Let she who is without a crazy preacher cast the first stone.
I refer to Pastor Thomas Muthee, the Kenyan witch-hunting minister who anointed Palin against witchcraft and harassed of a Kenyan from her village, thus supposedly freeing the town from evil magic in the name of Jesus.
At first it seems like a joking matter (Does Sarah weigh as the same as duck?). But African Evangelical preachers leading witch-hunts is no joke. It's dead serious. See this December 2007 Observer photo essay on Nigerian child "witches":
In Akwa Ibom, Nigeria, evangelical preachers encourage people to believe children are witches, and abuse, abandonment and even murder follows.
CAPTION: Ekemini Abia is 13. Her father tied her to a tree by her ankles and left her there. She was found, half-starved, over a week later.
Here are some more captions (click through the story to see the accompanying photos):
A large nail was driven into this girl’s head. Nwaeka is about 16, and now badly brain damaged.
Angry villagers set upon Udo, 12, with a machete, accusing him of being a witch. His arm was nearly severed.
Gerry is eight. His father spat petrol over him and set him alight - he blamed Gerry’s sorcery for the loss of his job.
I encourage you to check out the companion Observer video and article where 10-year-old Mary tells her story:
'My youngest brother died. The pastor told my mother it was because I was a witch. Three men came to my house. I didn't know these men. My mother left the house. Left these men. They beat me.' She pushes her fists under her chin to show how her father lay, stretched out on his stomach on the floor of their hut, watching. After the beating there was a trip to the church for 'a deliverance'.
A day later there was a walk in the bush with her mother. They picked poisonous 'asiri' berries that were made into a draught and forced down Mary's throat.
Of course, Kenya is not Nigeria and I am unaware of reports claiming Pastor Muthee harmed children. But he still participates in this fraudulent enterprise and Kenyan witch hunts are still deadly.
June 13, 2008:
In late May, news outlets in Kenya told the story of 15 people, mostly elderly women, who were murdered in a witch hunt near the town of Kisii. The killings shocked the nation.
Villagers said more than 100 people gathered machetes and knives and stormed the village of Kegogi after midnight.
"They started banging on the doors, they broke into the house and then they killed our grandmother inside," says Justus Bosire. "The mob was screaming and we panicked. We ran away and they came to our house and burned it to the ground."
When Bosire returned to his grandmother's house, he found her dead on the floor in a bed of embers. His father is missing.
May 21, 2008:
Officials say a mob has burned to death 11 people suspected of being witches and wizards in western Kenya.
Deputy police spokesman Charles Owino says the mob hunted down the 8 women and 3 men in two villages in the western Kenya district of Kisii Central. Owino says most of the victims were between 70 years old and 90 years old.
Pastor Muthee, irrespective of his individual actions, traffics in a criminal practice disguised as religion that promulgates terror, torture, child abuse, and murder. If Sarah Plain wants people to be "scared" that Obama consorts with terrorists and dangerous preachers, then those people should be even more scared of the "terrorist" and child-abuse supporting preacher that anointed her in Wasilla.
Rev. Wright, for all his histrionics, is just words. Call me when Rev. Wright deals in the terror and torture that is Muthee's trademark.
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Further reading:
HuffPo: The Witch Hunter Anoints Sarah Palin by Max Blumenthal
NYT: African Crucible: Cast as Witches, Then Cast Out by Sharon LaFraniere
[Cross-posted @ Blue Mass Group]