Thailand is a Buddhist country but in practice, Thai Buddhists worship a variety of spirits and angelic beings. They are just as likely to seek help from a psychic, spirit medium, or a spirit reputed to be living in a large tree, as they are to seek help from a Buddhist monk. And Thai animistic Buddhism is a very practical religion. It entirely focused around seeking religious and spiritual solutions to everyday practical problems. There is no concern about glorifying or obeying any superior being other than doing a certain set of prescribed rituals in order to bring about a certain desired result - whether that be passing the university entrance exam, getting your husband to stop drinking, or being more successful in your business ventures. It is all about getting the spirits to help you pursue your own ideas of what a happy and prosperous life should look like. The variety of spirits don’t have any overarching plan or rules or priorities for how you should live your life or what the purpose of your life is. They are merely powers to be bargained with to get what you want. Seeing that this is the focus of animistic practice, I wonder if this mindset gets carried over into the church as Thai Buddhists become Thai Christians. In the animistic practice that they were used to, certain rituals were performed in order to bring the desired blessings. Now that one has become a Christian, are Christian rituals (such as going to church, tithing, singing worship songs, serving on the church committee) substituted in an ongoing pursuit of one’s own idea of a happy prosperous life without concern for what God desires or what God’s plan is for a their life? God desires to be glorified through repentance from sin, belief in Christ, and God-honoring living, exemplified in honesty, integrity, kindness, forgiveness, and reconciled relationships. But it seem that some view godliness (in this case, going through the outward motions of Christianity) as a means of financial gain (1 Tim 6:5).

Again, I am not sure where the unBiblical thinking is coming from, whether it be a heretical Western “Christian” religiousity or the remaining baggage from an unchallenged animistic worldview. Either way, the result is the same, and the Biblical faith is twisted into a pursuit of health, wealth, and one’s own ideas about what life should be like, and not about what God wants. The tragedy is that the joy and freedom of living in Christ is much more valuable than any worldly wealth or ideas of the happy life, but many don’t have the eyes or hearts to see it.

Same Words, Different Worlds

Have you ever been talking with someone and just feel like you’re not communicating? You’re speaking the same language but somehow you’re not understanding each other and the whole conversation feels like ships passing in the night? You are on the same page, reading the same words, but getting totally different things out of it?

One of the challenges of communicating the Gospel in Thailand is what I am going to call the “definition gap”. The definition gap occurs when two people are speaking the same language and using the same words but loading totally different meanings into those words. It’s as if I start telling you about a guy named “Bob”, meaning my next door neighbor. But you think I am talking about Bill Murray’s character named “Bob” in the movie “What about Bob?”. We are both talking about “Bob” but meaning two totally different things.

In Thailand, both missionaries and Thai Christians use words like “God”, “sin”, “heaven”, and “hell” to share the Gospel but what Thai Buddhists understand by these words is usually completely different. The word used for “God” (พระเจ้า) is also commonly used to talk about the king, not to mention any variety of other gods or spirits. “Sin” (บาป) is popularly construed as killing animals, and is not defined in relation to the Creator God to whom we are responsible. Heaven and hell are sometimes not understood as being literal places as seen in the idiom, “Heaven is in your chest, and hell is in your heart” (สวรรค์อยู่ในอก นรกอยู่ในใจ) which means that this life is either heaven or hell depending upon what you make of it. Even when heaven and hell are seen as literal places, they are not final destinations in Buddhist thinking. Once you pay off enough karma in hell, you can be reborn in the human world. And when you finish paying off that last little bit of karma that has followed you along to heaven, then you can move on to the next spiritual rebirth and finally blink out of existence by reaching Nirvana. Can you see how problems of understanding can, and often do happen when Christians use words that Buddhists understand in a totally different way? The tragedy here is that well meaning Christians assume that when they use certain words, that the Buddhist listener will automatically fill in that word with the Christian meaning. However, it is completely unrealistic to assume that someone completely unfamiliar with the Bible and the Christian faith will assume the Biblical meaning of sin when the word “sin” (or บาป in Thai) is employed. Would it not be a better assumption that my Buddhist listener will think of the Buddhist concept of sin when the Christian starts talking about sin?

If I fail to explain the Biblical meaning of sin, comparing it and contrasting it to the meaning of sin presumed by my listener, then I have no idea what my listener is really understanding. And sharing the Gospel is not about using certain words as if those words magically create understanding of the Gospel when used. Even in English, if I talk to a non-Christian about “being washed in the blood of the Lamb” or “the imputation of righteousness” or “the substitutionary atonement of Christ”, I am going to get a lot of confused looks. Those phrases all have specific meaning for me, but if the listener doesn’t know the technical and precise understanding that I am pouring into those words, then I am wasting my breath. Sharing the Gospel is about creating understanding so that the truth about God, the truth about self, and the truth about the world is laid bare in a way that is UNDERSTOOD. If understanding doesn’t happen, then true communication has not happened and the Biblical Gospel has not been heard.

The fact that there has been this “definition gap” in Gospel communication in Thailand has gone unnoticed in many parts of the church in Thailand. Christian amnesia kicks in and Christians forget how they thought and what they believed before they were Christians. Hence, they use common terms with a new Christian meaning and assume that their Buddhist friends and neighbors are going to “get it”. The problem is more severe for those who have grown up in the church, and have learned the Christian meaning of these terms from an early age. And then you have missionaries who presume that because they say baap (บาป), the Thai word for sin, then their Thai Buddhist hearers will know what they are talking about. I admit that I myself at times have fallen into the later category, not realizing that I was not communicating what I thought I was communicating. Actually, I may still be doing it at times because I am still learning what exactly it is that people are thinking and how their worldview works. And studying Buddhism in the classroom has not been the complete answer either because what is in the books and what the guy on the street actually believe and do are often different.

A number of missionaries have been concerned about this “definition gap” or problem in message contextualization as it may also be called. And now there are some Thai pastors and church leaders who are becoming concerned as well. At the upcoming Thailand Protestant Congress on Evangelism, the following video spot will be shown, inviting Thai church leaders to come discuss the problem of communicating the message of the Gospel in Thailand in ways that create understanding.

The speaker in the video above is Rev. Bantoon Boon-it of Suebsamphantawong Church in Bangkok. For non-Thai speakers, the gist of the video is this: Communication is made up of information and relationship. Pastor Bantoon says, ‘If I ask my wife for a glass of water but don’t have the right tone of voice, I might get a glass of water but she might not be so happy about it. If I ask a stranger for a glass of water, I might get the water but not as I would like because I don’t know the person. However, if I ask for a glass of water using the Latin word AQUA, it is not going to matter if I have a good relationship with the person I am asking because they are going to have no idea what I am talking about it they don’t know Latin.’ The point he is making is that although the Thai church has done a decent job of relating to people, yet somehow the Gospel is not getting through in many cases because of the ‘definition gap’ or a lack of message contextualization.

There are lots of contextualization issues to be addressed in Thailand (worship music, clothing, liturgy, architecture, etc.) but the most important is the Gospel. Is the content of the Gospel being preached, taught, and shared in a way that really creates understanding? Or are we creating confusion, or even worse swinging wide open the doors to syncretism and false conversions? Are we giving people the opportunity to paste Christian words onto their existing Buddhist animistic worldview, creating the impression of Christianity while leaving their former worldview intact? Form without substance. It is good to see this issue being brought up for discussion and I hope that a number of Thai Christian leaders will see the importance of getting the content of the Gospel right and taking the time figure out whether what they think they are communicating is actually getting through.

Worship on the High Places

Why is it that so many people like to worship on high places? This morning, a friend and I hiked up a steep mountain at the end of a peninsula in Prajuab province, Thailand. At the top, there was a glorious view of the surrounding area - ocean to the east, coast to the north and south, and distant mountains to the West in the direction of Burma. But on top of the mountain, there was also a small shrine to the Buddha’s footprint with accompanying Buddha images. Throughout Thailand, there are lots of shrines and yellow Buddhist prayer flags on the tops of hills and mountains. Every time I see them, I can’t help but think of the high places in the Old Testament that the Israelites worshipped on. When the Israelites worshipped on these high places, it was usually idolatrous worship in violation of the First Commandment (and probably the Second Commandment as well).

What is it about worshipping on top of a mountain that so many people find attractive? Does it make people feel closer to God (or whatever it is that they are worshipping)? I suspect that the animist peoples living all around Old Testament Israelites are not that dissimilar to modern Thai Buddhists in that both regard certain spots as more sacred than others, especially high places. In fact, in looking around me, I am sure that many Thai regard some spots as more sacred and hence shrines and altars pop up in places that one would not always expect. Perhaps somehow more merit is earned in building a shrine on a mountain top than in a plain because it takes much more effort to lug all the building materials up the mountain. Some shrines and temples have long long staircases going up to the top so that worshippers can earn merit through merely walking up that oppressively long flight of stairs.

As a worshipper of the Lord Jesus Christ, I rejoice in the glory of God that I see through the things that he has created. The view from the top of the mountain this morning was especially beautiful and was wonderful testimony to the creativity and power of the Lord of heaven and earth. I also rejoice that God is present in all places and that I do not need to climb a mountain or walk up hundreds of steps to be closer to God. Instead, I humble myself in the knowledge that none of my efforts will carry me up to the heavens to God, but only the Lord Jesus Christ who came down from heaven can bring me up to heaven on that final day.

What's So Amazing About Buddhism?

I was talking with the headmaster of a local school and after confirming his suspicion that I was a missionary, he affirmed that all religions are good. I agreed to this in so far as religion teaches you to be a good person. In Thai thinking, religion is mainly about ethical teaching, namely how to be good. So to the extend that all religions teach you be basically a good person, I can agree to that. Buddhism says to have compassion on people and not get drunk. That's great. But, of course, the essence of the Gospel is not a command to "be good".

The headmaster went on, however, to say that Thai people really want to see or experience something extraordinary or spectacular. I think that he was implying that religious ethical teaching (of whatever variety) is all well and fine but not all that interesting. What really catches the average person's interest is the amazing or the spectacular. This was a fascinating comment and I decided to see how far we could run with this. I posed the question in reply, "So, in your opinion, what is really amazing in Buddhism?" He looked up at the sky for a moment and then came right back, enthusiastically declaring, "Amulets and charms that protect you from harm. You know, the ones that you hear about in the news. Someone gets in a horrific car accident and they come out unscathed. The reporter asks, 'How did you make it out alive from this?' and the guy proudly clutches the amulet from around his neck and says, 'This saved me'" Now I have to admit that getting out of a horrible car accident without a scratch is pretty amazing but, as I tried to point out to the headmaster, the people who die horrible deaths and suffer great tragedy with the very same amulet don't make the news. I don't know if my Thai wasn't very clear or if he wasn't so interested in that fact, but I don't remember getting much of a response.

We talked briefly about the Jatukam amulet that was so popular a couple years ago but is hard to find now (it didn't make people as rich as they had hoped) and then I thought I would offer my thoughts about what is so amazing about Christianity. There are many directions that I could have gone with this as there are lots of people bearing the name Christian who claim miraculous healings, resurrections from the dead, or a picture of the Virgin Mary in their bowl of noodles. However, what I said to him was, "There is something very amazing in Christianity that maybe some people don't think is amazing. Normally, we only sacrifice and do good things for those who love us and care for us. If someone hates us and despises us, it is highly unlikely that we will be motivated to help them at all. But what is totally amazing is that Jesus Christ died for people who hated him. We are all sinners and have not honored God as we should, walking in our own way, but it is for people who don't want God that Jesus died for. Who would voluntarily die for someone who hated him?"

The conversation didn't go much of anywhere after that because the headmaster seemed to lose interest and changed the topic. Perhaps I wasn't seeker sensitive enough or didn't cater to felt needs properly. As I figure it though, if the Holy Spirit is doing something in his heart, he would at least be curious about this amazing Jesus and why he'd die for those who hate him. Maybe he will be curious eventually, if he remembers and thinks about it later on. All things in God's timing. As I told the headmaster at the beginning of our conversation, I don't force anything on anybody but respect all. If people want to talk about religion, that's great. If they don't, that's okay too. We went on to discuss other things in a friendly manner but I would have been glad if he had pursued the amazing Jesus topic of conversation.

The Buddha's Footprint

After four months in the United States, we have finally arrived back in Thailand again. On our taxi ride from the Bangkok airport, I chatted with our Thai driver and caught up on the local weather and politics (apparently there is a new prime minister and I did not know it). Our driver asked what we were doing in Thailand and where we lived so I had an opportunity to ask him about the Temple of the Buddha’s Footprint, the focal point of the town that we call home here in Thailand. Something I have never understood about the shrine to the Buddha’s footprint at this temple is why the footprint is about four feet long. Surely people couldn’t believe that the Buddha’s foot was four feet long, could they? If his foot was that big, then certainly the rest of him must have been of gigantic proportions. The only other time I had asked Thai people about it, they had replied that you need to have faith. I am a man of faith and I believe many things that seem incredible but faith must also have some reason to it as well. If the man that is historically identified as the Buddha was of normal proportions, then certainly he must have a normal size foot. So, I asked our driver about this mysteriously large footprint and got a rather satisfying answer, that helped me to understand how it is that Thai Buddhists understand this abnormally large sacred footprint.

Our driver explained that whatever the Buddha touched or stepped on was sacred. Some of those common objects that were rendered sacred by the Buddha’s touch have been preserved and because of their great holiness and power, have come to be reverenced by people. In the case of the Buddha’s four foot long foot print in our town, the stone upon which the Buddha originally trod must have grown in size over time because of its sacredness. Hence, piecing together what I learned from our driver’s explanation, it seems that pilgrims to the Temple of the Buddha’s Footprint regard the supernatural size of the footprint as evidence of its great sacredness. And therefore, it is a particularly good spot to make offerings, earn merit, and gain good karma.

In many ways, our Thai driver’s explanation of the sacredness of the Buddha’s footprint reminded me of the traditional Roman Catholic understanding of relics. A bone fragment or scrap of clothing from one of the saints is held in particular esteem because it belonged to a holy person and therefore it is able to aid one to come closer to God. In both cases however, no physical object is able to bring a person closer to God as interesting as that object might be because of it’s association with a famous person. Only Jesus Christ can bring a person into right relationship with God. “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:5) and “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them... For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:19,21)

Bothered by Evil Spirits

A fellow missionary friend here in Thailand recently shared the following story about the influence of evil spirits on Thai people and I think that those of you who pray for us and for the Thai people will find his story insightful. He writes:

"In the west, we often don't think much of what it would be like to be under the domination of spirits. Fear and manipulation of spirits is a constant theme for many Thai.

Late yesterday afternoon, I got a phone call from one of the church members. He was at the church with a high ranking military officer and his wife, who were asking for prayer [although neither of them are Christians]. She claimed that someone had hired various spirit doctors to possess and attack her. She reported having various visions that I'd rather not go into, and that the spirits were taunting her and telling her she was going to die. There was a look in her eye of emptiness and fear, and her husband had a deep look of concern in his face. As we prepared to pray for her, he asked if he should take off his amulets, and we said yes. He proceeded to take off 4 or 5 necklaces filled with amulets and talismans - one necklace with about 15 small amulets, another with 3 or 4 large amulets, and so on. Some of these amulets are no doubt very expensive - but they are only the tip of the iceberg of spirit involvement of Thai people, not just in the military, but from every walk of life (including many teachers). This military officer may have more amulets than the average person, but most Thai have at least one, and they are almost all involved in spirit rituals and paraphenalia.

A recent craze in Thailand illustrates this: A temple in Southern Thailand issued a special release of a particular talisman that is common in that city. Thousands of people crushed in trying to 'rent' these amulets at a 'bargain' price; several people died in the crush. "In one day alone ... the amulet trade produced no less than 100 million baht [over 2.8 million dollars] throughout Nakhon Si Thammarat province [primarily featuring this one amulet]" (Matichon Weekend, cover story, 13-19 April 2007).

I could go on and on about the grip that Satan has on the hearts of Thai people through the spirits. Please pray for us as we preach the freedom found only in Jesus Christ. Please pray for the Thai church as they stand against the lies and attacks of the enemy. Please pray for the Thai people who are under the bondage of spirits, many trying to manipulate the spirits. Please pray for this couple, that they may relinquish all ties to the spirit world and come under the one true Lord, Jesus Christ. "

Idol Madness

We recently took a field trip to Southern Thailand to check out a potential ministry opportunity in Nakorn Sri Thammarat province and, among other things, we observed how much the people there are into a particular amulet called Jat-Tu-Kham-Rama-Thep. In fact, the amulet comes from Nakon Sri Thammarat and is so immensely popular right now that people come from all over the country to buy up these amulets and resell them at a 30-60 fold profit. Jat-tu-kham, unlike a lot of other amulets, is not a Buddha image but is an image of an ancient king of Nakon Sri Thammarat who has been elevated to divine, or angelic, status. Every place in Nakon is selling these things - restaurants, beauty shops, malls, convenience stores - everyplace. It's idol madness, really.

Something really notable about the Jat-tu-kham, besides the fact that it is so immensely popular with Thai people, is the probable reason why it is so popular. I recently read an article in a Thai national newspaper's weekly magazine that said the Jat-tu-kham amulets are popular because what the amulet promises corresponds to Thai people's current needs - i.e. the desire to have money and get rich! The economy is down and people want something to help them make money (or get rich, perhaps). Listen to some of the names of the different editions (or models) of the amulet that have been produced: "Money Rolls In", "Money Rolls In 2, Special Edition", "Gold Pours In", "Rich to the Skies", "Creates Wealth", "Creates Luck", and so forth.

The difference between worshipping something like Jat-tu-kham-rama-thep and the Living God of the Bible is this: People who hang the Jat-tu-kham amulet around their neck do not do so out of a sincere love for Jat-tu-kham or because of the excellent and praiseworthy attributes of Jat-tu-kham. The amulet is a tool. Use the tool to get what you want. In this case, money. If the tool doesn't work, you move on and find a new tool. The God of the Bible, however, is not a tool to be used. He is the Almighy Holy Creator who is to be worship because He is God and there is no other. If God does not give us what we want, we do not move on and pragmatically find some other god that will. Like Job, we confess that "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the Lord". And like David in the 23rd Psalm, we throw ourselves upon the Good Shepherd who will lead us to still waters although we must first pass through the valley of the shadow of death, by the grace of our Lord. God doesn't remove the bad times, but helps us through them.

It pains me to see people pinning their hope on something that can not help - in this case a round piece of hardened clay in a shiny little case hanging around their neck. The popularity of this amulet and the vast numbers of people who believe it will help them drives me to pray more diligently that God will open people's eyes and change their heart to put their hope in the Living God and in our Savior Jesus Christ who, while not promising riches, promises that he will walk with us through all of life's difficulties and sustain us until we reach our heavenly home.

Jatukhamramathep amulets for sale in a Thai shop (photo credit: www.jatukarm.com)