Look, I believe in evil spirits. Call me superstitious or mediaeval, but to deny the truth of the spiritual world, including the evil in it, is just head-in-the-sand thinking. But I don’t believe these children are witches.
Apparently some Nigerian evangelical christian pastors are raking it in performing exorcisms on children accused of witchcraft and demon-possession in Africa. The exorcisms are brutal and sometimes fatal, and can cost the equivalent of an average person’s yearly income. According to the article linked to above, the “exorcised” children can also be kept from their families until the fee is paid. Children who are not “exorcised” (or perhaps who have been) are rejected from their families. It seems even parents are willing to torture and kill their own children whom they understand to be in league with evil spirits.
Evangelical? Christian? Not in my book. But tragically, just because people are do such cruel and evil things to children does not mean that they cannot be described as evangelical and christian. But I would encourage them to be truly evangelical and look at what the Bible says.
NOWHERE in the Bible does it teach that burning, drinking blood, or any form of torture or murder is the way to exorcise demons!
NOWHERE does it say to charge for exorcism (in fact it encourages the exact opposite for all forms of ministry).
NOWHERE is it taught that demon-possessed people are to be shunned or even ill-treated (NOT that I believe these children are demon-possessed).
I’m sure there are fantastic Nigerian evangelical pastors, but I am angered by this twisting and re-moulding of Christian truth into something far more demonic than the witch-craft they think they are dealing with in places in that country. Praise God for the work of Stepping Stones Nigeria.
(HT: The Ongoing Adventures of Asbo Jesus).
It’s so easy to see the twisting of Christian teaching from a distance, but not so easy when you’re living among it. As outraged as we should feel about African witch children, we also need a good does of humility. Africa may have evangelically-defined witch children, but Australia has evangelically defined rich children. Children who are so self-centred that they are unable to maintain a steady course of self-denial for more than a few hours; who are encouraged by evangelical churches to make success and wealth their goal instead of the spreading of the gospel that acknowledges our poverty. We also have a whole group of people who are poor, street-dwellers, substance and alcohol-abusers, dysfunctional and neglected, and the Church treats them just as badly as any Nigerian exorcist pastor simply by inaction. Aren’t they kept hostage until we have received the level of wealth we expect from God?
And I am in the midst of it. I still don’t see clearly. We need an outside perspective.
Oh, God, that you would move your Church in Australia, and me as part of it!