Modern Witch Hunts

Yes, I know, PP. I was just getting a plug in for Stepping Stones, which is a worthy - and non-denominational - organization.

I think part of the real issue here is, Athena, too many missionaries are *terrified* of anything 'spiritual' when it turns out their words can't actually *control* it, ...simultaneously attack science and reason, then somehow wonder why it is a thousand years and change of European cultural damage about it don't translate quite like they planned.

Pah. :)

Yes, the organization is called "Stepping Stones Nigeria." They run a home for children who have been thrown out of their homes and villages for being "witches". In other words, were one too many mouths to feed. You can view their website at http://www.steppingstonesnigeria.org/ .

And if you're wondering, they are vetted and run though the U.K. They aren't part of the rampant corruption in Nigeria. In fact, they're fighting against it.

"There's a real danger in this atmosphere that we will revert to ancient instincts to find the witches among us."

Well, I know you've been keying yourselves up for that here in America for a while, but rather than assuming everything that might make you anxious must either be rationalistically-dismissed or subjected to Scriptural invective that just so happens to resemble Red Scares....

How about another option.

Whatever you may think of it, people experience certain things. If I can tell you one thing from all my times as a 'good witch' ...people are usually more scared by *you* than by *me* ...or what they experienced in the first place.

They're usually just scared of something else and looking for ways to 'appease' it. Or, mostly, 'make it go away.'

All these martial metaphors of you monotheists, you'd think the whole multiverse was out to get us and only just now we came to their attention.

Less fear. Don't play the 'mighty banisher of these scary things.' One of these days, something *really* scary will come along, and you don't want to be who cried 'wolf' about floating anxiety cause you thought it'd sell a Bible.

I mean, hey, do you suppose it ever even *occurred* to your Pope, if he's really that afraid of bad juju, to *ask* someone before he swung in like an absentee King?

Don't think so.

Anyone still feels badly hexed, though, could probably clear that up for ya. :)

I mean, hey. Let's look at this:

"But I was shocked later to find that my colleagues, highly educated and intelligent though they were, were convinced that the mumblings we heard were curses, and believed that I had endangered my children by taking them there."

Well, to Christians, an unfamiliar *blessing* imperils your souls, right? Never mind someone saying, 'Damn tourists' in their own language, when stictly speaking *that's* a curse, even in English. Just Ok to say...

"Memories of this visit to the home for witches were revived when Pope Benedict XVI spoke about witchcraft during his African visit in March. His message was that the Church must combat ancient superstitions with its teachings."

See, this is where you give the bad stuff *power,* looking for something to 'combat,' and giving it (and not incidentally yourselves) all kinds of power around it.

You even mock the fact that someone can buy a little folk charm and handle any random anxieties?

You deploy a *Pope* and you're *still* afraid.

I mean, you Christians, you say all this stuff about knowing all there is to know about the spirit world, ...one of you sees a ghost, it's like the end of the world.

It's not actually *stupid* to have professionals about this kind of thing, you know?

Which has little to do with people believing *you* everything going wrong, and looking to *your* world for someone to exile to your Hell over it.

It's usually quite dealable, actually. It appeals to people's vanity when you say, 'Satan is obviously after you, .... fear... everything!'

Don't fly so much in the trades. Actually, that's usually the hallmark of someone who may just happen to run afoul of the 'witches' union.

You make this stuff up yourselves, you just get *away* with it more when you push it off on people you can claim don't know nothing.

"In parts of Africa, it is not uncommon that a village will fix on an old woman as a witch--when a child dies or a cow wanders off, for example. Sometimes the witch is a man, even a child. The accused "witches" are expelled from the village, banished forever and left alone to die."

OK, this is something I found out about African 'witch-hunts.'

...At least in many tribes and places, it doesn't mean what Christians think it does, ...there's no 'forever' or 'judgment of souls' involved in the original traditions imposed by missionaries.

Until you like brought your literalism, in many of these places, no one had to get stoned or consigned to Hell or 'purified' in nasty ways, ...the notion would be that it was a ritual accusation, like a ritual combat... eventually the hapless scapegoat would be readmitted to the tribe... welcomed, in fact, and this would serve to resolve any notions of paranoia that might otherwise cause much bigger worries.

This kind of stuff can work differently over there. (Dangerous to even say 'Africa,' and expect to know what you're talking about.)

Yes, though, CCNL, they really happen. Fun for the whole family... Gods help those that take the missionaries literally, cause *that* tends to lead to stacks of tires and a can of kerosene.

Missionaries actually *taught* most of Africa that 'witch' is the word for, well, pretty much everything from 'suspicious old lady we occasionally treat ritually in that manner' to 'Professional slinger of bad juju.'

Modernly, they also seem to be teaching Africa that Wiccans are the same thing, unfortunately, then these people come tell the likes of Sarah Palin's congregation about how 'real' it all is.

Fun for the whole family, let me tellya.

Lotta places, people figure 'Witch' is the Anglo word for 'harmful practitioner.'
There's a word in Italian for what I do, anyway, quaint aphorisms in Irish, ...white people have the notion *everyone* gets called a 'witch,' you see, and that in fact it's often unjust.

Not the same everywhere.

Anyway, Christians hit Africa, and they're trying to plug it all into their own thing. That thing is basically there's no good magic unless you're aggressively-Christian, whatever it is you're doing.

Bloody mess. But there's actually a level of fricking detail, here, that happens to be about a lot of people's lives, while you're trying to sell something for 'simple.'

"[The Pope's] message was that the Church must combat ancient superstitions with its teachings."

HaHaHaHaHa

Like Papal doctrinal infallibility and ritualized cannibalism?

Contemporary witch hunts for real witches???? Please support your claims with some references!!!