Crime
-
When Christian Fasting Turns into Child Abuse
Introduction In late April and until end of May 2023, national and international media reported at least two hundred and twenty-seven bodies of children and adults discovered in shallow graves in a forest near Shakahola village of Magarini Constituency, Kenya.[1] The victims died from the religious directions given by Pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, a taxi driver-turned-founder of the Good News International Church, that they must fast to death in order to meet Jesus. Those rescued were beyond recognition because of their emaciated conditions. Fundamental questions remain regarding the classification of religious movements. The issue now arises whether Makenzie’s organisation is a Neo-Pentecostal church or cult group, as it has now…
-
Kafkaesque Incarcerated Existence: When life tragically imitates art
December 3rd this year marked the tenth anniversary of the supposed ending of one of the biggest and most damaging failures in criminal justice in England and Wales. It will be a decade since the abolition of a sentence which, early in its application, was labelled ‘kafkaesque’ because of its affects: the sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection, or IPP. Some years ago I read Frank Kafka’s The Trial (1925), The Castle (1926) and Amerika (1927 – Kafka’s unfinished first novel). When I transitioned vocationally from parish to prison ministry I was quickly struck by just how kafkaesque elements of incarcerated life were. However, this was not fiction but a…
