Mick Hartley

Leo Igwe, at Butterflies and Wheels, on witch hunting in African churches in the UK, and the forthcoming visit to London of Pastor D.K. Olukoya, the general overseer of the Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministries:

Witchcraft related abuse is a very serious problem in African migrant communities in the UK. There is documented evidence that these abuses are linked to activities of African pastors and African initiated churches. Unfortunately efforts to address this problem are bogged down by concerns over racism, minority rights and abuse of religious liberty. We should not allow such concerns to distract us from addressing this problem.

Vulnerable members of the African migrant communities in the UK, particularly children, are at risk of being tortured and murdered by relatives who accuse them of witchcraft. Many of such horrific treatments in the name of witchcraft go unreported because victims are often defenseless infants, and the abuses take place in the name of religion, particularly Pentecostal Christianity. Pentecostal churches are spreading rapidly across the African migrant communities in the West.

These churches are prosecuting a new wave of witch hunting because Pentecostalism thrives on literal interpretation of the Bible, and the African Pentecostalists believe that witches should be tortured to death as written in the book of Exodus (22:18). Though Pentecostal pastors may not directly engage in these abuses, they are still complicit in the crimes because their witchcraft preachings, healing and deliverance sermons incite violence, hatred and abuse of vulnerable members of the population….

Since governments of countries where these pastors operate cannot stop or sanction them, the government of the UK can do so. Can’t it? Yes the UK authorities can send a very strong message to the churches and their affiliates in the country and to other witch hunting churches and pastors in Africa: Your witch hunting gospel, deliverance and healing services are not welcomed here.

This should be the case with Pastor D.K. Olukoya, the general overseer of the Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministries worldwide. Pastor Olukoya is ministering at the 2016 ‘Deliverance, Prayerquake and Anointing Service’ to be held in London on September 16 2016.

The program will feature healing, salvation, deliverance and yoke breaking. Pastor Olukoya is a witch-hunting pastor who has devoted his ministry to destroying the ‘ministry of witchcraft’. One of his widely known books is Overpowering Witchcraft. This book, which was published in 1999, is another manual for witch finding and destruction because it contains the ‘secrets of the power over witchcraft’ and some ‘tips’ for those experiencing witchcraft attacks. The book contains sections that spell out how to disgrace the ministry of witchcraft and how to overpower the witches in our households. In fact the book’s cover has an illustration of the violent way that a witch should be treated or destroyed.

As one should expect, branches of Olukoya’s church, the Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministries (MFM) have, in line with the injunction of their general overseer, instituted prayer points to ‘disgrace and overpower the ministry of witchcraft’.

A branch of MFM in the UK has as part of its prayer points that: “Every plantation of witchcraft in my family? What are you waiting for? DIE IN JESUS NAME. Every pattern of household witchcraft in my family, I BURY YOU TODAY, IN THE NAME OF JESUS” (Emphasis mine). The MFM branch in Hackney has a program to deal with ‘polygamous witchcraft’ and states that women in polygamous witchcraft used to be in ‘deep trouble and in darkness’….

Churches and pastors that sanction and sanctify witch hunting should be called to order and be made to understand how potentially harmful, dangerous and destructive their messages are. The UK authorities should not turn a blind eye on these witch hunting pastors and their church activities particularly with the problem of witchcraft related abuse in the African migrant communities.

This MFM program on September 16 should be an opportunity for the UK government to show its commitment to tackling witchcraft branding and other faith based abuses in the African migrant communities. The UK authorities should stop this witch-hunting pastor from coming to preach at the proposed event in London. They should use this event to send a strong message to Olukoya and to Mountain Fire and Miracle Ministries Worldwide, as well as to other witch hunting pastors and churches in Africa and in African migrant communities: Stop the witch-hunts or we will stop you.

The MFM branch in Hackney Wick (taken in 2011):