Dithering

It’s not too often that Togo makes the international news – when we qualified for the World Cup – last year’s riots and political turmoil – now a French press agency has picked up on the story of a newspaper editor who recently became a voodoo priest.  Click here to read the story about Togo’s High Priest Heviosso of voodoo and the tabloid press.

The article paints a pretty rosy picture of voodoo.  The editor/priest declares, "Voodoo does no harm. It protects you if you are honest and sincere. It hates treason and lies.”  Yeah, right. 

Just back up a few paragraphs.  This man was apparently chosen to be a voodoo priest by an oracle in Vogan, a town between Tabligbo and Lomé, about 45 minutes drive from where we live.  Though the article doesn’t say, the oracle was probably a “bokono,” a traditional diviner who gets messages by consulting a power known as “Afa” (just “Fa” in Benin).

The editor-turned-priest recounts how he came into his new role:  "One day, I heard that the oracles of Vogan had designated me as a voodoo high priest. For a while I did not want to do this, because my wife is a pastor in her church", he says.

"But in the end I accepted, mainly because of all the misfortunes that befell my family during the time that I was dithering."

Whoa…  “All the misfortunes” are obviously being attributed to his hesitancy to take up the role prescribed for him by the diviner.  But I thought that “Voodoo does no harm.”  Maybe it does no harm as long as one submits to its rules, regulations, sacrifices, initiations, and ceremonies.  This article reveals the primary power that voodoo has over people—the power of fear.  This man gave into the pressure to become a voodoo priest because he was afraid that the misfortunes would continue if he did not.

I’m not saying that the “misfortunes” that befell this man and his family were sheer accident.   He’s probably right.  They may well have been caused by his “dithering.”   

“Dithering” is something that we humans are prone to.  Joshua basically told the Israelites to “stop dithering”—“But if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15).  Years later, Elijah challenged those people’s descendants:  “How long are you going to waver between two opinions?  If the Lord is God, follow him!  But if Baal is God, then follow him!” (1 Kings 18:31). 

Even those of us who think we’ve got our minds made up about the true God can be just as guilty of dithering.  That seems to have been the problem in Laodicea—the one church that Jesus had nothing good to say about in Revelation.  He told them, “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold.  I wish you were one or the other!  But since you are like lukewarm water, I will spit you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:15).

It seems that ditherers don’t fare well with God, either.  He calls for commitment. 

So does that mean that we are motivated by the same kind of fear that moved this voodoo priest to finally make a commitment?  I think there are some important differences, not the least of which is that the one to whom we are committed, because He is eternal and holy, is the only one who is worthy of our absolute allegiance.  Another difference is that God does allow us the freedom to not choose him.  Of course he is offended by those who alienate themselves from him.  And those people risk being alienated from him eternally.  But what offends him the most is those who claim to have chosen him, yet by their actions show that they are dithering—their choice is not whole hearted.

The existentialists were right when they said that we give meaning to our lives through commitment.  What they didn’t see is that whether that meaning is valid depends entirely on the object of our commitment.  Are we committed to what is wholly good, pure, eternal and true, or are we committed to gods or goods that seduce with quick-fixes and temporary solutions?

As for me and my house …