Thursday, January 31, 2008

Another Day in ... Paradise?

In Kinshasa's slums children as young as 4 or 5 are being accused of witchcraft and sorcery, and people claiming to have spiritual power to cast out demons charge money to deliver these children from the power of witchcraft.

These children are being blamed for the ills of the household or even of the neighborhood. Sick animals, sick people, the lack of food and water are all blamed upon them.

A spiritual smokescreen masks the reality that these children are just not
wanted because they represent an unmanageable economic burden. Indeed, as
economic burdens, the easiest route for a family is often to accuse the child of
bringing suffering to them.

I encourage you to read the rest of this post at Square No More or the original report at The Observer. It is of course difficult at first examination to assess the truthfulness of the report this is based on. But while Pentacostalism can't solely be blamed for this situation (as many of the commentors on the post point out), it still makes me wonder again: where the heck is the "good news" of our Messiah when our theologies and practises contribute to this kind of insanity.

5 comments:

Pastor Phil said...

Hi Pete,

Thanks for the link to SquareNoMore. As someone from a Pentecostal background myself I certainly believe that Pentecostals have a lot to offer the world, but there are times when the theology, and the practice go awry. My prayer is that we learn to clean up our own messes.

Yes, there are churches answering the need to these poor, falsely accused children.

There is a band made up of the Witch Children spreading the message of helping them out, and yes churches are involved in helping them as well.

Pete Aldin said...

I'm with you fully on what we have to offer and - thank God - what we actually do offer so often. I just get so frustrated that we also do such evil as well. I'm a little wounded by being on the receiving end of that, so I'm obviously sensitive...

Glad to hear that other believers are working at undoing the mess. Thanks Phil.

Yehudi said...

You may want to swing on over to my blog...it will be the ONLY time you will see me in a dress.

Pete Aldin said...

Now THAT'S news worth broadcasting!

Funniest thing I've seen for ages! I'm assuming you lost a superbowl bet?

Jeremiah said...

I wish I could say that that's unbelievable. But I can't.

I started a second blog, http://emergentvenom.blogspot.com, by the way.