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POPSNigerian Christians join in witchhunts Witch hunting is a very ancient practice in Africa, but in the past it has not generally been something that Christians have engaged in. Western-initiated churches, which have been influenced by modernity, have tended to regard beliefs about witchcraft as superstition, and encouraged people to discard such views. African-initiated churches have taken witchcraft beliefs seriously, but have generally urged witches to repent, and teried to rehabilitate them (whereas in pagan African society witches were often thought to be incorrigible and deserving only death). But now new denominations, which appear to be mainly neopentecostal, seem to be persecuting suspected witches in a manner reminiscent of the Great European Witchhunt of early modern times.