Bartholomew's Notes

A few months ago I wrote several blog entries on Jim Barfield, a retired fire investigator from Oklahoma who was claiming to have discerned the true meaning of the Copper Scroll, an ancient Hebrew text (Dead Sea Scroll 3Q15) that supposedly records the burial place of some lost treasure, but which has proven difficult to interpret. Barfield, who has no formal qualifications in the field, declined to reveal either his methods or his conclusions, but he assured the world that experts he had spoken to had all been both convinced and shocked at the simplicity of his explanation. Barfield also made extravagent claims about what the treasure actually was, declaring that the Ark of the Covenant and other items from the First Jerusalem Temple (destroyed centuries before the Copper Scroll was inscribed) would be found.

Credulous hacks lapped the story up, with puff pieces on local media and in the Jerusalem Post. Christian Zionist groups such as the Jerusalem Connection meanwhile declared that this was a further sign of God’s favour towards modern Israel. Barfield also reportedly gave a presentation to a group of Oklahoma state senators, who agreed to support his efforts with funding and letters to Israeli officials. Barfield packed his spade and video camera and headed off to Israel to join a dig, and gave a number of reports as to how the investigation was going on his website. The sequel was inevitable: Barfield returned empty-handed but unfazed, explaining that all that was needed was to dig a bit deeper (the Jerusalem Connection concurred with this).

One sceptical voice was that of archaeolgist Robert Cargill, who has now visited the site at Qumran where Barfield was involved with digging and given his report. As he explains in his distinctive lower-case blog:

i met up with yuval peleg, the district archaeologist in charge judea and samaria, who personally dug at qumran. yuval told me that jimmy barfield never even so much as touched a trowel. his group never dug a single spade of dirt. they were merely observers – that’s it. peleg said as soon as he saw jim barfield claiming to ‘lead an excavation’ for the copper scroll at qumran, he told them to stop making the claim…

As for Barfield’s claim that archaeologists should have dug deeper:

yuval showed me to a probe that he dug at a place where mr. barfield insisted there was buried treasure. peleg needed to dig a probe, so he used it as an opportunity to show barfield he was mistaken. the result was exactly as mr. peleg expected: there was nothing. and to prove it, mr. peleg showed me the probe he dug…there is nothing but virgin rock. mr. peleg probed along the wall for the presence of a lower water channel near the locus 138 miqveh. barfield assured peleg that he would find treasure there…there was nothing beneath the surface but untouched rock.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Cedntral Florida News 13 has posted online an audio of the meeting at which Pastor Blake Lorenz and his wife Beverly were relieved of their positions by board members of the Global Revolution Church. Lorenz, it will be recalled, was the pastor who arranged for 17-year-old Christian convert Rifqa Bary to flee from her Muslim parents in Ohio to his home in Florida; the board members (Brian Smith, Tom Sanchez, and Jeff Parker) complain that while he undoubtedly had acted with the best of intentions, (a) his way of doing it had been illegal, and his actions meant that the church and its board members were now liable to civil suits brought by Bary’s family; (b) his actions had put the board members in an uncomfortable situation, as their home addresses were on-line on the church website (and a promise to have them removed had not been honoured); (c) the Lorenzes had lied to the board, destroying trust, and they had lied to the authorities with the story that Bary had hitchhiked to the bus station in Ohio when in fact an associate had driven her there.

Lorenz responds to this with the claim that the board members are “demonically possessed”, “evil”, and “crazy”. Beverly Lorenz, meanwhile, expresses shock and disbelief that board actually has authority over them, and she points out that she and her husband are college educated.

More substantially, though, Blake Lorenz explains that he had to lie to protect a life; I’m not quite clear whether he means Bary herself, or Brian Williams, the Ohio pastor who drove Bary to the bus station. Inevitably, he asks the board to consider if they would lie if some Nazis had asked them where some Jews were hidden. Beverly also raises the Biblical example of Rahab, who protected Israelite spies in Jericho by lying to some soldiers. The board members are not convinced: unlike the situation with the Nazis, Lorenz was asking the same authorities to whom he had lied to protect Bary. He had also kept the truth from the board, and as a counter-example from the Bible they mention Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemene. Why didn’t Lorenz tell the truth and trust God?, they ask. It’s worth adding that even if Lorenz didn’t want to tell the truth, he could have refused to give any explanation. It’s also worth adding that Williams does not appear to have been molested by vengeful Muslims in Ohio.

However, the Lorenzes still have plenty of supporters, including the vile Pamela Geller, who with others has used the Bary story to whip up an anti-Muslim hysteria. Geller lashes out viciously against anyone who raises any question or urges caution regarding the Bary case, accusing journalists and bloggers of being in league with a Muslim plot to kill the girl. Geller has now turned her attention to the board members, whom she accuses of ousting the Lorenzes in order to purloin funds that had been donated to the church for Bary – lawyers have stated that they received no cash from the church.*

But once again, this looks like Lorenz failed to think things through properly: did he set up a separate account specifically to receive donations for Bary’s lawyers? Is there any paperwork recording the details of such a fund, and making clear the conditions under which it would be used? [UPDATE: See comment below for more details on this] If not, then those of Geller’s readers who took her advice to make ill-considered donations (donations that I suspect are now likely to be used to defend the church against civil suits) ought to be directing their complaints to her. And if Blake Lorenz has any decency, he would ask Geller to refrain from her abusive attacks on his former overseers.

*This sentence has been slightly amended.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 18 Comments »

Over at the Samosa, Secunder Kermani gives an account of postings he saw on the Facebook profile of Amit Singh, a British-born Sikh whose involvement in the English Defence League has been used as a counter to accusations that the EDL prmotes racism. Singh is not the only person belonging to an ethnic minority to be involved with the EDL, but his PR value appears to have been seriously compromised by opinions and comments such as these:

You know what, ive got an inkling the profit muhammed was really a bit of a adultering, raping, hate preaching looting Cunt!! Anyone agree, or is it just me????

the muzzies wanna keep away from me im just looking for an excuse im fucked off at the mo fuck the pakis … i just think we shud burn the cunts now!!

Be careful if you go out driving today… driving conditions are awful, ive just come off the road and hit a muslim!! It took me 10 minutes, 2 fields and a golf course, but I got the fucker!!

Etc. When asked about these, he

…claimed that he had been receiving death threats from Muslims at the time, and that this had provoked him into writing many of them. He also said he had an outspoken sense of humour and that many comments were intended as jokes.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Rev Sun Myung Moon’s Universal Peace Federation announces an event  to be held in the House of Lords of the British Parliament:

‘Genocide Awareness and Holocaust Commemoration’
House of Lords Committee Room 4A (Map)

Hosted by Lord King of West Bromwich

5:00 – 7:00 pm, 1st February, 2010

You are cordially invited to a discussion of ‘Genocide Awareness and Holocaust Commemoration’ soon after the internationally recognised Holocaust Memorial Day to be held in the House of Lords, Committee Room 4A. Universal Peace Federation’s (UPF) Community Cohesion Working Group is holding this event to promote awareness of ‘the path to genocide’ to assist the identification of future unfolding tragedies before they occur…The Universal Peace Federation’s (UPF) motto “One Family Under God” signifies the importance of  understanding how such atrocities have happened and the determination to strive to prevent future reoccurences…

But what of the UPF’s founder’s own views on the subject of the Holocaust? Oh dear…

Who are the Jewish members here, raise your hands! Jewish people, you have to repent. Jesus was the King of Israel. Through the principle of indemnity Hitler killed 6 million Jews. That is why. God could not prevent Satan from doing that because Israel killed the True Parents.

I’ve noted some previous UPF events in the UK; see here, and on my spin-off Ambassasdors for Moon blog here.

(Hat tip to a reader)

UPDATE: On my Ambassadors for Moon blog, Robin Marsh has left a comment suggesting that the comment from Moon may be from a translation that is inaccurate (in some unspecified way). Further, he draws attention to a 1976 statement in which Moon expresses his regard for Judaism, rejection of anti-Semitism, and support for Israel. See here.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

“The eleven extraterrestrial beings with their sneaky, kinky, stinky thinking”

Last July, Rev Leroy Swailes found fame across the blogosphere with a bizarre testimony at a hearing by the District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics on the subject of same-sex marriage. Rev Swailes (denomination unknown) has now graced this blog with his futher pensées, in two lengthy comments which I have decided up upgrade to a special post. Take it away, Rev:

. Hello from Washington, D. C. The specialist against homosexuals since nineteen sixty eight, the spiritual doctor, that heal people from the spiritual blindness of homosexuality, homosexuals use their tail to think not their head, heterosexuals should use their head to think, they know what is natural, procreative human being, marriage, which is only between the male and female, world wide, for human being not inhuman behavior. The homosexual behavior which is the abomination of desolation again this planet is annihilation to humanity. People, on June 10,2009 the Board of Elections and Ethics held a hearing here in Washington, D.C. I testify against same sex marriages, you can watch it on YOU TUBE. NAME MINISTER LEROY SWAILES OR GOOGLE OR BING or you can listen to my interview with SIRIUS SATELLITE RADIO MICHELANGELO SIGNORILE a homosexual, and AMBER Lies http://WWW.BING.COM. On Tuesday December 15th I was at THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COUNCIL MEETING when eleven out of thirteen voted for same sex marriage here in the NATION CAPITAL. They sold their soul to Satan The Devil, that is spiritual suicide, blasphemy against nature. When the eleven voted, yes, they voted to indoctrination of children to marry the same sex, brainwashing the most precious resources on this planet earth, children. The eleven extraterrestrial beings with their sneaky, kinky, stinky thinking corrupting the mind of children in the world. Homosexuals are satanic lovers, they act so clean, but think so dirty, there is a element in homosexuals that betrays nature. They don’t respect natures order or God advice, liars the act of stealing from the truth. Homosexuals, same sex marriage, makes no sense, its like voting for a cancerous mental disease strange deviating from the normal mental acts, they defy the law of the human spirit, human nature, turning the city, the world into the twenty first century SODOM AND GOMORRAH. People please help me to stop the cruelty to our LOVE ONES, CHILDREN, stop the demonizing of children. The spirit world is not a myth I can prove it, test the spirit, the truth. Homosexuals are compulsive, pathetic contemptuous liars their mythology is to deceive children of the world, with their perversion of sex, it’s a myth they are perverts, no comprehensiveness when it come to intelligent design, the way the system naturally was design to work. I will combat fight against this political bureaucratic military system, for children, what about you I need help, its spiritual warfare. The cure is the LOVE OF THE TRUTH something that the homosexuals and the homosexuals lovers don’t have. I have two website against them first http://WWW.TEARSFORCHILDREN.ORG in nineteen fifty nine the third sex was a lesbian pulp novel a third sex, homosexuality, my second website http://WWW.THIRDGENDER666.COM Why because the homosexuals will cause all, both small and great, rich and poor, to receive their homosexual mark in their right hand, or in their forehead and that no man might buy or sell unless mankind have the homosexual mark. Here is wisdom it’s the homosexuals lie that we are on different roads but going to the same heaven. The homosexuals have vowed to poison natures greatest creation mankind, children, homosexuals are masters of manipulation. The spirit of the homosexuals will not tolerate the spirit of nature or JESUS CHRIST. The pedophiliac people are raping the minds of children, when they lie to children and say that same sex marriage is equal to traditional marriage, equality, no, same sex marriage can reproduce or duplicate, conceive or multiply. MONEY MAKES MONEY. I need a public gathering structure an arena, coliseum, stadium, were I can address this homosexual problem in the world. Its against the law in this country to tell the truth about homosexuals, their exceedingly wicked attraction, danger to society, but I will, I will be a guest speaker any where in the world, speaking the LOVE of the truth.
HELP FOR CHILDERN ITS TIME FOR A MARCH AGAINST HOMOSEXUALITY SO CHILDREN CAN SEE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HETEROSEXUALITY AND HOMOSEXUALITY. THERE IS A COMMON SENSE SOLUTION FOR CHILDREN, TELLING THE TRUTH.

DEALING WITH THE SCIENCE OF THE BRAIN: THE TECHNOLOGICAL ENTERPRISES IN NEUROLOGY THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE BRAIN THE ENGINEERING THE INTELLIGENT DESIGN BY NATURE, MENTALLY QUICK CAPABLE OF MAKING BRILLIANT DECISION, EVERY ACTION A PERSON MAKES IS BASED ON THE FIRING OF NEURONS IN OUR BRAIN. HOMOSEXUALS HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THEIR OWN NEUROLOGY MULTIPLE PERSONALITY SPLIT PERSONALITY, MALE AND FEMALE CONFRONTATION IN THE MIND, WHICH,THE DOMINANT HALF TAKE OVER, THEIR BOTH PATHOLOGICALLY JEALOUS OF EACH OTHER CHARACTERIZED BY GREED,A DESIRE FOR WEALTH HAVING A CRAVING FOR COVETING OF POWER. WHEN THE MIND HOUSES TWO PERSONALITIES THERE ALWAYS IS A BATTLE, CONFLICT, COMPETITION GOOD VERSUS EVIL INTERESTS. THE DOMINANT PERSONALITY ALWAYS TAKE OVER IT TAKES RESIDENCE, THE DOMINANT BEHAVIOR. TO BE ABLE TO DIFFERENTIATE BEWTEEN GOOD AND EVIL, A NATURAL PERSON AND AN EXCEEDINGLY WICKED PERSON, HOMOSEXALS. HETEROSEXUALITY IS NORMAL BY NATURE IN A CIVILIZED SOCIETY TO CULTIVATE THE WORLD. THE HOMOSEXUAL MIND HOUSES TWO PERSONALITIES OR MORE, THE BATTLE IS IN THE MIND NOT GENETICS THE DIFFERENTIAL GAP BEWTEEN THE X CHROMOSOME AND THE Y CHROMOSOME WE ARE TALKING ABOUT THE SEX CHROMOSOME, BUT THE REAL BATTLE IS BEWTEEN THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT THAT CREATE THE SOUL, GOOD AND EVIL LIGHT AND DARKNESS AND NATURAL AND UNNATURAL A PERSON OWN IDEOLOGY OUTLOOK ON LIFE OR THEIR METHODOLOGY TO DESTROY THE CONSTITUTIVE CULTURAL SYSTEM OF A SOCIETY CIVILIZATION, ANTISOCIAL ENGINEERING THEIR INTENTIONALITY BRAINLESS NO BRAINPOWER LACKING INTELLECTUAL ABILITY WHEN IT COMES TO ORGANISM, SEX. THE MIND, THE THOUGHT PROCESS A COMPLEX ELEMENT, IN AN INDIVIDUAL THAT FEELS, PERCEIVES,THINKS. THE CONSCIOUS AND SUBCONSCIOUS EXISTING IN THE MIND, BUT NOT IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE TO CONSCIOUSNESS,A PSYCHONEUROTIC PERSON A LOST CONTACT WITH REALITY A FANTASY WORLD: THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY SODOM AND GOMORRAH: ITS NONSENSE ANTIMATTER. WHEN YOU TAKE THE FILTHINESS, MORAL CORRUPTION OF THE MIND, SNEAKY, KINKY, STINKY, THINKING. THE ART TO POISON THEIR MORALS THEIR SUPERFICIAL WAYS, RAPING THE MIND OF CHILDREN TO FORCE THEIR PERVERION AND DECEPTION DECEIVING CHILDREN OF THE WORLD ITS SPIRITUAL TERRORISM, NO SPIRITUAL PURITY, THEIR DEMANDS AND REQUEST FORCEFULLY AN ATTACK ON NATURE, BLASPHEMY. THE HOMOSEXUALS ARE CLOUDS WITH OUT RAIN, WELLS WITH OUT WATER, TREE WITH OUT FRUIT DETERIORATION IN THE FUNCTIONING IN EVERY DAY LIFE. THE HOMOSEXUAL SHORT CIRCUIT THE SYSTEM THEIR TERRORISM, THEIR TIME ABOMINATION STRONGLY NEGATIVE FEELINGS THROWING LIES EXTRATERRESTRIAL BEINGS, WHEN THEY START LYING DELIBERATELY UNTRUTHFUL QUALITY MISREPRESENTATION A FALSE STATEMENT, INTENDED TO DECEIVE: MATTHEW TWENTY FOUR: FOUR: HOMOSEXUAL ALIEN: ELLEN DEGENERES: QUEEN LATIFAH: WANDA SYKES: ELTON JOHN: BARNEY FRANK: MANY MORE PEOPLE NEED TO ASK A QUESTION ARE WE ON DIFFERENT ROADS, BUT GOING TO THE SAME HEAVEN, IS MY LAST BREATH HERE GOING BE MY FIRST BREATH IN HEAVEN, IS THEIR SECRET KNOWLEDGE IN THIS MESSAGE TO SAVE YOUR SOUL DIVINE REVELATION:YES: HELP FOR CHILDREN ITS TIME FOR A MARCH FOR CHILDREN AGAINST HOMOSEXUALITY SO THEY CAN SEE THE DIFFERENCE BEWTEEN HETEROSEXUALITY AND HOMOSEXUALITY. http://WWW.TEARSFORCHILDREN.ORG http://WWW.THIRDGENDER.COM
WHY IS MARRIAGE NOT SACRED, HOLY IN THIS COUNTRY SCIENCE AFFIRM IT, BUT NOT HOMOSEXUALITY THEY TURN THE LIGHT IN TO DARKNESS WHEAT IN TO TARES BELIEVERS TO UNBELIEVERS. THERE IS A COMMON SENSE SOLUTION FOR CHILDREN, TELLING THE TRUTH.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

Last Tuesday saw a broadcast in the UK of Defamation, a documentary by the Israeli filmmaker Yoav Shamir. The film is a diffuse exploration of perceptions of anti-Semitism among Jews in Israel and abroad, ranging from those who think that it’s an urgent and increasing danger, through to those who argue that the whole problem has been grossly exaggerated in order manipulate young Israelis and as a means to silence criticism of Israel.

Defamation shows that anti-Semitism certainly continues to exist – we meet young black adults on the streets of New York who readily exhort us to read The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and we are shown a  Chabad-Lubavitcher school bus that had been hit by a stone. In Poland, Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defemational League shows Shamir a local good-luck charm: a statuette of a stereotyped Jew clutching a bag of money (shades of Borat). One unexpected moment comes at the beginning of the film, when Shamir’s east European-born Israeli grandmother expresses the view that diaspora Jews are lazy and interested primarily in money, showing just how deeply such attitudes are engrained. In Moscow, Shamir visits the synagogue where eight people were stabbed by a neo-Nazi in 2006; the person he speaks to there is keen to assure him that anti-Semitism is not a problem in Russia – however, Shamir makes no independent investigation of his own, so there is no sense of the rising far-right context in modern Russia.

The film also follows a group of Israeli teenagers on a trip to Poland, and Shamir sees evidence of an exaggerated fear of hostility, instilled by the guides and a secret service protection officier. One teenager exchanges a few words with some elderly Polish men on a park bench, but her friend pulls her away, claiming – incorrectly – that the men were subjecting them to abuse. The teenagers spend their evenings couped up in their hotel, having been warned not to go out lest they are attacked by neo-Nazis. Shown old black-and-white footage of concentration camps, the teenagers are disconnected from what they see, and at the first site they visit in Poland some feel guilty for not being upset. At Auschwitz, there is a remarkable moment of bad taste as they pose for a group photo below the “Arbeit Macht Frei” sign, saying “Auschwitz” instead of “cheese”, but on viewing the exbihits many of them become traumatised. One of them expresses a new wish to kill “the heirs” of the Nazis. Shamir feels this emphasis on the past is holding Israel back.

The issue of Israel and anti-Semitism is examined mainly through reactions to the book The Israel Lobby, by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt. The book is of course well-known, and Shamir is sympathetic to their complaints that they have been unfairly characterised as anti-Semitic for their thesis about the supposed power of the lobby. We see footage from a conference held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs early in 2008 on the subject of anti-Semitism, which appeared to consist mainly of near-hysterical denunciations of the two authors. The British sociologist David Hirsh is shown causing controversy by asking delegates to acknowledge that anger over the “racism, violence and humiliation” caused by the occupation of Palestinian land also need to be considered, and in argument with an Israeli academic following his presentation he complains that Palestine had been described by other participants as the “anti-nation” (Hirsh has since complained that the footage makes the event appear to have been more right-wing than it actually was). Unfortunately, neither Shamir nor the conference delegates appear to have been interested in serious critiques of The Israel Lobby, such as Walter Russell Mead’s measured but negative review in Foreign Affairs,  or –  from the anti-Zionist left – Bill Weinberg’s deconstruction (see here). The case that criticism of Israel is unfairly characterised as anti-Semitism is also made by Norman Finkelstein, although his distasteful manner (mocking Foxman with a Nazi salute) tends to obscure any reasonable point he might have.

The sections of the film featuring Abraham Foxman are perhaps the most telling. Shamir shadows Foxman and an Anti-Defamation League delegation to Europe; in Rome they are fêted by the mayor and the US Ambassador to the Vatican as a prelude to meeting the Pope, and in Ukraine they meet a high-level delegation of government officials. We’re told that Ukraine is hoping to make closer links with the USA, and a meeting with Foxman is hoped to facilitate this. Troublingly, Foxman tells Shamir that

They do believe, to some extent, that we can make a difference in Washington, and we’re not going to convince them otherwise.

Foxman admits that this is “the other side” to anti-Semitism, but he shows no reservations about perpetuating beliefs that in other contexts he decries.

The parts of Defamation are greater than the whole; it seems to be several different documentaries spliced rather unevenly together, each of which deserved further treatment. What there is, though, is worth watching, and for the next few weeks can be seen in the UK here.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 9 Comments »

January’s Searchlight has an article by Simon Cressy about divisions within the English Defence League, noting conflict between “moderate” members and those who are “prepared to accept members of Nazi groups as long as they behave themselves”. The report also mentions a spat between Chris Renton (who was blogged by me here) and a certain Jerrry “Wurzel” Watson:

This led Watson to side with Paul Ray, the increasingly flaky self-styled “spiritual leader” of the EDL. Ray has formed his own St George’s Division of the EDL and has titled himself “Grandmaster Ray”, despite being disowned by the offical EDL.

The official EDL website carries an anathema against the St George Division:

It has been brought to our attention that various groups have been popping up across the internet, including various social networking sites and are using the names “EDL” or “English Defence League”. We believe that these groups are planning to hold false demonstrations in our name. Some of these groups are genuine, but some are also hoax groups, such as “EDL: St George Division”. We would recommend that any EDL members leave the hoax group “EDL: St George Division” immediately to limit confusion.

However, as I have blogged previously, Ray does have one close associate in Nick Greger, a German former neo-Nazi who now has an Tanzanian wife and links withh Northern Ireland loyalists. Here’s Greger modelling the “Grandmaster Ray” t-shirt:

Greger also maintains a YouTube channel, where on one video he describes himself as a “former neo-nazi-leader, convicted terrorist, militaman, artist, book writer and preacher”. The video is rather disturbing, featuring footage of buildings being fire-bombed and of Greger posing with guns and loyalists – juxtaposed, rather unexpectedly, with a call to free the former Liberian leader Charles Taylor (Taylor is currently on trial for war crimes, but to supporters he was a Christian president who battled Muslims). Greger also uses the comments feature on YouTube to have frank exchanges with critics:

would like to meet you to smash your face cause you got a big moth.find me on facebook and we make appointment for fight you lil PLO-loving irish wanker,or are you even muslim?

…if you would have watched the whole movie then you would know that im not a nazi at all you small brained low educated PLO-loving irish catholic wankers.and you so-called ALIANDTHETALIBAN let me tell you i would not even waste a bullet for your fucking muslim headt,i would just hack you with a machete if i should ever get my hands on you

Filed under: Uncategorized | 17 Comments »

For several years now, I’ve been following the activism of Nigerian humanist Leo Igwe. Back in 2005 I noted his role in debunking a “man raised from the dead” tale that was being touted by WorldNetDaily and some neo-Pentecostal churches; more recently, Leo has taken on followers of Helen Ukpabio, who promotes the idea that children can become “witches” who then harm other people – a year ago, I was proud to host a guest post by him on the subject. An event he organised to highlight the grim consequences of Ukpabio’s teaching was invaded by her followers, and he was handled roughly; Ukpabio is also suing him on the grounds that attacking her beliefs amounts to an infringement of her rights. Leo also advocates an end to the persecution of gay men and lesbians in Africa, and Peter Tatchell describes him as “a voice for reason, justice and compassion”. An overview of his opinions can be seen here.

Leo has also campaigned on behalf of Daberechi Anongam, a ten-year-old girl from his home village who has accused a powerful man from the same location of rape. In retaliation, this man and an associate have allegedly harrassed Leo and his family with civil suits, and they have now persuaded the local police to arrest him and his sick father for no less a crime than murder. Leo and his father have now been bailed, and Leo has given an account in a press release:

…They arrested me and my aging father. We were detained briefly at the local police station in Ahiazu before we were transfered  to the zonal police headquarters in Umuahia. The officers threatened to beat us when we asked them to allow us to clean up and change our clothes. One of the soldiers brought out his gun and threatened to shoot my father when he wanted to make phone calls to alert other family members of our arrest. The police held us throughout the day without giving us food and water. At the zonal police headquarters in Umuahia, a police officer read a petition by Ethelbert Ugwu who alleged that in September 2009 I with my father, three brothers and one Mr Gregory Iwu conspired, murdered and attempted to conceal the murder of one Mr Aloysius Chukwu who died in September last year. According to family sources, Mr Chukwu died in a local hospital after a brief illness. We made statements in response to the allegations and were later released on bail.

…When it comes to police arrest and investigation in Nigeria three things matter most: MONEY!MONEY! ! MONEY!!!. In most cases, police officers carry out their investigation to favour whoever ‘mobilises’ them or gives them a bribe. The way you are treated at police stations is determined by how much you pay or are ready to pay the officers whether as a complainant or a suspect. And in my community like in other rural communities in Nigeria, most people are poor and cannot afford to bribe the police. Hence criminal minded individuals are having a field day with police officers and soldiers.

…And I want to state that no amount of intimidation, police action, extortion, harassment, legal suits, trump-up charges, fictitious and malicious allegations, petitions against me and my family members will stop me from fighting for justice for this girl child and for humanity at large.

The International Humanist and Ethical Union adds:

On January 9, Sonja Eggerickx, president of IHEU, wrote to Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, President of Nigeria, to request his office intervene to end the police harassment of Leo Igwe and his family. The IHEU request was also sent to the Nigerian attorney general, minister for the police, and the governor of Imo State, where the Igwes live. A separate appeal is being sent to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the regional human rights body in which Leo Igwe represents the IHEU.

Unfortunately, appealing to the authorities at this time is likely to be of limited use, with Yar’Adua absent for weeks in a Saudi hospital (“I’m not dead, I’m getting better”, he reassured the country from his sickbed a couple of days ago). As a recent report in the London Times notes:

Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s Vice-President, said recently that the country was “in the hands of God”. One thing is for sure — no one else is in charge.

The prospect of Africa’s most populous nation, home to 150 million people, slipping into leaderless anarchy is now ringing alarm bells across the continent.

According to Josh Kutchinsky, Amnesty International has been made aware of Leo’s plight and is looking into the case.

(Hat tip: Harry’s Place)

Filed under: Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

A few days ago I blogged on a recent Newsnight report about human sacrifice  in Uganda by witchdoctors. Without wishing to be dismissive (and mindful of Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi’s critique of scholarship that glosses over dysfunctional religious phenomena), I had some concerns about the piece – particularly how Polino Angela, a former witchdoctor, could admit to killing 70 people yet remain unarrested, and about how he now goes around encouraging witchdoctors to burn shrines where sacrifices are supposed to have taken place, when such sites should surely be regarded as crime scenes. Anthropologist Adam Kuper has also expressed some scepticism in a post for the London Review of Books blog, and other anthropologists have added concurring views in the comments – in particular Tim Allen of the LSE, Sverker Finnström of Stockholm University and Uppsala University, and Nicolas Argenti of Brunel.

The comments also feature responses from Tim Whewell, the Newsnight journalist who filed the report, and the programme’s editor, Peter Rippon. The whole discussion is worth reading, and Rippon gives us an update on Angela:

 …There is no evidence to suggest that his testimony is ‘bogus’. His story is quite well-known in the Lango sub-region. He was a witch-doctor for 22 years – enough time to be involved in 70 human sacrifices. An academic study confirms that he was the personal witch-doctor of the former president, Tito Okello. I do not think he has boasted of murders he didn’t commit.

He has no protection. On the contrary, since our report was broadcast, police have demanded to interview him – and he is now having to find a lawyer to defend himself.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Pat Robertson has caused anger and bafflement (as ever) with the claim that the devastating earthquake in Haiti is just the latest disaster to hit the country as the result of a “pact with the devil” supposedly made by Haitians to rid themselves of French rule.

This supposed pact has been obsessed over before by neo-Pentecostal Christians who regard spiritual causality as the directing force behind world events. In 2004, The Revealer noted the views of Terry W. Snow, country director of Youth with a Mission, who described the pact but also announced that it was at an end:

2004 will be the official ending of the 200 year pact known as the Boukman Contract. (See below for more details.) Made by a slave named Boukman, who was considered to be a great witchdoctor, the contract surrendered the Haitian people to spiritual slavery through a voodoo ceremony, in exchange for their physical freedom. On the night of August 14, 1791 the sacrifice was made and the contract agreed to. However, it wouldn’t be until January 1, 1804 that Haiti was recognized as the first independent black nation in the world.

…On the night of August 14, 1791, the slaves sealed that unity in a ceremony held in the woods at Bois Caiman, not too far from Cap-Haitien. A pig was slaughtered, and all of those present drank of the blood of that pig and together pledged 200 years of service to the spirits of the island in exchange for victory over the French. An iron statue of a pig sits in Port-au-Prince to commemorate that event.

On the night of Aug. 22, they began a war by setting the entire Northern Plain on fire, and hunting down and taking vengeance on the plantation owners. Years of battles followed—against France, Spain, and even England—but in the end they got their victory, proclaiming independence on Jan. 1, 1804. As a nation, they have been mostly faithful to their deal with the devil. And in exchange, the spirits have given them nearly 200 years of turbulent and often miserable history.

“…our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12

In fact, the details of the ceremony at Bois Caiman are difficult to establish and interpret, as the nineteenth-century sources added a romantic anti-Christian slant and elements from Classical paganism. David Patrick Geggus’ book Haitian Revolutionary Studies has a chapter-length discussion, which can be accessed on Google Books [UPDATE: There’s also this essay, by Markel Thylefors (noted by Mark Joseph)].  It may perhaps have been a Dahomean blood pact; of course, neo-Pentecostal Christians regard all non-Christian religions negatively (with some exceptions made for Judaism), but the idea of a “pact with the devil”, suggestive of Satanism and of identification with evil, is an ignorant, lurid, and polemical interpretation of the event. And as an explanation for Haiti’s various problems – let alone the latest tragedy – it is both risible and in bad taste.

Snow is still in Haiti, and looking on the bright side post-earthquake:

…During our time of prayer this morning we felt God saying that this is the start of new beginnings in Haiti. That in this time of need when most people hit rock bottom, that they will look and see that their voodoo god is not real and cry out to God.

President Aristide’s state recognition of voodoo was decried by American missionaries as an attempt “to rededicate Haiti to Satan”, and, as I blogged in 2004, there was rejoicing when he was forced to flee the country.

UPDATE: A Haitian pastor named Jean Gelin considered the story in 2005:

I was born and raised in Haiti, and I am a graduate of the State University in Port-au-Prince. I am also a believer in the Lord Jesus-Christ in accordance with the Bible. In all of my studies of Haitian history, however, I have yet to find a good evidence of even the idea of Satan’s assistance in the Independence War, let alone a satanic pact.

For quite some time now, several articles on the Internet have mentioned the existence of an iron pig statue in Port-au-Prince as a monument to commemorate Haiti’s so-called pact with the devil through Vodou. The statue would be in remembrance of a pig that was killed during the gathering by the African slaves. In an effort to know more about that rumor, I contacted several authors about the exact location of the pig statue that’s incidentally nowhere to be found in the country. Their answer was complete silence, a simple apology, or just the removal of the reference from their texts.

…I would not be surprised if the satanic pact idea (followed by the divine curse message) was put together first by foreign missionaries and later on picked up by local leaders. On the other hand, it is equally possible that some Haitian church leaders developed the idea on their own using a theological framework borrowed from those same missionaries who subsequently propagated the message around the world. Either way, because of this message, Haiti has been portrayed as the country born out of Satan’s benevolence and goodwill toward mankind. Shouldn’t such a fantastic idea be tested for its historic validity and theological soundness?

UPDATE 2: It should be recalled that the “Boukman Contract” is far from being the only instance of neo-Pentecostals taking an aspect of a national culture and using it to construct a narrative of demonic activity. In June, I blogged on C. Peter Wagner’s view that Japan had “invited national demonization” due to a special Shinto ceremony that occurs when a new Emperor comes to the throne.

UPDATE 3: Rachel Tabachnick has more on the neo-Pentecostal background to the Haiti “devil pact” story at Talk to Action.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 41 Comments »