"We're Non-Practicing Christians"

When we returned home from India in March, we moved in with my parents for a few weeks. We quickly noticed that they had new neighbors living upstairs from them (they reside in a two-story condo). The neighbors seemed like very nice people, and even gave Bobby several books to keep him entertained during his weeks in the hospital.

One day I wandered to the back of the condo to look out over the marsh in coastal Georgia. When I turned around to go back inside, I glanced upward at the neighbor's porch. I couldn't believe what was there - a two foot tall statue of Ganesh, one of the main gods of the Hindu pantheon.

Keep in mind that we had just left the home of Hinduism. Statues and idols of false gods permeate the city where we lived in India. We had gotten used to seeing them there. I was not, however, expecting to see that statue above my parents' home.

We later had the opportunity to visit with the nice folks upstairs. As we looked around their home, we saw not only Ganesh, but also another false god - Shiva. That one is particularly disturbing to us because Shiva forms 1/3 of the false Hindu trinity along with Vishnu and Brahma. Shiva is also the primary false god that is worshiped in our former Indian city.

We inquired about the Ganesh and Shiva idols. The new neighbor lady said to us, "We're non-practicing Christians. We have the Hindu idols because they're good, too." At the time I didn't know what to say. We want to build a relationship before getting into any sort of confrontation. I must say that I was less stunned by the presence of the idols than I was by the term "non-practicing Christian."

As far as I can tell from reading the bible, a person is either a Christian or he is not. There is no middle ground. Therefore, there cannot actually be any "non-practicing Christians." This is an example of how people in our country are increasingly inventing religious beliefs in order to both make themselves feel good, and allow themselves to do whatever they want to do.

Ganesh and Shiva are evil, plain and simple. Are they actually demons? This I do not know. However, I'm certain that they are demonic in nature. The spiritual hold that they have over people in India is amazing. Apparently they have hold of my parents' new neighbors as well.

When people claim to be "non-practicing Christians," and also have idols of two Hindu false gods in their home, what they really are is Hindus. They are in desperate need of the gospel.