PRIMITIVE MINDS

21. October 2009 by Frank.

First off, read this article from a few days ago:

African Children Denounced as Witches by Christian Pastors

Now spend a few minutes thinking about what is happening right now in the 21st century, in this modern, sophisticated world we live in.

Beyond appalling, isn’t it?

But that’s happening in backwoods Nigeria, in a pathetically poor, uneducated, superstitious, primitive country.  Not the highly scientific, modern, morally excellent society here in America.

You honestly think it couldn’t happen here?

I seem to recall several national news stories this past year about supposedly god fearing people killing their own children because god told them to.  There’s no arguing that these people were and are mentally damaged/deranged.  They either hear the voice of god or of demons and are convinced the voices are real.  Having been up close and personal with more than one person like that, I can attest that it is quite frightening to deal with them.

Even more frightening are the ones who refuse to let their children get needed medical help because of their faith.  What’s actually more horrible?  Letting a child die from a treatable/curable disease or injury or pouring acid down their throats to cast out the demons?  The end result is the same.  Either way it’s superstitious fear driven to extremes.

Obviously you can’t solely blame religion for this, mental illness is more complicated than that.  But I believe you can blame religion for creating an atmosphere where this sort of thing can flourish.

In my religious days I alternated between mainstream (Baptist) and Pentecostal/Charismatic/Word of Faith denominations.  The latter groups all taught that demons were real and that they were very active in our lives.  The former may believe the demons are real but don’t give them much heed or credit for influencing normal people.  Where demons are taught there were all sorts of demonic manifestations periodically.  Where they are seldom mentioned there are never any manifestations.  Why do you suppose that would be?

The Pentecostals will tell you it is because they are alive and powerful in the spirit while the Baptists (and others) are dead and powerless.  Satan only cares about the ones truly trying to live spiritual lives.  He wants desperately to bring them down before they can become a threat to his plans.  He doesn’t care about the others because what can a lowly non-spiritual christian do against him?

People believe this shit.  I did.

Back in the 80’s, in the little Charismatic church I started at, we were told there was a coven of witches operating in South Bend.  They supposedly practiced Satanism and Black Magic.  They were said to be actively seeking to destroy the entire Charismatic movement.  We had prayer meetings to stand against them.  One night our leader told us he had learned where they were located so we all jumped in a couple of cars and drove off to do spiritual warfare (we had our bibles and were praying mightily) with them.  We were terrified and exhilarated.  God’s prayer warriors in action!  It turned out to be a crock, of course.  But it didn’t diminish our desire to protect god’s church from evil.

Someone from a church where they didn’t teach this nonsense would have laughed their heads off at us if they knew what we were doing.

It wasn’t until much later when I left the faith and actually started studying these things that I discovered there were all sorts of little churches like mine where the exact same things kept happening over and over.  The church would teach about demons and witchcraft and all of a sudden there would be groups practicing those very things all around them.  Without fail.  And somehow no matter how powerful our prayer warriors were, they could never really drive them out.  Most likely because they were never really there.  It was superstitious fear.  It made us stupid.

Aside from the horror those poor African children go through who are suffering from the effects of religious superstition on their society, something else occurred to me as I read the article.  There’s no doubt those christian pastors are pushing religious bullshit and creating an atmosphere of fear.  They are feeding the dread of the unknown.

But think about the society that existed back when the books of the bible were written.  People weren’t educated, most couldn’t read or write.  Most were poor.  Barbarians roamed the lands and their god behaved as a barbarian would.  The earth was flat and everything revolved around it.  God had made it clear that witchcraft was not to be endured.  You could have your children stoned to death if they talked back to you.  It was perfectly all right to massacre your enemies down to the last infant but to keep all their virgin daughters for your own sexual use.  These people were primitive, superstitious, backwards, poor and fearful.  Their priests and kings maintained the fear.

If religion can encourage the horror going on in Nigeria today imagine what it must have been like back then when there was so little enlightenment to oppose it, back when no one knew any better.  Think of the effect the atrocities of the bible would have had on those primitive minds.

Posted in wild guesses, interpretation, listen, hearing, emotion, education, religion | Print | 1 Comment »