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Demonic possession or child abuse?

18 November 2010 • 493 words • published in Guardian and Express

There is no demonic possession going on in Moruga. But there is certainly child abuse.

According to newspaper reports, over 20 female pupils of the Moruga Government School collapsed last week. It fell to the State to care for the children by providing medical and psychological treatment. But, if the cause of the girls’ collapse was psychological, rather than exposure to noxious chemicals or ingestion of some harmful drug, any such intervention is likely to fail since most of the parents and the community have abdicated their responsibility to protect and care for their children.

Instead, by attributing their child’s condition to demon possession, aided and abetted by various religious practitioners, these adults are exacerbating the girls’ condition. Even if a “cure” if effected in the short term, the children would remain susceptible to baleful psychological influences because they have been predisposed to such responses. This is only one way in which religion facilitates child abuse.

When it comes to extreme abuse, everyone refers to the horrific murders of 11-year-old Akiel Chambers, four-year-old Amy Emily Anamanthodo, and six-year-old Sean Luke. Few remember 17-year-old Candace Quan Chan, who contracted pneumonia but was not carried to the hospital by her Shouter Baptist relatives who decided to pray for her instead. Candace died and her body was left in the house for three days while these relatives tried to resurrect her. No one was charged for neglect of a minor, manslaughter, or even failure to report a death. One Baptist leader, a Government Senator at the time, chided the individuals, not for abuse, but for attempting a resurrection in the wrong way.

Is it any wonder that rates of child abuse are lower in secular nations, while countries with high religiosity have more child labour, child slavery, and child deaths?

T&T Humanist Association

See There is no correlation between religion and ethics

See World Humanist Day 2009 - Importance of empiricism and ethics in public policy

See Should a leader impose belief over reason?

See TT Humanist : News : Launch : The Virtues of Secularism (PDF)