Religious Healers Can Be So Deadly
- Category: Faith
- Date 09-04-2006
- 436 views
Do you want free theatre? Simply announce that you are possessed by evil spirits and in need of deliverance. Whether your claims amount to anything close to truth or not, expect a religious militant at your stated site, ready to pound the devil out of you. You might regret why you sought the services of such a man, sometimes woman.
My former student, while I was a schoolteacher, died at the hands of a pastor. He had been taken ill by severe malaria that bordered on meningitis. He required urgent medical attention, but some fanatic insisted that God is the supreme doctor, so there was no need to employ a human physicist. He was carried from home to a nearby church, his illness attributed to some ancestral fury, and the need to drive out the familial phantom proclaimed.
In a feat of passion, the few believers available descended on the unhealthy boy with unimaginable craze. They slapped, thumped and kicked at the miserable teenager, causing him to cry out loudly in pain. Someone attempted to prevent the brutal game but the “godly” team prevailed, reasoning that the harder the victim yowled, the closer he was coming to the needful healing. It was not him but the evil spirit crying out, on its way to damnation, some said.
Shortly, the youngster was to lay motionless on the church floor, as his parents stood in illusory trust that the malady had been overcome. Alas! The schoolboy lay there lifeless - he had died from a combination the disease and excessive beatings, administered by the prayerful members. After his burial, his father particularly abandoned the church and has since led a life of drunkenness and desperation.
Now, a new report has implicated religious zealots of child abuse, against children who are accused of being sorcerers. The report cites many cases where boys and girls had been physically and emotionally abused at home, segregated from other children and forced out of school in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Human Rights Watch which authored the report noted that orphans or children with step-parents are especially vulnerable to accusations. If their families are visited by misfortune, the child’s surviving relatives would attribute it to them, branding them sorcerers. Children who are HIV positive are also susceptible, as some people believe that children can infect their parents with AIDS by using magic spells.
The report highlighted what it calls an alarming rise in the abuse of boys and girls accused of sorcery. Such children are physically abused and end up on the streets of the capital, Kinshasa. The report added that about 70% of the street children appear to be outcasts from their families, having been accused of sorcery.
Religious fanatics then take their turn to abuse the children. Human Rights Watch says that self-styled pastors are employed to rid children of their alleged sorcery using torture, beatings and the denial of food. Because they claim they have powers to overcome evil spirits, so they embark on hurtful exorcisms.
Exorcism is the practice of evicting fiends, demons or other evil entities which are supposed to have taken control of a person or object. The practice is quite ancient, but it is still part of the belief system of many current religions. The person performing the exorcism (the exorcist) is often thought to be graced with special powers or skills. He is expected to invoke some benign supernatural power to actually perform the task.
This works on a general belief that possessed persons are not evil in themselves. They are not wholly responsible for their state either. Behind a person’s awkward state is perceived a bizarre element that must be forced out harshly. Therefore, exorcism is thought more as a cure than as a punishment. That is the religious understanding.
However this has often been confused in practice, therefore exorcism is abused as a pretext for harsh physical punishment, or even sadism - the pleasure in the infliction of pain upon another person.
Many self appointed “healers” derive gratification from appearing to dominate or subdue their victims, pretending that they are undertaking a spiritual battle. They exhibit personality traits that could best be described as emotional. Sometimes acting out of ignorance and deception, such individuals can be catastrophic to human life.
By Venansio Ahabwe
Source: Peering Eye, Sunday Citizen