Salem, Nigeria

Here in the United States, there are few people who have really learned about the witch hunts of Europe.

For most of us, the 'witch hunts' refer to a small bount of social madness in Salem, Mass. A few people were falsely accused and executed for being witches.

Being typically American, the events of European history aren't of much concern to us. They aren't taught in schools nor discussed on the History Channel (unless, of course, Hitler is involved).

But today, witch hunts are becoming prevalent in Nigeria and other African countries. Christianity there has been meshed into older beliefs and pervaded by ignorance, and the result is a series of churches with pastors who have tapped into societal superstition and fear in order to engage in that age-old practice of making gobs of money.

I truly wish that the pastors there had paid far more attention to the pastors here, who manage to make gobs of money without killing people.

But such considerations appear not to concern them. When they can take a year's earnings from someone to perform an exorcism on a child witch, the accusations and allegations of witchcraft fly free.

Of course, if the family cannot pay, the child is sometimes murdered, and often abandoned.

Ignorance, more than anything else, is responsible for this. But a close second is apathy. I don't lay the blame for the instigation of this at the feet of Christianity, but I do think that those of us who have the resources of Americans have a moral obligation to put a stop to this.

But here in the United States, there are few people who have really learned about the witch hunts of Africa.

So learn.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/nigeria/3407882/Child-witches-of-Nigeria-seek-refuge.html