Contemporary witch hunts in Africa

fortitude
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Contemporary witch hunts in Africa

Here is are some article about Christian witch hunts that have been making the news lately as an ongoing problem.  They are targeting children (male and female) and women for torture and death due to the injunction to 'not suffer at witch to live' in the Bible.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/18/african-children-denounce_n_324943.html

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/05/18/nigeria.child.witchcraft/index.html

This seems to have become almost 'mainstream' in certain parts of Africa and is certainly not due to isolated cases.  It is quite profitable to local 'church communities' in parts of Africa.  They are taking the bible literally it seems.  They can and do support their actions based on a literal, though hysterical, interpretation of the protestant Christian scriptures and doctrines. 

It's easier to dismiss behavior that is removed from us in time, like witch burnings in Europe for centuries.  It is harder to dismiss Chrisitian bad behavior when it's ongoing.  One wonders if this is what North Americans had in mind when they were (and still are) inundating Africa with western-trained Christian missionaries and pastors.

It seems history has a way of repeating itself - even religious history.

 

"There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right." Martin Luther King


B166ER
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Sigh...

And there are some people who insist that modern day Christians don't live by their crazy book. Well apparently some still do, and it's fucking sick...

Don't worry if you can't watch the whole thing. That just means your humanity is still intact.

This fucking scapegoating is the reason why faith is a horrific virus that destroys the human mind. I wouldn't shed a tear if any of those fucking child abusing monsters were tortured to death. If given the chance I would even help out! I realize that it wouldn't solve the problem, which at it's core is one about lack of education and childhood indoctrination, but watching people getting away with committing unspeakable things to the most vulnerable people in society makes me sick...

 

"This may shock you, but not everything in the bible is true." The only true statement ever to be uttered by Jean Chauvinism, sociopathic emotional terrorist.
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Rich Woods
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This is how The Rev

This is how The Rev Muthie... Sarah Palin's Christian Guru... became a big name... he was also an African witch hunter...

 

 


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Nice to see some theists

Nice to see some theists sticking to traditional belief.

 

Really though, that sucks for those kids.  When all you have is the Bible, that is the kind of society you wind up with.

 

Everything makes more sense now that I've stopped believing.


NoMoreCrazyPeople
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  I never heard of this

  I never heard of this witch kid thing.  This video mushed me up inside man, this is sick, wtf?  That kid at 8:30 was just like "WTF you talking bout crazy preacher man" and buddy just keeps telling him he's a witch.  What is wrong with these people.  Their can't be any reasoning with these types.  So, here's a hard one...  What do you do with these people, while still remaining ethical?  I would have no problem killing someone who did that to their kid, but killing all these people ain't the way to go.  Sterilize them?  They obviously shouldn't be allowed to have kids, this would also stop them from passing on their genes.  Wtf do we do, these kinda nuts aint getting any better, we can't preach reason to someone who is willing to poor acid on and bury their child alive in the name of god.  These types will find the insane in anything.  It just depresses cause I feel theirs nothing we can do to effectively get rid of this mentally in nutjob believers.   


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NoMoreCrazyPeople wrote:  I

NoMoreCrazyPeople wrote:

  I never heard of this witch kid thing.  This video mushed me up inside man, this is sick, wtf?  That kid at 8:30 was just like "WTF you talking bout crazy preacher man" and buddy just keeps telling him he's a witch.  What is wrong with these people.  Their can't be any reasoning with these types.  So, here's a hard one...  What do you do with these people, while still remaining ethical?  I would have no problem killing someone who did that to their kid, but killing all these people ain't the way to go.  Sterilize them?  They obviously shouldn't be allowed to have kids, this would also stop them from passing on their genes.  Wtf do we do, these kinda nuts aint getting any better, we can't preach reason to someone who is willing to poor acid on and bury their child alive in the name of god.  These types will find the insane in anything.  It just depresses cause I feel theirs nothing we can do to effectively get rid of this mentally in nutjob believers.   

 

The root problem is probably poverty and a lack of education.  To eliminate poverty and get education you need infrastructure, stable government services, ready sources of food, a middle class, some sort of revenue stream for the group, etc. etc. etc.....fundy religion spreads like crazy when the host culture is that weak.  You can't just stamp out the religion because it is not the root cause.

Everything makes more sense now that I've stopped believing.


fortitude
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Nigerian 'Witches'

The situation already seems to be improving with the media and internet attention brought to the problem.  The Nigerian government has made it illegal to accuse a child of witchcraft, and that makes it much less profitable to accuse children of witchcraft.  And you can be sure that most of this is about power and extortion, with religion used as the means to the end.

This would certainly give me pause if I was still an evangelical, because the type of church I was involved with (evangelical, protestant) is at the center of this problem in Nigeria.  The evangelicals think everything will be nice and rosy if all the poor people become christians.   

"There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right." Martin Luther King


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Well I'm just glad we

Well I'm just glad we interpret it so differently here. I said it before, the bible is like the constitution, amendments are being made consistently.

 I'm also glad churches have rock concerts, day cares, jesus biscuits and child molesters. The word of god deserves no less.

I feel sorry for any kids who are tortured and abused for any reason, especially over religion, it's just sick.

Faith is the word but next to that snugged up closely "lie's" the want.
"By simple common sense I don't believe in god, in none."-Charlie Chaplin


iwbiek
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though it's irrational, shit

though it's irrational, shit like this makes me wish the days when the law was either nonexistent or largely ineffective, and a good-sized guy with backbone and a sense of justice could step in and personally put a stop to this shit without fear of repercussions.

my grandfather was such a guy.  just 60 years ago the mountains of eastern kentucky were still like the wild west.  seriously.  my grandfather once got in a bar fight with a guy and beat him to within an inch of his life with a tire iron and wasn't even arrested.  that wasn't anything to be proud of, but i've always admired a story my dad told me.  my grandfather's neighbor used to horsewhip his son when he was angry.  he would call him out to the barn and horsewhip him.  my grandfather could hear the cracks echo off the hillside.  after a couple weeks he'd had enough and marched over to where it was going on.  he told his neighbor, "stop it.  the boy's had enough.  if i ever hear that goddamn whip again i'm gonna come over and use it on you."  he never heard it again.

i would relish the chance to horsewhip these fuckers.  or use a tire iron.

"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
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