Children accused of witchcraft, in the name of Jesus

Thanks once again to ChuckA for providing the link and information about a heartbreaking story that was on ABC’s Nightline last night that we should all be aware of. This is the kind of horror we get when missionaries go spreading their superstition around the world. Other cultures incorporate their superstition with the new religious superstition and then someone suffers because of it...this time innocent kids. I didn’t get to see the program, but you can watch via the video links and read the full story at the Nightline website: Child Witches: Accused in the Name of Jesus

In a dirt-floored, back-alley church, 8-year-old Bobby and his 6-year-old brother Henock were made to kneel before a pastor wearing a white, flowing robe adorned with pictures of Jesus.

Looming over the boys, Pastor Moise Tshombe went into a trance, during which he claimed the Holy Spirit took over and the voice of God spoke through him. “I see that witchcraft is in these two,” Tshombe said. “The threats inside of them are very strong.”

These young brothers were the latest victims in an epidemic of accusations of child witchcraft here in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is raging in the name of Jesus. It continues seemingly unabated despite flags raised by organizations such as the United Nations, Save the Children and Human Rights Watch.

In the video the reporter asks the stepmother of two small boys if she really believes the children are witches, and she said yes, and she goes on to explain that the boys have been “stealing their stepsister’s blood to use to fly at night”!

The pastors pick out which kids they “sense” are witches and the parents believe them and pay lots of money for dangerous exorcisms. In the video clip we can see pastors flinging terrified children around by their arms and throwing them around like little dolls. “Kids are beaten, burned, starved and even killed, sometimes by their own families”, says the reporter. Children who are accused of witchcraft are sometimes abandoned by their families. It’s good to see that reporters are finally exposing these atrocities and human rights organizations are setting up ways to try to help these children.

Click here to learn how to help children in the Congo.

Here is another video concerning children being accused of being witches in the Congo: