Missionary condemns sorcery-related violence

A MISSIONARY has condemned violence related to sorcery accusations saying it is a cycle of violence caused by heathen belief systems.
Lutheran missionary Anton Lutz who has been advocating against such sorcery-related violence since 2014 said there should be a strong campaign against it.
“Papua New Guineans’ ideas about sanguma and sorcery are regionally diverse, logically contradictory, changes over time, spreads to new places and people where they mix with other pre-existing beliefs (contagion) and are used to justify their illegal violence against vulnerable people,” he said.
“In the Bible, other gods, magicians and necromancers, evil spirits and their leader Lucifer, Satan and other unnamed cosmic powers and authorities of this world are treated in various ways.
“In different texts, reflecting different author’s worldviews and priorities, these evil forces are represented to be subservient to God, created by God, allowed by God to be in competition with God for the ultimate glory of God but are actually non-existent, metaphorical, mere idols.”
Lutz said the Christian faith taught that Jesus Christ “is Lord and King, therefore that we are not to fear or meddle with these dark forces, that Jesus’ followers are to love and care for one another and all others”.
He said heathen beliefs were ancestral beliefs and superstitions that led people to reject the core teachings of the Bible.
Hela Governor Philip Undialu condemned the attack on Helen Mark, 36, in Hela who was accused of using sorcery to kill her half-brother.
Undialu said any form of violence against women was against the Hela culture and “abnormal”.