Putting Recent Events in Perspective: Nightmare for Christian Converts in India

In a refuge camp for displaced Christians in Ghumusar Udayagiri, India, a pregnant woman recounts her nightmare:

Hearing the chanting women march by, Shyamala wiped her nose with her unwashed sari. She started to cry, again. Her feet are swollen and bloody, her stomach heavy. And she has a recurring nightmare.

"I am falling and falling down a big ditch. I see my newborn baby below me," she said, weeping. "And it is dead."

This article in Monday's Washington Post is a must read.

Conversions to Christianity have been happening fast among impoverished tribal communities in Kandhamal, a remote district with few links to the outside world or state services. The Christian population here, largely made up of traditionally nature-worshiping ethnic groups, has swelled from 6 percent in 1971 to 27 percent today, according to government census data.

The sad result is a growing violent backlash by Hindu's demanding the Christians convert to Hinduism. The Christians fear that they will be killed if they leave the refuge camp to return to their village and do not convert back to Hinduism.

The nightmare makes sense in a very real way as the woman is fearing the death or herself and her newborn baby. But on a metaphorical level, the baby may represent the new self who adheres to the new religion. Thus, the fear of the death is of the newborn faith.

Pray for the strength of faith for these martyrs.

Hat tip to Mollie at Get Religon

Divine Death Sentence: clothing metaphor version

Timothy Fountain at North Plains Anglican wrote an interesting piece about what he refers to as the Divine Death Sentence. In it he refers to the verse Col 3:5. This led me to contemplate the whole section of Col 3: 1-14 more generally, and to reflect on the use of both the metaphor of death and the metaphor of changing clothes used there.

Colossians 3: 1-14 Rules for Holy Living

1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your[a] life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.[b] 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

12 Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Tony Crisp's Dream Dictionary has some good material about clothing as metaphor in dreams:
changing clothes symbolizes changing one's mode of behavior, role or mood,
undressing is revealing one's real character and a move towards intimacy,
new clothes are a change in attitudes, new feelings about the self.
This is applicable to the verses, as Paul is talking about the old ways of behavior that must be put aside and the new attitudes that must be put on.

I had a dream a few weeks ago in which clothes figured prominently. In one part of the dream I was deciding what clothes to get in order to change my outfit and kin another part of the dream I was concerned about taking off my old dress to put on a new gown. I was afraid the old dress would get stuck around my elbows going over my head. I was asking some women to help me.

I think this dream was about what I would call the Divine Death Sentience: clothing metaphor version. The dream dictionary also has something for being unable to get clothes off -- too cautious in relationships; difficulty changing attitudes or self-image; self-protectiveness; avoiding intimacy. Of course, in my dream, I was looking for assistance and asking for help. In the dream I was looking for assistance with the difficult project of taking off the old self and putting on the new self.
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Guns for Protection and "Adult Melancholy" Part 2

I was interested in the Stand Firm discussion about guns because of the relationship to Dream Work and the review I had just written of Jane Hamon's book on dreams for a charismatic readership. She devoted a lot of the text to the idea that the dreams about people may not actually be messages from God about those people. Rather, that the people in the dreams may represent parts of the dreamer. This is very similar to the way dreams are interpreted in the Jungian Christian tradition.

In the same way, I was thinking of the discussion about guns being divided between people who say the threat coming from the strangers, the thugs breaking into the house versus those who were concerned about guns being a problem to those inside the house. It would be "blinking at reality' to deny that home break-ins occur. They obviously do as a disturbing link on the thread demonstrates. However, more people may actually die from gun violence among the inhabitants of the house. And as I mentioned in my Part 1 of this yesterday, there is also a concern with guns being accessible to the suicidal.

Taking it back to dream work, a dream about a threatening stranger may be a message from God about a threatening stranger that will soon appear in one's life. But usually, it is not. Usually, as we work a dream, we find that the threatening stranger in the dream is a disowned part of oneself -- "the shadow figure". When God speaks in dreams, God often speaks in the language of visual symbols, using the symbols that resonate with us. Thus, surfacing the characteristics of the shadow figure and exploring it in a safe environment can help the dreamer to mature as God has directed. So the dream may actually have been a message from God, but a direction for personal growth and development rather than a warning about physical safety. God does send dreams of warning but also of admonishment, encouragement and direction.

This sort of work is particularly helpful to people who are having inner conflict. I began this two part post concerned about people who are suicidal. In fact, personal growth often feels like suicide because, metaphorically, our old self must die. In general, working with the associations with images in dreams helps people to understand metaphor. It is particularly important that people understand that the murders in dreams are often referring to parts of themselves that need to die to make room for maturation.

Jeremy Taylor tells a great story of an exchange between Robert Johnson and an audience member during the question and answer session after a talk. Johnson was asked "My dream is telling me to kill myself. Should I do it?" Johnson answered "Yes. By all means kill your self, BUT DO NOT HARM YOUR BODY."