{"id":42385,"date":"2019-04-15T11:56:54","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T15:56:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=42385"},"modified":"2019-04-15T11:56:54","modified_gmt":"2019-04-15T15:56:54","slug":"what-do-buddha-statues-and-harry-potter-books-have-in-common","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/04\/what-do-buddha-statues-and-harry-potter-books-have-in-common.html","title":{"rendered":"What Do Buddha Statues and Harry Potter Books Have in Common?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

As a religious tradition, evangelicalism is centered on words. Salvation is obtained not through actions or objects but through words\u2014the sinner\u2019s prayer. In evangelicalism, beliefs matter, not rituals. The mind, not objects. And to a large extent, this is true.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve noticed an exception to this rule<\/a>, however.<\/p>\n

Televangelist and apparent lawn expert Pat Robertson said on The 700 Club<\/em> today that putting a statue of Buddha in your front yard will bring upon curses because it\u2019s a false idol.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This brings something to mind. Back when evangelicals were going apoplectic over Harry Potter, a family member came to visit and brought a Harry Potter book she was reading with her. My father wouldn\u2019t let her bring the book in the house, for fear it would let demons in\u2014for fear\u00a0the physical book\u00a0<\/em>would do that.<\/p>\n

So, then. Do<\/em> evangelicals believe objects have power?<\/p>\n

Historically, evangelicals have opposed Catholic attachment to relics and symbols. St. Christopher medallions, holy water, etc. It is probably because of this connection between Catholics and sacred objects that evangelicals tend to disavow sacred objects entirely. Sure, there are crosses and Bibles and pictures of Jesus, but these things do not themselves bring good vibes into a home. Prayers do.<\/p>\n

The same is true for expelling demons. Words, not objects, have power. Holy water, crosses, garlic (okay, that one\u2019s not Catholic)\u2014evangelicals don\u2019t believe these things cast out demons. Demons are cast out verbally, by invoking the name of Jesus. (Quoting scripture at a demon can\u2019t hurt, either.)<\/p>\n

How does all this emphasis on words rather than objects fit with Pat Robertson\u2019s concern about Buddha statues\u2014and my father\u2019s early 2000s concern about the physical Harry Potter books? Can objects carry evil? Do objects have power, after all\u2014but only one way?<\/p>\n

When I was a kid, my parents told me a story about a friend whose teenage daughter listened to rock music, and in so doing let a demon into the house. The friend encountered the demon in the house that evening, and had to cast it out in Jesus\u2019 name. Evangelical\u2019s rock music scare wasn\u2019t just about words. It was also about demonic sounds,<\/em> and it involved the physical burning and destruction of CDs and cassette tapes.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of variety within evangelicalism, and there\u2019s a big difference between someone like Pat Robertson and, say, a professor at Wheaton, who might disagree on Robertson\u2019s assessment of Buddha statues. It\u2019s also possible that there are some evangelicals who believe objects can carry good, too. They might justify such a belief by pointing to that moment in the gospels when a person is healed after touching the hem of a woman\u2019s robe.<\/p>\n

Still, if there is<\/em> a difference in how evangelicals view objects\u2014if objects can carry demonic influence but can\u2019t carry the reverse\u2014I\u2019m curious as to why, and what relationship, if any, this bifurcated view may have to do with evangelical opposition to Catholicism.<\/p>\n

I have a <\/b>Patreon<\/b><\/a>! Please support my writing!\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a religious tradition, evangelicalism is centered on words. Salvation is obtained not through actions or objects but through words—the sinner’s prayer. In evangelicalism, beliefs matter, not rituals. The mind, not objects. And to a large extent, this is true.\u00a0I’ve noticed an exception to this rule, however.<\/p>\n

Click through to read more! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":42403,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-evangelicalism-fundamentalism"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Do Buddha Statues and Harry Potter Books Have in Common?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As a religious tradition, evangelicalism is centered on words. I've noticed an exception to this rule, however.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/04\/what-do-buddha-statues-and-harry-potter-books-have-in-common.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Do Buddha Statues and Harry Potter Books Have in Common?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As a religious tradition, evangelicalism is centered on words. I've noticed an exception to this rule, however.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/04\/what-do-buddha-statues-and-harry-potter-books-have-in-common.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Love, Joy, Feminism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-04-15T15:56:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/166\/2019\/04\/china-1177009_1280.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"432\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/04\/what-do-buddha-statues-and-harry-potter-books-have-in-common.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/04\/what-do-buddha-statues-and-harry-potter-books-have-in-common.html\",\"name\":\"What Do Buddha Statues and Harry Potter Books Have in Common?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-04-15T15:56:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-04-15T15:56:54+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\"},\"description\":\"As a religious tradition, evangelicalism is centered on words. I've noticed an exception to this rule, however.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/04\/what-do-buddha-statues-and-harry-potter-books-have-in-common.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/04\/what-do-buddha-statues-and-harry-potter-books-have-in-common.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/04\/what-do-buddha-statues-and-harry-potter-books-have-in-common.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What Do Buddha Statues and Harry Potter Books Have in Common?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/\",\"name\":\"Love, Joy, Feminism\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\",\"name\":\"Libby Anne\",\"description\":\"Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. College turned her world upside down, and she is today an atheist, a feminist, and a progressive. She blogs about leaving religion, her experience with the Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements, the detrimental effects of the \\\"purity culture,\\\" the contradictions of conservative politics, and the importance of feminism.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/author\/libby\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What Do Buddha Statues and Harry Potter Books Have in Common?","description":"As a religious tradition, evangelicalism is centered on words. I've noticed an exception to this rule, however.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/04\/what-do-buddha-statues-and-harry-potter-books-have-in-common.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What Do Buddha Statues and Harry Potter Books Have in Common?","og_description":"As a religious tradition, evangelicalism is centered on words. I've noticed an exception to this rule, however.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/04\/what-do-buddha-statues-and-harry-potter-books-have-in-common.html","og_site_name":"Love, Joy, Feminism","article_published_time":"2019-04-15T15:56:54+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":432,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/166\/2019\/04\/china-1177009_1280.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Libby Anne","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Libby Anne","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/04\/what-do-buddha-statues-and-harry-potter-books-have-in-common.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/04\/what-do-buddha-statues-and-harry-potter-books-have-in-common.html","name":"What Do Buddha Statues and Harry Potter Books Have in Common?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-04-15T15:56:54+00:00","dateModified":"2019-04-15T15:56:54+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2"},"description":"As a religious tradition, evangelicalism is centered on words. I've noticed an exception to this rule, however.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/04\/what-do-buddha-statues-and-harry-potter-books-have-in-common.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/04\/what-do-buddha-statues-and-harry-potter-books-have-in-common.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2019\/04\/what-do-buddha-statues-and-harry-potter-books-have-in-common.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What Do Buddha Statues and Harry Potter Books Have in Common?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/","name":"Love, Joy, Feminism","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2","name":"Libby Anne","description":"Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. College turned her world upside down, and she is today an atheist, a feminist, and a progressive. She blogs about leaving religion, her experience with the Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements, the detrimental effects of the \"purity culture,\" the contradictions of conservative politics, and the importance of feminism.","sameAs":["http:\/\/patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/author\/libby"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/845"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}