I am often asked, "Why do you fight against religion?" Today my answer would be best expressed by this article from the New York Times. A new documentary called "Saving Africa's Witch Children" will be airing Wednesday May 26th on HBO2. The documentary follows Gary Foxcroft...

...founder of the charity Stepping Stones Nigeria, as he travels the rural state of Akwa Ibom, rescuing children abused during horrific “exorcisms” — splashed with acid, buried alive, dipped in fire — or abandoned roadside, cast out of their villages because some itinerant preacher called them possessed.

One of the main subjects of the documentary is Helen Ukpabio.

At home in Nigeria, the Pentecostal preacher Helen Ukpabio draws thousands to her revival meetings. Last August, when she had herself consecrated Christendom’s first “lady apostle,” Nigerian politicians and Nollywood actors attended the ceremony. Her books and DVDs, which explain how Satan possesses children, are widely known. So well-known, in fact, that Ms. Ukpabio’s critics say her teachings have contributed to the torture or abandonment of thousands of Nigerian children — including infants and toddlers — suspected of being witches and warlocks.

If ever there was a reason to continue to strive to undermine the authority of religion, this is it.