Christians Respond to BBC2's Newsnight 'Witchcraft' Report

The Evangelical Alliance has unreservedly condemned all forms of child abuse, and said that it considers any accusation of witchcraft levelled at a child to be abusive, immoral and unbiblical, following Newsnight's "witchcraft" report.

|PIC1|BBC2's Newsnight programme opened a new chapter in its investigation, Thursday night, into "witchcraft" belief in some breakaway segments of the African community in London.

Reporter Angus Stickler's film which last year exposed the behaviour of Pastor Dieudonne Tukala, who accused children at his church of witchcraft.

Newsnight tells that "Tukala preaches his self styled gospel - and in his own words - it's a gospel of brutality. One boy whom he diagnosed as a witch was later branded with an iron by his father because he believed his son was a witch."

Since 2000 the Metropolitan Police has dealt with 88 allegations of what it calls ritualistic abuse, but after a ten month police investigation into Tukala, the police have told the BBC they are unable to charge the pastor, Newsnight explains.

Campaigners are now calling for new laws to make it a criminal offence to demonise children.

The latest Evangelical Alliance statement remains in-line with the EA's previous statements on this issue.

The Evangelical Alliance, which represents more than 1 million evangelicals in the UK, has said that it strongly contests any suggestions that the activities of Pastor Dieudonne Tukala are associated more broadly with black African evangelical churches, or that this is part of a growing church trend.

The government's official report - 'Child Abuse Linked to Accusations of 'Possession' and 'Witchcraft' - published by the DfES in 2006, identified 38 specific cases throughout England and Wales over a six year period - in comparison with a total 30,000 recorded cases of child abuse every year.

The African and Caribbean Evangelical Alliance (ACEA) sees each of these cases as an utter tragedy.

ACEA's CEO, Katei Kirby, said: "The government has rightly drawn attention to the fact that child abuse is everyone's responsibility, and that only by working together can we remove this evil from our society.

"The African and Caribbean Evangelical Alliance has been working with black majority churches to address the issue, and has developed model child protection policies for their use.

"Since the Climbie enquiry, we have ensured that our member churches and organisations demonstrate a clear commitment to child safety."

ACEA is also continuing pro-active multi-agency work with organisations including Churches Together in England, the Churches Child Protection Advisory Service, African anti-child abuse organisation AFRUCA, DfES and NSPCC on this issue.