Bartholomew's Notes

 “Pastors are important opinion leaders and have considerable influence over child witchcraft accusations.”

UNICEF has published a new report by anthropologist Aleksandra Cimpric on the problem of children being stigmatised as witches in Africa. The report is nuanced and balanced, and it surveys the reasons for the increasing number of accusations in various contexts. A range of socio-economic factors and religious factors are considered, in particular the transformation of traditional beliefs in new and often dysfunctional circumstances.

The significance of localised forms of Christianity is noted:

Churches, especially those belonging to the Pentecostal and prophetic movement (charismatic, revivalist, etc.), play an important role in the diffusion and legitimization of fears related to witchcraft, and in particular, child witches. The pastor?prophet is an important figure in the process of accusing children of witchcraft, by effectively validating the presence of a “witchcraft spirit”. Pentecostalists, for example, present their faith as a form of divine armour against witchcraft, and they participate actively in the fight against Evil that is incarnated through witchcraft.

Helen Ukpabio (who has targeted this blog, as I previously wrote about here) gets a mention:

…a number of pastor?prophets, including women, have found their calling in the anti?witch hunt, as is the case with Prophet Helen Ukpabio in Nigeria. She founded the Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries, whose primary goal has become the detection and deliverance of child witches. For these pastor?prophets, “detecting” child witches brings not only money, but also a certain social status and popularity that draws new members and “clients”, and leads to yet more income. Accusations against children therefore form part of this vicious circle of the prophets’ “business” and their status.

There is also a discussion of the efforts of Stepping Stones Nigeria and of CRARN:

SSN and CRARN’s projects have a two?pronged approach: to improve understanding of witchcraft through awareness?raising, and to protect, support and reintegrate children accused of witchcraft. Despite failing to bring down the number of accusations against children – a long?term effort – prevention efforts within families and communities, and setting up education facilities will no doubt help to reduce accusations. Aware of the harmful influence of certain churches, they also lobby to regulate the activities of certain pastors.

These organisations have come under sustained attack from Ukpabio’s followers, and she has sought to have their hostel for stigmatised children shut down.

However, the report also hightlights that pastors could be a positive force:

Negotiation and mediation consists of a dialogue between pastors, families, children accused of witchcraft and organizations defending children’s rights. Pastors are important opinion leaders and have considerable influence over child witchcraft accusations. In situations where legal and rights arguments are largely ignored, religious arguments could prove to be more effective.

Interestingly, the report also notes that traditional healers are also responsible for making accusations against children:

A number of traditional healers, or traditional doctors, called nganga in Central Africa, or inyanga or sangoma in South Africa, also claim to be able to combat the occult forces of the invisible world. In the same way as the pastors and prophets, traditional healers take advantage of the ever?present witchcraft discourse. In addition to healing “natural” illnesses with medicinal plants (hence the title, médecin traditionnel), they also offer to heal “witchcraft?related” illnesses. Moreover, they also have the gift of clairvoyance, which enables them to detect witches.

Muslim areas, by contrast, are less affected:

Certain writers believe the difference stems from the ability to translate their religious message. The translation of the Bible into the local language was a priority for early ministers and priests… In contrast with Christian practice, Islam considers Arabic to be a sacred language and has rejected any attempt at translating religious texts into local languages. “Whoever wants to praise God,” comment Christine Henry and Emmanuelle Kadya Tall, “must do it in Arabic, and submit to learning verses at a Koranic school”… In contrast, by putting sacred texts within everyone’s reach, Christianity has facilitated the successful localization of its message and led to the creation of authentic African movements and churches.

Another possible reason is the difference in the perception of Evil in each of the religions. Witchcraft is able to integrate itself so well within Christian discourse because it has been personified and associated with the Devil or Satan…. While it should be acknowledged that in Islam there is reference to a satanic force, it is not attributed to a single figure who personifies Evil.

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As is being widely reported, Geert Wilders has announced his intention to create a new anti-Islamic group, since presumably there’s not enough of those around just now. A report in the Nederlands Dagblad appears to have the most backgroun detail. It’s to be called the “International Freedom Alliance” (according to some reports, the ” Geert Wilders International Freedom Alliance”) and it will promote a “Jewish- Christian- humanist” constitution. He’s going to visit five countries, “the United States, Canada , Britain , Germany and France”, and – this should make all the difference – set up a website.

Further (this is a tidied-up Google translation):

…Wilders said he would be “only one of many founders “. What other anti-Islam activists are behind the initiative, he will not say: “I hope to announce in December”.

Wilders suggested the grouping for the first time  in early 2009. A conference in Israel on this subject was subsequently canceled… “In Israel, elections were being held then. It was not practical.”

Links with “Danish politician Pia Kjaersgaard and Italian Umberto Bossi” are mentioned, although the report notes that that their countries are not included in his list of five. Although this may look like a vehicle for Wilders (assuming its anything more than just a publicity stunt), he assures us that “It is not Freedom Party International”, but a wider umbrella.

Wilders’ attempts at a “Christian-humanist” anti-Islamic front have not been entirely successful. As I blogged here at the time, back in March Wilders backed out from attending the Los Angeles premiere of a documentary about him made by the Christian Action Network, after it became impossible to downplay the fact that CAN’s director, Martin Mawyer, was an abusive homophobe (The event’s organisers, Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, quickly tried to limit the damage: they cancelled the screening and purported not to have known about Mawyer’s virulent anti-gay views).

(Hat tip: Unite Against Fascism)

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A new player has stepped into the controversy over a proposed Islamic Centre close to Ground Zero in New York. Charisma reports:

A Florida evangelist is responding to efforts to build a multimillion-dollar mosque two blocks from Ground Zero with plans to open a religious center of his own.

Bill Keller (pictured), host of the evangelistic website Liveprayer.com, said his 9/11 Christian Center near Ground Zero will begin holding Sunday prayer meetings Sept. 5. The services will be held at a hotel in downtown New York until Jan. 1, when the center moves a permanent site. The facility will be open daily and will house a prayer chapel. Local ministers also will lead regular outreach ministry.

“I was in prayer and God said, ‘Listen, if the Muslims can build a temple to their false god at Ground Zero, why can’t there be a place dedicated to the true God of the Bible on that same area?'” said Keller, whose website claims 2.4 million subscribers. “Rather than a [protest] event we’re going to have an ongoing work of God right there because the Bible says you combat the darkness with the light.”

Keller has a special new website with further details:

SPECIAL MEETINGS FOR THE 9-11 CHRISTIAN CENTER WILL BE HELD THIS SATURDAY, JULY 17th IN NEW YORK CITY AND NORWALK, CT. I WILL BE FLYING INTO NEW YORK THIS WEEKEND TO HOLD SPECIAL PRAYER AND INFORMATIONAL MEETINGS FOR THE NEW 9-11 CHRISTIAN CENTER AT GROUND ZERO THIS COMING SATURDAY, JULY 17th. WE WILL MEET AT THE EMBASSY SUITES NEW YORK, 102 NORTH END AVENUE, IN THEIR WALL STREET ROOM AT 11AM. I WILL ALSO BE CONDUCTING A PRAYER AND INFORMATIONAL MEETING AT THE HOME OF DAN AND KIM GALLO… THE MEETINGS SHOULD LAST APX 1 HOUR. IF YOU ARE WITHIN A FEW HOURS OF EITHER OF THESE LOCATIONS, PLEASE PRAY ABOUT ATTENDING AND SEEING HOW THE LORD MIGHT USE YOU IN THIS INCREDIBLE OPPORTUNITY!

(Dan Gallo and Kim Gallo are associated with a missionary organisation called The Word at Work)

Keller – dubbed the “Dr Phil of Prayer”-  is an old-school fundamentalist fire-and-brimstone man, and his Liveprayer.com is wonderfully Landoveresque; here’s a peek:

Keller lists a number of reasons why Obama is an “enemy of God”, including his support for “deviant sexual choices”. But Keller has a long list of things he objects to:

Mormonism:

a vote for Mitt Romney is a vote for Satan

plus:

I could care less what [Glenn] Beck chooses to believe, but I do care that he lies to people by stating he is a Christian when a person who believes in the lies of the Mormon cult is no more a Christian than a Muslim is. Most appalling are prominent Christians who have sold out the faith to associate with Beck, more worried about what financial gain they will get from that association than helping him lead ignorant souls to hell for following his cult’s beliefs.

(That’s a rebuke to Beck’s “Pastors and Preachers” Panel of John Hagee, David Barton, Ralph Reed, and others)

Judaism:

During his 2005 trial for child molestation, instead of turning to Christ for strength, [Michael Jackson] turned to a cult I have exposed and talked about, Kaballah which was popularized by singer Madonna, signified by the “red string” bracelet he wore throughout the trial. He had during his life several high profile spiritual advisors, Orthodox Jew Rabbi Shmuley Boteach...

New Agers:

 …and New Age tool charlatan Deepak Chopra, a tool of satan I have warned you about in past Devotionals.

Bill O’Reilly:

As for Bill O’Reilly, I have commented on his warped theology numerous times over the years. Being a Catholic is not his problem. Not believing the Bible is the only Truth and that Jesus is the only way to be saved is. As I have spoken of in the past, he has bought into this lie from the pits of hell that “all good people will get to Heaven,” and that there are “many roads to God.” Hate to break this to O’Reilly but selling Factor gear and giving the money to charity isn’t going to get him to Heaven…

Etc. etc.

Directly after 9/11 itself, he expounded the same line that brought Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell into particular disrepute:

…I have shared in the past how I was very concerned that in the last 40 years we have squandered our blessing through the moral decay we have allowed this nation to undergo. The destruction of the family, abortion, compromising the Word of God, have led to the United States to be much like Israel in the Old Testament. I have warned you, and have no doubt that without dealing with these issues immediately, God will eventfully take His hand of protection and blessing off of our great nation, just like He did at times with Israel.

The Holy Spirit quickened in me this morning as I watched what happened, that “God allowed this to happen to our great nation.”

We are also exhorted to send Keller money, as a “stand against evil”.

According to WorldNetDaily,

“We are not starting a church,” Keller emphasized in an email to WND, “but this will be an evangelistic center reaching out to people who are searching, looking for hope and answers in their life.”

“The mission is simple,” Keller further explains on the center’s website. “Have a place at Ground Zero where people can come to hear the real, uncompromised Truth right from God’s Word and find the only true hope there is, faith in Jesus Christ. We will combat the lies of this world and Islam with the Truth. We will combat the hatred of this world and Islam with love. We will combat the violence of this world and Islam with peace. Finally, we will combat eternal death this world and Islam brings with life everlasting!”

For some reason, he doesn’t feel the need to make clear that “the lies of this world” include Judaism and Mormonism, among much else.

Of course, Keller is a clownish publicity-seeker, and most people will find his attempt to associate himself with Ground Zero (expressed with incredible vulgarity as “THIS INCREDIBLE OPPORTUNITY!”)  to be profoundly distasteful – after all, he must believe that most of those who died in the attack are now in Hell.

One wonders what those who have put so much energy into trying to persuade us that the proposed Islamic Centre should be banned as a place of hate will have to say…

UPDATE: “Princessxxx” notes that Keller was profiled by Rachel Maddow last year, highlighting his “birther” activism.

(Hat tip: Bulldada Newsblog. Also, several links came via Right Wing Watch)

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Here’s one I missed from a couple of weeks ago; the website SpinProfiles was recently temporarily shut down, after the journalist Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens made a complaint to the service provider; the project’s director David Miller writes:

Our SpinProfiles wiki website at www.spinprofiles.org was shut down by web firm 1&1 Internet on 21 June because we did not remove a profile on think-tank researcher Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, son of journalist Christopher Hitchens.

In an email dated Friday 18 June, 1&1’s lawyers said SpinProfiles must ‘immediately remove the profile’ by midday Monday, or face being shut down. Although 1&1 do not host our site, the URL is registered with them. They gave no explanation of how the webpage violated their terms and conditions except that it included ‘personal information’ we did not have ‘permission’ to use.

SpinProfiles’ editor David Miller wrote back asking for more precise details of the objection, arguing, ‘It is clear that the content of the webpage in question is factual and backed up by sourced information. It cannot be wholly contrary to your conditions of service…’

Meleagrou-Hitchens now explains himself:

About a year and a half ago, I was contacted by my former university, informing me that someone was using freedom of information requests to look into my academic past. The university secretary requested my permission to release the information, and although I was quite uneasy that a shadowy group was rooting around my personal life, I allowed it. It later turned out that the information request was made by a website called Neocon Europe, which is also run by Miller. They used the information to create a rather lengthy profile of me, in which I was presented as a sinister neoconservative thinktank “operative”.

Despite being very uncomfortable with Miller’s cyberstalking, I did not respond, and made no complaints. This remained the case until I was recently informed that in the past, Neocon Europe has published the work of Kevin MacDonald, who has expressed antisemitic views and has testified on behalf of the historian David Irving, to define neoconservatism.

…People who are profiled by his websites should be allowed to reserve the right not to have any association with him, and this was the primary issue upon which my complaint was predicated. I asked the site administrators that, due to the past publication of antisemitic views on Neocon Europe, my profile be taken down from the page. Instead, Miller’s team moved it to SpinProfiles, and it was at this point that their web providers took it upon themselves to shut the whole site down.

…”Watch” sites like these, although highly unpleasant, must be allowed to exist, but free speech cannot be taken as a licence to attack and harass political opponents while expecting no censure or response.

I’m not impressed with Meleagrou-Hitchens’ argument here: I looked at the offending profile on Google cache, and the only “personal information” consists of some details about his education. It contains nothing that can be characterised as personally intrusive or as harassment. The assertion that “People who are profiled by his websites should be allowed to reserve the right not to have any association with him”  hints at the suggestion that he was protecting his reputation from some sort of misrepresentation. But this is an insult to the intelligence: no-one who reads a profile of a person on a website assumes that the subject must be “associated” with the site’s owner, particularly if the profile is critical. Although he agrees that such sites “must be allowed to exist”, how exactly does his rather tortuous formulation differ from the more obviously absurd assertion that “People should have the right to disallow critical profiles of themselves on websites that expound political views that they find objectional”?

Of course, SpinWatch is controversial – and not just for the MacDonald fiasco, which resulted in an apology from Miller (the material had been added to the site by another researcher, and Miller removed it as soon as it came to his attention). An article at Standpoint by Shiraz Mather makes some substantive criticisms about the project’s methodology and focus; I agree that the term “neo-con” is thrown about too loosely, as are – worse than that – accusations of racism. Meleagrou-Hitchens also mentions an Israeli scholar named Sagit Yehoshua, who claims that important factual details about her on the site are incorrect. However, none of this changes the fact that Meleagrou-Hitchens’ form of “censure” and “response” to his own profile – a profile which he does not claim was libellous – is not attractive, and his justification does not redound to his credit.

(I should disclose that I have occasional contact of my own with the people who run Spinwatch, and they were helpful in relation to events I blogged here and here.)

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Stop Islamization of America is now advertising on taxis in Chicago, using photos of  girls and women murdered in honour killings to promote its “Leave Islam Safely” website . Similar ads have featured on buses, as I blogged here.

The advertised website leads to Pamela Geller’s “Refuge from Islam” website, where there are some cursory blog postings. The top one reads:

If you are thinking of leaving Islam, be wary, be careful. Do not tell your Muslim friends or family. The Qur’an commands your death for leaving Islam (4:89 calls for the murder of renegades from the faith), and Muhammad is explicit in a hadith: “If anyone changes his religion, kill him” (Bukhari). Many, many ‘honor killings’ have been committed for “crimes” that are in Islamic law considered far less serious than leaving Islam.

Think you’re safe in America? Rifqa Bary has been threatened numerous times for leaving Islam. Rashad Khalifa was murdered by Islamic supremacists in Arizona in the early 1990s — because of his “heretical” teachings. If you doubt that you’re in danger in America, be aware that apostates have been threatened or murdered in recent years in Afghanistan, Egypt, Pakistan, Somalia and elsewhere. It doesn’t matter how free or open your country’s society is: the law of Islam recognizes no national borders.

If you fear for your life, contact info@avoiceforthepersecuted.com. If you are unsure of how your family or community will respond to your admitting that you’re leaving, don’t take chances. Write to Pamela Geller at writeatlas@aol.com or Robert Spencer at director@jihadwatch.org. If you need immediate protection from a threat, call the police immediately.

A

Start here — these are your best resources for Muslims who have made the journey. They can hekp you.

Contact Nonie at Former Muslims United

Apostates of Islam

 Speak to Ali at  Faith Freedom org

Answering Muslims

Muslims Against Sharia

Above all, don’t give up hope. We can provide safe houses.

There follow several blog posts puffing SOIA and related subjects (of little interest to anyone besides activists) , and, at the very bottom of the page, the addresses of some women’s refuges in Miami. That’s it. No links to any serious resources on either honour crimes or protection for women – instead, there’s a motley collection of websites critical of Islam, some of which are primarily concerned with gaining converts to Christianity.

What little practical advice is given is contradictory:

If you fear for your life, contact info@avoiceforthepersecuted.com… if you need immediate protection from a threat, call the police immediately… We can provide safe houses.

Aside from “call the police immediately”, the rest of this is useless: “avoicefortheperscuted.com” is the website of a Christian writer named Nikki Arana, who lives in Idaho. Arana is the co-author of Through the Eyes of Christ, which presents strategies for persuading Muslims of the truth of Christianity; she doesn’t even claim to have any useful practical advice for ex-Muslims fearful of honour killings. And what exactly do Geller and Spencer know about running a “safe house”? Again, if a “safe house” is needed, that should be a matter for the proper authorities – and not for a pair of publicity hounds more interested in using ex-Muslims as trophies than in offering discrete assistance. The Rifqa Bary case, with which Geller and Spencer have been involved, quickly degenerated into a circus and something of a fiasco.

Plus, once again, there’s a conflation of “honour killings”, which are performed to assert patriarchal authority over females, with threats against apostates and heretics – Amina and Sarah Yaser Said, used in the advert above, were murdered for having boyfriends; we don’t know that they wished to “leave Islam”. All threats, of course, are reprehensible, but I’m incredulous that Geller really cares about someone like “Rashad Khalifa… murdered… because of his ‘heretical’ teachings”. Are she and Spencer really going to provide “safe houses” for heterodox Islamic teachers? Are we going to see a picture of Khalifa on the roof of a taxi?

Nothing here has been thought through properly; this is a stunt calculated to provoke rather than a serious effort to help ex-Muslims.

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A few days ago I wrote a blog entry following the sudden death of a political activist. The man concerned had featured on this blog several times, due both to his involvement in various controversial political groups that I track, and because of his frequent recourse to litigation against people who had offended him – another keen interest of mine. My post was certainly not  a eulogy, but it was truthful, serious in tone, and did not go into excessive detail about the man’s flaws. My interest, of course, was to put on record some details of his public activities; I was not concerned with his private life.

My blog entry very quickly became close to being the top result on any Google search for the man’s name; this was surprising, as I had expected my entry to have been a small contribution to a larger discussion (a discussion which does not appear in fact to have happened) and there are many other websites which mention him. However, although the man concerned was to some extent a public figure, he was so in an “amateur” capacity rather than as a professional politician. It occured to me that my blog entry having such a high ranking may become intrusive in the months ahead, and it has now been suggested to me by someone who knew the deceased that my post may cause distress to relatives.

Of course, it is certainly the case when someone involves themselves in public controversies, they invite critical scrutiny, and there are many good reasons why such scrutiny should continue even after a protagonist has died. However, in this particular instance, having weighed the potential usefulness of the continued presence of the blog entry to political and legal discussion against how its absence may make life a little easier to cope with for private individuals at a difficult time, I have decided to remove the entry.

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As readers may have noticed, I recently received a deluge of sockpuppeting messages in support of Helen Ukpabio. These all bear the following details:

Email: firstlove2010@gmail.co [sic]
IP: 41.219.253.7

Here’s one of the latest, which I have actually deleted:

Bartholomew you have not still answered to the two accusations on rape, we read you raped two women and one has been missing since 2004, you have deliberately avoided commenting on this why?

Yes, that’s right: a foul and false accusation of rape, made by someone who, if he really believed in God, would surely be fearful of the fate that awaits liars.

Unsurprisingly, though, although he doesn’t fear violating one of the most basic commandments of his supposed religion, he is too cowardly to put his own name to his writings. However, searching for “firstlove2010@gmail.com” on Facebook brings up a certain individual named Edidiong Udoh. This also fits with his first comment, which he left under the name of “Udo” (I’ve now fixed all his sockpuppet comments to the name of “Udoh”). Udoh is also a Facebook friend of someone who tried to link to me on Facebook just minutes before I received the first of several abusive messages through the site.

And who is Edidiong Udoh? According to his profile, his employer is Liberty Films. And Liberty Films, of course, is run by Helen Ukpabio, and exists to promote the belief in child-witches. And Ukpabio, as I blogged just recently, has personally endorsed a foul attack website aimed at her critics.

UPDATE (12 July): More abusive slander of the same sort has come in, this time from someone using the email address “godisreal4me2000@yahoo.com“. On Facebook, this resolves to someone using the name “Mary John”, who, unsurprisingly, is too ashamed to actually put their face on their profile. The Facebook profile has no record prior to 29 May, and its first post was a link to the pro-Ukpabio attack site. The first friend the account owner linked to was a certain Azuaru Omah Ihuomah (maybe actually Omah Azuaru – “Azuaru” is usually a surname), who appears to work on Ukpabio’s films. On 2 July, I received a Facebook friend request Ihuomah at 6:43am (UK time), and from from “Mary John” three minutes later. Some of the material on the attack website has been posted by “omahjeep”.

UPDATE 2 (14 July): Ukpabio, Azuaru Omah Ihuomah, and “Mary John” have now all locked down their Facebook walls.

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Why aren’t some Christian leaders obsessed with the anti-Christ and the Last Days? Obviously, it’s because of Communism. Joel Richardson explains:

I am truly grateful to TV and radio host Glenn Beck for highlighting the Marxist foundations of the “social justice” movement… But beyond “social justice”, there is another foundational theological element to this equation that must be exposed.

…[Marxists] are attempting to infiltrate the Churches, and by altering a few key eschatological doctrines, they believe that they can reconcile Christianity with Marxism

…First, the belief that a charismatic and populist leader (the Antichrist) will emerge in the last-days pretending to vindicate the poor is eliminated. Marxists need the people to trust them and their populist, collectivist, nanny-state ideas.

Yes, a piece warning about the dangers of “charismatic and populist” leaders begins by praising… Glenn Beck. One of the most corrosive and absurd demagogues in American public life today. A man whose phony showmanship and humbug are an insult to the intelligence of the entire USA, if not the world.

And where did Beck get his information “highlighting the Marxist foundations of the ‘social justice’ movement”? Media Matters recently noted his preferred reading matter:

Glenn Beck promoted The Red Network: A “Who’s Who” and Handbook of Radicalism for Patriots, stating that the book is “from people who were doing what we’re doing now. We now are documenting who all of these people are.” However, the book’s author, Elizabeth Dilling, was a virulent anti-Semite, and The Red Network itself contains numerous passages that espouse anti-Semitism and racism.

Richardson, it should be noted, is a strong supporter of Israel, and at WorldNetDaily he recently attacked Christians who are not as being anti-Semitic.

Richardson sometimes leaves comments on this blog, and he is always polite and personable. In our last exchange, he wrote:

While we may come from two radically different ends of some spectrum, there is no need to refer to one another with such purposeful mockery as you seem to lean toward.

I agree. Mockery is sometimes completely superfluous.

Beck, meanwhile, is continuing to make inroads into the Christian right, despite being a convert to Mormonism; his show recently featured a “Preachers and Pastors” panel, which included John Hagee. Hagee is most notorious for his claim that Hitler was sent by God as a “hunter” to persuade Jews to move to Israel; however, he also rants about how the US economy is run by a group of Satanists called the Illuminati, in particular naming Alan Greenspan and “the Rothschilds”, and he also infers that Satan was able to make particular use of Karl Marx because he was Jewish and Hitler because he was “partly Jewish” (which in fact he wasn’t). Also on the panel, among others, was the pseudo-historian David Barton, who is on board with Beck’s risible “Beck University” project; and Ralph Reed, the former executive of the Christian Coalition and later associate of Jack Abramoff (I previously blogged Abramoff here).

(Incidentally, Beck is not the first populist to ransack old anti-semitic texts for more general conspiracy theories; Pat Robertson’s New World Order did the same thing in the early 1990s)

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A few weeks ago I wrote about Bishop NE Moses’ links with Ignited Church, a neo-Pentecostal megachurch in Lakeland, Florida. I noted in turn NE Moses’ links to Helen Ukpabio, who teaches that children can be “witches” who cause misfortune to others. The story was picked up Ed Brayton, who has now been contacted by Pastor Stephen Strader of Ignited. Strader finds Ed’s post “strongly offensive”, but he also has some substantive comments:

First – Bishop Moses was scheduled at my church but at the last minute he cancelled.

Second – He has been a LONG time friend – maybe 10 years – and he has NEVER mentioned anything about any of this witchcraft business. He has spoken in my church on several occasions and I have spoken at his church.

…Immediately upon hearing the accusations, I have contacted Bishop Moses, and his Bishop here in the USA and YOU. The USA Bishop had the SAME reaction as me. He has never even heard of this.

I have NOT heard back from Bishop Moses – but generally it takes weeks for him to answer emails.

…I DO want any and all information about this situation and I give you my word that I will follow up on this.

HOWEVER, I would appreciate a BLOG from you that states that as SOON as I heard of the situation, I contacted you and the Bishops involved and that I SCRIPTURALLY am pursuing the truths in this matter.

In relation to information, I can help Strader out here. The video below comes from Ukpabio’s consecration as a “Lady Apostle” last year. A few months prior to this event, members of Ukpabio’s church had attacked a conference on the subject of child-witchcraft stigmatisation; the organiser was the Nigerian sceptic Leo Igwe, and he was physically assaulted during the invasion. Moses praises the attack, as his whips up his audience into righteous anger against those who dare to suggest that the notion that a child can be a witch is nonsense:

You did the right thing. Listen, you did the right thing. We shall not run and get into our bedrooms. We shall not allow the enemy to take over. Do you understand what I’m saying?… The enemy is attacking! Witches attacking! Wizards attacking! Atheists attacking!

Here’s the incident that Moses is screaming about:

Ukpabio’s defence is that she merely “delivers” children from a kind of witchcraft “contamination” through a “mild” ritual; however, not everyone who believes that personal misfortune is the result of a “child-witch” will come to her church – and the belief in child-witches is currently causing immeasurable harm in parts of Nigerian and elsewhere in Africa (and of course, even a “mild” ritual involves an emotionally abusive bogus accusation). The notion of “child-witches” is not based on any Biblical text, and it goes against reason. The only way way child-witch stigmatisation will end will be when no-one takes such an idea seriously. Ukpabio, however, continues to teach the existence of child-witches; as well as sending her church members to attack Leo’s conference, she has denounced a hostel for children stigmatmised as witches as being run by a “wizard”, and she has tried to use the courts to shut down her critics. The “Lady Apostle” has also shown extreme emotional immaturity by endorsing a crude and abusive attack site registered by her webmaster.

If Moses deserves the title of “Bishop”, he will admit that he has made a mistake and repudiate Ukpabio and any notion of children as witches. Of course a pastor such as NE Moses and a humanist such as Leo Igwe have very different worldviews, but Moses is quite capable of understanding that a Christian is not always infallible, and that something is not necessarily untrue just because a humanist says it.

Ed challenges Strader:

Speak out publicly against this, not just in a Facebook message. Preach against it. Work with the Pentecostal organizations you belong to that include these African ministries to purge their ranks and stop promoting such people…

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A few days ago I wrote a blog entry about an attack website set up to defend “Lady Apostle” Helen Ukpabio against her detractors. The site accuses her opponents (including me) of being a conspiracy of atheists spreading the “Darkwins [sic] philosophy”, and it also contains some remarkably crude abuse, such as this:

Leo Igwe, your wife and mother must have been what you are now using to describe Helen. Every ugly terms you used on her, I return to your wife, mother and daughter. You have just killed a girl and cut off the head, instead of Helen to be the next, it is your wife that you will next I bet you.

Writing of a journalist:

what about your wife?… She hunts after monkeys and dogs, no wonder she has only one child

And as for me:

…who is your wife and what is she doing in the society? That you married a mongolis Idiot does not mean that every woman is an idiot. You have an idiot for a wife – it is strictly your choice.

As I wrote at the time in my blog entry:

If I were Ukpabio, I’d want to repudiate such embarassing “support” as quickly as possible, since it only brings discredit to her and to the evangelists who have endorsed her.

No chance of that:

And:

There is no reason to doubt the authenticity of this Facebook page, despite the strange way it is named; members of Ukpabio’s family and a number of her pastor colleagues are linked to it as friends. So, all of the above abuse – and more – is implicitly endorsed by Ukpabio herself, the “Lady Apostle”. It’s also worth noting that the attack site was registered by Gabriel Egba, who is Ukpabio’s webmaster; I emailed him to ask what his association with Ukpabio was, and although I received no reply the message was passed on to the author of the site.

Ukpabio’s Facebook page is also interesting for the insight it gives into her character, which appears to consist of an emotionally immature mix of pride and anger. Here she is, exulting over an apparent legal victory:

OOOOHHHHHHHHH,GOD I THANK YOU OOOOO THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING OF VICTORY,GOD U HAVE STARTED IT I KNOW U WILL FINISH IT, SO THAT THIS PEOPLE WILL BE PUT TO SHAME,THEY ARE LOSERS,#30;000 FOR WASTING MY TIME, THIS GOOD,I AM HAPPY

…Omah u are very correct,its not just about the money,the victory is sweeter than the money,i am so happy. @Raphael thank u so much,all the same i am richer with their #30,000.

There is no sense here of a spiritual person who has been misunderstood, and who wishes for her opponents to see the the truth; rather, we see someone clearly in love with worldly power, expressed in the most vulgar way.

I also recently highlighted the various religious leaders who consecrated Ukpabio as an “Apostle”. This led to a short deluge of trolling comments from Nigeria, again of the most abusive kind. As with the attack website, one has to wonder to about the mentality; although there is nothing in the Bible to support the existence of child-witches, there is fair bit of material on the importance of truthfulness.

I’m inclined to doubt that the trolls or the author of the attack site believe in child-witches any more than I do: however, they clearly have an interest in perpetuating the belief, and this is why they are lashing out. It’s a matter of business.

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