I highly doubt that. For one, "witch hunting" is not part of any mainline church doctrine nor is it in the new testament. Yes I know it is in the old testament, but the OT Jewish laws do not govern the church. A good example of this is of course found in the new testament. What happened when a man was caught in the act of adultery? He was simply kicked out of the congregation, and only through repentance and remorse would one be let back in.
For the most part, the links you posted only mentioned pentecostal denominations. And as much as I disagree with pentecostalism, I really can't even tear into it here because that is not even what is at play here.
This is Africa we are talking about. An entire continent that is filled with tribes and small villages that at least at one time, were ruled by witchdoctors. Got a plague among you? Sacrifice a few children they say. Got AIDS? Find a 10 year virgin and "purify" yourself with her. These things have been the norm over there for ages. The media simply loves to find the worst of the worst and brandish it all over. There are plenty of good missionaries and ministries over there: http://tinyurl.com/njaqtzc but they are of course ignored and not shared because they are not as "exciting" and sensationalized as the negativity.
The only reason Christians in the west aren't as barbaric as primitive people in other countries is that the enlightenment happened. Without the age of secular reason building a society to hold them in check, Christians would continue to be as barbaric as they were in the middle ages. To this day, it is easy to find Evangelical Christians with batshit beliefs about demons and people living with dinosaurs, Mormons who believe blacks have the mark of Cain, and Christians in general who believe in hell and that homosexuals are going there. Without our strong enforcement of secular laws, I shudder to think what medieval punishments these people would dole out on unfortunate gays, blacks, and non-Christians.
>This is Africa we are talking about. An entire continent that is filled with tribes and small villages that at least at one time, were ruled by witchdoctors. Got a plague among you? Sacrifice a few children they say.
Your ideas about africa come straight out of the 1850s, and I'm embarrassed to read these kind of comments here. Atleast the people from the 1850s have an excuse ( no internet, pictures, books, travel etc to get the real facts); but whats yours?
No, this is from several groups of missionaries I personally know over there right now. Some in the bush who have to deal with witch doctors running villages, and others in big cities where they have to deal with somehow paying $800 for rent a month.
You take my quote somewhat out of context, what I am saying is there have been plenty of terrible things happening over there. Yet this one person tries to post/comment with a "look what the christians did" type of attitude.
So your friends have witnessed human sacrifice of children?
Get real. If you dont want to be taken out of context, dont use colorful anectdotes straight out of a 1850s novel.
"This is Africa we are talking about. An entire continent that is filled with tribes and small villages that at least at one time, were ruled by witchdoctors. "
Woah, woah, woah, hold your horses there, fella. I grew up in Africa and whilst I am a member of a tribe, I did not grow up in a small village governed by the friendly local witchdoctor. And no, most Africans do not use witchdoctors as their HMOs either. The trope that Africa is what you see on the Discovery channel is something that I, and a lot of my African friends, find somewhat irritating. It would be like showing video of a couple cowboys in Montana and playing it over and over to a non-American audience as definitive proof of what life in America is like for the average American. Yes, the video will represent what life is like for a group of Americans so it is true(-ish) but not close to being representative for the average American and so definitely paints a misleading picture.
As for the original issue of witch burning, I do agree with you that the idea of mainline churches in America promoting witch burning in Africa is ludicrous. Would it be possible to find one example of an American missionary doing this? Probably. But it would be a real stretch to say this would be acceptable to any church other than a very, very, very fringe group. Kind of like how the Westboro Baptist Church gets outsized media attention but no one seems to mention that the "church" consists pretty much entirely of just the family members of one kooky guy.
One media pro tip I found that works. Whenever you see a story with the format <person/group I know very little about / don't really have positive feelings for> did/said <something outrageous, 6σ deviation from normal behavior>, dig a little below the headlines and quite often you will find (a) it didn't happen the way the headline purported it did or (b) there is some context or reasonable viewpoint that shows what happened is not quite as outrageous as it appears. For example, there is this NPR story about a woman suing her 12 year old nephew for $100k because he broke her wrist whilst jumping into her arms when greeting her as she arrived at his birthday party (http://www.npr.org/2015/10/14/448544919/woman-sues-nephew-fo...). Your first thought will likely be "holy cow, what kind of monster would do such a thing. Where's my pitchfork?" Then you read the follow-up from CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/13/us/aunt-nephew-lawsuit/) which explains that in Connecticut, where the incident took place, you can only sue individuals and so for her to get paid by the parent's homeowners' insurance, she had to name the nephew on the lawsuit and in fact, the boy and his family were supportive of her lawsuit.
News media is broken. The news has always had an element of info-tainment but our nature as an audience is driving the media to focus more on the entertainment side of news and so we are being led down this path where stories cater more to our need to stroke our biases and encourage us to pat ourselves on the back for being good and better than "those" people
If Africa is anything like the Philippines, it was ruled by "witch doctors", but that was before exposure to Europeans (i.e. 400 years ago). Perhaps esaym just meant a really long time ago. In the last 50 years the only place you'll find which doctors is out in the more remote rural areas.
For the most part, the links you posted only mentioned pentecostal denominations. And as much as I disagree with pentecostalism, I really can't even tear into it here because that is not even what is at play here.
This is Africa we are talking about. An entire continent that is filled with tribes and small villages that at least at one time, were ruled by witchdoctors. Got a plague among you? Sacrifice a few children they say. Got AIDS? Find a 10 year virgin and "purify" yourself with her. These things have been the norm over there for ages. The media simply loves to find the worst of the worst and brandish it all over. There are plenty of good missionaries and ministries over there: http://tinyurl.com/njaqtzc but they are of course ignored and not shared because they are not as "exciting" and sensationalized as the negativity.