Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Here's the preview video for a documentary about the insanity going on in parts of Africa, where Pentecostal churches in particular are encouraging people to kill their children on the grounds that they are possessed by demons or witches. This is not a small problem; tens of thousands of children have been victimized in this way.
Balko was moved by this documentary to donate money to the Child's Right and Rehabilitation Network, which runs homes for the child victims in Nigeria. So was I. I think you will be too. Never forget that false beliefs can have very,very dangerous results.
Watch Saving Africa's Witch Children in Activism & Non-Profit | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
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Comments
This information should be required reading for smug Christians who pontificate about how backward Islam is.
Posted by: SLC | June 15, 2010 9:30 AM
I can't watch that this early in the morning, before my first cup of coffee no less.
As for a donation... every time I see something like that, I feel like donating. And often I do, but it usually makes me realize how very little money I have at my disposal for this sort of thing. If I donated to every charity I want to, or even only to the really really important to me personally, I wouldn't be able to pay rent. :-(
Posted by: Jadehawk | June 15, 2010 9:49 AM
Same here, Jadehawk. I guess that's why I cut them slack for the massive amounts of requests for donations that I receive daily. I know they have to battle it out with plenty of other worthwhile causes.
Sucks.
Posted by: trog69 | June 15, 2010 9:54 AM
Posted by: WScott | June 15, 2010 10:12 AM
I see public figures condemning the persecution of suspected witches, but what I don't see much of is their saying
Posted by: Greg Esres | June 15, 2010 10:37 AM
Is there any connection between these events and Sarah Palin's associate who is an African pastor who persecutes witches?
Her Wikipedia record is scrubbed of any mention of that pastor.
Posted by: Michael Heath | June 15, 2010 10:41 AM
Michael Heath @ # 6: Sarah Palin's ... Wikipedia record is scrubbed of any mention of that pastor.
As I'm sure you're aware, but for the benefit of lurkers, Bruce Wilson continues to report on Thomas Muthee and associates in alarming detail, with videos, at talk2action.org and elsewhere.
Posted by: Pierce R. Butler | June 15, 2010 11:06 AM
I wrote about the original documentary when it appeared on British TV here. One of the pastors who spreads the belief in child witches was recently in the USA. CRARN also has a Facebook page, I know that any efforts to spread the word in the USA would be much appreciated.
Posted by: Bartholomew | June 15, 2010 11:08 AM
As a Wiccan I can't express the rage I feel when I hear about fanatics who want to bring back the dark ages.
Posted by: Paen | June 15, 2010 2:09 PM
This is a feature not a bug. . .
Posted by: Captain Ahags | June 15, 2010 2:41 PM
this is why I have a hard time saying "I'm a Christian" since these people simply have not read the Bible. They've read something completely differet and selling it off as scare tactics.
Sorry, but this video makes me sick. I'm so sorry for anyone who believes this is anything with "God will save us all". It's the medeveal times all over again....
Posted by: chall | June 16, 2010 12:07 AM
"This information should be required reading for smug Christians who pontificate about how backward Islam is."
But Ed himself has assured us that "their" extremists are far worse than "our" extremists.
Posted by: Ian Gould | June 16, 2010 1:02 AM
To be fair "their" extremists are quite often backed by the government and mainstream in many of the countries of the Middle East. "Our" extremists generally have to go on a
vacationmission to Africa to do these sorts of things. To be equally fair, I notice that our resident Bible thumpers are manifestly silent on these threads...Posted by: dogmeat | June 16, 2010 11:23 AM
Africa: The cradle of civilization, still the cradle of civilization (Dan 2010).
Posted by: Buntague | June 16, 2010 1:06 PM
"This information should be required reading for smug Christians who pontificate about how backward Islam is."
Lets be a bit more honest here. What you are seeing is a blending of xtian stuff with pre-existing tribal/totemic/whatever belief systems.
Most of the barbarity seem in islamic nations is of the same nature.
Additionally "honor" killings are not limited to islam, it's been done by orthodox jews too.
TL:DR - religion is barbaric, period.
Posted by: Ian | June 16, 2010 1:56 PM