Are dream catchers an idol?

Are dream-catchers an idol?

  • Yes

    Votes: 14 35.0%
  • No

    Votes: 19 47.5%
  • Unsure

    Votes: 7 17.5%

  • Total voters
    40

Clint Edwards

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You can read my post any way you like, and I can see you have done so, but what I said before that you took such umbrage to you yourself have just made my comments valid.

What Else Can I Say, you have closed your ears to the matter.

Go in Peace.
No, I use reason and Christian logic, not superstition. Under the New Covenant symbols created from lifeless matter have no inherent power to harm me. People give these things power by believing they have mystical power not found in any other arrangement of molecules. Then they open their minds to the power of what they represent.
 
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Kersh

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Money has a pagan religious symbol on it, the all seeing eye adopted by the masons. Does that give a dollar bill inherent evil powers in the paper and ink ?

And, ironically, money actually does possess power, at least in the context of a society that considers it to be something of value. Contemporary people can and often do rely on the power of money to give their lives meaning and to provide for their needs. Outside of possibly a few adherents of Native American religion, very few people in contemporary society, no one places any significant reliance on a dream catcher, and tbh, I don't know how much Native Americans really do.
 
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JIMINZ

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So an arrangement of sticks and feathers and yarn are evil beings from the unseen world ? These sticks and feathers and yarn will harm you if you have one ? Truly ? Christ won´t allow sticks and feathers and yarn to harm me. I can choose to give them power over me if I believe they have this power, then they can harm me. Do you get it now ?

.
Did I miss your answer to my question, have you read ever post to this thread or just a select few?

Do you place any spiritual value at all on things that are Amulets, Talisman,
all of the sticks and feathers are immortalized in the form of sacred charms.
 
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Clint Edwards

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And, ironically, money actually does possess power, at least in the context of a society that considers it to be something of value. Contemporary people can and often do rely on the power of money to give their lives meaning and to provide for their needs. Outside of possibly a few adherents of Native American religion, very few people in contemporary society, no one places any significant reliance on a dream catcher, and tbh, I don't know how much Native Americans really do.
Correct, but a dollar bill in your wallet has no inherent evil power to harm you because the all seeing eye is printed on it, not unless you believe it does.

A dreamcatcher is a form in space and time usually made from sticks, feathers and yarn, and maybe other stuff I don´t know about. Sticks feathers and yarn can´t harm you, unless you give them the power that some might believe they represent and have.
 
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JIMINZ

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No, I use reason and Christian logic, not superstition. Under the New Covenant symbols created from lifeless matter have no inherent power to harm me. People give these things power by believing they have mystical power not found in any other arrangement of molecules. Then they open their minds to the power of what they represent.

.
Like I said what seems to be a lifetime ago, you don't get it, and there isn't anything I could say to change that, therefore.

What else can I say.

Go in Peace.
END OF TRAnsmissssiiiioooonnn. :wave:
 
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Kersh

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Like I said what seems to be a lifetime ago, you don't get it, and there isn't anything I could say to change that, therefore.

What else can I say.

Go in Peace.
END OF TRAnsmissssiiiioooonnn. :wave:

The point is that we get it, and we disagree with you. Brothers and sisters can disagree even when they understand each other just fine.
 
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Clint Edwards

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Did I miss your answer to my question, have you read ever post to this thread or just a select few?

Do you place any spiritual value at all on things that are Amulets, Talisman,
all of the sticks and feathers are immortalized in the form of sacred charms.
Nope. They are objects. They haven´t been filled with bad ju ju by some pagan priest. I find some unpleasant, so I wouldn´t want them around, but they don´t have a boogeyman in them. I once had an ancient Egyptian small statue of a lion, a religious symbol to them, a pretty representation of a lion to me. I had and enjoyed it for years, but lost it somehow in a move. It never scared me, or channeled an evil spirit into my home. It was a shaped rock. IF I believed it possessed this power the evil spirits could have used that belief to mess with my mind. I give them the opening, not the rock.
 
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Clint Edwards

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Like I said what seems to be a lifetime ago, you don't get it, and there isn't anything I could say to change that, therefore.

What else can I say.

Go in Peace.
END OF TRAnsmissssiiiioooonnn. :wave:
Ditto, you don´t get it either. Be careful in the forest, the tree god might get you.
 
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Clint Edwards

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Nope. They are objects. They haven´t been filled with bad ju ju by some pagan priest. I find some unpleasant, so I wouldn´t want them around, but they don´t have a boogeyman in them. I once had an ancient Egyptian small statue of a lion, a religious symbol to them, a pretty representation of a lion to me. I had and enjoyed it for years, but lost it somehow in a move. It never scared me, or channeled an evil spirit into my home. It was a shaped rock. IF I believed it possessed this power the evil spirits could have used that belief to mess with my mind. I give them the opening, not the rock.
 
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Kersh

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Nope. They are objects. They haven´t been filled with bad ju ju by some pagan priest. I find some unpleasant, so I wouldn´t want them around, but they don´t have a boogeyman in them. I once had an ancient Egyptian small statue of a lion, a religious symbol to them, a pretty representation of a lion to me. I had and enjoyed it for years, but lost it somehow in a move. It never scared me, or channeled an evil spirit into my home. It was a shaped rock. IF I believed it possessed this power the evil spirits could have used that belief to mess with my mind. I give them the opening, not the rock.

I think it would be fair to say that if I had a friend or relative who had been exposed to Native American religion or spirituality to the point that they were genuinely conflicted about whether or not a DC has some sort of mystical power or energy, it would be supremely cruel of me to have them over to my home and show them my DC collection or to even have a DC on display. I would accept that, even though the object itself is powerless, demonic forces can and do work through a person's superstitions or uneasiness surrounding it. I would also question whether it is right to take something from another culture that has a specific meaning within that culture and use it as a mere decoration devoid of that culture's meaning. But, that would not be an issue of idolatry, but of cultural appropriation (which also is not clearly spoken about in Scripture, other than in the general command to love one another).
 
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it would be supremely cruel of me to have them over to my home and show them my DC collection or to even have a DC on display.

Looks like we have a DC enthusiast in our midst! lol
 
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I would accept that, even though the object itself is powerless, demonic forces can and do work through a person's superstitions or uneasiness surrounding it.

I think this is all the other side is really saying in this argument.
 
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Kersh

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Looks like we have a DC enthusiast in our midst! lol

LOL. I wondered if it would be interpreted that way, but no, I am not an enthusiast. I think my son has one in his room that my wife bought for him a couple of years ago. Other than that, I've never owned one. The quoted sentence was intended as a hypothetical.
 
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Kersh

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I think this is all the other side is really saying in this argument.

If that is what was being said, I'd agree with that. In fact, if I knew JIMINEZ irl and had him over to my house, I would probably, out of kindness and respect remove the DC that is in my son's room because of the beliefs that he holds about them. But, I'm not going to say that my wife did something wrong by buying one for my son and hanging it in his room.
 
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Clint Edwards

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I think it would be fair to say that if I had a friend or relative who had been exposed to Native American religion or spirituality to the point that they were genuinely conflicted about whether or not a DC has some sort of mystical power or energy, it would be supremely cruel of me to have them over to my home and show them my DC collection or to even have a DC on display. I would accept that, even though the object itself is powerless, demonic forces can and do work through a person's superstitions or uneasiness surrounding it. I would also question whether it is right to take something from another culture that has a specific meaning within that culture and use it as a mere decoration devoid of that culture's meaning. But, that would not be an issue of idolatry, but of cultural appropriation (which also is not clearly spoken about in Scripture, other than in the general command to love one another).
I would think that disrespecting an object that has religious meaning to someone else would be wrong. Exposing someone to an object they believe has mystical powers, perhaps evil power, would be wrong. Cultural appropriation has been around since the dawn of multiple cultures. I don´t have an opinion of it.
 
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Kersh

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I would think that disrespecting an object that has religious meaning to someone else would be wrong. Exposing someone to an object they believe has mystical powers, perhaps evil power, would be wrong. Cultural appropriation has been around since the dawn of multiple cultures. I don´t have an opinion of it.

I have genuinely mixed feelings about cultural appropriation. My dad, who was a pastor, regularly wore stoles in African prints that he got when he went on mission trips to Liberia. Some people today, would say that for a white American to do that is disrespectful, but I genuinely believe that his intent was quite the opposite. Nonetheless, there are some people who take umbrage to majority culture folk wearing traditional garb from minority cultures, and I suppose I would treat that with the same sensitivities as the DC/idolatry issue: it's simply a Romans 14 issue -- each person should do what his or her conscience dictates and respect the choices of others.
 
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Hank77

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Can you copy and paste the text of the article that you're referring to? I don't see it in there. I wouldn't accept gotquestions.org as a valid source, but if they cite Scripture, I would place much value in that.
gotquestions.com is a good Christian site and they always quote scripture. Here's the one I posted earlier in this thread about dream catchers. I was surprised that they had an article about it so it must be a fairly common question.
https://www.gotquestions.org/dream-catcher-Christian.html
 
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Hank77

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I would think that disrespecting an object that has religious meaning to someone else would be wrong. Exposing someone to an object they believe has mystical powers, perhaps evil power, would be wrong. Cultural appropriation has been around since the dawn of multiple cultures. I don´t have an opinion of it.
It can't be cultural appropriations when Native Americans sell them as artwork along with pottery, rugs, beaded items, etc.
 
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