Christian Clergies In India Battle Satan
Pastor Dale Morgan
Christian Clergies In India Battle Satan*
Mar 25th, 2007 11:32 AM
From correspondents in Mizoram, India
The church in the predominantly Christian northeastern state of Mizoram
is grappling to fight a bizarre phenomenon of tribal youths worshipping
Satan, seeking supernatural powers to perform miracles.
'The trend is nothing but shocking,' Reverend Vanlalchhungah, moderator
of the Mizoram Presbyterian Synod, told IANS.
The Synod has appointed a group of clerics from the Theological College
in Aizawl to probe growing reports of youths invoking Satan in desolate
cemeteries by offering blood from self-inflicted wounds.
'The youths often cut their wrist with blades and then suck their own
blood as an offering to Satan. They want to do wonders or miracles by
invoking Satan,' said Reverend L.H. Rawsealh, a faculty member of the
Theological College investigating the weird practice.
The genesis of this trend dates back to 2000 with community elders and
church leaders citing incidents of youths practicing such bizarre things
inspired by television shows and films about the paranormal and the occult.
'Most of the cases that we have heard were being practised by youths who
are drug addicts and influenced by films,' said Reverend Chuauthuama, a
senior church leader and a lecturer at the Theological College.
The revelations have shocked people in Mizoram, where close to 90
percent of the under one million people are Christians.
'The art of black magic, demonology or maybe superstitious beliefs
imbibed on these power hungry youths could be reasons,' Chuauthuama
said. In some places, the youths were reported to have desecrated church
buildings and the pulpits, besides burning down Bibles.
'We estimate there could be about 300-400 such youths in Mizoram who are
doing these things. We don't know if some outside forces were
encouraging our youths to go astray,' Rawsealh said.
The church is now engaged in a mission to stop devil worship.
'Through sermons, public meetings and other such platforms we have been
trying to stop these evil practices from spreading further,' Reverend
Vanlalchhungah said.
About a dozen such youths were reformed in recent months by church
leaders and local pressure groups like the Young Mizo Association.
'We were told that one could attain supernatural powers and do wonders.
When we were under the influence of drugs and alcohol, we literally
believed we could do anything. But then in reality it is not,' a
reformed youth said on condition of anonymity.
Police said a group of young boys and girls were found invoking Satan by
chanting hymns inside a cemetery late in the night with a monkey skull
kept in the middle.
''God is Satan' is what was written on the monkey skull and the group
offered blood by slashing their wrist, besides pouring alcohol,' the
police official said.
Mizoram, bordering Myanmar and Bangladesh, is India's second highest
literate state next only to Kerala. A majority of the Christians in
Mizoram are Presbyterians.
There are an estimated 95 different Christian cults in Mizoram with
strange practices - some of them do not allow their children to mingle
with others and attend schools, while some of the sects claim their
members to be gods.
The Mizo tribal people were animists until two British Baptist
missionaries William Frederick Savidge ad J.H. Lorrain first landed in
the hills of Mizoram sometime in 1894.
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