traditional indian songs bring demons??? WTF??

[The Straight Story]

Zealotry: A growing danger to American freedom

Posted: May 12, 2005
by: Editors Report / Indian Country Today
When the spiritual love of Jesus turns into ''the dogma of Christ politicus,'' it is a dangerous moment for America. This is happening at an alarming rate and in weirder and weirder forms by the week. Somewhere along the line we hope the broader range of Christian open-minded and moderate thinking will prevail in the public discourse. The signs of the times, however, seem ominous and dark indeed.

Witness Rev. Chan Chandler of the East Waynesville Baptist Church in North Carolina, who kicked out nine members from his own congregation because they voted as Democrats and did not support George W. Bush for president. During last year's presidential campaign, Chandler told his congregation that those who would vote for Democratic Sen. John Kerry should repent or leave his church, according to one member who was forced out.

Witness the Baptist deacon of a California congregation who told the Lakota family of Muriel Waukazoo, who wanted a drum group to accompany their mother's funeral, that the traditional Indian songs could not be tolerated because ''drumming brings the demons.''

Witness Bush getting the nod from the Catholic Church hierarchy, which essentially endorsed him when it allowed then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, to urge bishops to consider the denial of Holy Communion to Catholic politicians (i.e. John Kerry) who endorsed a pro-choice position on abortion rights for women.

http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096410911

[Shoeempress]

1. Drums bring demons?

Doesn't he know if you are taking drugs it is only polite to bring enough for everyone? You know, like gum.

[The Straight Story]

3. I don't even know how to comment on it

This is just downright weird. I am starting to wonder about the mental health of some of these people in power in the church....

[MountainLaurel]

8. Not particularly surprising

Considering that these folks think yoga is Satan's tool for recruiting clean, christian youth into idol-worshipping Eastern religions.

[hecate77]

16. Drums break brainwashing. Can't have that now, can we?

They need people to stay in their stupor of mindless allegience to what ever pap the minister feeds them. Anything that would actually get their spirit moving is right out of the question.

[demnan]

2. This shows how ignorant and primitive this man's thinking is

They should have any music they want for someone's funeral. Jesus never said squat about that.

The Crucible . . . coming to a small town near you.

[phaseolus]

4. The "logic" behind it goes something like this:

Drums were traditionally used in African music in pre-Christian and pre-Islamic times, survived in cultures that never adopted those religions, and drumming found its way into the New World with slaves. Some of these Africans worshipped spirits called Orishas, which must be demons because they're not Christian. Any music tracing its lineage to Africa (blues, Rock 'n Roll, essentially anything worth listening to) is therefore evil, and of the devil. And pretty much anything that uses drums needs to be condemned, for good measure.

Q.E.D.

Just for giggles, see the collected works of Texe Marrs for lots of theorizing like this. It's funny.

[onager]

9. Marrs is hilarious!

Penn & Teller had him on an episode of their Showtime show, Bullshit!

He claimed Hillary Clinton was not only a witch and a lesbian, but displayed all the attributes of the Antichrist but one--she was female, and the Buy-bull clearly says the AC is male.

Marrs sounded really disappointed about that.

A quick google turned up some of his nonsense about how Xians, not Jews, are really the Chosen People because the criteria is "faith, not blood."

[H2O Man]

13. Closely related .....

In this case, of course, the subject is Lakota drumming, which has a role in various ceremonies that is also from ancient times. The minister is apparently aware that some songs are known for calling the spirits, so to speak. He is confused in that he thinks this has anything to do with his inner demons.

[peacetalksforall]

5. Next time...bringing a drum.

I'll take a drum over gun shots and bombs falling or Bush murdering the language and people or Cheney drone-speaking or Rumsfeld asking himself questions.

Drums are sacred - and a method of communication.

But christians link them to the devil?

[The Straight Story]

6. SOME christians

I am a christian and don't link em that way :)

[peacetalksforall]

11. I use christians with a lower case c for fundamentalists. I use

Christian for you.

[Tux]

7. What don't Christians link to the Devil?

My uncle thinks Atheism is Satanic. My aunt thinks Buddhists are cold to people since Buddhists try to be aware of their thoughts/feelings. Nothing surprises me anymore. Next, Christians will claim Linux as a godless pagan religion.

[H2O Man]

14. A funny thing

is to even go backand read the things the rabid religious right wrote about the Beatles in the 1960s. A number of self-appointed experts wrote about exactly what phaseolus writes in post #4: that the appeal of the communist, demonic Beatles came through "little Ringo," with his African drum beat.

Aldous Huxley wrote that "no man, however highly civilized, can listen for very long to African drumming or Welsh hymn singing and retain intact his critical and self-conscious personality." Heaven forbid that some uptight nerd feel the urge to tap his toes to the tune of a Beatle record. I think Huxley was hinting it is a good thing.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. Not an uncommon thing

I used to attend an Episcopal church whose members include a Navaho family. The teenage daughter went on a Baptist-led volunteer mission to Mexico, and her grandmother back on the Navaho reservation sent her a medicine bundle to wear around her neck for good luck on the journey.

She made the mistake of telling a fellow participant about the medicine bundle, and from then on, she came under a lot of pressure to destroy it, because according to the other kids and the group leaders, she was bringing a "demonic" object into their midst. Fortunately, she stood her ground.

More enlightened churches welcome Native spirituality, seeing it as just another variation in humanity's quest for the Infinite and Unknowable. My church in Portland hosted a Native American parish called Church of the Four Winds until they moved on to their own building.

After the Red Lake shootings, my church here sponsored a service of healing for the Native American community of the Twin Cities. The church was decorated with banners representing the Four Directions, and drummers and chanters opened the service.

[toddaa]

12. WTF indeed

It's not enough that we wholesale slaughter Indians, rip their children from arms, and take away their lands. No, we have to trash their holiest rituals and caste their lot with the devil too. Sometimes, my race sickens me.

Here's an interesting fact that eludes the religous bigots. Did you know that American Indians are the only culture that play a communal drum?

[Nikia]

15. I was told at my Church of Christ

That any form of spirituality that isn't Biblical is potentially demonic.

[Dcitizen]

17. Monk or politician?

Choosing life of genuine servant for God should be for Him, not for a politician. The churches have had a lot of their own nightmare problems, and extreme shaky image for the past years. Vatican must pay subtantial money for many law suits about sex scandals of priests, and Church goers have blamed for evils residing among these churches. No evidence that Vatican involved with or ordered anything to political bishops. Priests did on their own way.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

18. I know some sacred Lakota songs

they say things like "All Things Are Sacred", pray to the spirits, ask for protection and help. I have been in inipis (sweatlodge ceremonies) where healing has taken place. I have heard Jesus prayed to in the lodge, and no one was struck down.

The only demons are those created by people who would create them in their narrow concept of the world. And those demons are only harmful to them.