Cursed Days and Infected Objects?

A couple quick reads hit me within an hour of each other.

#1. The Altar of Confession in Vatican City had to have a penitential rite to resacralize it after a man jumped up on it naked as a political move to support Ukraine in the war.

#2. I was taken care of some business here in Baguio, and I saw a document on the back wall of the business. The title of it is “Solemn Act of Disownment of Infected Objects.” I looked it up and it is a prayer done to disconnect from objects that have had a curse placed on them.

Of course, this sort of thing comes up here in Asia, and not just in Christianity. Back in 2012 I remember a Muslim Prayer Room at a Malaysian resort was torn down and rebuilt because a Buddhist group had a prayer and meditation time in that space.

The two at the top were Catholic practices, but Evangelicals seem just as prone to some of this. Many groups do Prayer Walks, and commonly this is done not simply to get some exercise and to pray thoughtfully , but it is commonly viewed by many that they are “praying down territorial spirits” or “spiritual strongholds.” Some would say that this is Charismatic or Pentecostal practices, and that mainstream Evangelicals do not do this. However, I have known many Evangelicals and Fundamentalists who believe that certain days are forever tainted. For some, Christmas is not a celebration of the birth of Christ, but a Pagan Festival, Saturnalia, even though that was not when Saturnalia was actually held. Some do the same thing with Easter seeing it as a pagan festival. More common than these are those who see All Hallows Eve, as a day for demons (“Samhain”). Certain others will embrace a certain

What does one do with all of these.

One can simply reject all of this as “Silly Superstion.” That is a valid option.Often more common is to pick and choose. Certain practices feel weird and are rejected, but others may “make more sense” because they kind of fit with their own faith tradition.Others take a more non-critical position and accept things quite generally.

My Reflections:

I know many missionaries who came to Asia or to Africa with a very Western, critical, and secular-Christian perspective. As they have served in more “pagan” or animistic settings, they come face to farce with the spirit world manifest in ways that defy their own worldview.

I have to admit that this hasn’t really happened to me. On occasion I have seen interesting things, but none that have forced me to rethink my only belief.

And yet… I don’t want to be that person who becomes so bound in their own perspective that they are blinded to what is, potentially, out there. Good theology always has a good dose of mystery in it.

With that in mind, I have a few principles that I TENTATIVELY hold to at this time.

Skepticism is good and healthy up to a point. Doubting a curse is probably right most of the time… maybe all of the time.However, I should never become so locked into my own views that I find myself with nothing new to learn.People’s experiences matter as well as their interpretations of their experiences. Experiences are power regardless of its reality or the correctness of its interpretation. I should never be quick to discount or undermine these (anymore than I want my experiences or interpretations trampled on.)IF there is validity to this sort of thing, then redemption must always be part of the theology. Thus maybe a repurification or resacralization should be part of such a theology. Disowning sounds more questionable, but it at least seems to honor a form of self-purification even if it seems to assume that the cursed object cannot be redeemed. Generational bondage is similar to the idea of disowning. If it were not for the fact that the Bible explicitly rejects generational bondage, I might argue that it also sits in a gray zone like disowning. The most clearly flawed view of all, in my view is the idea of cursed days. This is built on the idea that certain days have “pagan roots” and so are permanently under the control of demons or Satan. Any view that a day or a place is nonredeemable by God must be rejected as completely unChristian. All the views above are subject to change. Doubt is not disbelief, and my strongest doubt is in my own omniscience.