Where belief in witchcraft is common, it always seems to be the weakest in society who suffer first and who suffer most - and that means women and children who are persecuted because of the superstitious, nonsensical beliefs of others. Today, children in the Republic of Congo are suffering because their parents think that those kids are witches.

Sudarsan Raghavan writes in the Star Telegram:

Across the Democratic Republic of the Congo, thousands of girls and boys, as young as 4 years old, are accused by their families of practicing witchcraft. They are abused, abandoned and, in most cases, scarred for life. ... In a society that still believes that evil spirits bring misfortune, children are easy to blame for lost jobs, failed crops and other economic and personal problems. But two factors are contributing to the growth of the problem: the disruption of traditional family life caused by the ongoing war and the surge in revivalist churches whose preachers rail against Satan and witches as the causes of all woes.

What these innocent children have to endure is almost too terrible to even bear reading. Some even come to think that they do have supernatural powers or they blame themselves for the fact that their families have rejected them. Sometimes it seems as if the evils of religion knows no boundaries.

Granted, religion is not entirely to blame here - the civil war and grinding poverty are also key ingredients. Nevertheless, the basic mythological structure provided by religion is what creates the models of witchcraft and demon possession as a possible explanation in the first place. Without religion some other form of violence might appear, but that doesn't excuse religion's pivotal role in the present. Religious leaders who teach that witchcraft and demon possession exist and that they are explanations for people's ills bear moral and social responsibility for the atrocities being committed against children in the Congo.

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