Category: Minority Review – Damon Leff

DAMON LEFF. When you lie and knowingly repeat the lie about followers of another religion, just to promote your own religious agenda, you make a mockery of everything your religion stands for. In their attempt to promote 31 October as Reformation Day in honour of Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation, South African based evangelical ministry ‘Christian Action’ and its spokespersons Dr Peter Hammond (Director of the Christian Action Network and The Reformation Society, with ties to Frontline Fellowship USA), J. Kerby Anderson and Taryn Hodgson (Africa Christian Action National Coordinator) have waged an annual smear campaign against the commercial and religious celebration of Halloween and ‘paganism’ in general. Their day of judgement has arrived !

DAMON LEFF. Anonymity is a fundamental aspect to the right to privacy, but Mark Zuckerberg appears not to care that the current policy of insisting that Facebook users use their real names on their profiles, actually contravenes user’s right to privacy. The public exposure by Facebook of those who choose instead to remain private is a gross and violating infringement of the dignity of individuals affected.

DAMON LEFF. Attempting to suppress the widespread belief in the agency of Witchcraft as a cause for misfortune, harm, disease, murder and death won’t stop some people from continuing to believe that Witches are malevolent and must be murdered. Prejudicial beliefs about Witchcraft won’t change overnight, but changing them must start with education, not with the suppression of access to the truth.

DAMON LEFF. Since the 14th century Witches have been stereotyped as potentially dangerous individuals. Centuries of hysterical wishful thinking has produced a history of unproven allegations, all of which depict Witches and Witchcraft as evil in potentia. These negative stereotypes have been repeated in virtually every culture and on every continent. They find fertile contemporary ground amongst religious leaders, politicians and intellectuals where hearsay, myth and urban legend combine to serve as so-called evidence of the dangers of Witchcraft and of a belief in Witchcraft.