Voodoo and Christianity

Christianity has never whole-heartedly embraced voodoo as a genuine religion. Christianity beliefs view voodoo as a source of black magic and something that is very satanic. The Catholics and the Protestants are the two main religions that have come into contact, and sometimes gone to war on, the practice of voodoo. While Catholicism has come to accept voodoo in some ways and even incorporate some voodoo practices into their own, the Protestants still have far to go to get to the same point. Below are the histories of these two religions with voodoo and how these relationships came to be.

In the late 1700s Haiti was under Catholic power and French slaves would practice voodoo in private as it was a forbidden practice by the Catholics. The slaves were freed however in 1804 and with this freedom all white men were forbidden to stay in Haiti. This included Roman Catholics, and many of its priests. Because of this, the Vatican discontinued all relations with Haiti and they did not resume them until 1860. This time period gave houngans and mambos, the voodoo priests, to create a real name for voodoo within Haiti as its main religion. They did this by combining the African spirit with some of the Catholic practices they had seen and learned. The loa, which are the spirits in the voodoo religion, were given an association with a Catholic saint. For instance, the snake loa, Dumballah became associated with St. Peter. For this reason, those practicing voodoo often see Catholicism and voodoo as very much the same and will honor and worship both practices.

The Catholic Church did not view their beliefs as at all the same however. Until the 1940s, the Catholics continued to fight with the religion of voodoo and in 1949, the war climaxed as the Catholics began to burn down voodoo temples and torture and kill many houngans and mambos. The Catholics lost the war however and although voodoo became more a practice of the underground world, many people seemed to be driven towards the religion due to its oppression. It was in the early part of the 50s decade that the Catholic priests began to see that they were fighting a losing battle and so they made their peace with voodoo and with those who practiced it. There has been a general acceptance and respect for both religions in Haiti since that time.

It was later in the 1970s that the Protestants also came to Haiti. The Protestants view voodoo as a sin and something that worships Satan. They often claim that the reason that the people in Haiti are poor and miserable is because that is their punishment set by God for practicing voodoo. Today, the Protestants still comprise most of Haiti and the relationship between the two religions is still strained.