Is Your Christianity Superstitious?

The much maligned black cat

I was in Southern India several years ago and noticed an odd thing about most of the small children there: They all had little red strings tied around their bellies. These toddlers who were just learning to walk and run around were most often stark naked, save these shoelace-sized red bands tied around their middles.

I asked our host what they were for, and he replied rather matter-of-factly, “They are to keep the evil spirits away.”

Like many Asian countries, these Indians (even in Christian villages) observed ritual superstitions in order to ward off evil or bring good luck. In Thailand, for instance, every restaurant or business we entered had small shrines in the entryway with ornate ‘birdhouses’ with fresh food and drinks set before them. These, we found out, were to appease the evil spirits at the doorway and prevent them from entering the building.

It was kind of a demonic Passover. In the Western world, we may scoff at such petty superstitions, dismissing them as sophomoric or ignorant. Of course the world doesn’t work that way! We say from our lofty towers of science and reason. As Christians in the West, however, we must remember two things: That our culture—including our faith—is heavily postmodern and influenced by the Enlightenment in ways many third-world countries are not; and that we each have our own sets of superstitions which may not be as apparent as a red string or food shrine. Read More

Superstition is far more rife in our rationalist, humanist, secular, post-modern Western world than we may think. It is not confined to Christians or to other religionists.