Critique on Folk Religion for the Pakistani Christians

ABSTRACT
Chong Hung-Ho
Asian Center for Theological Studies and Mission

Folk religion in the Pakistani religious climate has rooted deeply since religions came into India. Social and cultural phobia must have their impact on the inhabitants. There has not been much academic research published or written on this burning issue. Folk religion, however, makes other Orthodox religions weaker and uncertain.
Folk religion has become very common because materialistic thinking and situations demand and encourage believers to have instant solutions of their problems. When people face any problem or difficulty or hard times in their lives, even though they have religious beliefs and faith, soon they seek other ways to get release or comfort from such problems. This situation leads them to folk religion. The followers of those particular religionists start a new religion within a religion.
“Folk” means people. “Folklore” is the study of the customs, beliefs, stories and traditions of a particular people. Folk religion seems a religion of the people, rather than an orthodox religion.
Folk religions synthesize popular beliefs and practices, frequently animistic in nature, that are developed within cultures to handle problems in every day. Particularly in tribal contexts where people understand themselves to live in terms of an extend family, a clan, or a tribe having a distinct cultural heritage, folk religion frequently exists outside the fold of a major world religious tradition. Folk religion consists of beliefs, superstitions and cultural practices transmitted from generation to generation, in addition to the formally stated creeds and beliefs of a codified major religion.
It is a burning issue that in Pakistan there a reavastmajority of people living under the influence of folk religion even though Pakistan is under the strong influence of Islam. Islam in Pakistan has two major sects, Sunni and Shi’i. This Islamic division has many rival sects. Shi’I Islam is older in origin than Sunn’ism and modeled much more closely on the political practices of Muhammad and the original four Caliphs.
The question arises why people follow or adopt such attitudes towards or within their religions even though they have a perfect code of life in the form of religions both in Islam and Christianity. For example, Islam itself claims a complete code of life. Christianity claims, too. In this sense, there are conflicts in their practical lives they don’t live their lives according to what they have been taught. The basic reason why people have adopted folk religious practices has deep roots in Hinduism. In Sufism, which started in the eleventh century in Islam, many folk practices such as rituals and customs in Pakistan. From a missiological perspective it is a Christian duty to give awareness to the Pakistani Christians, and teach them that Christ is the only Way and Savior to meet their whole needs(John 14:6).
In the Pakistani folk religion, it teaches that there are some personalities or holy men who are able to take people to God or have powers to listen to prayer, have abilities to solve people’s problems. In other words, they need something more than God which means God alone is not able to solve every problem.
Here is the answer in the Bible; “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will be no means pass away” (Matthew 24: 35). God’s living words, the Scriptures become a prophecy that is still rock-solid in everyday.
To summarize it, to see real change in members of folk religions they have to be brought to Jesus, so that they will be delivered from the powers of darkness, and become new creatures in Christ. Then, as God’s new humanity, they can move out in power into enemy territory and reclaim those who are still children of disobedience.
The Pakistani Church is being challenged on all fronts. But that is nothing new. The powers of darkness are constantly at work to alienate man from anything and anyone which may bring him into a dynamic humanity and ultimately to destroy them. The challenge to the church is to rise up, to use the weapons placed at its disposal by God Himself, and to expose all powers as no-powers before the Lord of the Church. The evil forces are many but they do not have authority. The Church has a delegated authority to continue the work initiated by Jesus Christ, and to call to account all powers, and to declare and demonstrate that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God.