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The NAR and African witchhunts
A few weeks ago, the British documentary "Saving Africa's Witch Children" was shown on HBO2. The New York Times published On a Visit to the U.S., a Nigerian Witch-Hunter Explains Herself. Here on Talk To Action, Christian Dem in NC posted Nigerian preacher promotes child abuse in the name of the Lord.
The witchhunts in Africa are an absolute horror. Thousands of children have been abandoned or worse -- in some cases tortured, mutilated, or killed -- on suspicion of being witches.
Note that the African witch hunts are NOT purely a resurgence of indigenous African beliefs, but are influenced by today's most rapidly-growing (worldwide) form of Christianity, the independent ("nondenominational") Charismatic churches, especially the "Apostolic and Prophetic" movement within "nondenominational" Christianity. Worse yet, there are close ties between at least some African witch hunters and at least some American religious right wingers. For example, Sarah Palin was "anointed" by Thomas Muthee, an African witch hunter. And there are churches here in the U.S.A. with a similar witch hunt mentality. For example, the well-known now-disgraced former megachurch pastor Ted Haggard used to brag about having driven "witches" out of town. (About Ted Haggard, see Soldiers of Christ: Inside America's Most Powerful Megachurch by Jeff Sharlet, Harper's Magazine, November 2, 2006. This article includes the following: "He sent teams to pray in front of the homes of supposed witches -- in one month, ten out of fifteen of his targets put their houses on the market. His congregation 'prayer-walked' nearly every street of the city.")
Thomas Muthee and Ted Haggard both are or have been major leaders in the New Apostolic Reformation (as has been documented in various posts here by Rachel Tabachnick, Bruce Wilson, and others). To those here who have been researching the NAR, it would be worthwhile to examine the extent to which the problem of witchhunts in Africa is tied to the NAR networks.
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As I wrote in a comment under Christian Dem in NC's Talk To Action post:
Helen Ukpabio calls herself an "Apostle," which sounds like she's connected with the "Apostolic and Prophetic" movement within charismatic Christianity. Does anyone here know whether she's connected with the "New Apostolic Reformation" networks in particular?
Over the past ten months or so, I've been putting together a collection of info on Witchhunts in Africa and Asia.
Richard Bartholomew has blogged quite a bit about Helen Ukpabio, including this post: Support for Helen Ukpabio against "Anti-Child Witchcraft" Campaign, February 13, 2010, in which Helen Ukpabio was identified as the General Overseer of Liberty Gospel Church (in Calabar, Nigeria), and is said to have been consecrated as an apostle by Nnadi E. Moses, Bishop of Overcomers Faith Mission, Lagos, affiliated with Overcomers Church World Outreach, and president of "Apostolic Impact Global Outreach" (AIG). Moses is quoted as cheering on the violent retaliation, by members of Liberty Gospel Church, against Leo Igwe and others at an anti-witchhunt conference.
Some American connections, according to the above-cited post by Richard Bartholomew: (1) Virgy Moses (wife of Nnadi E. Moses), a minister at Overcomer Church World Outreach, had been ordained a pastor at the Reach Out for Christ International Ministries in the U.S.A. (2) Faith World Outreach Church, based in Bartlett, Illinois, here in the U.S.A., pastored by Ed Weiss, has been supporting Bishop Moses for a long time. Does anyone here know whether Reach Out for Christ International Ministries and/or Faith World Outreach Church have connections to the NAR?
Recently Ed Brayton, on his blog Dispatches from the Culture Wars, has taken an interest in the witchhunts in Africa. He recently posted Killing Witches in Africa. Again on June 15, 2010, calling attention to the Child's Right and Rehabilitation Network (which runs a home for child victims in Nigeria), and African Witch Hunter Comes to America on June 16, 2010.
In the latter post, Ed Brayton noted, "Helen Ukpabio, a Pentecostal preacher who literally wrote the book on how to determine your child is possessed, was in the US to preach at a Pentecostal church in Houston. ... She is hardly alone, and this church in Houston is not alone in having close ties to these murderous maniacs. Sarah Palin's pal Thomas Muthee is another African Pentecostal minister who has made his name and career on chasing witches out of families and villages."
I replied with a comment calling his attention to the New Apostolic Reformation and the research about it, by Rachel Tabachnick, Bruce Wilson, and others, that is featured here on Talk To Action.
The NAR and African witchhunts | 13 comments (13 topical, 0 hidden)
The NAR and African witchhunts | 13 comments (13 topical, 0 hidden)
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