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News & ArtsSaturday, May 22, 2010
Religion There Is No Morality Without Religion
Posted by Dan Savage on Sat, May 22, 2010 at 8:12 AM
Suffer the children:
“Saving Africa’s Witch Children” follows Gary Foxcroft, founder of the charity Stepping Stones Nigeria, as he travels the rural state of Akwa Ibom, rescuing children abused during horrific “exorcisms”—splashed with acid, buried alive, dipped in fire—or abandoned roadside, cast out of their villages because some itinerant preacher called them possessed. Their fellow villagers have often seen DVDs of “End of the Wicked,” Ms. Ukpabio’s bloody 1999 movie purporting to show how the devil captures children’s souls. And some have read her book “Unveiling the Mysteries of Witchcraft,” where she confidently writes that “if a child under the age of 2 screams in the night, cries and is always feverish with deteriorating health, he or she is a servant of Satan.” ... In Nigeria, many preachers not only identify possessed children but charge dearly to perform exorcisms. To redeem their children’s souls—and to keep the child from being killed or banished by neighbors—parents scrimp or borrow to pay the preacher....
Since “Saving Africa’s Witch Children” was first shown in Britain, in 2008, Mr. Itauma’s home state has adopted a law against accusing children of witchcraft. But Ms. Ukpabio went on the offensive by suing the state government, Mr. Foxcroft, Mr. Itauma and Leo Igwe, a Nigerian antisuperstition activist. In the lawsuit, Ms. Ukpabio alleges that the state law infringes on her freedom of religion. She seeks 2 billion naira (about $13 million) in damages, as well as “an order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondents” from interfering with or otherwise denouncing her church’s “right to practice their religion and the Christian religious belief in the existence of God, Jesus Christ, Satan, sin, witchcraft, heaven and hellfire.”
In other words, in the name of religious freedom, Ms. Ukpabio seeks a gag order on anyone who disagrees with her.
This piece of shit—a "pentecostal preacher" directly responsible for the torture and the deaths of scores of innocent children—is currently in Houston, Texas, "leading a four-night revival for a local church."
3
Africa is becoming what Europe was in the dark ages. Myths and superstition will lead to mass killings and tortures. Religion will lead the way, once again, in mass human suffering. What a shame.
7
The gag order against accusing children of being possessed isn't exactly a paragon of free speech either. Why not punish people for their actual crimes against children and leave aside the words that preceded the crimes?
Seems like anyone who had been given an appropriate prison term for splashing children with acid or burying them alive would not be out in circulation accusing anyone of witchcraft to begin with.
Seems like anyone who had been given an appropriate prison term for splashing children with acid or burying them alive would not be out in circulation accusing anyone of witchcraft to begin with.
8
Ya gotta love the way "freedom of religion" is bandied about when the restrictions that are put in place stop people from harming small children, either by killing them outright or by withhold care from them because god will make them well.
Compared to some of the people who have been denied entrance to our fair country lately I would put this person on an excluded list because of her crimes.
Compared to some of the people who have been denied entrance to our fair country lately I would put this person on an excluded list because of her crimes.
9
When dogmatic thinking leads you to this... to what they're doing to children, it shows just how badly the mind can be twisted by religion. All dogmatic thinking (and by extension all religion) is a cultural evil, and until our normal inclination is to ignore the special provision that makes criticism of religion politically incorrect, things like this will continue.
10
You're soooo right, elenchos. Let's also do away with that niggly ban on shouting fire in crowded theaters too. There's no freedom when highly irresponsible speech is banned!
12
I'm a rabid atheist and usually have nothing but vitriol for anything regarding religion. Stories like this are why.
After reading things like this, I really have to concentrate hard to remind myself that there are a few small groups of people redeeming the idea of religion. Like people who run homeless shelters or the like, and don't make sitting through a sermon part of receiving aid. Those people are to be commended, though it's not necessary because they know they are *really* doing God's work, and knowing that is enough for them. And if some of those people receiving aid are interested in the proprietor's religion, they'll ask, and that is what those people truly hope for as a reward.
After reading things like this, I really have to concentrate hard to remind myself that there are a few small groups of people redeeming the idea of religion. Like people who run homeless shelters or the like, and don't make sitting through a sermon part of receiving aid. Those people are to be commended, though it's not necessary because they know they are *really* doing God's work, and knowing that is enough for them. And if some of those people receiving aid are interested in the proprietor's religion, they'll ask, and that is what those people truly hope for as a reward.
13
@7: Incitement to violence can lawfully be banned and, in the present Nigerian context, accusing a child of witchcraft is incitement, period.
14
If a reasonable person hears "fire!", the reasonable thing to do is to evacuate. A false fire alarm will cause decent, rational people to risk harm to themselves or others, even in the most orderly of evacuations.
If a reasonable person hears some goombah Pentecostal witchdoctor say a baby is possessed, the reasonable thing to do is to ignore them. If the snake handling creep suggests torture, disfigurement, and possible death as "treatment" for the imaginary demon possession, a reasonable person will call the police.
Hence the need to make false fire alarms non-protected speech, and no need to make an exception superstitious nonsense. If somebody is injured in a false fire alarm, the blame rests with the one who shouted "fire!" If a child is harmed by voodoo bullshit, the blame is on the person who did the violence, not the religious dingbat spouting blather that people everywhere know well enough to ignore.
Think of all the millions upon millions of decent Catholics or Mormons or Muslims who enjoy the pretty stained glass and nice liturgies and pay no mind to the pathetic ravings of their pastors or priests or imams or Pope.
If a reasonable person hears some goombah Pentecostal witchdoctor say a baby is possessed, the reasonable thing to do is to ignore them. If the snake handling creep suggests torture, disfigurement, and possible death as "treatment" for the imaginary demon possession, a reasonable person will call the police.
Hence the need to make false fire alarms non-protected speech, and no need to make an exception superstitious nonsense. If somebody is injured in a false fire alarm, the blame rests with the one who shouted "fire!" If a child is harmed by voodoo bullshit, the blame is on the person who did the violence, not the religious dingbat spouting blather that people everywhere know well enough to ignore.
Think of all the millions upon millions of decent Catholics or Mormons or Muslims who enjoy the pretty stained glass and nice liturgies and pay no mind to the pathetic ravings of their pastors or priests or imams or Pope.
15
Can't she prosecuted here in the USA while she is in the country for the abuse and harm to children she causes in other countries. I think there is a law that allows the government to arrest people traveling to or from other countries for the purpose of having sex with minors & children, could that law or a similar law be applied in this case? There is limit to the freedom of religion when it comes to causing harm to others/the innocent.
16
You think you're angry now, watch this and see if your blood doesn't vaporize:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbDu0-K9c…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbDu0-K9c…
19
"Piece of shit" is so inadequate to describe this thing calling itself a woman. She had better hope the church whose revival she's hosting doesn't find out the truth, or she could end up with a nice taste of her own sick medicine... I'm against the death penalty, but it would be poetic justice if she experiences exactly what she has inflicted on her victims! She is a CRIMINAL of the worst kind and I hope she is tortured to death by a lynch mob in good old Southern style!
20
Also, isn't human sacrifice always the first thing we cite when we explore the fact that freedom of religion has limits? I think this constitutes human sacrifice.
21
@7 - Indeed. Religious freedom only within the context of secular sanity and preservation of liberty and autonomy. Trying to go around policing beliefs is an exercise in futility, but crimes are crimes.
That said...I do think that declaring children to be "possessed" rather than getting them legit mental health care when they need it falls into the same category of neglect as failing to get them physical healthcare, and calling them "possessed" when they're just GLBT or in some way odd ducks is clear *emotional* abuse.
That said...I do think that declaring children to be "possessed" rather than getting them legit mental health care when they need it falls into the same category of neglect as failing to get them physical healthcare, and calling them "possessed" when they're just GLBT or in some way odd ducks is clear *emotional* abuse.
22
If Jesus really existed he would be weeping uncontrollably and wringing his hands in hopeless frustration...
23
Here we are all preaching to the choir. Go check out an idiotic article about this issue on a Christian site--and please comment there!
http://ebailey.revelife.com/727660297/de…
http://ebailey.revelife.com/727660297/de…
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