The first time I saw them I simply thought them striking. They were statuesque black women, head and shoulders taller than myself, usually dressed in white with white headwraps. They kept to themselves, although they let me read for them. They were respectful, dignified women illuminated from the inside, not from externals. One of the readers stopped me after they left. “Aren’t you afraid?” she asked me.
“Afraid of what?” I asked.
“They’re Voodoo women!” she turned dramatically and laughed at me for not knowing.
Sometimes I think innocence and ignorance can be an improvement over half correct information. What she knew was not what I knew. I saw them in their dealings with others, She saw the myth. I saw who they were around me. I found them honest, frank and kind. I never knew exactly what they believed or what they did. I knew how they responded to others and to myself. I came to respect them very much.
I don’t think we can know all that much about others’ faith. We can read the books, see their rituals if we are allowed, talk to them, gather information. But if our understanding of God and the universe is personal, then it is deeply personal. We can share it, talk about it, preach it, try to sell it. It still is only ours. What we do have to share is how it has us treat others. That becomes their experience of our God.
I’ve done enough religious investigation to know that most religions honor the same things. Love your neighbor. Understand your limits. I don’t believe they are the same. I’m Christian because I found Christianity personally true. The only way I know to share that is to share Christ in what I do to for and with people. That doesn’t mean that I am right and someone else is wrong. I have no real way to know. It’s personal, and like every relationship, unique.
We all know Christians that can’t stay in the room with other kinds of Christians. Judaism, Muslimism, and Christianity all have their faith based in what Christians call the Old Testament. For all the differences, we have the same roots. We can view them as the other. Or we can find similarities if we wish.
Voodoo You is a dramatized and exaggerated story. It asks the question, ” Can we support each other, even if we don’t agree on everything?”
I understand very little about Voodoo. I do understand that I want women to have their own choices, and I am willing to stand to see they have them. Whether they believe as I do or not.
Voodoo You, explores the choice. Read it on my story page, or in Tea Room Tales, available now on Amazon.com
Sight Unseen 