Catholic Church Fans Flames in African Witch-Hunt Craze

[drakonyx]

Pope Benedict XVI is in Africa, where his agenda calls for warning the people about witchcraft and calling on them to turn away from the practice.

The pope's response to the African witch hunts is nothing short of unbelievable: He's warning people against witchcraft. If anything will fuel the superstitious paranoia that exists within African communities, this is it. The problem isn't witchcraft, it's the attitude toward it. Yet here's the pope feeding the fire by referring to witchcraft as a "scourge" and telling people to turn away from it.

http://www.theprovocation.net/2011/11/catholic-church-accomplice-in-african.html

[pnwmom]

1. Not all practices of witchcraft in Africa are benign.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/swaziland/7956458/Albino-girl-11-killed-and-beheaded-in-Swaziland-for-witchcraft.html

Earlier this year, another 11-year-old albino child was killed close to the same spot in Swaziland and her hand was removed.

Police believe both children may have been targeted because of a belief by witch doctors that the blood and body parts of albinos - who lack pigment in their eyes, hair and skin - can bring good luck and fortune when used in potions.

Their value for black magic practitioners sees them often fall prey to human traffickers, one of whom was jailed for 17 years in Tanzania this week for abducting and attempting to sell a live albino man.

[lbrtbell]

5. Witchcraft and black magic are two different things - n/t

[pnwmom]

7. Some witch doctors practice black magic, some don't.

As I said, not all practices of witchcraft are benign.

[Bluenorthwest]

8. Some of the Christian practices there include killing gays and

seeking pogroms against their neighbors. Call the benign?

[pnwmom]

9. Obviously not. But two wrongs don't make a right. n/t

[pnwmom]

6. delete

[Demeter]

2. Professional Rivalry

[awoke_in_2003]

10. +1000. nt

[TlalocW]

3. For every step forward, they go two steps (or more) back

John Paul issues a proclamation that the Catholic Church supports the theory of evolution -> Benedict supports the idea that witchcraft exists which like the original post says is going to fuel superstitious paranoia.

This is what over-reliance on a religion does - blind you to possible real truths. A former co-worker who is very religious and I used to argue magic versus reality all the time (I'm a magician of the James Randi stripe).
Co-worker: All I know is that I've seen black magic in Africa when I was younger, and my mom was a missionary there.
Me: (Jon Stewart voice) Go on...
Co-worker: We were missionaries to a small tribe, and the witch doctor, or whatever you want to call her, put a curse on mom, and she got sick. We eventually had to leave and come back to America for her to get better.
Me: Uh-huh.
Co-worker: Which was weird because initially the witch doctor was very open and receptive of mom and even gave her a present.
Me: Really? Where is this present now?
Co-worker: We left it in Africa. We didn't want to bring it back with us.
Me: Who handled this present?
Co-worker: Just the witch doctor and my mom when she put it on a shelf.
Me: Was that the only time she handled it?
Co-worker: No, she would move it when she dusted.
Me: I'm going to remain quiet now and ask you to think about what you just told me. We'll take as given that the witch doctor made your mom sick although it could have been something else, but let's take it as solid fact. You see if you can come up with something more plausible than a curse that made her ill.

He left my office puzzled but came back an hour after lunch with a correct answer for the hypothetical situation that there might have been something on the gift given to his mom, who the witch doctor might have seen as a rival to her position in the tribe. He was freaked out though that this possibility (an obvious one I thought) had never occurred to him.

TlalocW

[awoke_in_2003]

11. "He was freaked out though that this possibility...

(an obvious one I thought) had never occurred to him."

believing in god means you can, if you so desire, never think again.

[AverageJoe90]

4. This kind of thing is what's helping to hold Africa back...........

And a big FUCK YOU to Benny the 16th.