Abuse of child 'witches' on rise, aid group says

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

... all in the name of religious beliefs!

The article ends with the following comment:

I'm feeling a strong sense of Deja Vu right now, as I sit here at a McDonalds in Salem Massachusetts using their WiFi, I can't help but feel that I've heard of some other case of Christians accusing people in their community as being witches. Maybe once I get back home from Salem it'll come to me.

Praise Jesus!! !

Save us from the witches.

What does this actually mean?

I took it as referring to the sentence that followed and perhaps implying both that Christian beliefs are behind the problem in the first place and that maybe "more civilised" Christians could put pressure on to eliminate the problem.

Ah, that's probably more likely what was meant than how I interpreted it. It sounded to me like he was saying that the international Christian community was encouraging this.

~

Something else Mr. Foxcroft said in that article disturbed me.



This is a weird thing to say, I think. If you believe someone is a witch, what else are you going to do except treat them abusively?

That is a very good point. I've heard views expressed in PPR by extreme American Christians who believe in the devil and possession by demons. I wonder how they treat such "possessed" people in their community?

He's referring to a belief in 'paganism'. For example, there is a nice lady here in accounting, sweet, older, very kind, who is pagan and openly admits to being a witch. If she read this article she might take offense if they just said "Witches are bad, M'kay?".

So he's saying 'we acknowledge people's right... yadda yadda' as a disclaimer so as not to offend those who see witchcraft as a good thing.

I'm in no hurry to burn our Accounting lady, she's one of the nicest ones here. Maybe if she screws up my paycheck

Alright, it seems I'm able to post in this thread again.

~

I remember reading a news story about a Christian group in USA somewhere, a cult if you will. They starved an infant to death because he wouldn't say his prayers. They starved him to rid him of the demon that was preventing him from saying his prayers. The leader of the cult had said that, after dying of starvation, the boy would be resurrected without the demon.

This didn't happen unfortunately.

Of course, this is a cult, nowhere near mainstream Christianity, and I doubt there has ever been anyone posting in PPR who would believe the things they did. I don't think it is fair to say that Christianity sucks just because of these instances.

The case in Nigeria, though, seems a bit more like it is the country's mainstream beliefs, but the article doesn't say what kind of Christians these people are, or how widespread these cases actually are.

I don't think he was, because it seems strange to equate the Nigerian understanding of 'witch' with the 'pagan' understanding, when they are blatantly two different things. I inferred from what he said that he felt it was not a good thing for people of one culture to attempt to discourage another culture's beliefs.



What I was meaning to say was that, if there are witches and they are causing illness and mayhem within your community, then the logical thing to do is to run them from the community. There is a big difference between this Nigerian idea of 'witch' and the 'pagan' idea of 'witch' (at least, I don't believe your accounting lady is causing mayhem through her sorcerous powers).

I do not mean it should be that all who are labelled witches should be treated abusively. I was trying to say that, if there were things which fitted the Nigerian description of 'witch' then it would make sense for the Nigerians to get rid of them. The best way to tackle the problem of this happening would be to educate people, to show them there are no witches (or to teach the children not to fear brooms).

I dunno, McTell - if I sincerely believed that one of my neighbors had the power to suspend and rewrite the laws of nature at whim, I think I'd want to be certain they liked me a lot...

What surprises me is the number of people who call themselves Christians, but seem to believe that the powers of evil can overwhelm the will of the living God so easily. All you have to do is burn certain herbs and chant certain words, and you can thwart the will of the Creator of All? Really?? Doesn't sound like much of a belief in the power of God to me...

There's a big difference between someone of Wiccan faith, and someone who the community declares to be a witch based entirely on superstition. Neither should be abused for being who they are though.

I'm sure some autistic children are getting beat up and being called witches. Any kid that is different is being bullied by that system.

The kid who didn't cry when he was beaten.. That would have been me as a child. Blows just didn't hurt me. I felt an intense sensation, neither pleasurable nor unpleasurable, and I could deal with it. Our nervous systems are different and I've heard of others like me.

They don't seem that powerful to me. After all, they fear brooms. Even Western witches aren't that weak, and all they do is run around on Halloween.

I agree that it would be strange to equate these two understandings of 'witchcraft'. What I am equating are the two MISunderstandings of 'witchcraft' which have sprung from the same Christian root. In Nigeria and here in the early days of colonization. According to the article, they believed

Mmmmm, smells like Salem.

A casual Wiccan reader could easily take offense if they skim through and see "We condemn witchcraft" vs "We acknowledge people's right..." to believe. He's right to include that statement.

Apologies for being unclear, sometimes I am too brief in the interests of NOT writing mini-novellas with each post

Western witches RIDE brooms! - the mythical witches, not Wiccans obviously.