Superstition is "excessively credulous belief in and reverence for supernatural beings" and an "unjustified belief in supernatural causation." From the perspective of nonbelievers, all Christianity is "superstitious" because none of it is justified. If we take as a given some minimal level of belief in the supernatural, though, some forms of Christianity involve a much more than other forms and are thus arguably more superstitious. Pentecostal Christianity fits readily into this category.
Pentecostalism has justifiably been perceived as an anti-intellectual movement within Christianity, in part because of its emphasis on personal experience over education, tradition, and doctrine. Pentecostal ministers have relied less upon complex theology to develop or spread their ideas and more upon traditional, oral forms of communication — proverbs, jokes, songs, personal testimonies, miracle stories, etc. It is thus understandable that Pentecostal ministers were among the first to use radio and, later, television to preach to ever larger numbers of people. This was the origin of the Christian Right media empires.
Speaking in Tongues
Today, unusual practices like speaking in tongues and ecstatic experiences are characteristic of Pentecostal services. Pentecostals focus more on personal religious experiences than specific doctrines and as a consequence, there is little consensus among Pentecostals about many Christian doctrines except those of Baptism of the Spirit and charismata ("Gifts of the Spirit," like speaking in tongues). Some Pentecostal churches emphasize these more, some less, and some go even further with activities like faith healing and snake handling.
All of this, though, goes quite a bit further than mainstream Protestant, fundamentalist, or Catholic churches. Although some people tend to assume that superstition is harmless, there are also specific dangers here. Reliance on faith healers, for example, means not getting reliable and valid medical attention as soon as is appropriate. Handling snakes obviously carries real risks, especially when children are encouraged to do it.
Non-Christian Superstitions
As if there weren't enough home-grown superstitious elements in Christianity, some Pentecostal churches embrace local, non-Christian superstitions wherever they send missionaries to convert people. Adopting some local beliefs and customs can make conversion easier and examples of this can be found going back centuries in Christianity, but the cost of increasing the amount of superstition in Christianity itself is pretty steep. Birgit Meyer writes about the ability of Pentecostal Christianity in Africa to incorporate within it local superstitions involving witches, spirits, and other supernatural beliefs:
One characteristic feature of Pentecostalism is its successful incorporation of local ideas and practices pertaining to old gods, witchcraft, and new spirits. ...In contrast to the orthodox mission churches, which regarded such local ideas as irrational “superstitions” to be left behind by converts, or at least to be overcome by education, Pentecostal churches took these views as a point of departure. In Pentecostal deliverance sessions, for example, the exorcism of demons holds a central place. ...In short, to a very large extent, Pentecostalism’s popularity stems from the fact that it takes seriously popular views about spirits.
Meyer, Birgit, “Praise the Lord”: Popular Cinema and Pentecostalite Style in Ghana’s New Public Sphere. American Anthropologist 31(1):92–110. Quoted in: Christian Moderns: Freedom and Fetish in the Mission Encounter.
The adoption of superstitions in Africa is also not harmless. Belief in witches has led to violent witch hunts in which women and children have been brutally slaughtered. Belief in demons causing illnesses will prevent people form seeking real medicine that might actually help them. All this is simply added to the superstitions already inherent in Pentecostalism and discussed above.
Key to all of this is the huge role played by Satan in Pentecostal theology. Poor health may be attributed to Satan's influence. Problems associated with childbirth may be attributed to Satan. Because evil is everywhere and so active, believers must always be on their guard and always ready to wage war, an attitude which may help create bonds among members but which also necessarily builds walls against outsiders.
Superstition as Community Building
Emile Durkheim offered an idea of a "nonobvious theory of religion," in which the key to religion is not so much beliefs and doctrines but the social rituals which create social solidarity. One way of coping with new and foreign ideas is to not only reject them, but to adopt practices abhorrent to the intruders. Social unity is more easily created when the marks of the "in group" are clear and unambiguous.
This is arguably what has happened with Pentecostal churches. J. Wayne Flynt pointed out in his studies of Pentecostal churches that the practice of snake handling occurs mostly in peripheral areas of Appalachia which have experienced the most dramatic transformations from farming to capitalism and not in the more isolated areas where traditions have survived largely intact. So the more "threatened" a community is, the more likely it may be to adopt extreme and even dangerous superstitions.
Such practices may help members deal with what they perceive as the humiliation accompanying the degradation and destruction of traditional values. By "following the signs" and engaging in practices like handling snakes or faith healing, they perform rituals which reinforce their separation and demonstrate the God walks among them, but not with others.
Rituals are thus goal-oriented activities which serve larger social purposes not directly linked to the ostensible beliefs underlying them. This is very important because it affects how we evaluate such rituals. Instead of inquiring about the reasonableness of the underlying doctrines, perhaps we should be inquiring about what sort of separation believers are trying to achieve, their real attitudes towards outsiders, and their expectations for the community's future.
