Showing posts with label exorcism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exorcism. Show all posts

19 Feb 2016

American evangelists export biblical literalism to Africa triggering murderous homophobia and child sacrifice



AlterNet - May 10, 2011

How American Evangelism Triggered the Murder of Gays Overseas

By Valerie Tarico, Away Point



Christian extremists in Uganda’s parliament are hoping that hunger and high gas prices will provide the cover they need to finally subject gay men to punishment of biblical proportions. They have introduced a bill, up for vote on May 11, that seeks life imprisonment for gay sex and, for repeat offenders, the death penalty. Last year, similar legislation was averted by international outrage. President Museveni was afraid of losing valuable aid dollars, and after outcry arose across the West, with Barack Obama calling the law “odious,” Museveni prevented the bill from coming to a vote.

Stopping the bill was insufficient to save the life of one Ugandan, David Kato, who was beaten to death with a hammer in January. Kato was Uganda’s most outspoken gay rights advocate and had received many death threats before he was killed.

In the winter months before his death, one newspaper ran a front page photo of Kato with an anti-gay rant and a banner urging “Hang them.” Last spring I traveled in Mozambique, where a full-page article in a local paper interspersed Bible verses, exhortations to spiritual living, and similar anti-gay vitriol. Although leading fundamentalists like Albert Mohler appear increasingly resigned to “tolerance” here at home, across Africa the marriage of Christianity and homophobia appears to be thriving—thanks in part to an American tendency to take our outdated wares and social movements overseas.

Two years ago, I wrote an article that asked, “If the Bible Were Law, Would You Qualify for the Death Penalty?” It described some of the thirty six causes for capital punishment listed in the Good Book, including cursing parents, witchcraft, being raped (only within the city limits), adultery, and of course, homosexual sex. Mercifully, even the most old school American Christians seem to ignore the Bible on these points. But one of the unfortunate consequences of Americans exporting biblical literalism to developing countries is that people in those countries take the Bible literally – including the parts we all, missionaries included, wish they wouldn’t. In Nigeria, American Pentecostalism has fused with local animism and resulted in children being beaten and burned as witches, just like the Bible prescribes.

In Uganda, American evangelism may be similarly responsible for Kato’s death and the proposed law. In March 2009, frustrated by their inability to block the gradual inclusion of gays in the universal human rights umbrella at home, Evangelical leaders traveled to Uganda and led incendiary workshops seeking to increase Ugandan fear that gay men are a threat to straight marriages and children. It would appear that Uganda’s already fractured and restive society is reaping what the American missionaries have sown: further contention and violence.

“I don’t want anyone killed,” said Mr. Schmierer, one of the Evangelical leaders who traveled to Uganda two years ago. “But I don’t feel I had anything to do with that [Kato’s death].” Many evangelicals, those who see the Bible as literally perfect, find it almost impossible to imagine that the Bible itself could be responsible for inciting violence or that those who preach biblical inerrancy could be complicit in that violence. And yet other Christians, those who see the Bible as the imperfect record of the imperfect struggle of our spiritual ancestors, find this causal chain quite plausible. According to theologian Thom Stark (The Human Faces of God), the biblical record attributes divine sanction in places to some of the worst of Iron Age impulses, including human sacrifice. Unless we understand those writings in their human context we are bound to glorify passages that instead should teach us about the darkness in the human spirit. And glorifying human darkness puts us at risk of enacting it.

It is troubling that of the many offerings that might have been carried to Africa by American Christians in the service of the Great Commandment, what has been carried instead are seeds of homophobia that produce fear, hatred, and death. It will take many voices raised together to reverse the damage done. I hope those voices will be raised this week (petition here) and again next year, and for as many years as are needed until Uganda’s gay community can live in love and peace.


Valerie Tarico is a psychologist and author of Trusting Doubt: A Former Evangelical Looks at Old Beliefs in a New Light. Founder of WisdomCommons.org.

This article was found at:



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Posted by Perry Bulwer at 16:04
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27 May 2011

Australian church affiliated with US fundamentalists opens school to teach how to raise the dead and cure cancer



The Queensland Times   -   Australia May 21, 2011

Westlife 'Cancer cure' course

by Chris Garry



A SCHOOL of the Supernatural has opened in Springfield, claiming to teach Ipswich residents how to cure cancer through prayer.

Westlife Church, which counts Hillsong Church [see related article links below] amongst its evangelical family, is running the six-month course for the first time this year.

Seventy people have enrolled in the School of the Supernatural.

Participants who complete the course are told they will be able to perform miracles through prayer, such as helping couples who can't conceive fall pregnant, healing broken bones and even curing cancer.

The course is based on the controversial teachings of fundamentalist pastor Bill Johnson who runs the enormous Bethel Church in California.

The pastor speaks to Ipswich students through a series of DVDs.

Bethel's members purport to have the ability to bring the dead back to life.

Westlife Church's website states: “Supernatural schools are designed to equip students to ‘live and do' in the supernatural through biblical teaching and practical application.

“This is an environment where people can take risks in learning to operate in the supernatural without fear of rejection or failure.”

School of the Supernatural director, Cherylyn Collett, said Ipswich students had shown great promise in their ability to physically heal.

“Our course is based on Bible scripture. The course teaches students to live outside the box and listen to what God really has to say,” Mrs Collett said.

“God fills the minds of our students with pictures and that helps them heal others physically.

“We are not out to convert anyone or preach.

“Our students are taught to transform the atmosphere around them but to do so in an accepting way.

“Some Churches in the past have had agendas and have not been real with their congregation. This is real.”

Mrs Collett said the course did not teach students how to “speak in tongues”, but she would discuss the technique with pupils if asked.

Westlife Church has contributed immensely to Ipswich's recovery since January's flood disaster.

Westlife Church manager Yvonne Baker said several miracles had been performed at their church this year and it was hoped those who completed the School of Supernatural course would increase the number physical healings.

Mrs Collett attended Bill Johnson's Bethel Church several years ago to have her chronically ill son healed at their School of Supernatural Ministry.

When it worked within two days, she said she felt obliged to bring the Bethel teachings back to Australia.

But Bethel Church has come under severe criticism.

Pastor Johnson has claimed angel feathers have fallen in his church.

The church even claims to heal physical ailments over the internet through the use of Skype.


This article was found at:



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Hillsong: Exorcism in the suburbs


They sought help, but got exorcism and the Bible

Posted by Perry Bulwer at 14:05
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16 May 2011

Ritual abuse of children accused of witchcraft in UK mostly unreported, authorities only alerted in extreme cases



The Daily Mail  -  UK   May 14, 2011

Hundreds of children being accused of witchcraft 'as belief in demonic possession spreads across the UK'

By ROB COOPER



Hundreds of witchcraft abuse cases are going unreported across the country each year, it has been revealed.

Officials believe child protection officers are only tipped off in the most extreme cases when a child's life has been put in danger.

Just 38 cases have been reported in the last five years - and it is feared that they represent just the tip of the iceberg.

Hundreds of children may be left to starve, beaten and having chili rubbed into their eyes.

Youngsters born with physical and mental difficulties are most at risk from abuse.

Relatives often believe that the children are 'possessed' and the torture is carried out as a form of exorcism.

Extreme evangelical Christian churches - most prevalent in the Democratic Republic of Congo - have grown significantly in recent years and their influence is thought to have spread to groups in the UK.

A decade ago the death of Victoria Climbie suffered appalling injuries at the hands of her aunt and boyfriend who believed she was possessed by the devil, sparking huge public anger.

The eight-year-old had 128 injuries on her body in a case described by a pathologist as one of the worst ever child abuse cases.

She tied up, hit with bike chains and attacked with lighted cigarettes.

As officials try to combat the extreme beliefs, social services have been issued with a new set of guidelines to help them deal with youngsters from religious and ethnic minority backgrounds who could suffer abuse, The Times revealed.

The Metropolitan Police are working on their scheme to deal with religious-based child abuse to place extra emphasis on dealing with tackling witchcraft and abuse.

Witchcraft is most often found in the Democratic Republic of Congo and surrounding countries.

Romain Matondo, who works at the safeguarding children programme at the Congolese Family Centre, north London, said often it is not biological parents who are the abusers.

He told The Times: 'At first maybe it is swearing and shouting at the child, what we would call emotional abuse.

'But if there is church involvement, it sometimes means it doesn't stop there, but becomes physical and very violent as the church tries to get rid of the evil spirit.'

He added that children can be slapped, starved or beaten with spoons all to get the spirit out.

A report yesterday revealed that it is the poorest children that are most at risk of beind told they are 'possessed' because relatives are more likely to be influenced by faith leaders.


This article was found at:



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Extremely abusive exorcisms of children branded as witches on the rise in the U.K.


Catholic Church downplays talk of the devil in public but maintains international network of exorcists
UNICEF report documents tens of thousands of children abused and murdered as witches in East Africa


Rapid growth of evangelical Christianity in Africa responsible for torture and murder of thousands of kids denounced as witches


African Children Falsely Accused of Witchcraft


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Christian belief in demon possession leads to physical, spiritual and psychological abuse of children


Child sacrifice and other atrocities ignored by believers who consider the Bible the source of morality


New book on origins of Christianity details the outrageous suffering of children at the hands of ancient religious leaders


Child sacrifice: a review of the documentary All God's Children - the ultimate sacrifice


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Nigerian Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons begins commission on abuse of children accused of witchcraft
Posted by Perry Bulwer at 12:54
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2 Mar 2011

Catholic Church downplays talk of the devil in public but maintains international network of exorcists



The Independent - UK      February 24, 2011

The Devil’s own work: Why do priests still perform exorcisms?

Exorcism is a Hollywood favourite, the latest being 'The Rite'. The Catholic Church continues with the ritual, but will only talk about it behind closed doors. What are they afraid of, asks Peter Stanford


Of the approximately 70,000 exorcisms he has carried out, Father Gabriele Amorth estimates that fewer than 100 have been cases of genuine demonic possession.

The chief exorcist of the diocese of Rome quotes this second figure as if to comfort me, but to a modern Catholic, convinced that the Devil is just a face the church has traditionally put to the otherwise intangible presence of evil in the world, 100 sounds like an awful lot of encounters with someone I don't believe exists.

I am momentarily struck dumb as we sit on either side of a table in Father Gabriele's bare-walled office, situated in an anonymous church building on the outskirts of Rome. A large crucifix lies between us, resting on a purple cushion. I want to ask if he is absolutely sure he wasn't mistaken in those 100 cases, but everything about the manner of this burly, pugnacious priest, in his mid-80s and with a deeply-lined bulldog face, makes plain he means every single word.

"It is vital," he continues, "to distinguish two causes [for apparent demonic possession]: for most people it is an illness of the psyche that can be cured by psychiatry." We are getting back onto more familiar, shared ground. Instead of splashing those who come here to seek his help with holy water and reading the rite of exorcism, as was the standard practice of the medieval church, he appears to be accepting the need for referral to a suitably qualified doctor, much more in keeping with modern, mainstream Christianity.

"But," says Father Gabriele, "there are the others, the small number of real possessions. Often they were outwardly normal people, going about their lives in a normal way." And when he exorcises them, what exactly happens? "I have had people vomit up nails during an exorcism," he replies matter-of-factly, "others pieces of glass, others pieces of radio equipment."

Radio equipment? It sounds almost comical, but he is not smiling. At no point during our 30 minutes together does he come anywhere near a smile. And neither, do I. "The Devil works through the media," he explains, looking me straight in the eye, knowing full well I am a journalist.

This chilling encounter with Father Gabriele came back vividly as I watched The Rite, Hollywood's latest follow-up to The Exorcist, the iconic 1973 horror film that remains fixed in the memory of anyone brave enough to watch it all the way through. The Rite explores similar territory as it follows a young, thoroughly modern American priest, Father Michael Kovak, (Colin O'Donoghue) who is sent to Rome by his bishop, against his wishes, to attend a training course for exorcists being run in the headquarters of Catholicism.

Deeply sceptical about what he sees as the outdated mumbo-jumbo that is demonology, Father Michael proves so disruptive on the course that he is referred by his tutor (Ciarán Hinds) to the eminence noire of Rome exorcists, Father Lucas Trevant (Anthony Hopkins). "Do you believe in sin?" Father Lucas barks at his visitor. It instantly put me in mind of Father Gabriele. "I do, but I don't believe the Devil makes us do it," Father Michael replies with the sort of courage I lacked in my brush with an old-style exorcist in Rome.

The younger cleric initially sticks to his sane, rational, 21st century guns over the nonexistence of the Devil. "She doesn't need a priest," he tells Father Lucas of one of his tortured charges, her belly swelling, her eyes rolling and her fiendish screams intensifying, "she needs a shrink". Yet by the end of this horror-thriller, Father Michael is as ready to brandish his crucifix as a weapon against Satan as Father Lucas.

Despite its primary vocation to terrify cinema-goers, The Rite cannot lightly be dismissed as a piece of shameless exaggeration and sensationalism because it does manage to get much of the incidental detail right. Such as being set in Rome. It was the only place – when I was researching a book on the Devil – where church exorcists are open about their work. According to recently reiterated papal rules, every single one of the 3,000 dioceses of the Catholic Church around the world must have, among the ranks of its priests, a trained exorcist, but their identity is cloaked in secrecy. When I asked to interview one anywhere in Britain, I was told I would have to demonstrate prima facie evidence of possession first. Which, however thorough my research, would have been stretching it a bit. That is when I discovered that in Rome, the rules are rather different and ended up face-to-face with Father Gabriele.

The Rite is based on the experiences of Father Gary Thomas from Saratoga, California, a parish priest in suburban Silicon Valley who was dispatched to Rome in 2005 by his bishop for training so he could fill the vacancy for a diocesan exorcist. He arrived deeply distrustful of talk of the Devil, and like Father Michael in the film, was sent off to meet an old hand. In interviews, he hasn't named the senior exorcist in question, and any passing similarity with Father Gabriele has to be tempered by the Hopkins character being portrayed as having his own doubts about the reality of the Devil, not a position my interviewee had ever adopted. Indeed last year he made headlines when he produced a memoir claiming that Satan was at work even in the corridors of the Vatican itself.

The publication of that book caused a few blushes among the papal entourage. In the modern church, you see, it is just not the done thing to mention the Devil. The figure who looms so large in the gospels, whose horned, scaly, terrifying face adorned the walls of many a medieval church in scenes of the harrowing of hell, and who has inspired artists from Dante and Bosch through Milton and Byron and on to Bulgakov and CS Lewis, is now rarely mentioned from the pulpit.

The last Pope to speak at any length on the Devil was Paul VI in 1972. In an address (which Father Gabriele quotes from at length during our meeting), he personified evil in the figure of the Devil as "an effective agent, a living spiritual being, perverted and perverting". By contrast, Pope John Paul II, in the 27 years of his reign, made only two glancing references to Satan, both times in larger contexts. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the comprehensive rulebook that John Paul published in 1993, the Devil figures in only a handful of the 3,000 entries, and then simply as a "seductive voice" luring humankind astray.

The logic behind this vow of silence is plain. Church leaders don't like mentioning the Devil in case it makes them sound medieval, superstitious or out of touch. There is also a smattering of remorse in there for the crimes that the Church has committed down the centuries by invoking the real presence of the Devil. When the Inquisition was torturing and murdering those who dared to disagree with the papal line, its victims (Jews, women, pagans alike) were usually presented as being in league with Satan.

Yet even in 2011, the Devil is not wholly disowned by the church that did so much more than any other institution to make him seem frighteningly flesh and blood. He remains part of Catholicism but is now treated like the disreputable relative with a dark past who the family prefers to keep shut away. Hence the silence that surrounds the work of exorcists. It is hard to downplay talk of the Devil in public when you are simultaneously maintaining a network of diocesan exorcists around the world.

This is an ambiguity the Church has long lived with. John Paul II, for all his public reticence about Satan, nevertheless managed in 1982 to carry out an exorcism himself on a disturbed young woman, an episode recalled in My Six Popes, the autobiography published in 1993 by the retired head of his household, French Cardinal Jacques Martin.

And it is not just church leaders who are in two minds about the Devil. However much I could rationally trace the development of the character of the Devil as a theological, historical, artist and church-political construct, a shorthand explanation for what many regard as the evil abroad in the world, in that moment when I was sitting opposite Father Gabriele in his office in Rome, and he started talking about the Devil possessing the media, I felt myself shifting in my chair. Was he about to attempt an exorcism on me? And if he did, what was there to worry about because I didn't share his belief a physical incarnation of evil? His words would have no effect. But frightened I was, and I beat a hasty retreat from what I later heard described as the "delivery room", and gasped with relief when I got outside the building.

There is a part of us that remains irrationally susceptible to the idea of the Devil. Perhaps it is just those who, like me, had a traditional Catholic upbringing. My Christian Brother teachers were big on the real and imminent danger of Hell. But the enduring appeal of Satan spreads beyond my generation and my particular denomination. Politicians and public alike, when faced by a monstrous crime, are still quick to characterise its perpetrator as the Devil incarnate. Think of the descriptions routinely used of the Moors Murderess, Myra Hindley. "May She Rot in Hell," ran one headline on the day she died. Indeed, if there was ever a modern image of the Devil it was that Medusa-like picture of her taken in 1966, all blond hair, defiance, and cold, cold eyes.

Confronted with something unthinkably cruel and inhumane, we reach not for the language of psychiatry but for medieval demonology and scapegoating. As does the Church. Benedict XVI, generally as reluctant as his predecessor to mention the Devil in public, did nevertheless last June talk about the orchestrating role of "the enemy" in the paedophile priest scandal that has so damaged the Church's moral standing.

The Devil can still be a convenient get-out clause, whether it be from culpability for unspeakable crimes against children, or more mundane problems. I remember once attending a prayer group where young Evangelical Anglicans had gathered to share the trials and tribulations of their week, and how Jesus would shape their lives if they let him. "I've had a terrible few days," one twentysomething confided, "the Devil has made me spend all my money." She said it without a hint of irony or self-knowledge. She was taking no responsibility herself.

That same reaction can be glimpsed in remarks made by Father Gary Thomas, in interviews he has given to mark the release of The Rite in the United States. Since he successfully completed his training as an exorcist in Rome, he has dealt with five cases he describes as genuine possession by the Devil. His work with those individuals, he confides, has left him vulnerable himself to Satan. "My celibacy gets attacked a lot," he remarks. Rather than locate any problems he may have with the Catholic rule that priests must be celibate within, either himself or the church, Father Gary evidently prefers to externalise them and project them onto the Devil.

The connection between sex and Devil is almost as old as Christianity. Familiar figures in the medieval church iconography were incubus and succubus, copulating demons who would seduce both women and men and impregnate females with children of the Devil.

So is Satan in the 21st century being relegated to the extreme fringes of Christianity that still prefer a literal interpretation of the Bible? Apparently not. He's still right there in the mainstream churches. Indeed, in the opening titles for The Rite, the film-makers draw attention to a New York Times report on a conference of US Catholic bishops that took place in November 2010 to debate growing demand from their congregations for exorcism, and the absence of sufficient suitably-qualified priests to service them. [see article link below]

Unlike Father Gabriele, most of this secret army of priest-exorcists prefer to operate away from the spotlight, but for all that there is no question that the Devil is real. If they ever break cover and are confronted about their work, they have a standard response, best summed up by the 19th century French poet, Baudelaire – "the Devil's deepest wile is to persuade us that he does exist".

It is a pretty circular argument. When you counter, as Father Michael does in the early sections of The Rite, that the absence of proof of the Devil cannot be taken as proof itself, they just smile knowingly. While Father Gabriele didn't even manage a smile when I met him, I am sure the same justification was going through his head.

Peter Stanford's "Biography of the Devil" is published in paperback and e-book by Arrow


This article was found at:



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Posted by Perry Bulwer at 16:47
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25 Feb 2011

NY law professor helps run legal aid clinic in Malawi for persons accused of witchcraft, mostly children and elderly women





New York Times - February 17, 2011

Witchcraft Legal Aid in Africa

By CHI MGBAKO | Op-Ed


NEW YORK — Accusations of witchcraft in Africa have gained increasing attention because of the severe impact they can have on the lives of those accused, including imprisonment, deprivation of property, banishment from villages and in some cases physical violence.

The human-rights law program I direct recently partnered with an N.G.O. in Malawi to run a mobile legal-aid clinic focusing on witchcraft cases in two rural communities.

Men, women and children flocked to our clinic seeking legal assistance. The cases were challenging and engaged the question of how to confront accusations of witchcraft, particularly when children and elderly women disproportionately bear the brunt of such accusations.

The persecution of accused witches has not historically been confined to Africa. Witch-hunts have occurred in Europe, America, ancient Rome, Aztec Mexico, Russia, China and India. But the practice persists in poor settings in part because witchcraft can be used in communities without routine access to modern medicine and science to explain seemingly inexplicable instances of death and misfortune.

In Malawi, a country of deep poverty and low life-expectancy, one of our clients claimed that disgruntled community members in years past had cursed his village by proclaiming that the rains would disappear. When the rains did not arrive as anticipated, his conclusion was, “How could that be the result of anything but witchcraft?”

In such cases, we tried to explain what we believed were the real causes of misfortunes. Malawi has suffered a series of droughts, so in this case we discussed climate science to explain the lack of rains.

Economically oppressed people who lack political outlets to express their grievances may also turn to leveling accusations of witchcraft. Conflict, internal displacement, the lack of development, and the weight of HIV/AIDS on families have all contributed to the rise of witchcraft accusations in Africa.

Exacerbating the problem are mushrooming religious sects that offer bogus exorcism services, as well as local witch doctors who claim to “hunt” witches and charge exorbitant fees for potions to lift “spells.”

One client arrived at our legal-aid clinic desperate to cure her daughter of a perceived spell. She confided that she had spent huge sums of money and bartered goods on a series of witch doctors, all to no avail. We encouraged her to stop using her hard-earned savings on witch doctors, and she quickly realized that most of them were charlatans.

Although men are sometimes targeted, elderly women and children are often the primary victims of witchcraft accusations. Elderly women are at risk because their removal can expedite accusers’ access to their property. We heard a case in which a man had severely beat our client’s elderly mother and accused her of witchcraft in an attempt to gain access to her land.

Children are also easy targets. In one case we heard, someone accused a 12-year-old girl of being a witch and threatened to bury the child. Although this is not the case in Malawi, in countries like Angola, Nigeria and Congo, “witch children” are often abused and abandoned by their families.

Many clients came to our mobile legal clinic eager to learn the status of Malawi’s law on witchcraft. According to the law, currently under review by Malawi’s law reform commission, it is illegal to accuse someone of witchcraft or to hire a witch doctor to identify an alleged witch.

Some clients were resistant to the notion of providing a measure of protection to accused witches, but others were relieved. A female village chief, previously unaware of the law, had been holding town-hall meetings for years to encourage community members to stop witchcraft accusations. After attending our clinic, she was happy to learn that the law supports her stance.

We had many other cases in which individuals sought legal advice on whether they could proceed with accusing someone of witchcraft. We welcomed these cases because they gave us an opportunity to intervene before the belief in witchcraft was transformed into public blame and potential violence.

One young woman with chronically bad luck in love believed that her failed romantic relationships were the result of spells cast by her uncle. After we informed her that it is against Malawian law to accuse her uncle of witchcraft she vowed not to do so. We also dissuaded another woman from branding a local child in the community as a witch. She left the clinic determined to deter other potential accusers.

Many Malawians believe in witchcraft. This belief, in and of itself, is not the issue. It is the transformation of belief into accusation and subsequent harm that is at issue. So although the law does not address the question of whether witchcraft exists or not — individuals are free to believe or disbelieve — it should continue to criminalize witchcraft accusations.

Legislation alone will not stop attacks against alleged witches. Malawi and other African countries grappling with this issue should raise public awareness through nationwide campaigns that enlist church groups, police, the justice system, N.G.O.s and traditional healers to encourage people to refrain from making accusations of witchcraft against neighbors and relatives, especially emphasizing the often irreparable harm these do to children and elderly women.

Chi Mgbako is clinical associate professor of law and director of the Walter Leitner International Human Rights Clinic at Fordham Law School in New York City.

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on February 18, 2011, in The International Herald Tribune.


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