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 been publicly designated. Are his followers willing to accept that their church is a cult? In Africa, most churches fall into Neo-Pentecostalism, a global, charismatic movement within Christianity that emphasises the gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as speaking in tongues, prophecy, healing, deliverance, and greater emphasis on prosperity theology.

In contrast to orthodox churches, African Pentecostalism (both classical and neo) is unregulated, which means most church leaders are laypersons who suddenly wake up to announce that God called them to start a church and are free to conduct their churches as they desire. Therefore, Mackenzie’s so-called church is just one of many. Across the continent, there are endless reports of power abuse by some of these Pentecostal leaders, such as labeling children as witches,[2] carrying an AK-47 to the pulpit in a symbolic gesture to members to ‘guard their faith,’[3] and commanding followers to eat grass or drink petrol to be blessed.[4]

Applying an interdisciplinary approach and symbolic interactionism framework, this reflective essay will examine how collective religious beliefs, such as misconceptions about Christian fasting and the coercive power of charismatic leadership, aid collective child abuse. First, attention is paid to these children and how they have become victims of collective religious abuse and false mindsets. One principal question is, how do Christians make sense of reality when false beliefs and misconceptions unconsciously absorb them?

Theoretical Framework: Symbolic Interactionism

In his book Symbolic Interactionism,[5] Herbert Blumer’s symbolic interactionism triad highlights the importance of meaning, language, and thought in shaping social reality and emphasises the ongoing process of negotiation and interpretation that individuals engage in as they navigate the social world. Meaning shapes beliefs and behaviours within a group, most importantly, the perspective that religious leaders have a unique role and authority over their adherents. Although religious beliefs are inoffensive and should not be criminalised, it becomes problematic and endangers lives when there is the ‘God told me’ factor, as justification for abuse often goes unnoticed when divine names are invoked.

The use of language reinforces beliefs and perspectives of meaning. As it reflects people’s attitudes, it also reflects the spirit of the time and serves as a mechanism for expressing meaning about their predicament.[6] Thus, these meanings surface in metaphors, such as linking fasting as a pathway to meet Jesus. Finally, they used their continuous thought process to evaluate and interpret the resulting interactions as they navigated the social world.

Children and Christian Fasting

Children are considered innocent, carefree, and curious as they explore the world around them with a sense of awe. From birth until their teenage years, depending on cultural and regional contexts, children still develop their cognitive, social, and emotional abilities and largely depend on their caregivers for protection, guidance, and support. Hence, their general classification is part of a vulnerable group, which includes women, people with disabilities, and older adults. The various situational factors of Africa, however, do not permit many children to enjoy equal rights with children of other continents because many of them are not protected from the harsh realities of the world, especially in cultural and religious settings, as exemplified in the case of Mackenzie.

Religious child maltreatment is faith-based child abuse and neglect caused primarily by the perpetrator’s or surrounding community’s religious beliefs.[7] As Janet Heimlich asserts, such abuse is justified by engaging children in dangerous religious rituals, such as asking a child to fast, as in the Mackenzie case. These children were subjected to intense fasting while under the care of their parents or guardians.

Christian fasting plays a significant role in spiritual development, as an act of abstinence. In Summa Theologica, while Thomas Aquinas encouraged children to fast, he acknowledged this danger at a certain age.

Wherefore as long as the stage of growth lasts, which as a rule lasts until they have completed the third period of seven years, they are not bound to keep the Church fasts.

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (Coyote Canyon Press, 2018), Part II-II, Q. 147, Art. 1-4.

The issue with such encouragement is how generations of many Christian leaders and followers after Aquinas misused his writings and biblical scriptures to justify their dangerous doctrinal practices. In the twenty-first century, children’s fasting has remained controversial due to several scriptural misinterpretations, mostly tied to Mark 9:14-29.[8] In Islam, the general rule is that children younger than twelve are exempt from Ramadan fasting.[9] However, this is not the case in many African Christian spaces where there is no universal rule regarding child fasting. Such doctrinal practices are determined by various denominations based on their respective interpretations of scripture. This can be observed in many Yoruba (Nigerian) Pentecostal pastors I interviewed in past years. Some encouraged subjecting children from toddlers to adolescents to fasting for various reasons such as spiritual cleansing or purification from witchcraft spirits, demonic or evil spirits, or behaviour issues. As children are regarded as easily susceptible to invisible entities because of their vulnerabilities, child fasting is becoming an acceptable practice to prevent unforeseen evil that threatens future generations and spiritual well-being.

As Aquinas states, not all fasting is acceptable to God. Where church leaders uphold that putting children into fasting serves to ‘purify’ or ‘correct’ or, as Mackenzie claimed, ‘to meet Jesus,’ discussion is  about how leadership power can easily be abused is warranted.

Power: Leadership Charismatic and Collective Child Abuse

Leadership can both bring about positive societal changes and cause harm, primarily via manipulating followers who believe they will be punished if they cannot conform to the leaders’ directions.[10] This notion of ‘punish’ does not directly translate to a physical one. However, it is a subtle form of coercion to gain compliance from followers.[11] Owing to its overlap with legitimate power, its members are often unaware of the exploitation they have been subjected to. A complex form of legitimate power is revealed, where religious leaders exercise behaviours or beliefs stemming from the belief they have a legitimate right as God’s intermediary to influence their followers.[12] The latter are obligated to accept this influence.

As symbolic interactionism suggests, leaders can abuse their power when shaping the meaning and interpretation of others to benefit themselves. First, it may take the form of oppression or coercion, wherein leaders impose their will on others and suppress dissent. This will is then put to work with the aid of subordinates who may not necessarily join the rest of the group in performing the instructed task. Maintaining power over others may require them to manipulate symbols and communications used during social interactions—for instance, Mackenzie’s obsession with negating formal education for children in favour of his church.

When he moved to Shakahola in 2019, Mackenzie continued to convince his followers of the dangers of formal education for their children. This time, he went further by instructing them to destroy their national identity cards, forgo their jobs, and move to his farmland where they were to engage in intense fasting, excommunicating them from the outside world. Two children died of starvation and suffocation on the 16th and 17th March 2019. Makenzie was arrested but released on a bail of 10,000 Kenyan shillings that he paid in cash. This was not the first time Mackenzie was arrested (and eventually released) and illustrates how charismatic leadership abuse can go unnoticed until more significant incidents are brought into limelight. Beginning in 2003, when he dropped his taxi business and started his church, Makenzie had been at loggerheads with the Malindi local authority over several allegations, including his rejection of formal education for his church members’ children, suggesting he had, nevertheless, continued to act with impunity. Possibly, those who repetitively arrested and released him might share his ideology, which is vital when considering how perpetrators like Mackenzie can continue to act with freedom beneath the radar for a long time until the hands of justice catch up with them.

The second is the collective power of the group through role assignment. Before this, outsiders, and sometimes most insiders, may not know something is wrong. Yet they are permitting the acts to continue. That is, leaders, as in Mackenzie’s case, do not carry out their atrocities alone. It should be noted that power abuse occurs through hierarchical structures. Some actions performed by certain members of the same group may not necessarily be performed by others.[13] There were those who dug the graves and buried the victims and others who repeatedly arrested and released Mackenzie. Additionally, a video clip from Aljazeera shows a man connected to the case entering a police van carrying a bottle of water. His right hand is raised in the air, as he speaks with confidence. Instantly, those standing behind nearby answer in support.[14] Their actions demonstrate the continuous collectedness of the group and their respective roles. Thus, it is not simply a matter of individual choice or personality, but a product of social structures and systems that shape how power is distributed and used. Therefore, in order to address power abuse, individuals must take responsibility and structural and systemic change must be implemented.

Conclusion

The ongoing Mackenzie controversy prompted the Kenyan government and other bodies to call for church reform. Despite this, there are still many ‘religious terrorists’ out there. Furthermore, it is not sufficient to ensure that contextual cultural-theological training is provided for these pastors. To maintain child safeguarding principles and prevent faith-based child abuse, all churches should be regulated to enable leadership accountability. There is also a need for public and private bodies to be sensitive, as some of them might be admirers of religious leaders, such as Mackenzie. Without these measures, African children will continue to suffer religious abuse.

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References

[1] Immaculate Akello, “Why Did 73 Kenyan Cult Members Starve to Death?” Aljazeera (25/04/2023); Barbara Plett-Usher, “Pastor MacKenzie’s Kenyan cult: The Mother who fled Shakahola forest to save her children,” BBC (18/05/2023).

[2] Claire Princess Ayelotan, Transnational Yoruba (Nigerian) Pentecostalism, Child Witchcraft, and Deliverance (PhD thesis, University of Roehampton: 2021).

[3] Punch Nigeria, “AK-47 Suit: Election Case Stalls Abuja Pastor’s Trial,” Punch (26/04/2023).

[4] Jessica Martinez, “After South African Pastor Makes Church Members Eat Grass, He Now Forces Them to Drink Petrol,” Standard Media (26/09/2014).

[5] Herbert Blumer, Symbolic Interactionsim: Perspective and Method (University of California Press, 1969).

[6] Frank Furedi, How Fear Works: Culture of Fear in the Twenty-First Century (Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2018), 3.

[7] Janet Heimlich, Breaking Their Will (Prometheus Books, 2011), 28.

[8] Claire Princess Ayelotan, “Interpretation of Mark 9:14-26 and Child Witchcraft Discourses in Transnational Yoruba Pentecostalism: A Theological Reflection,” Practical Theology 15, No. 6 (2022): 520-533.

[9] S. Athar, “Medical Aspects of Islamic Fasting,” Midwives Chronicle (1990): 103-106.

[10] J. R. P. French and B. Raven, “The Bases of Social Power,” in Studies in Social Power edited by D. Cartwright (University of Michigan, 1959), 259-269.

[11] Michael A. Hogg and A. Reid Scott, “Social Identity, Leadership, and Power,” in The Use and Abuse of Power by Annette Lee-Chai and John Bargh (Psychology Press Taylor and Francis Group, 2015), 159-180.

[12] French and Raven, “The Bases of Social Power,” 265.

[13] Richard Emerson, “Power-Dependence Relations,” American Sociological Review (1962): 31-41.

[14] Aljazeera, “More Than 40 Bodies Found at Kenya Christian Cult Graves Site,” Aljazeera (23/04/2023).

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© Claire Princess Ayelotan, 2023.

This work is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

Cover Image: © Claire Princess Ayelotan, 2023.