Sins of the Parents

It has been just under a year since I first started this blog. One of the things that most moved me was the plight of the little children in Africa being mutilated and killed because a christian missionary was branding them as witches.

http://simonspeaks.livejournal.com/703.html

In that year I have had the courage to come out of the closet if you will in regards to my Atheism. I have become quite active in several secular humanist groups in Arizona, and started Secular Arizona on Facebook and the Rational Protagonists. As I look back I realize that is not my atheism that defines me, no more than the lack of a belief in the tooth fairy can define a child, but rather my dedication to a rational and critical thinking approach to the worlds problems.

One of the earliest classes I took in college was Philosophy and logic. It was there that I started to realize that there was this method, this way to determine the reality of the world.

Here is some of that reality.

A nine year old Nigerian boy has been accused of being a witch by the local minister. He is referring to the book of Exodus 22:18- that states , "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." His father, having been raised as a good Christian and believing in the word of god, decides to force hydrochloric acid down the boys throat in order to drive the demons out. Imagine, for a moment, how terrified that little boy must have been. How that must have felt? How confused, How betrayed by the loving god that he was raised with? One of the two persons he most looked up to in life, his father, was forcibly pouring acid down his throat as an exorcism. Confused, and in agonizing pain, the acid burned away his face and eyes. He was taken to a hospital, barely able to breath on his own. The boy hardly had strength left to whisper the name of the church that had denounced him — Mount Zion Lighthouse. He clung to life, desperately, and in agony for a month, before he died.

A 40 year old Arizona woman, compelled by her belief in the same book, believes in the miracles of god on earth. She regularly attends church gatherings where she feels the power of god heal people around her. She surrounds herself with others that believe in the same thing, the literal word of the bible. And yet when confronted by the reality of what that literal word of her faith did to that little child, she does nothing.
Did it make her feel uncomfortable, knowing that the same loving god allowed this to happen? The same passage in the Nigerian ministers bible can be found in hers. Or is she conflicted, confused as to why an omnipotent, benevolent, loving god would save some people, from rather banal ailments, and not others. Or does she cloak herself in her "faith" believing that god has higher plans? She could argue that they do not belong to the same sect of Christianity that she does, but still will not admit that the fundamental problem, lies not with the people, but with the book.

How easily we rationalize our behavior when it doesn't fit in with our established belief system. How easily we turn a blind eye, when it makes us uncomfortable. We are all guilty of it, we all do it from time to time. When one looks at Christianity, or really any religion critically and rationally, one is quickly inundated by the hypocrisy, the contradiction. Dare I say, the immorality of believing so strongly in your dogma, that you can no longer feel compassion with those who would make you feel uncomfortable?

Both those stories are true. The plight of the Nigerian witch children has not gone away in the past year since I wrote about it, in fact the problem has become much worse. There are now half a dozen churches operation in Africa killing children, and most of those have links to churches here in the United States including Mount Zion Lighthouse, based out of California. How many times do we see this? How many times has faith and willfull ignorance been used to exploit or harm people?

How long do the children have to suffer the sins of the parents?

The most direct way that you can help is by a donation to the Child's Rights and Rehabilitation Network.
http://crarn.tripod.com/