Tag Archives: superstition

Pastoral Care

Posted on August 17, 2013 by Andrew Stuttaford

The BBC reports: Some young HIV patients are giving up their medicine after being told by Pentecostal Church pastors to rely on faith in God instead, doctors warn. Medical staff told the BBC a minority of pastors in England were … Continue reading →

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Belly Dancing and Magic Spells

Posted on July 3, 2013 by Andrew Stuttaford

Florida.newszap.com reports: PAHOKEE—Pahokee residents, church members, and pastors are outraged over an upcoming event at the Lake Okeechobee Resort and Marina. The marina will be hosting its first Lake Okeechobee Summer Solstice Festival – a program that organizers hope will … Continue reading →

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Bird Brain

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Andrew Stuttaford

The Wall Street Journal reports: CARACAS—Nicolás Maduro, the one-time bus driver widely expected to become Venezuela’s next president in Sunday’s elections, has resorted to an unusual campaign gimmick in the past week: At nearly every stop, he has suddenly broken … Continue reading →

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Trickster Padre

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Andrew Stuttaford

I happened to come across this 2011 piece by CSI’s Joe Nickell the other day: …In fact, notwithstanding the claims in uncritical biographies, Pio’s stigmata devolved—from bleeding wounds that could easily have been self-inflicted (like those of many fake stigmatists … Continue reading →

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In the 21st Century

Posted on February 10, 2013 by Andrew Stuttaford

A hideous story from NBC: Assailants stripped, tortured and bound a woman accused of witchcraft, then burned her alive in front of hundreds of witnesses in a Papua New Guinea town, police said Friday after one of the highest profile … Continue reading →

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Lunatic, Asylum, etc.

Posted on September 5, 2012 by Andrew Stuttaford

Just when you think that David Cameron’s stumblebum government cannot get any worse, here’s a piece of news that does not bode well for British patients, taxpayers or both. Tom Chivers writes in The Daily Telegraph: The man [just] put … Continue reading →

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Ghana, 2012

Posted on August 27, 2012 by Andrew Stuttaford

Via The Independent: Around 700 women and 800 children live in Gambaga camp, and in five other witch camps across northern Ghana, where they are virtually cut off from the outside world. Housed in flimsy mud huts, without enough food, … Continue reading →

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Witchcraft. London. 2012.

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Andrew Stuttaford

Via The Daily Telegraph: ‘Political correctness’ is preventing police from stopping child abuse by parents and church leaders who believe in witchcraft, a minister warns. Tim Loughton, the children’s minister, said that a “wall of silence” was obscuring the full … Continue reading →

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“Sawdust on the Floor”

Posted on August 13, 2012 by Andrew Stuttaford

From the memoirs of Mark Edward, a prominent former psychic: I’m quite confident that I would know by now if I had a spirit guide or my Aunt Ethel’s watchful ghost alongside me. I have looked and searched, then looked … Continue reading →

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Bewitched

Posted on July 15, 2012 by Andrew Stuttaford

Via Guernica, another reminder of the permanence of superstition, the reinvention of the past (the Goddess?) and the magpie “spirituality” of the West: Photographer Katarzyna Majak shoots her subjects in vivid color, posing each one as a healer, a goddess, … Continue reading →

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