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Paper short abstract:

The study argues that the reason for criminal spirituality lies in a deficient religious pedagogy that presents a reductionist view of religious and spiritual experiences, and also not critical to provide ethical guidance to challenge assumptions that underlie abuse of religious authority.

Paper long abstract:

The recent BBC African Eye investigations which uncovered evidence of alleged widespread abuse and torture by the founder of the Synagogue Church of all Nations, the late Temitope Joshua, has generated interest in the perceived criminal activities perpetrated by some religious persons in the name of deliverance sessions. Deploying the case of two prominent Nigerian pastors, the jailed Chukwuemeka Ezeuko, popularly known as ‘Rev. King’ and Chukwuemeka ‘Odumeje’ Ohanaemere, otherwise known as ‘Indaboski’, this study reflects on the psychology of abuse, dominance and captivity that has aided the use of religion and spirituality as a justification and motivation for harming people. Drawing on data sourced from media monitoring of news reports and social media presentations, the study purposively selects news, feature stories and clips of deliverance sessions, and adopts a qualitative approach to critically analyse these data. The study posits that the captivating ambience of many deliverance sessions give room for gullible and congregation to succumb to abuse, blackmail and violence. It further argues that the reason for this lies in a deficient religious pedagogy that presents a reductionist view of religious and spiritual experiences, and also not critical enough to provide ethical guidance to challenge assumptions and biases that underlie abuse of religious authority. To address these incriminating events paraded as religious activities, this paper looks on to phenomenology by suggesting the adoption of conditioned scepticism as an epistemic attitude in relation to religious events.

Keywords: Deliverance sessions, fear, phenomenology, conditioned scepticism