(To read the article in it entirety just click the title.)
His family pastor had accused him of being a witch, and his father then tried to force acid down his throat as an exorcism. It spilled as he struggled, burning away his face and eyes. The emaciated boy barely had strength left to whisper the name of the church that had denounced him – Mount Zion Lighthouse.
A month later, he died.
Yes you read that right. A Christian minister accused him of being a witch and it frightened his own father enough that he killed him with acid.
Nwanaokwo Edet was one of an increasing number of children in Africa accused of witchcraft by pastors and then tortured or killed, often by family members. Pastors were involved in half of 200 cases of "witch children" reviewed by the AP, and 13 churches were named in the case files.
Some of the churches involved are renegade local branches of international franchises. Their parishioners take literally the Biblical exhortation, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."
Do any of you even understand WHY the Christian church has such a hard on about witches? Because in the early days of Christianity, the priests competed for money and acceptance with priests and priestess's from other religions, shamans, herbalists, and midwives. Rather than compete with them on a level playing field the Christians simply redefined them as pagans, and then accused them of consorting with the devil. That way if a local Shaman appeared to successfully cure a sick child that the Christian had failed to cure, he could just accuse the Shaman of using Satanic methods to affect a cure and discredit him completely.
Today you find that same tactic being used to discredit biology science in the classroom and sexuality in the media.
The idea of witchcraft is hardly new, but it has taken on new life recently partly because of a rapid growth in evangelical Christianity. Campaigners against the practice say around 15,000 children have been accused in two of Nigeria's 36 states over the past decade and around 1,000 have been murdered. In the past month alone, three Nigerian children accused of witchcraft were killed and another three were set on fire.
The idea of witchcraft is hardly new, but it has taken on new life recently partly because of a rapid growth in evangelical Christianity. Campaigners against the practice say around 15,000 children have been accused in two of Nigeria's 36 states over the past decade and around 1,000 have been murdered. In the past month alone, three Nigerian children accused of witchcraft were killed and another three were set on fire.
1,000 children killed in the name of superstition. Superstition inspired by evangelical Christianity. THIS is what is being taught to these people to deliver them from paganism?
The Nigerian church is a branch of a Californian church by the same name. But the California church says it lost touch with its Nigerian offshoots several years ago.
"I had no idea," said church elder Carrie King by phone from Tracy, Calif. "I knew people believed in witchcraft over there but we believe in the power of prayer, not physically harming people."
The Mount Zion Lighthouse – also named by three other families as the accuser of their children – is part of the powerful Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria. The Fellowship's president, Ayo Oritsejafor, said the Fellowship was the fastest-growing religious group in Nigeria, with more than 30 million members.
The Nigerian church is a branch of a Californian church by the same name. But the California church says it lost touch with its Nigerian offshoots several years ago.
"I had no idea," said church elder Carrie King by phone from Tracy, Calif. "I knew people believed in witchcraft over there but we believe in the power of prayer, not physically harming people."
The Mount Zion Lighthouse – also named by three other families as the accuser of their children – is part of the powerful Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria. The Fellowship's president, Ayo Oritsejafor, said the Fellowship was the fastest-growing religious group in Nigeria, with more than 30 million members.
"We have grown so much in the past few years we cannot keep an eye on everybody," he explained.
But Foxcroft, the head of Stepping Stones, said if the organization was able to collect membership fees, it could also police its members better.
So just to be straight here. Mount Zion Lighthouse has enough contact with these rogue churches to collect money from them, but not enough contact to keep them from promoting the murder of their children?
Just mentioning the name of a church is enough to frighten a group of bubbly children at the home.
"Please stop the pastors who hurt us," said Jerry quietly, touching the scars on his face. "I believe in God and God knows I am not a witch."
Just mentioning the name of a church is enough to frighten a group of bubbly children at the home.
"Please stop the pastors who hurt us," said Jerry quietly, touching the scars on his face. "I believe in God and God knows I am not a witch."
At the risk of sounding unmanly I have to admit that it took me four attempts to finally read through this entire article on Huffington Post. Heartbreaking does not even begin to describe it.
Right now my eyes are still damp because I read the beginning portion aloud to my daughter.
And of course as I read this the first thought that came into my head, is that not only is this still happening in Africa in 2009, but that a certain Governor with close ties to these people was almost elected Vice President of our country.
What? you don't remember that ? Well then let me remind you just how close you came to having a proponent of the African style of witch hunting just one 73 year old heartbeat away from the White House.
There she is my friends, ex-Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin at the 7:00 mark receiving a blessing, to keep her safe from WITCHES, from a man who made his name by chasing them in Africa. In the 21st century THIS was still considered acceptable by millions of American voters.
The voters in this country demand that their Presidential candidates be Christians. Anybody who isn't need not apply. But perhaps it is time to stop assuming that to be a Christian automatically means that a person is moral, ethical, and will make decisions that are in this country's best interests. After all, according to a number of evangelical leaders, wasn't George W. Bush chosen by God to lead this nation?
And didn't Palin also give credit to Pastor Muthee and God for making her Governor of Alaska?
Well if Christianity is still promoting the killing of witches in Africa, and the election of idiots and crazy people here in America, then I for one do not want anything to do with it.
We must begin to judges our leaders on their past deeds and their humanity, and not on what religion they belong to or which church they attend.
"Muthee began his life in ministry in Africa by hunting down a local woman named Mama Jane after proclaiming her a witch. Six months of fervent prayer and research identified the source of the witchcraft as a local woman called Mama Jane, who ran a “divination” centre called the Emmanuel Clinic in Kiambu, Kenya. Her alleged involvement in fortune-telling and the fact that she lived near the site of a number of fatal car accidents led Pastor Muthee to publicly declare her a witch responsible for the town’s ills, and order her to offer up her soul for salvation or leave Kiambu. After Pastor Muthee declared Mama Jane a witch, the townspeople became suspicious and began to turn on her, demanding that she be stoned. Public outrage eventually led the police to raid her home, where they fired gunshots, killing a pet python which they believed to be a demon."
ReplyDeletehttp://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTgwNTdiZTNjNjdlMThlNDExZmZiYWQ0MGUyYTM4ZjE=
Great post, Gryphen! THIS IS HORRIBLE!!!!! Fundamentalist Christians cannot have "the faith" without imaginary supernatural villains? And more children die...
ReplyDeleteFootnote: The word "pagan" derives from Middle English and the Latin "paganus" which means "country dweller" or "peasant." It is a classist distinction.
In the Middle Ages and afterwards, the Christian church went after "Pagans," who were often women who lived in the country, widowed or of a peasant class. They were labeled as witches, often just so others could acquire their property...which eventually iterated as a movement to become the tragic witch hunts of the Reformation and Early Modern era.
Stop ALL religions NOW!
ReplyDeleteBe accountable to yourselves and yourselves only people...stop the brainwashing that is inherent and is the top priority in ALL religions.
My opinion. Religion BAD, self REALIZATION, good. You should not have to have a god to either keep you in line or tell you how to live.
Gryphen, do you think you can post your comments on this story under the story itself on HuffPo, in the comments section? (if you haven't already!)
ReplyDeleteI think your observations about Sarah Palin and Rev. Muthee in this context should see a wider audience.
I still remember the tape of alaska's ex gov & the rev. muthee. It would be nice if it resurfaced. It scared the wits out of me that's when I started vissiting alaskan blogs. All of this voodoo fundamentalist religion is so disturbing.
ReplyDeleteThere is another known instance of Palin palin' around with creepy evangelical witch-hunters. There is a lot to this article including videos: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-wilson/sarah-palin-linked-to-sec_b_137532.html
ReplyDeleteSarah Palin Linked to Second "Witch Hunter"
"If Mary Glazier's claim, that Palin joined her prayer-warfare group almost two decades ago, is true it raises the possibiity that Sarah Palin personally participated in a 1995 campaign to drive an alleged "witch" out of Alaska.
...
On July 13, 2008, at a conference held at a church in Everett, Washington, a suburb of Seattle, Mary Glazier told top leaders of the New Apostolic Reformation that at the age of twenty four, a young Wasilla, Alaska woman had joined Glazier's prayer group which was later to become the Alaska "spiritual warfare network". Mary Glazier is the Alaska Director of the Global Apostolic Prayer Network, originally founded in 1990 as the "Spiritual Warfare Network".
In a one-hour sermon during which Mary Glazier told attendees of the July 12-14, 2008 "Bringing Heaven To Earth" conference about her prayer-warfare group's efforts towards the election of Alaska Independence Party candidate Walter E. Hickel to the Alaska governor's seat, Glazier described her association with Sarah Palin:
"We began to shake that Gate of government. Father you said this is what you are going to do. We have to have a Christian Governor to have this happen. And by a miracle he won by a write-in campaign by a landslide. But while we were praying for him there was a twenty-four year old woman that God began to speak to about entering into politics.
She became a part of our prayer group out in Wasilla. Years later, became the mayor of Wasilla. And last year was elected Governor of the state of Alaska.
Yes! Hallelujah! At her inauguration she dedicated the state to Jesus Christ.
Hallelujah!"
Although the terms 'intercessory prayer' and 'prayer warrior' are widely used in Christianity, Sarah Palin has been been claimed, as a member, by one very specific and well defined prayer-warfare network: the Global Apostolic Prayer Network, formerly called the "Spiritual Warfare Network". This 'prayer warfare' network considers Catholics, and everyone else who does not share its particular interpretation of Christianity to be under demon influence and damned to hell; it hunts witches and is mapping out "demon influences" in cities and towns across America.
Global Apostolic Prayer Network leaders compare Catholicism to Freemasonry and have conducted prayer warfare which they claim may have helped to kill Mother Theresa. One top leader and apostle of this spiritual warfare movement endorses the activities of church-based Central American death squads.
On September 6, 2008, Norwegian Spiritual Warfare leader Jan-Aage Torp confirmed that Sarah Palin was currently a 'prayer warrior' in Mary Glazier's prayer-warfare network.
Glazier has claimed that in 1995 her network drove an employee of the Alaska State Prison System, whom Glazier had accused of witchcraft, out of Alaska with 'spiritual warfare'. As Glazier told Spiritled Woman Magazine,
"As we continued to pray against the spirit of witchcraft, her incense altar caught on fire, her car engine blew up, she went blind in her left eye, and she was diagnosed with cancer."
A bit O/T, but here's a great story in Newsweek about an evangelical Christian who has reformed his hateful ways in relation to the LGBT community:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.newsweek.com/id/216910/page/1
Brent Childers is the executive director of Faith in America. After changing his views on homosexuality, he left the Southern Baptist Church and now attends both a local Pentacostal and a nondenominational church in Hickory, N.C.
Yes we see it all the time with religion, the FDA, the AMA, and Big Pharma to the Natural and Homeopathic healers.
ReplyDeleteDo not indoctrinate your children.
ReplyDeleteReligion is the root of many of man's problems.
It may be good that this story, as tragic as it is, surfaced, because it is an opportunity to link Scarah with these beliefs.
Sometimes I say to myself: "Stop the world I want to get off".
Oh Gryphen, this just breaks my heart. Bless you for bringing it to our attention, but how horrible. Thank God that little boy died so he wouldn't have to suffer at the hands of those horrible people any more.
ReplyDeleteReligion sure does make people crazy.
ReplyDeleteThis may be more than you can bear, Gryphen, but there are some good videos on YouTube on this. See:
ReplyDeleteNightline, in the name of Jesus: Child Witches, parts one and two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlRG9gXriVI
Children of Congo: From War to witches, ICRC Interview, 11 parts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hgdaXLQe7A
African Witch Children, 7 parts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d82BKZhPPVE&feature=PlayList&p=6217441A98607E5C&index=40
I did some research on this for my next book. It's beyond horrifying.
Midnight Cajun
Do you realize what an inspiration and comfort you are?
ReplyDeleteYou remind us to embrace humor to dispel our fear and horror when we need to, and when needed, you share your anger and anguish to remind us of our shared humanity and in doing so make it okay for us to be vulnerable to pain, fear, or outrage as long as we move towards positive action against the source of negativity.
Your input and the outlet you provide for us has positive impact on not only the discourse we have, but also the action we take.
The Immoral Minority and Mudflats are two of the most influential blogs we have right now. I think I speak for many, many people when I say we regard your as a blessing and beacon of hope.
You and Jeanne are true educators - who share yourselves with us in hopes of helping of us grow and evolve. That takes real courage. Just know that you are making a difference.
Thank you for the time you invest, the trouble you've endured, and the doubt you must sometimes feel but work through each day to give us hope.
It's fine to say stop religion -- but your own, intelligent, liberal neighbors won't agree with you. On the Mudflats recently, a retired pastor's guest post not only added a new ending to a parable, it used that ending to misrepresent the biblical approach to... well, probably homosexuality, but honestly, I don't remember.
ReplyDeleteWhat I do remember is that the pastor's brand-spanking new rendition of a worn verse was protected and embraced by the entire community on the site. Because -- it was presented to them by an officially recognized man of god. So it was okay to change and use holy scripture for his own purposes.
Tell me Mudflats isn't liberal, smart and inclusive. It is, and so are its readers. But when it comes to religion, somehow, the brain shuts down, and wise people give their moral sense and ability to reason over into 'sanctified' hands. They take comfort in it. And I don't get that, but churches have been taking it to the bank for millenia.
Speaking of churches -- and the leaps and bounds christianity is taking in Africa -- guess what the skinny is, regarding the next possible Bishop of Rome? Yes, they are in fact considering outsourcing the position. A few years ago the smart money was on a SoAmerican candidate, but lately -- what with donations being down in their european stomping grounds, not to mention post-anemic congregations -- the catholic church is now looking at a short list heavily dependent on African bishops.
Bishops who are not attempting in any way to protect the women and children that African christians are being encouraged to abuse and murder for the crime of witchcraft.
Welcome back to the dark ages, future pontiffs. Somehow, it seems prophetic that the current red shoe pedophiliac shuffler headed up the Office of the Inquisition.
Happy Birthday, Ambassador!
ReplyDeleteGuess who has two jobs?
This story needs to be heard by everyone. I hope it gets on many news programs - especially those news programs the Palin-dwellers watch.
ReplyDeleteFurther note: if God made Palin governor; then I guess it was the devil that made her quit being the governor - surely she is possessed. Don't greed and the devil walk hand-in-hand? Damn those so-called Fundamentalist Christian Republican lunatics!
The ironic thing is the bible isn't fact based. It is full of mysticism, calling on spirits (god, angels, demons, etc), esoteric teachings, religious organizations hiding documents, distorting information, etc.
ReplyDeleteWhen is the last time you've been to church for free? Any pastors working to spread the good word for free? Ginormous buildings, glamorous settings, tithe, tithe, tithe...
When the economy is down the preachers are making a killing, bad as wall street.
Bunch of money grubbing hypocrites.
Where are the journalists, real journalists who dig beneath the superficial facade of someone like Palin? There is a wealth of untapped, waiting to be investigated, newsworthy behaviors, beliefs and controversy that are newsworthy, frightening, guffawing laughable. Someone needs to tap into this phenomenon that burst upon the GOP stage last year.
ReplyDeleteIt's still a work in progress but you can find more Muthee info and info & videos about the religious movement Palin's a part of at www.PalinReport.presspublisher.us Much more info to come.
ReplyDeleteKeithO, you'd better be reading this!!
ReplyDeleteI don't know what to say, I just don't. A large part of me is glad that nothing publicly IDs me as a Christian (lack of church membership...how many churches tithe, anyway?!)
Anon@5:13, the story of Jesus throwing the moneychangers from the Temple comes to mind.
Sarah: Take this on for 'spiritual warfare': I pray for you, so you don't hurt yourself or others.
Gryphen, maybe you should focus on SP's connections to this rather than Babygate. Imagine a disciple of Glazier as POTUS. That "Obama Coup" game with the cast of characters reversed should give you an idea. Then again, the tabloidness of Babygate could get people looking at her dark side and her ultra-dark side...
Forgive the rambling. I want to kick, I want to scream. It's a bit difficult to do that virtually. I'm angry, sad, and most of all ashamed: of my religion and my country, both of which let this happen!