Religion and Theology

Introduction
Since time immemorial, sacrifice has been considered as an integral part of religion. Sacrifice is a common feature of all religions.  All monotheistic and polytheistic religions show evidence of a form of sacrifice to which religious importance are attached. The motivation for sacrifices comes from different aspect of religion. Sacrifice is considered to perpetuate, intensify, and reestablish connection between human worshipers and the divine.  Sacrifice is intended to help worshipers gain divine favor or call for intervention to placate an impending divine wrath.  Sacrifice takes different forms, which implies that different things can be used for sacrifice. Fruits, flowers, crops, human, animals, and other things can be used for sacrifice.

In mainstream religions, incident of sacrifices have been greatly reduced.  Most mainstream religious groups have formalized their sacrifices to mere offerings which are given during proceedings of a religious worship. However, there are other religious groups which still maintain human and animal sacrifices. Human and animal sacrifices have attracted criticism and even some religious groups have been sued in a court of law seeking court ruling and interpretation of freedom of worship. One of such religious groups that have been dodged by controversy is Santeria religion. It is estimated that for the last four thousand years, Saniterians have been practicing animal sacrifice and recently, there are controversies on human sacrifice. This practice has come to be challenged by animal and human rights activities arguing that it fails to respect the right to life. While Santeria worshippers claim that sacrifice is meant to create a connection with divine, others argue that the practice fail to promote cultivation of the human person and fails to respect right to life.  Sacrifice in Santeria religion can be considered as an archaic practice that fails to promote cultivation of human person.

Santeria sacrifice
Santeria is a pre-Christian religion that has overcome the waves of impending religious groups like Christianity to retain its original practices. Santeria is believed to have originated from Yoruba, Northwest of Nigeria, and it arrived in the Caribbean region with the African slaves.  Santeria has become an integral part of religious worships in Puerto Rico and other Caribbean countries.   Recent statistics shows that the religion is gaining ground in United States with the number of people subscribing on the rise. However, the religion has been looked at as a demonic, archaic, and primitive religion owing to a number of practices including human sacrifice.  Santeria incorporates the worship of Orisha or head guardian but it also brings together elements of worship from Roman Catholicism and other religious groups.

Like any other religion, Santeria value sacrifice. It is among the few religious groups that still carry out animal sacrifice as a sign of bonding with the divine. Santeria makes a variety of sacrifices which ranges from animals, foods, caf, money, and many others.  Their sacrifices are carried out on alter.   The most prevalent form of sacrifice among Santeria is animal sacrifice. When an animal sacrifice is to be carried out, it is performed by only a priest, referred to as Babalu.  Individuals can make alters and offer foods, money, coffee, and others but they are not allowed to offer animal sacrifices.  Animal sacrifices are used only during major events like when the worshipers want to appease divine to save life an individual or when one is badly cursed.  They argue that animal sacrifice is important to Santeria as Eucharist is important to Catholicism.

Sine 1987, there has been a ranging conflict between Santeria and organizations fighting for animal rights.  These organizations have argued that use of small animals like chicken and others for ritual sacrifices amounts to infringement of animal rights. Animal rights activists have been fighting not only for the continued use of small animals in rituals like sickness and initiation of new members to the religion but also the manner in which these animals are killed for sacrifice.  However, Santeria defend animal sacrifice on the ground that  animals are killed in humane manner,  animals are eaten later just like other animals that are killed daily throughout the  country,  and animal sacrifices is a ritual that has been practiced in religion for a long time. Santeria also argue that they have to continue with the sacrifice because Orisha need food and because Orisha describes different manifestation of God, it is expression that God needs animal sacrifices.  Santeria also argues that for the last one millennium, animal sacrifice has formed a part and parcel of their religion and even the United States Supreme Court has upheld the need for Santeria to continue with animal sacrifice.

For a long time, Santeria religion has been fighting accusations of human sacrifice.  Critics of the religion have argued that Santeria does not does not have any doctrine and the strength of its faith is based on animal and human sacrifice. There are many incidences which have been related to human sacrifices in Santeria.

 In 1986, the first sign of human sacrifice was linked to Santeria religion. In this incident, a mutilated body of a baby was discovered in Connecticut.   The body was found with other things like pennies, fruits, trinkets, and other which indicated presence of Caribbean cult sacrifice.  Investigations showed that the religious practices could be linked to Caribbean Santeria religion.

In 1989, it was revealed that Police in Mexico had found evidence linking Santeria to human sacrifice.  Police discovered a ground in Rancho Santa Elena which is outside Matamoros, Mexico, which was stashed with mutilated bodies. The human corpses were mutilated in a manner that evidence ritual sacrifice had been performed on them.

Although police were looking for clues that could lead to drug trafficking which could incriminate Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, who was a know leader of a drug ring.  However, it was discovered that Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo mother was an ardent follower of Santeria religion.  This caused media frenzy across Mexico and United States and it became difficult for Santeria religion to deny their involvement in human sacrifice.  Since then, Santeria has been perceived as an obscure cult rather than religion, which draws its practices from Satanism, Voodoo, witchcraft, and other practices which are considered anti-religions.

Constanzo had been known as a cruel drug dealer who punished his enemies with death.  He had formed his own concept of cult and declared himself as the high priest. She was joined by a young lady Sara Maria Aldrete, who served as the cult priestess and at the same time was a student at Texas Southmont College in Brownsville. Initially, it was perceived that Constanzo had punished his business enemies with death but it was later proved through evidence given by his followers that he had promised them that they would be able in a position to absorb spiritual essence of the victims.  Therefore, it was easy to link human sacrifice with ritualistic practices in Santeria.

In 1998, there was another incidence which raised questions about the company credibility on human sacrifice. It was well known that Santeria had legal fight to be allowed to continue using animals for sacrifice.  However, there were suspicions of human sacrificed perpetrated by Santeria members. In January 8, 1998, a case reported in The New York Times showed that a 17 year old girl, Charity Miranda, had suffocated to death in a plastic bag.  It was reported that Miranda mother and sister had tried to perform exorcism to free her of demons. When police arrived at the scene, they found the two women chanting and paying over her body. However, it was reported that days before, the two women had joined Santeria Lukumi, a doctrine that does not believed in existence of demons. Santeria liturgy does not also contain exorcism rituals. However, here mother was charged with murder but later acquitted due to mental instability. It is widely believed that the death of Miranda was as a result of the routine human sacrifice rituals which are performed by Santeria.

 More evidence which links Santeria to human sacrifice has been documented in other areas of the world. In 2002, the body of a young boy was found floating in River Thames in London. The body has been dismembered in such a way that it reflected that it had been used for human sacrifice.  An autopsy report on the body revealed that the results were the same to that of similar children victims who had been found in France and Germany where such incidences had been recorded.  The autopsy report had shown that the body bore results of ritualistic death.  The nature of wounds, clothing and other body mechanism was matched to ritual sacrifices which are performed in Africa as some parts of the body were mission. More evidence to ritualistic sacrifice murder was linked to seven half-burned candles which had been wrapped in a white sheet on the shore of the river. The ritualistic killing was linked to Santeria because the candle bore the name Fola Adeoye while another name Adekoye Jo Fola Adeoye had been inscribed on the white sheet.

According to Santeria beliefs, human person ranks below Orisha but they are closely intertwined.  In a cosmological system, human begins comes below Orisha. Human beings are considered to have been made by the hands of Orisha, Obatala, and given the breath of life by Olodumare. Although the lives of human beings depend on Orisha, Orisha also depend on human beings.  It is only humans who can make offerings in order to feed Orisha. Human persons also have the ability to sit down in groups and call for intervention of Orisha in their lives.  Parents have a special role as they have to act as intermediaries between Orisha and their human children.

 Under this cosmological system, there is evident interaction between Orisha and human beings.  There is an evident dependence between Orisha and human beings that is mainly through sacrifice. This relationship brings into sharp focus the important of sacrifice in Santeria.  Every individual is composed of specific energy patterns, which describe individual personality and character.  This energy pattern is understood to be Orisha that lives in harmony with one self and when individuals understand ones patron Orisha, they are able to form a spiritual line with energy patterns.

This relationship describes the interconnection between individual self and Orisha. Unlike in other religions, Orisha are not considered omnipotent. However, individuals are closely connected to Orisha through energy patterns. Since Orisha depend on human beings for survival, the relationship underpins the reason why sacrifice forms and integral part of Santeria religion.  Sacrifice enables human beings to maintain a close relationship between human person and Orisha. Without the spiritual energy bond, human persons would not be complete. Therefore, sacrifice forms an integral part of the relationship between human person and religion beliefs.

Considering this relationship, human persons need to nourish Orisha in order to stay in close relationship. Sacrifice in Santeria is supposed to improve the relationship between human persons and the divine but this may not have been achieved through some of the practices.  As was discussed earlier, Santeria is not based on any doctrine but sacrifice forms an integral part of the religious beliefs as expressed by the relationship between human persons and Orisha.  Lack of doctrine in Santeria makes it difficult to assess the real acceptable means of sacrifice. While the mainstream Santeria argue that human sacrifice is not allowed, the above incidence clearly reveal that human sacrifice could form a part of Santeria sacrifice.

The essence of religious sacrifice is to appease divine.  However, does this has to conflict with universal rights of   human life It is evident from the above discussion that Santeria attach more value to human person relationship with Orisha but this relationship does not have to lead to loss of human life.  Though there may be questions that can be raised on the issue  of animal rights and Santeria sacrifice, there  is no evidence which like violation of value of human person value through animal sacrifice. This means that it is only when Santeria sacrifice is perceived through lens of human sacrifice.
 
Santeria sacrifices are meant to create an interconnection between human person value and Orisha. This could explain the reason why sacrifices forms an integral part of Santeria sacrifice. However, human sacrifice, though not ascertained in the mainstream Santeria religious practices seems to form a hidden part of this religion. Human sacrifice does not hold any human person value. In the cosmological system, it is to be found that human persons are at a lower rank than Orisha.  There is symbiosis relationship between human person and Orisha. Since Orisha depend on human person for food through sacrifices. This implies that even in the religious order, human beings are valued as a part of the system  to feed Orisha implying that human sacrifice should not be a part of the religion.

Conclusion
Sacrifices form an important part of any religions. Sacrifices are mostly offered with an aim of appeasing divine to evade an impending catastrophe.  This means that sacrifices are meant to strengthen the bond between believers and the divine and also smooth their relationships.    Like all other religions, Santeria value sacrifices as an integral part of their religious worships. However, there have been reported incidences of human sacrifices perpetuated in different parts of the world where there are followers for Santeria.  In the cosmological order of Santeria, human beings are placed below Orisha but there seems to be a mutual relationship between the two which means human sacrifice would not be sanctioned in the cosmological value. Therefore, human sacrifice in Santeria does not hold up the personal value that is a part of the religious cosmological system.