Jon and Jen Quast Learning Language and Culture of Paraguay 
Sorry this article is out a couple of hours late. Unfortunately "Settlers of Catan" is a game that I’m not very good at, but my skills are enough to make for a really really really long game. Long story short, I lost the game, and it was no longer Friday night when we were finished…it was Saturday morning :)
Last week we unpacked the idea of Animism and some of the sadly unfortunate lies that people believe in that religious system. Most, if not all, unreached people groups in the world are at heart animists. However on the outside they me be adherants to an official reigion, such as Hinduism, Catholicism, or even Evanelical Christianity. When people continue the practice of animism in their hearts, but on the outside they look to be following another religion, that is called syncretism. Syncretism is simply the blending of two religious systems into one completely new system. While it has elements of both, it is neither. This is an incredibly complex situation when this happens, and can be extrememly hard to break through without being able to perceive it and target so specifically the problems that exist. It is very possible that the people group with whom we will engage in Paraguay will already have syncrtistic beliefs.
What are some examples of syncretism? In India some people who were told that the Bible was the Word of God started showing honor to Bible. In fact soon the people started becomming so attached to their Bibles they literally started taking it to bed with them at night. Good thing right? Wrong. The people thought that could protect themselves from malevolent spirits in the area by simply touching the Bible. If a spirit was going to harm them at night they wanted to be prepared by using the Bible as a pillow so that they would be protected all night. The words in the Bible were seen as irrelevant, the Bible was simply a protective charm.
That is a mild example of sycretism. A pastor in South America recounted to a missionary how he’d seen his grandfather earlier that day. This missionary was confused since the pastor’s grandfather had died several years earlier. The pastor then recounted how he had seen a fox hanging around his grandfather’s old house. That morning he had seen the fox sitting in the window sill. The pastor had concluded it must be his grandfather reincarnated as the fox. Not a big deal you say? The pastor believes in reincarnation, therefore he does not believe in an afterlife. There is no heaven and no hell in a reincarnistic system. Imagine how Christianity falls apart if there is no heaven and no hell. This pastor had simply taken the teachings of Christianity for their morality and perhaps for their perceived power and laid the system of Christianity right on top of his animistic system of spirit beings and reincarnation. Since he was the pastor, I don’t imagine that his congregation could have been in much better shape.
In an unreached people group, the missionary can NOT take things at face value. We can not look at outward behavior and leave it at that. We have to get down deeper into the values of the people and even deeper into the hearts and discover what things they consider to absolutely true about reality. Only then will we be able to accurately ascertain what it is that people believe. Do people believe Jesus as Savior? Or do they see Jesus as a way to a more successful life? Obviously these are questions we should be asking anywhere.
But these questions DO affect the way that we teach. If we can understand the animistic heart and mind, we can predict how they will view what we are teaching them about Christ. In both of the scenarios I just shared, had we known what the people were thinking prior to teaching, we could teach in such a way to address those issues right then so it doesn’t sycretize.
Going into a society that is already syncretized is a hard one to figure out. People believe many contradictory thigns sometimes, which adds to the mess. Like I said last week, we are really engaging as students of Animism and Syncretism because we know that we have our work cut out for us in Paraguay. As a professor said to me this "you ARE in over your head" and I think we know what he meant. Without the Lord Jesus, we are in over our heads in this ministry to people who have been lying in the lap of the evil one for thousands of years unopposed. We commit our ministry to Him.
Next week we should have very concrete summer plans to share with you. Alot has happened just this week to cement those better. Can’t wait to share those with you.
