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that one has spiritual assets, meaningful pursuits in life, and moral values. Also important are human relationships and freedom from the conflicts or constrictions that could prevent us from enjoying what we have. Money has power. It has bought fine homes, elegant wardrobes, and dazzling furnishings. It has also bought adoration, compliance or flattery, and even produced a few temporary and obliging friends for most Zimbabweans. A lot of Zimbabweans lost quadrillions of dollars in 2007 when the then local currency was under a battering from inflation that reached an all time high of over 1000 percent. This period saw many people taking flight to neighboring countries in search of work, while in those countries they were introduced to different vices and shunned their local religions and traditional norms in favour of the foreign cultures. Sadly, most have been converted to Satanism, and have admitted to practising the pagan religion in different media. In Bulawayo, a satanic cult has admitted to recruiting young girls whom they used to kill more than 100 people in a single high density suburb. They admitted to having underground houses and tunnels where they carry out their illicit activities that would leave Nollyhood actors green with awe. Cases of snakes found on people’s bodies, in homes and bags have become common in our local media, blood sucking housemaids and man-eating human beings are on the prowl in churches and neighborhoods. The bible book of Revelations in chapter 12 verse 9 warns of the devil being cast down to earth and warns earthly inhabitants of the woes brought by Satan ,and he seems to have firmly established himself on earth in the form of cults and churches that are thriving by the day. Satanism is a group of religions composed of a diverse number of ideological and philosophical beliefs and social phenomena. Their shared features include symbolic association with, admiration and veneration for the character of Satan. Satan, also called Lucifer by many Christians, first appears in the Books of Chronicles provoking David to take a census of Israel. In the Book of Job he is called Ha-Satan, meaning ‘the opposer’, and acted as the prosecutor in God’s court. A character named Satan was described as the tempter of Jesus in many of the Gospels of early Christians. In Zimbabwe, Christians and other religious groupings typically regard Satan as the adversary or enemy, but extensive popular redactions and recompositions of biblical tales have inserted his presence and influence into every aspect of adversarial role back to the Creation and to have deeply rooted their beliefs in the country in the wake of revelations by Satanists who have come out in the open and declared that they were the worshippers of the devil. Despite heavy criticism from other religious groups, there are signs that satanic beliefs have become more socially tolerated in Zimbabwe as well as in other Western countries. For instance, Satanism is now allowed in the Royal Navy of the British Armed Forces, despite much opposition from Christians, and in 2005, the Supreme Court of the United States debated over protecting the religious rights of prison inmates after a lawsuit challenging the issue was filed to them. While contemporary Satanism is mainly an American phenomenon, the ideas are spreading with the effects of globalisation and the Internet to some West African countries. The Internet promotes awareness of other Satanists and is also the main battle ground for the definitions of Satanism in Zimbabwe today. Satanism started to reach Eastern Europe in the 1990s, in time with the fall of the Soviet Union, and most noticeably in Poland and Lithuania, Roman Catholic countries. Globalisation has not spared Zimbabwe. During the last decade, the Zimbabwean society underwent a massive transformation from social, cultural, academic, religious and the general well being of the people. Globalisation brought to the fore social ills that were perceived by the Zimbabwean society as taboo. Anxiety gripped the nat ion and everyone changed, leaving cultural pundits clutching on the last straws of societal morals. At its worst, this has been a decade of turmoil. In no previous age have people shown so great an aptitude, and appetite for killing other people for reasons of race, religion, class or getting rich fast. TP
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Fall. By Christians and Muslims especially, the figure of Satan is treated variously as a rebellious or jealous competitor to human beings, to Jesus, and characterised as a fallen angel or demon ruling the penitential Underworld, chained in a deep pit, wandering the planet vying for souls or providing the impetus for all worldly travesty. Although the public practice of Satanism began in 1966 with the founding of the Church of Satan, some historical precedents exist: a group called the Ophite Cultus Satanas was founded in Ohio by Herbert Arthur Sloane in 1948. Inspired by Gnosticism and Gerald Gardner’s Wicca, the coven venerated Satan as both a horned god and ophite messiah. The offshoots of these churches seem
The Parade - Zimbabwe’s Most Read Lifestyle Magazine
February 2013
Page 27