Witchcraft in Africa

The amount of attention the media gives to controversial figures and religious sects provides the public with a skewed view of those religions as a whole.  Journalists must report what sells and what sells is controversy.  There is nothing exciting about a group of Methodists praying at the flagpole on Veterans Day.

So I hesitate to comment on a Huffington Post article about Christian punishment of witchcraft in Nigeria.  The majority of Christians I know would say that witchcraft exists but that the Salem Witch Trials and medieval executions of accused witches went too far in trying to protect people from them.  They would say that witchcraft, while still dangerous (caused by Satan), should not be punished according to Old Testament commands.  And they would not identify with these Christians in Africa who are accusing children of being witches.

I bring it up because Christians boast of exponential growth of converts in foreign lands, particularly Asia, but also Africa.  The religion of peace and love that brings "salvation" would supposedly have nothing but a positive force in impoverished lands.  The faith can give them a message of hope, the idea that their life of poverty is worth enduring, and comfort knowing that their new God is looking out for them.  But along with mainstream, orthodox faith, comes extreme, controversial versions of it, as can be seen in Nigeria today.

You can read the article here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/18/african-children-denounce_n_324943.html

Orthodox Christians believe in prayer and theological education to stamp out unreasonable, obsolete, or flat out faulty opinions on certain aspects of the faith, including witchcraft.  They would say what is needed in Nigeria is not better secular education, an increased standard of living, meaningful employment, but Jesus, and an orthodox view of the faith.  They would say that the other things will lead to ruin, as the things of this world are temporary and putting too much time and attention into them will only lead a person to hell, while the things of God are eternal and allow one to reap eternal rewards.

But faith does not combat faith well without some sort of authority.  And without authority, you have a bunch of groups ready to capitalize on the religious message for the wrong reasons.

In my opinion, the problem lies in religion's inability to defend its modern "reasonable" orthodox positions using faith alone.  It has to resort to reason, placing a human value judgment on what it is they are evaluating while at the same time saying that reason is worldly, and cannot be relied upon without the "guidance" of faith.  They claim their own orthodox positions have arrived by a "faith-guided reason" while sects have not.  In this African case from the Huffington Post article, it can be argued that these renegade pastors and missionaries just need a healthy dose of this "faith-guided reason" to bring them into the orthodox fold.  But what is really needed is some sort of economic stability mixed with some levelheadedness to stamp out the rampant credulity.

In some of these African villages there are more churches than schools and businesses.  So you have a poor, uneducated, unemployed population flooded with religious fervor.  While churches promise a better life to come, the need for resources for the present is a stumbling block for the faithful.  So when churches cannot create jobs, wealth, increase standards of living, but instead rely on these things for their survival, they turn in frustration to blaming the devil, blaming witches, and encouraging people to pray their way out of poverty.

The actions of the church become unreasonable very quickly.  People put their faith in the pastors, in God, in the church, whom they all associate is something divine and benevolent.  Pastors must save face and not admit they are wrong.  It creates a situation where people become completely afraid and start doing things that they would not normally do, like try to "exorcise" demons out of their own children with acid, and pray to God for food, expecting it to somehow just fall from the sky.

In the United States the problem of runaway sects is not as severe as in these impoverished areas.  The US is much more reasonable than that!  But I have seen first hand that even though the faithful in the US pay lip service to their God, be he Jesus, Yahweh, the Heavenly Father, or some other name, their primary concern is with their economic well being and their own survival.  As long as the demands of the faith does not outweigh its usefulness and the warm feeling it gives to people, Americans will continue to attend church and pray, giving God the credit for all the economic stability they have provided themselves without his help.