Dark Christianity
dark_christian
.::: .::..:.::.:.

May 2008
        1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30 31

...and for once, justice is done (even among the horrid news out of the UK)

Buried in the headlines (for obvious reasons, and my deepest sympathies and well wishes go out to those in the UK)...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4663719.stm

Three people who are apparently part of a dominionist church (targeting African-British nationals) have been convicted of child abuse for the torture of an eight year old child in attempted exorcisms. (Among other things, they claimed she was a witch.)

Info on the specific background (which IS dominionist, in fact can be tied to dominionist churches in the US who have targeted Africa to "claim dominion over the demons in darkest Africa") is at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4596127.stm

The UK is looking into a specific taskforce in regards to religiously-motivated child abuse, including "death by exorcism", due to the increasing number of complaints of child abuse involving dominionist churches in the UK practicing "deliverance ministry" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4607773.stm)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4602543.stm also has more info on the kid's ordeal.

(As some backgrounder/aside:

I have posted this in part to show that dominionism/"deliverance ministry" is *not* a problem that is restricted to the US alone, but to many countries worldwide. Among other things, Australia has a specific dominionist political party that is, for all intents and purposes, a political wing of the AoG ("Family First", http://www.familyfirst.org.au/) which is increasingly the subject of controversy in Oz.

Much of the blame for the rise in African-British abuse cases is *directly* attributable to dominionist groups here in the US--the AoG, and other pentecostal denominations that support dominionism, have been targeting countries outside the US heavily, and have had the most success in Africa, South Korea and Australia (which have the least regulations, incidentially, on monitoring of churches for abuse; often in African cases, they also claim to build schools and whatnot, but teach an explicitly dominionist platform).

"Deliverance ministry" (as practiced in the US) *already* has a belief that everything outside of the church is demonic and that everything outside the church has active possession by devils; in the case of Korea and Africa, this has sort of meshed with preexisting belief in witchcraft (or, more properly, is compatible enough with existing beliefs in witchcraft).

I will note that, again in the specific case of African and Korean dominionists, they are cross-pollinating with the US "deliverance ministry" folks (cref Paul Cho, who may have been the ultimate source of the whole "Toronto"/"Brownsville"/"Third Wave" madness--and who started it in an AoG church in the fifties in Seoul, South Korea). Not that the preexisting "deliverance ministry" stuff isn't scary enough, mind...

Anyways, now dominionist thought (in regards to "deliverance ministry"--trust me, the two are related; "deliverance ministry" *is by definition* dominionism, as part of the basic theology of "deliverance ministry" claims one must "take dominion of things away from Satan") is being imported to the UK, and the UK is starting to see the same problems as the US, Canada and Oz have seen for a while regarding child abuse and dominionism.

In other words--EVEN IF YOU DO NOT LIVE IN THE US, DO NOT THINK DOMINIONISM IS NOT YOUR PROBLEM. More than likely, it *is*, but it's not as developed in the US. (Oz and several countries in Africa are probably closest to having a US-scale dominionist problem, by the way. In fact, in the case of at least one African country (Uganda)...they have a homegrown dominionist group called the Army of the Lord that steals kids to use them as child soldiers. :()

As another direct aside, relating to the problem of dominionism and "deliverance ministry" in the US--much of the reason that the Convention on the Rights of the Child has never been ratified by the US is *because* of pressure by dominionist parents who wish to use "all methods biblically mandated" to "discipline" their child or otherwise raise claims of "being able to raise my child as I see fit according to my own religion". This doesn't just include legally being able to beat the kid with the "chastising rods" sold in dominionist parenting mags...but also sending kids to places like Love In Action, and being legally allowed to perform involuntary exorcisms on kids.

This is something that hits personally at home to me--I was unable to escape my situation as a kid because legal authorities in the US, by and large, do not yet recognise religiously-motivated abuse or religious abuse as a form of child abuse (partly from pressure by dominionist groups). I lived in fear for most of my life as a walkaway (and in fact still do to an extent, which is why my folks generally do NOT know I am a walkaway or transsexual, nor of my own religious beliefs) of involuntary exorcisms of this sort. I'm glad to see the British are being more sensible.)

I will post a separate post on the Australian dominionist party "Family First" (really, it behooves us all to know this is NOT a US-only problem).

From:
( )Anonymous- this user has disabled anonymous posting.
( )OpenID
Username:
Password:
Don't have an account? Create one now.
Subject:
No HTML allowed in subject
  
Message: