Apparently Channel 4 screened a documentary last Monday called 'Britain's Witch Children' about rogue African churches in the UK where pastors charge money to conduct exorcisms of children branded as witches, often leading to the children being ostracised or abused.

With typical media bias, the programme reportedly did not feature any Christian representatives, who would have condemned these practices and provided the context that they are not tolerated in the vast majority of churches. However, the programme does raise the interesting question of what we understand by the term witchcraft and whether such ideas still have any relevance in a modern world.

While we might dismiss magic, sorcery and divination to the realm of entertainment--from Macbeth and Harry Potter to Mystic Meg and the Wizard of Oz--the bible indicates that we should take such things seriously. It presents witchcraft as the various means by which we try to obtain special information and to manipulate people and events to bring about what we want, without trusting fully in God and without true intimacy with others. By this definition, Western society is full of witchcraft. Whether by means of the latest technology or psychological techniques, by individuals, politicians or the media, we have become proficient at the craft of getting other people to do what we want without their realising that's what we're doing.

We may think that we have progressed from the traditional practices of former generations, but perhaps we have simply become more proficient at disguising our means, deceiving even ourselves. Watch out for our Cambridge Paper later in the year on the Witchery of the West.

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