When I was a child I lived in Nigeria. I had a carer named Abel who used to take me for walks and tell me stories about the Juju men that used to come around asking for money. “Here’s some money for the Juju man” my mum used to say when I went out and she knew they were doing their rounds. I was somewhat awed and a little afraid of the Juju man at the same time.
I have a memory of Abel taking me in to what I though was jungle but I’m sure it was much less than that. He pointed to some little trinkets and a bags hanging in the branches of a tree and told me it was Juju---I was a little fascinated. Abel died in the Biafran War I am told.
Growing in to an adult of course I understand it as the superstition it was. I talked to a Nigerian guy here one time and he quickly dismissed it; he was a little embarrassed even, which is understandable given that the Christian invaders of his country didn’t have much respect for tribal religions. The same the world over, including when the Roman occupiers introduced Christianity to Britain. Christianity is, after all, a civilized religion, not like that “black” magic with witch doctors prancing around to drumbeats with bones through their noses and such.
Wherever European colonialism set foot, the Catholic church was right there telling the hapless natives that their worship of the sun, the wind, the elements; basically their adornment of nature, was barbaric and that the true god was this Jewish guy born of a woman impregnated by a spirit from outer space. He died for us and then was resurrected, flew back to his dad in outer space with the intention of returning at a later date.
How dare they laugh at Juju. The US Catholic church is holding a conference on exorcism. There aren’t too many priests that can perform this stuff so they need to train more of them. The two-day training will teach priests how to drive this spirit they call the devil from inside the bodies of some humans. The devil, or some of its helpers, like to do this sometimes.
There are some tell tale signs that the devil has decided to move in. These include a violent reaction to holy water, or “anything holy” we are told. Speaking in a language the “possessed” person doesn’t know. (This is somewhat similar to when a bank “possesses” your home using language that you don’t understand) Abnormal displays of strength are also a sign the devil has popped in.
The exorcist, you have to be a trained catholic priest to get this job, sprinkles this holy water on the possessed person because it burns the devil like crazy. They “lay hands on the patient” which means, "laying their hands on them", and say prayer’s over and over again. Then, the report in the media says today, “The exorcist can invoke the Holy Spirit, then blow in the face of the possessed person, trace the sign of the cross on the person’s forehead and command the devil to leave.”
They have to do a fair amount of research to make sure that the person speaking the gobbledygook, writhing in the bed and exhibiting unusual strength is not mentally ill but really possessed by this devil guy. I did a very brief check myself and found this description of the symptoms of extreme mental illness, or psychosis:
“persons having hallucinations or delusions or certain types of very abnormal behaviour. Having Hallucinations means that someone may hear their own thoughts as if they are coming from a source outside their own body. They may see, smell or taste things that appear to be real but which are not being experienced at that time by anyone else.”
“They believe that the voices they can hear are coming from the television, speaking directly to them. They may believe they are coming from someone who is plotting against them. The voices may be grossly critical and abusive. This kind of distorted thought pattern may cause very severe anxiety called paranoia.”
Damn! What's the difference? How dare these “respectable” religions criticize Juju, black magic, or the ancient tribal beliefs? They know how insane this exorcism garbage is when the church states, “all must be done to avoid the perception that exorcism is magic or superstition.” In other words, “Do whatever we can to prevent people from seeing it for what it is.”
It’s amazing that such a story would receive any coverage at all in a serious publication. If I went around saying this stuff, I’d be thrown in the asylum. But religion is a useful tool for the ruling class, for any group that exists by exploiting another. Religion is used to justify and give credibility to their rule and force the oppressed people to accept their lot as the subjugated. Like racism and sexism, religion serves to divide the working class and Christianity has always been a much more racist religion than Islam. It is another way of obscuring reality, it replaces critical thinking with blind faith and offers instead of struggle, passive acceptance of our condition in the hope of entry in to this imaginary nirvana.
It’s worth noting also, that in their prolific writings about this place they call “heaven” which is supposed to bring us the most incredible happiness, they never mention sex. The activity that humans probably talk and think about the most, and generally enjoy more than anything else when it’s right, is absent from this nirvana.Mark Twain also was perplexed by this question.
I am talking here about an institution. Although I cannot support the beliefs that individual Catholics, or members of any other faiths hold, I would defend their right to have them free from persecution as I would any religion. But the institutions, all of them, are rotten and have held back and still holds back the healthy development of human society
The best and last exorcism the Catholic Church might consider would be to exorcise itself.
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