04/11/2024
RELIGIOUS/SPIRITUAL ABUSE
I always say I don't just come here and write things because I am idle and like to talk. I only write in response to things I have seen ,or experienced personally.
Right now, I have so much to write, but so little time to do so.
This is because I was rendered almost completely incapable of doing reasonable work in recent times by events which I will write about someday.
Thank God I am finally out of the woods, but swamped by work.
However, there is something I wish to write about. Sorry it is going to be a long piece.
We often see stories of abuse flying here and begin to scream that the children should be returned to their parents.
That is good. I react that way too because of the general belief that parents are a shield, protectors, providers, etc.
But what happens when such parents become the abusers?
Of particular interest to me today is a form of abuse I call "spiritual or religious abuse" though it may be called psychological too.
Something that is perpetrated by a stepmother to her stepchild in Isaac Attah Ogezi 's DANCE IN THE NIGHT where a prophet claims some children have "demonic possession" and they are handed over to him to be tortured and put through other experiences in the name of exorcism.
I have a friend, exceptionally intelligent and gifted, who hated God because of what his mother put him through in the hands of pastors who claimed he was possessed and they were trying to deliver him. He was so pained he denounced God and cut off from his family when he was old enough to do so.
Recently, he realized that the problem was not with God but those involved and he took back the words he had said in anger to God.
Such "prophets" often use fear and manipulation to control vulnerable parents, who then subject their children to inhumane treatment.
Such "treatments" can range from physical and emotional abuse to outright torture, including beatings, starvation and confinement. In some cases, children have even been murdered in the name of exorcism.
Some are given strange substances like the waters VDM was investigating recently to ingest, which induce them to start behaving in a certain manner to justify the "prophet's" claims.
The consequences of these actions are devastating. Children are left with physical and emotional scars, and in some cases, are even forced to endure long-term psychological trauma. The trust between parent and child is broken, and the child's sense of safety and security is shattered.
Most importantly, I want us to acknowledge that some children need saving from their own parents, and that it is our collective responsibility to protect them.
A parent will have a child who is remarkably well behaved, intelligent, resources ful, cheerful, loves to play, etc. The child demonstrates one or two behaviors sometimes due to adolescence, and there!
They take the story to prophets who tell tales of demonic possession on the child.
But I am really wondering: what is the position of the law on a parent who does this to a 13 to 14 year old?
What can be done legally to save such a child from such an unworthy parent?
Good morning good people!
On a lighter note, hair or no hair?
