Witch children Evangelism in the Congo

[azurnoir]

When she was eleven years old, Aline Kabilia’s step–uncle tried to force her to drink acid, and then poured it on her face and right arm.

Aline’s family believed she was a witch, who was to blame for their poverty and her half–brother’s ill health. The brutal acid attack was an attempt to exorcise the demons from the young girl, after starvation and repeated beatings had failed.

There are two factors driving the witch children phenomenon. Congolese society has collapsed, and the number of churches has massively increased. Over 2,000 new Pentecostal churches have opened in the past few years, each offering salvation to a people desperate for hope after years of bloodshed.

According to Trish Hiddleston, a child protection officer with UNICEF: “The root causes are desperate poverty, and an increase in evangelism, which is a reaction to that poverty. Convenient excuses like sorcery or demon possession are used, whether purposely or unconsciously, to get rid of unwanted children.”

http://www.newhumanist.org.uk/volume119issue2_more.php?id=589_0_26_0_C

This the first I have read about this chapter of Christianity gone awry, who are the missionaries responsible for this? Where are they from?

[Igel]

1. They may not really be from anywhere other than there.

Missionaries don't usually go to start new denominations, esp. 2k of them.

"Evangelism" doesn't necessary mean by foreigners; there may be some, and there's an equal chance they're from another African country as from Europe/US. The area's been evangelized by missionaries so there are Bibles floating about. It doesn't take much for new denominations to form when there's poverty, stress, and relative isolation; actually, it gets hard to keep a large denomination spread out over the countryside intact. Start with your usual Pentecostalism, leave it to ferment and mix with local traditions with little interference, and what results is easily a Xianity distinct from anything I or you would recognize. For example, acid baths for kids.

There are other places like this where the faiths imported from outside have morphed or blended with local traditions. China's a notable example.