I have often written before about how I'm afraid that the fundamentalist Christians are taking us back to the dark ages. Among their beliefs are torture, racism, and of course witchcraft. Now I'm not saying the fundamentalist Christians practice witchcraft. The very opposite! No, they believe witchcraft must be stopped. The way they stopped witchcraft in the medieval times was to burn witches at the stake, after torturing them for a confession.We are not really close to burning witches in Canada yet. Maybe most Europeans got it out of their system burning thousands of witches for Christ in the dark ages. But in Nigeria, apparently it's a novelty that is gathering adherents. Apparently thousands of children have already been killed or mutilated for being witches, and Christian Fundamentalists' dogmatic belief that witches do exist is partly responsible for these atrocities.
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=TheYoungTurks#p/u/2/JrG9A_pV-Rs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/dec/09/tracymcveigh.theobserver
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/oct/22/channel4-television
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/17/world/main5392572.shtml
For a start, we need to try to make the Christian fundamentalists stop preaching about the evils of witchcraft in Africa. How likely is that, however, given that the Fundamentalists believe in a lot of other non-scientific stuff and have not been convinced by mountains of evidence?
As far as I know, the Catholic Church does not preach about the existence of witchcraft, and they are very reluctant to endorse miracles/magic by God or the Devil alike. There are lots of other decent Christian churches out there, but the key thing is to not spread around accusations of witchcraft. Apparently since I was in Africa there has been a proliferation of these Evangelist/Fundamentalist churches that believe in magic (black and white) and are anti-science (except when it serves their purpose).
I personally would prefer that African development was left to secular organizations like CUSO, but I also recognize that some faith based organizations can help. But for God's sake, spare us the burning children alive for witchcraft.
This tragedy of 'child witches' takes place in the larger context of the social, political and economic mess in Nigeria.
ReplyDeleteAlthough comparatively rich, Nigeria suffers from high levels of crimeand systemic corruption; estimates indicate that over 80% of energy revenues (the primary source of national revenue) benefit 1% of the population, leaving some 70% of the population in crushing poverty.
These problems are further exacerbated by the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS; current estimates are that there are almost one million AIDS orphans in Nigeria. Little is being done to support these orphans and, as in so many other jurisdictions with large numbers of street children, there is a growing fear of those children.
In this context, one of the least helpful activities is the proselytizing of fundamentalist Christianity, with its high content of superstition, reinforcing the existing native superstitions and providing a base for the religious profiteering which condemns these children as witches.
And I am not quite as prepared, as you so generously seem to be, to give the Roman Catholic Church a pass on this witchcraft issue. There appears to be considerable internal conflict within the church over this point.
And we should not overlook the Catholic church's mediæval position on birth control, which contributes to these problems.
I agree with you about the birth control, but not about the witchcraft.
ReplyDeleteThe Catholic Church's position is that witchcraft is not real, so logically you cannot solve anything by burning an accused witch. The Fundamentalist Christian's belief is that witchcraft is real by way of the Devil. So the fundamentalists basically open the door for the witch burnings and all the other atrocities.
African Catholic priests are obviously concerned about how to deal with the problem, and how to deal with people switching from the Catholic Church to the Fundamental Christians. Some African Catholic Priests believe in black magic and witchcraft themselves, and wish that the Pope would accept black magic, voodoo etc as real in order to counter the promises of miracles from Fundamental Christians. This is not happening as far as I know, the Catholic Church is not accepting voodoo/black magic as reality.
The Catholic Church doctrine is more or less uniform around the world, but the fundamentalists have wildly diverging practices and standards. Even so, Sarah Palin was involved in a witchcraft exorcism in Alaska, so it's not just in Africa that the Fundamentalists recognize witchcraft as real.
Actually, I don't think we're in disagreement on the question of the Catholic church's position on witchcraft.
ReplyDeleteI should have written, 'There appears to be some internal conflict within the church in Africa over this point.'
Actually, it seems you were closer to the truth than I was. Mary Ann pointed out this situation to me.
ReplyDeletePope declare war on Satan