Christians engaging in Nigerian Witch Hunt

[DeadCanDance]

The whacked out behaviour of a few, can always be used to tarnish an entire religion:

Nigerian Christians are killing children as "witches"


Evangelical pastors are helping to create a terrible new campaign of violence against young Nigerians. Children and babies branded as evil are being abused, abandoned and even murdered while the preachers make money out of the fear of their parents and their communities

Tracy McVeigh in Esit Eket
Sunday December 9, 2007
The Observer

The rainy season is over and the Niger Delta is lush and humid. This southern edge of West Africa, where Nigeria's wealth pumps out of oil and gas fields to bypass millions of its poorest people, is a restless place. In the small delta state of Akwa Ibom, the tension and the poverty has delivered an opportunity for a new and terrible phenomenon that is leading to the abuse and the murder of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of children. And it is being done in the name of Christianity.

Almost everyone goes to church here. Driving through the town of Esit Eket, the rust-streaked signs, tarpaulins hung between trees and posters on boulders, advertise a church for every third or fourth house along the road. Such names as New Testament Assembly, Church of God Mission, Mount Zion Gospel, Glory of God, Brotherhood of the Cross, Redeemed, Apostalistic. Behind the smartly painted doors pastors make a living by 'deliverances' - exorcisms - for people beset by witchcraft, something seen to cause anything from divorce, disease, accidents or job losses. With so many churches it's a competitive market, but by local standards a lucrative one.

But an exploitative situation has now grown into something much more sinister as preachers are turning their attentions to children - naming them as witches. In a maddened state of terror, parents and whole villages turn on the child. They are burnt, poisoned, slashed, chained to trees, buried alive or simply beaten and chased off into the bush.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2224553,00.html

 

[AllieBaba]

Let's not forget..this is something these people have been doing all along. Now they have been reached by missionaries, and the missionaries leave and you have newbies in Christ who still have to deal with the same prejudices, fears and threats...and who still harbor them themselves.

 

[Shogun]

ahh.. well... thank god they weren't muslims then!

 

[William Joyce]

I don't think "Christian" is the operative thing here... more like "primitive black African."

 

[Dr Grump]

I don't think "Christian" is the operative thing here... more like "primitive black African."

You mean like Fred Phelps?