Print Version: Does Britain need legislation to protect children from being labelled as witches
Does Britain need legislation to protect children from being labelled as witches?
That’s the question behind the Channel 4 Dispatches programme: ‘Britain’s Witch Children’.
A 10 month investigation by the programme makers claims to unearth shocking evidence of children being abused after being labelled as witches in some African churches.
Whilst VCF- the Victoria Climbie Foundation and many other organisations are aware of the practice taking place in some churches, the lack of tangible evidence makes it an increasingly difficult topic to tackle.
There are some 4,000 African churches operating in the UK. An absence of regulations in this area means that virtually anyone can set up and operate a church. Unsurprisingly, such church pastors and leaders often lack child protection training and engage in practices sometimes bordering on child abuse at an emotional and neglect level.
Even the police are unaware of just how widespread the practice actually is, blaming community reluctance to expose rogue pastors and church folk. Best estimates put the practice at dozens of cases per year. However we must not forget the influence that foreign churches and pastors may exert over believers now residing in the UK. There is anecdotal evidence of parents being pressured to remove children from the UK to be sent to societies where their ‘witchcraft’ is cruelly dealt with, and the child placed at risk of death.
Interestingly, what we at VCF have seen, is a shift in how such witchcraft is dealt with. Church leaders are aware that they can no longer engage in physical ousting of demons. Instead, there is a move towards group prayer for the child. However what constitutes as prayer for one person may constitute as abuse for another, especially if such prayer involves screaming and shouting in the face of a child who has not been consulted on what is happening to them.
But there is a vast difference between addressing a lack of child protection knowledge and training in Britain’s African churches, and calling for legislation to stop children being branded as witches.
How far would such legislation go? Exactly how would it be enforced? And not to be facetious, but would we see a spike in such prosecutions in November?
As things stand, Britain already has a solid child protection framework. Where the focus needs to be, is on continuing the work that is being done within the communities: working with church leaders and pastors to raise awareness about the abuse to children where it may arise.
Introducing legislation to prevent children being labelled as witches would not go very far in our view.
We are still exploring how widespread the issue is across the UK. The issue for VCF is that we must be very careful how we address witchcraft and spirit possession. We cannot attack the belief system; rather where the belief system is harmful to children we must not compromise on how we deal with it.
Within African communities, we still need to explore the significance of this issue. The belief system is ingrained, not just within the African community, but within the Asian communities, South American and to a certain extent the Middle East communities. Our approach to this problem must be geared towards addressing it across all communities. Blaming any one particular community would be very unhelpful and further contribute towards the practice being hidden.
The wider focus must be on whether that belief system is harmful to the child or not.
Many churches in the African community already do great work on safeguarding children, ensuring that their congregation is protected.
What we need now is an effective implementation of child protection policies in churches and any places where people gather to express their belief.
Rogue pastors who exploit families and accuse children of being possessed need to be identified and dealt with in the legal context of this country.
Roy confuses Paganism and Witchcraft with devil worship. The two are as unconnected as unconnected can be……and are only historically linked by christian propaganda.
Remember that the rogue preachers that so horrified me, too, in that TV programme do their work in the name of god.
Harry Potter is children`s fiction of course along with Peter Pan and Mary Poppins.
The idea that a law banning people from calling children witches should be enacted in a country that embraces paganism and witchcraft is simply impractical. What happens on Halloween? Do we all get arrested for calling children Witches as they trick or treat? And what about the other paganists who even though practice witchcraft do not abuse children? The UK embraces witchcraft albeit in a different manner just look at the success of Harry Potter, pagan holidays in the UK etc.
After watching the Dispatches programme it seems to me that if we are going to go down the legislation route it would be better to call for the regulation of churches in the UK. It is quite alarming that anybody can start a church with no registration or legislative requirements! What we need to know is Who/ Where are these churches and who is running them! if you decide to start a church you should fall into the same category of say a charity i.e. register your church, your trustees, (your deacons, church elders etc) have Mandatory child protection training for your staff after all, your dealing with peoples children on a weekly basis and so just as “every child matters initiative” makes everyone that comes into contact with children responsible for their safety including teachers and GP’s why should churches that run Sunday school as well as numerous social activities for children and young people not be included in this category?
Why is it that there is no mandatory theological training for pastors? If you for example want to be a teacher you have to get some training and qualify as a teaching professional before we can let you loose on our children so why should it be any different for pastors? If you believe you have a calling then it should be mandatory for you to go to bible / theology school and develop your talent. What we need to do is find practical solutions to flushing out this rogue pastors and money making scammers ( for those that watched the Dispatches programme there was one pastor asking his congregation to BUY HIM a van.. that it doesn’t cost much and is only 17 or £18,000 unbelievable!!
We don’t need another law that will be impractical to implement and enforce just take a look at the legislation surrounding Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) another practice that embroils the BME community .The UK Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act 1985 makes it an offence to carry out FGM or to aid, abet or procure the service of another person. The Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003, makes it against the law for FGM to be performed anywhere in the world on UK permanent residents of any age and carries a maximum sentence of 14 years imprisonment. To date, no prosecutions have been made under UK legislation.
Let’s look towards practical solutions that tackle the heart of the problem, target the perpetrators of the abuse and protect our very precious children.