Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

GetReligion

Home
Religion News
General Butt Naked and God in Der Spiegel

General Butt Naked and God in Der Spiegel

Last updated on: November 8, 2013 at 4:47 pm by geoconger

General Butt Naked and God in Der Spiegel 2013-11-08T16:47:41-05:00 geoconger

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpTV9TZdjg8

Let me commend for your reading a story in last week’s Der Spiegel on the Liberian war lord General Butt Naked. The article in its English-language version entitled “The Penitant Warlord: Atoning for 20,000 War Crimes” recounts the war crimes of Joshua Milton Blahyi and his subsequent transformation into a priest.

But there is a chauvinism among many newspaper readers that when terms familiar to them are used in a story — “priest” being an example — the word means what they understand it to mean. Call someone a “priest” and many will assume that person is a Catholic, for example. What sort of priest is General Butt Naked?

The 3,600 word article focuses on the question whether Blahyi’s confession and conversion can be believed. It opens with the a summary of his crimes, and adds a hook to catch the reader’s attention.

Blahyi had a reputation for being more brutal than other military leaders. Everyone knows his nom de guerre, which he says he will never lose: General Butt Naked. He was a cannibal who preferred to sacrifice babies, because he believed that their death promised the greatest amount of protection. He went into battle naked, wearing only sneakers and carrying a machete, because he believed that it made him invulnerable — and he was in fact never hit by a bullet. His soldiers would make bets on whether a pregnant woman was carrying a boy or a girl, and then they would slit open her belly to see who was right.

Blahyi is now a priest who goes to chess club on Saturdays.

The article sets his crimes against his current life and beliefs, offering several exchanges between the reporter and Blahyi.

“Do you sleep well at night?”

“I am blessed with good sleep.”

“Are you happy?”

“Yes, very.”

“Will you go to heaven?”

“That’s what it says in the Bible. He who believes in Jesus shall not be condemned.”

As it works towards its finish the article states there is no way to measure the sincerity of Blahyi’s convictions, but notes that he does not have to play the penitent to avoid prison or reprisals — there has been a de facto amnesty for war crimes in Liberia.

And it closes with these observations:

On the next day, this is how he describes his purpose: “I believe that God wishes to use me as a sign. No matter how far a person goes, he has the potential to change.”

Perhaps there is a third possibility, one that does not involve Blahyi wearing a mask or being truly reformed. Perhaps Blahyi earnestly believes that he has changed. And the country in which he lives believes him, too. And if everyone believes it, isn’t it true? If Blahyi truly wears a mask every Sunday, the skin underneath has now conformed to the mask. In that case, Blahyi remains a criminal without a judge on earth.

Blahyi’s transformation is not new news. It was the subject of a 2011 documentary entitled “The Redemption of General Butt Naked” and has been covered in news and feature stories for several years. This piece in the Daily Mail entitled “Face to face with General Butt Naked, ‘the most evil man in the world’,” is typical of the reports I have seen.

How then does this article stack up compared to those that have gone before? Pretty well to my eyes. It takes Blahyi’s faith seriously and lets him explain himself — and his crimes. It speaks to victims and to the pastor who brought Blahyi to the Christian faith. I would give it high marks all round.

Where I would want to tighten the story is in the use of religious terminology. Part of the the confusion comes from the translation from German to English — but Blahyi is called a penitant (why not a penitent?) a priest and a pastor. Should not these words be fleshed out for Western readers?

In its 2010 story, the Daily Mail notes that Blahyi was a priest long before he engaged in his terrible rampage. Yet his priesthood was not of the Christian kind, but as an initiate into an African cult.

It is 1982 and as day breaks in Liberia, the Krahn tribe prepares for the initiation of its high priest. Against the sound of the drumbeat, he is taken to an isolated area, led by a man in a carved black mask. The priest stands before an altar, naked.

The elders bring a little girl, unclothe her and smear her body with clay. The priest slays the child.

In a ritual that spans three days, her heart and other body parts are removed and eaten. In the course of those days the priest has a vision: he meets the devil who tells him he will become a great warrior. The devil says to increase his power he must continue the rituals of child sacrifice and cannibalism.

The initiation is complete and the priest is now one of the most powerful leaders in West Africa. The priest is 11 years old. As prophesied, the boy priest grew up to become one of Liberia’s most notorious warlords: General Butt Naked.

Following his conversion to Christianity Blahyi becomes a different type of priest according to Der Spiegel. Some details on what sort of priest or pastor, Roman Catholic, Anglican, African Independent Church, would have put this into greater context and would have added a final gloss to a great story.

General Butt Naked

Previous Post

November 8, 2013

Surprise! A same-sex marriage story that gets religion

Next Post

November 8, 2013 That holy ghost in Baylor head coach's guilt and grief

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 5Q+1 Academia Anglicanism Announcements Atheists & Agnostics Baptists Books Business & Economy Catholicism Creeping Fundamentalism Education Ethics Evangelicals Film First Person gays Godbeat Got news? Humor Interviews Islam Journalism Judaism Lutherans Mainline Marriage & family Middle East Mormons Music Nones Orthodoxy Pagans Pentecostalism People Podcasts Politics Pop Culture Race Radio & TV Religion religious liberty Same-sex marriage Science Sex Social Issues Sports Uncategorized Vatican Web/Tech What is this? World World Religions Worship

Select a Month August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 May 2010 July 2009 February 2009 October 2008 July 2008 January 2007 August 2006 July 2006 October 2005

Follow Us!

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who is the Good Shepherd in Jesus' teaching?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Jesus Peter David Moses

Related posts from GetReligion

Same as it ever was: It's time for...

Can a laundromat replace the traditional church?

Are Catholics about to loosen Communion rules?

Members mourn Atlanta church; why don’t they talk?

TRENDING AT PATHEOS Religion News

What Is Catholic Integralism?

Catholic Integralists believe that religious values – specifically Christian ones – should...

Electing A Virtuous President Would Make Immunity Irrelevant

Presidential immunity can bring with it many risks. So how can we...

Why The Olympic Games Are A ‘Civil Religious’...

Sporting events form a vital space where Americans display their 'civil religious...

Farewell For Now

After more than a decade of news, research updates, and insights on...

Q: Why do Southern Baptists and like-minded Protestants...

THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: Why? Simple. Because they believe that’s what the...

Is Gambling Evil?

THE QUESTION: Is gambling evil? THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: Analysts anticipate a...

view all Religion News blogs

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Copyright 2008-2026, Patheos. All rights reserved.

Subscription Support Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In

Follow Patheos