Murderous Superstition

Uganda has been in the news lately for its barbaric new anti-gay law, pushed by Christian extremists. But that's not the only major problem there caused by religious belief and superstition. There are now rising numbers of human sacrifices taking place throughout the country.

Children are disappearing, victims of human sacrifice. ... belief, that burying a child's body parts will make you rich, is, police say, being promoted by some traditional healers, known locally as witch doctors

From the reaction, this isn't a case of a few incidents.

Two thousand officers have been trained to tackle the hideous crime, forming the Anti-Human Sacrifice Task Force, equipped in part by the U.S. government.

Is there anywhere in the world where U.S. taxpayers aren't paying for something? Well, at least this time it's a worthy cause.  Who would have thought that in 2010 there would be a need for a task force to prevent human sacrifice? This line in the story also caught my attention.

Police are visiting churches and mosques, trying to crush the growing belief in the power of child sacrifice.

They are going to people promoting superstition in order to attack even worse superstition. In between demonizing homosexuals and supporting their execution, mainstream religions in Uganda can take on the problem of human sacrifice. After all, human sacrifice is bad unless God orders it.