Further to my post of earlier, here's what The Guardian has to say on the topic of Africans murdering and torturing children, it really is a classic of the genre:
Kristy Bamu was killed because his sister thought him a witch. In Africa, Christianity has only added to the toxicity of such beliefs.
The case of Eric Bikubi and Magalie Bamu that has just ended at the Old Bailey has drawn public attention to one form of diversity that is not celebrated in London. The spotlight has settled on ideas of witchcraft that seem to have been the motivating force behind the savage attacks on young Kristy Bamu that finally deposited him, semi-conscious in a bath of water where he drowned...
However, beliefs in witchcraft are widespread – in town or countryside – and are also in present in Europe, where Africans have migrated in the last 50 years. They are a means of explaining the unequal distribution of good and bad fortune, and the occurrence of otherwise inexplicable misfortune. As with some of the more extreme Scottish Protestants, coincidence does not exist: the hand of either God or Satan may be seen in every event. To many Africans, this evil power is witchcraft...
In their present form, beliefs in witchcraft are not "traditional" – changes since earlier times are obvious. Modern beliefs see the power of witchcraft as emanating from evil spirits that possess the witch and endow him or her with the power to harm. This belief in possession by evil spirits has been promulgated in Africa by western missionaries of fundamentalist, particularly Pentecostal, Christian beliefs.
It has enabled Africans to retain a modified version of their former beliefs in witchcraft, obtaining the approval and support of Satan-hunting Christians whose life is dedicated to the pursuit of evil. New churches, started by Africans with a self-proclaimed "divine mission", have sprung up everywhere.
These churches do not "control" witchcraft beliefs, although they encourage and profit from them. Nor is it true to say that it is only as witchcraft escapes from the control of the church that it becomes evil; witchcraft is evil from the beginning. Some people may feel protective of Christianity, but Christianity is at fault here....
And so on ad nauseam.
So ultimately it's the bloody "extreme Scottish Protestants" who are to blame? That will give Glasgow Celtic fans a whole new line of taunts!
Only An Extrovert
3 hours ago
14 comments:
Bloody Guardian. Racist & religious bigots the lot of them.
The thought police should run an inquiry to root out these racist Guardianistas infiltrating the civil service and media.
In their present form, beliefs in witchcraft are not "traditional" – changes since earlier times are obvious.
Can't do nothing but lament the "golden days" of pre-colonial pre-missionary witchcraft, everything seemed so much easier back then.
Only in the Guardian could Christianity be at fault for African savagery.
Actually, Jeremy Vine covered this today, and had some guy on pointing out that we (the west) were no different because the term 'witch-hunt' once meant an actual hunt for witches.
How Vine managed to bite his tongue (and not point out that that was long ago, and we're civilised now) I'll never know....
Ah, another reason why we're back in the C17th again.
On the subject of white man being to blame for everything including the asteroid which killed off the dinosaurs, I’m puzzled as to where this desire to self flaggelate by Guardian reading folk comes from.
My hunch is that self flaggelation is an inherent human trait, hence the substantial sacrifices made throughout history to placate the Gods. Shia Muslims beat themselves with chains for example.
Satan-hunting Christians whose life is dedicated to the pursuit of evil.
Like it, like it.
This reminds me of dinner-conversations I've had where people make statements like "you have to remember it was only 400 years ago since we burned suspected whitches", and everybody nods in acceptance to somehow acknowledge that we're no better than anyone. I mean, who "we"?
As it happens, I'm just reading Azar Gat's War IN Human Civilisation. It begins with a survey of the human "state of nature"; the hunter gatherer band lifestylee.
Belief in witchcraft is endemic to primitive peoples. It's one of the primary causes of murder and warfare among "noble" savages; the death rate for males from violence is upwards of 20%, higher even that we managed to achieve during the World Wars, among the worst affected societies (e.g. USSR).
In "The Cruise of the Snark", written at the beginning of the C20th, Jack London claims that, in the Solomon Islands, death of any male not by violence was considered so unusual as to be ascribed invariably to witchcraft.
IB, that's a completely separate issue. The murder rate in and between hunter-gatherer groups is/was so high because people are naturally violent and in the absence of a higher authority (i.e. the state, the police, prisons) to mete out punishment, people will just kill each other.
Yes Mark, well, sort of a different issue. Savages routinely indulge in intra-group and inter-group feuds, and accusations of witchcraft are a routine cause. Somebody's cow dies, somebody else must have caused it by sorcery. They don't generally have "religions"; Gods if believed in are vague and distant first causes. They generally instead believe in magic and spirits.
The point being that Christianity isn't the cause of belief in witchcraft, rather that belief in witchcraft is an ancient tribal hangover into Christianity. The Africans wree believing in witches long before they'd heard of Jebus.
IB, that's as may be, the main point is this: "The Africans were believing in witches long before they'd heard of Jebus"
Exactly, Europeans no doubt used to believe in witches etc, BUT...
... but we have moved on, and the law in our country is "you don't torture and murder people", end of discussion. Allowing the Lefties to harp on about how it's their culture or that Christianity has exacerbated this tendency is playing into their hands.
Mark, for heaven's sake, I'm agreeing with you!
IB, and I'm agreeing with you :-)
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