Christianity Will be Blamed

I got some information about the Nigerian “child witch” crisis.

I contacted World Vision about it, and they informed me that they don’t work in Nigeria. So there goes that option. But I found a few other things.

First of all, there is an organization called Stepping Stones Nigeria, which specializes in helping Nigerian children. It appears to be a purely secular organization, but they are getting things done.

Second, a Nigerian man named Sam Ikpe-Itauma has started his own charity. It’s called CRARN (Child’s Right and Rehabilitation Network). He began by taking a few kids into his house, and now he has a school and various projects going. He doesn’t have a donation link up on his site, but there are instructions that will allow you to transfer money. Personally, I’m a little leery of letting my bank information get to Nigeria, regardless of the purpose.

Third, Catholic Relief Services and ADRA work in Nigeria (ADRA is the charitable arm of the Seventh-Day Adventists). It’s not clear whether they are doing anything for these kids, however.

This isn’t just a Nigerian problem. It’s a Christian problem. The people behind this mess are Christian pastors. The most prominent is a woman named Helen Ukpabio. She has a big church, and she sells videos, including videos on witchcraft. She encourages people to bring their children to the church to be delivered. I don’t know whether it’s true that pastors are encouraging torture, murder, and abandonment, but they don’t seem to be doing much to stop these things, and their teachings on witchcraft appear to fan the flames. If Nigerian pastors are taking these kids in and helping them, they aren’t saying much about it on the Internet.

If Christians don’t step up to the plate and put a quick stop to this cruelty, someone else will. Once that happens, it will be very hard to defend ourselves from charges that we caused this problem and did nothing to stop it. We will be accused of approving of it. If our enemies succeed in tarring us as nuts who support the torture and starvation of children, we will find ourselves in a situation in which every Christian who comes forward with an honest testimony about witchcraft or demons will be treated like Josef Mengele.

One famous American Christian has already been sideswiped by this disaster. As you will recall, Sarah Palin was criticized because her church hosted a Nigerian pastor known for his opposition to witchcraft. A lot of conservatives and Christians hope Sarah Palin will do great things in the future, but now she has a Nigerian PR time-bomb waiting to go off. Most people didn’t draw a connection between the pastor and the persecution of Nigerian children, but sooner or later, the dots will be connected. Then she’ll be Sarah Palin the Child Inquisitor.