Superstition of the Day

Nigerian men and women of God will not put up with children who are witches. There are tens of thousands of possessed youngsters in Nigeria, to hear these concerned Christians tell it. They can identify kids who harbor demons by the fact that the children appear rebellious, or by their epileptic convulsions (which less knowledgeable people might attribute to, oh I dunno, epilepsy perhaps).

Now, these underage devils must be stopped — using beatings, illegal incarceration, starvation, torture, and exorcisms.

A most interesting fact is that it's frequently done with the help of the friendly neighborhood church.

"Children accused of witchcraft are often incarcerated in churches for weeks on end and beaten, starved and tortured in order to extract a confession," said Gary Foxcroft, program director of Stepping Stones Nigeria, a nonprofit that helps alleged witch children in the region. ...

Pastors have been accused of worsening the problem by claiming to have powers to recognize and exorcise "child witches," sometimes for a fee, aid workers said. But some are true believers, such as one minister in Lagos, Nigeria. He pinpoints children affected by witchcraft for free, he said. "Sometimes, we get a dream that shows us a certain person is suffering from witchcraft," said the Rev. Albert Aina, a senior pastor at Four Square Gospel Church.

Got that? The good reverend habitually fingers demonically possessed children — condemning them to what's truly a prolonged hell on earth — because of a dream.

Comments

[Basia]

Receiving messages in dreams ... isn't that "witchcraft" too?