Abuse of child 'witches' on rise..Surprise! "belief system is being spread by so-called Christians."

[moobu2]

(CNN) -- Christian Eshiett was a rambunctious pre-teen who spent a lot of time cavorting with his friends in southern Nigeria. He would skip school and run away from home for days, frustrating his grandfather, who oversaw the boy's care.





"I beat him severely with canes until they broke, yet he never shed a tear," said Eshiett Nelson Eshiett, 76. "One day, I took a broom to hit him and he started crying. Then I knew he was possessed by demons. ... Nigerian witches are terrified of brooms."

From that day two years ago, Christian, now 14, was branded a witch. The abuse intensified.

"They would take my clothes off, tie me up and beat me," he told CNN in a telephone interview.

The teen is one of the so-called witch children in Eket, a city in oil-rich Akwa Ibom state of Nigeria.

They are blamed for causing illness, death and destruction, prompting some communities to put them through harrowing punishments to "cleanse" them of their supposed magical powers.


Pastors have been accused of worsening the problem etc..

[On the Road]

1. The Most Amazing Thing About This

is that America was not too different in the past. Or Europe. The kind of thinking seems so repellent and foreign, we're lucky to be living in a time and place where it's an oddity.

[MorningGlow]

8. More recent than you think

I attended high school in the early '80s. It was a Catholic girls' school. I was raised Catholic, but not very strictly (my parents rarely went to church and didn't talk about religion at home), and by the time I was a teenager I was investigating all kinds of alternative beliefs. In my sophomore year I had to do a research paper, and I chose ESP as the subject. In senior year, we had to write a short story or essay about what we thought hell was like. At the time I thought hell was reincarnating and returning to earth (I don't believe that now). Our teacher read my essay and a few others aloud to the class. After class, a girl I had barely said two words to in all four years of high school approached me and timidly asked if I was a witch. Based solely on those two papers I did. (How researching ESP and opining on reincarnation makes someone a witch is beyond me.) A few days later a friend of mine overheard another girl--also someone I had absolutely nothing to do with all four years of school--state quite confidently that I had put a hex on her.

We are far, far closer to that level of ignorance than we like to believe.

[patrice]

2. Let me guess how one either keeps from being thought a witch, or protects one's self from witches...

:think:

Baptism? and . . .

:think:

TITHING.

[zazen]

3. American kids are only accused of mental illness and purified through drugs and inpatient

Well, maybe internment camps like Scared Straight are on the wane. But as horrific as the Nigerian situation is, we need to be aware of how different societies reincarnate deep human themes of scapegoating and "purification," and that there can be secular versions of this too.

[struggle4progress]

4. This post leads to a goldmine of questions, moobu

Who is Foursquare? Who is Stepping Stones?

International Church of the Foursquare Gospel is a Los Angeles based pentecostal group dating from the mid-1920s

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Church_of_the_Foursquare_Gospel
http://www.foursquare.org/

The church website doesn't list Nigeria but asserts it is noncomprehensive

... Check the listing below for church links in each country from this region. More will be added on a regular and ongoing basis. Note: This list is not comprehensive; there are international churches without websites, or that are not included on this list ... http://fmi.foursquare.org/countries/links.sd

There seem to be established "Foursquare" groups in Nigeria

Speeches
Annual Convention Of Foursquare Gospel Church In Nigeria
Nov 16, 2008 - I count it a great privilege to be invited to this 16th Annual Convention of the Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria ... Let me use this forum to urge our Christian leaders to remember that they have a responsibility not only to cater for the spiritual needs of the Christian fold under their care but also to bring about peace and harmonious relationship among various ethnic groups within your immediate environment, we should also use our various platforms to encourage our people to support our various initiatives that will make life easier for everybody. Indeed, the time has truly come for every one of us to employ religion as a tool for peace, unity and meaningful development in the society. You will agree with me that no meaningful development can be achieved in an unstable and unsecured environment. To make progress as a nation, we must endeavor to create an atmosphere of peace devoid of rancour and religious intolerance ...
Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN)
Governor of Lagos State
http://www.tundefashola.com/archives/news/2008/11/16/20081116N01A.html

... You are welcome to the official website of The Foursquare Gospel Church, Satellite Town (Rehoboth Center) ...
http://www.foursquaresatellite.org/

Domain ID:D151862755-LROR
Domain Name:FOURSQUARESATELLITE.ORG
Created On:27-Feb-2008 10:05:51 UTC
Last Updated On:28-Apr-2009 02:29:42 UTC
Expiration Date:27-Feb-2010 10:05:51 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:The Registry at Info Avenue d/b/a Spirit Telecom (R111-LROR)
Status:OK
Registrant ID:PP-SP-001
Registrant Name:Domain Admin
Registrant Organization:PrivacyProtect.org
Registrant Street1:P.O. Box 97
Registrant Street2:Note - All Postal Mails Rejected, visit Privacyprotect.org
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Moergestel
Registrant State/Province:
Registrant Postal Code:5066 ZH
Registrant Country:NL
Registrant Phone:[phone] ...
http://whois.domaintools.com/foursquaresatellite.org

Here is an interesting story about "Foursquare" and witches:

Befriending witches is a problem in Salem, Mass.
By Suzanne Sataline
The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, October 31, 2006
SALEM, Mass. -- The Rev. Phil Wyman presides over a small evangelical church here that befriends local pagans and folks who call themselves witches. It's an odd mission, even in Salem, a city where tourism capitalizes on .. the mass hysteria of 1692 in which 20 men and women were executed for practicing witchcraft ...
http://www.festivalofthedead.com/media/06/wallstreetjournal_befriendingwitches.html

Excommunicated from his church, pastor draws praise and condemnation from pagans and Christians
The Salem Gazette, USA
Jan. 17, 2008
Kristin D'Agostino
... A little over a year ago Wyman was excommunicated from his church, accused of getting too amicable with the city’s Wiccan community because of controversial missionary tactics that included operating a pagan-Christian discussion forum, offering Web site links to pagan sites and fostering personal friendships with witches ...
http://www.religionnewsblog.com/20377/phil-wyman

Attitudes, real or alleged, towards "witchcraft" in Nigeria may be a proxies in broader political power struggles. Stepping Stone's Foxcroft originally went to Nigeria because he was interested in the oil industry. Much of the current noise about witchcraft is commonly attributed to a movie "End of the Wicked" circulated by actress Helen Ukpabio, who (perhaps unconvincingly) claims the notorious version is somebody else's dishonest remake of a film she made a decade ago.

'Child-witches' of Nigeria seek refuge
By David Harrison
Last Updated: 2:33PM GMT 09 Nov 2008
... Gary Foxcroft, 29, programme director for the UK charity Stepping Stones, Nigeria, first came to the country in 2003 to research the oil industry for his masters degree ...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/nigeria/3407882/Child-witches-of-Nigeria-seek-refuge.html

UNHCR News Stories
Aid worker calls for action to protect child "witches" from abuse
... Foxcroft ... has called for a global conference on witchcraft-related abuse, where experts and stakeholders from around the world can gather to exchange information, discuss best practices and establish networks ...
http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/49dcbeb72.html

Pastor Denounces Nigerian Churches Who Profit From “Witchcraft”
Article by Konye Obaji Ori from here, 23rd April 2009
... “If this state (Akwa-Ibom state) has been taken over by witchcraft, why can’t we use witchcraft to achieve good things; at least win international football matches? All we need to do is put eleven bewitched boys on the pitch and win the world cup” ...
http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2009/04/26/pastor-denounces-nigerian-churches-who-profit-from-witchcraft/

Nigeria: The Hullabaloo About Child Witches
7 May 2009
... The hullabaloo against Liberty Church Gospel Church started late last year, when on November 12, 2008, following the reports that children branded witches by pastors in Akwa Ibom were maltreated, channel 04 of the UK ran a two-hour telecast/documentary on "dispatches" titled, "Saving the African Child Witch" ... The story line of "End of the Wicked", Ukpabio said, has nothing to do with children labeled witchcraft. The film, she stressed, simply says if a child is a glutton, he or she could be easily be initiated into witchcraft and the only way out for such child is deliverance through the Lord Jesus ... It was claimed in the TV documentary by UK broadcaster of Channel 4 that the views that she expresses has lead to a massive upsurge in children stigmatised and abandoned by their families in West Africa, particularly in Akwa Ibom State ... The lawyer also revealed that the church has also complained to EFCC to arrest and prosecute Gary Fox Croft of Stepping Stones Nigeria and Sam Ikpe-Itauman of CRARN for using CRARN and SSN to perpetuate 419. The organisation is also instituting legal action against channel 04, and the narrator of the documentary, Sophie Okowedo, for libel ...
http://allafrica.com/stories/200905080092.html

Religious Leaders Tasked On Stigmatisation
Written by Bernard Tolani Dada, Uyo
Thursday, 07 May 2009 04:05
Religious leaders in Ikot Ekpene Local Government area of Akwa Ibom State have been admonished to ensure that the people of the area do not stigmatise or discriminate against aged parents or children on grounds of witchcraft as the state will not view the issue lightly. The Governor of the state, Chief Godswill Akpabio, stated this at Ikot Ekpene at the just concluded orientation/seminar for church leaders and students ...
http://leadershipnigeria.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1021:religious-leaders-tasked-on-stigmatisation&catid=20:niger-delta-news&Itemid=79

Nigeria charges 5 with murder in child witch case
Fri May 15, 2009 7:31pm IST
ABUJA (Reuters) - Police have charged five men in Nigeria with murder after the group's leader said in a television documentary he had killed 110 children he believed to be possessed by evil spirits, officials said on Friday. Sunday Okon William, locally known as Bishop Ulup-Aya, and six others in his group were arrested in Akwa Ibom state in southeastern Nigeria in December after the documentary was shown internationally. "He and four others were charged with murder yesterday. He confessed to a foreign-based media house that he killed 110 children," state information commissioner Aniekan Umanah said. William has since recanted his statement, saying he only killed the "witchcraft spirit" in the children ... http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-39650820090515

[juno jones]

5. Thank you S4P,

More interesting info can be found at the kos diaries of troufishing (Bruce Wilson, talk2action) and dogmeperor.

At the risk of repeating myself, a good overall look at the situation with imperialistic dominionism:


"Seven Mountains" and the "Joel's Army" plan for takeover
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/7/165650/170

Rick Warren's African Allies Accused of Sex-Slavery, Massacres, Slave-Labor
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/1/19/203428/595

[juno jones]

6. K&R! n/t

[scholarsOrAcademics]

7. problem for psychics?

would this be a problem for those with psychic skills? Aura readers, clairvoyents, telepathics? I can see where this would be a problem for them when they are growing up and learning they are not adjusting to 'normal' society.