Irish priest claims there is a desperate need for more exorcists due to increase in "demonic activity." Hang on, I have to check what year it is again.

Courtesy of Newsweek:  

An Irish priest has put out an urgent call for backup to help with the growing demand for exorcisms in the country, according to reports. 

“It’s only in recent years that the demand [for exorcisms] has risen exponentially,” Father Pat Collins said, adding that anyone who doesn’t see the need for more exorcists is “out of touch with reality.” Collins wrote an open letter to Irish bishops asking them to begin training more priests to deal with exorcisms, and he cited the International Association of Exorcists’ belief that demonic activity has increased substantially in recent years.

Collins has been speaking out about the activities of what he has called “the evil one” for years. He is widely considered Ireland’s most prominent exorcist, and he has also advocated for the church to take a more active role in demon hunting.

 "Anyone who doesn’t see the need for more exorcists is out of touch with reality.”

Just let that bounce around in your skull a little.

These are the people we are forced to share the planet with. These are the people whose beliefs we are encouraged to respect.

Thank you, but no thank you.

This kind of superstitious nonsense should be called out and refuted every single time we hear about it.

No, people are not talking to an actual god.

No, there are no guardian angels watching over you.

No, there are no spirits which need to be placated with charms or magic spells.

And no, there are no demons.

Yes, there is mental illness, and yes there are scientifically based strategies for supporting those who suffer with them.

And an exorcism is the very last thing that they need.

The Pope proclaims that priests should be prepared to call in the exorcists if the situation warrants it.

Courtesy of The Guardian: 

Pope Francis has advised priests who hear troubled confessions from parishioners to not hesitate to call on the services of an exorcist. 

A good confessor has to be very discerning, particularly when he has to deal with “real spiritual disorders”, the 80-year-old pontiff told priests at a Vatican training seminar on the art of hearing believers recount their sins. 

Disorders could have their roots in all manner of circumstances, including supernatural ones, he suggested. 

In such circumstances the confessor “must not hesitate to refer to exorcists … chosen with great care and prudence”.

First off there is NO situation that would warrant having some blabbering fool standing over a troubled person while reading Bible verses and douching them with holy water. 

All of that should be left behind in the 18th century where it belongs.

Secondly mental illness is not something that a priest is capable of diagnosing without the assistance of a trained psychiatrist.

Trust me, no good psychiatrist is going to write our a prescription for exorcism.

Thirdly I actually once had a client who had suffered through an exorcism, and I can tell you from first hand experience that the trauma created by such an experience can be quite debilitating.

What statements like this tell me is that as progressive as this new Pope seems to be sometimes, he is still stuck in a primitive mindset that makes him erratic and dangerous.

As it turns out Arkansas Rep. Justin Harris not only sought exorcism for one of his adopted daughters, he himself performed watered down exorcisms on children all of the time.

Courtesy of KNWA:  

One former employee of Growing God's Kingdom says the Harrises didn't just believe their adopted kids were possessed, but they also believed students at the school possessed demons as well. 

The former employee and mother of a student at the school wants to be named only as Amber. She says Justin and Marsha Harris would often try to pray the demons out of misbehaving students at their pre-school, Growing God's Kingdom. 

"If they got in too much trouble they would pray on the kids, do a circle around them, put their hands on their heads, saying, trying to rebuke demons." Said former employee, Amber. 

Amber was an employee at Growing God's Kingdom for about five months in 2013. She says Justin Harris fired her after a difference in opinion on how to discipline students. Though she says she learned a lot about the Harris family during those five months. 

"How did you learn about the fact that they were praying demons out of kids?" Lauren Conley asked Amber. 

"Well, I had another teacher there that had me take a child down to the office and whenever I did, they did it right there in front of me." Said Amber.

Okay the mere fact that these people were allowed to care for children, in any capacity, is incredibly shocking to me. 

Can you even imagine what kind of damage was done to these children by being told that they were possessed by demons?

In my opinion this man and his wife should be locked up for child abuse. And I mean for an extended period of time.

There is a new twist in the Arkansas adoption/sex abuse case. Demons!

So as all of you probably remember I reported yesterday on that incredibly troubling case in Arkansas having to do with Rep. Justin Harris and an adopted daughter that was sexually abused after he simply rehomed her without notifying the proper authorities.

Well as it turns out Harris has a perfectly reasonable excuse for getting those children out of their home.

Demonic possession.

Here is more from the Arkansas Times:

Chelsey Goldsborough, who regularly babysat for the Harrises, said Mary was kept isolated from Annie and from the rest of the family. She was often confined for hours to her room, where she was monitored by a video camera. The reason: The Harrises believed the girls were possessed by demons and could communicate telepathically, Goldsborough said. Harris and his wife once hired specialists to perform an "exorcism" on the two sisters while she waited outside the house with the boys, she said. 

Multiple sources who interacted with the family confirmed Goldsborough's account that the Harrises believed the children were possessed, and another source close to the family said that Marsha Harris spoke openly about the supposed demonic possession.

Of course through their attorney the Harrises deny these charges but let's face it right now they are denying any culpability whatsoever. 

Now I know that the rational part of you wants to dismiss this as an exaggeration or hogwash, but let me tell you that it is not as uncommon as you might wish it to be.

You see many years ago I worked with a family that had a very challenging adopted child as well.

They were VERY dedicated Christians, and came to believe that the boy was possessed by demons, and brought him to their church where a visiting minister administered an honest to goodness exorcism.

As you might imagine that exacerbated the child's problem a hundredfold, and he was soon deemed out of control and was removed from the home.

Though he had a rather complicated diagnosis he was responsive to therapeutic interventions combined with some psychotropic medications, and he eventually went on to lead a relatively normal life.

Now you might assume that the boy's parents were some backwater hillbillies, but in fact they were both college educated professionals, who simply allowed their ignorance of mental illness and their superstitious belief system to push them toward horrendously bad decision making.

So yes among certain fundamentalists this kind of lunacy still happens even today.

And from what I have read about the Harrises, they are prime candidates to believe that there is a primitive religious solution to a psychiatric problem.

Bill Maher finds himself disappointed with the new Pope again.

On his blog (Oh yes, he has one too!) Bill Maher decides that though he likes the new Pope, he simply cannot condone his praise for exorcists: 

Pope Francis has quickly established himself as the progressive Pope – not your father’s Holy Father. Early on, he said atheists can get into heaven. He’s expressed compassion for gays and even said that there’s a place for them in the Church. He’s affirmed the Big Bang Theory and evolution. He’s got a gambling problem he jokes about and it’s long been an open secret that he has a wife and three kids. 

But every time this Pope makes me think he’s dragging the Catholic Church kicking and screaming – like an altar boy into the rectory – into the modern, rational era, he goes and kicks it old school. The latest is that he met with and affirmed the work of the International Association of Exorcists, a group of 300 practicing Catholic exorcists. 

Embracing the idea that people are possessed by demons and that there are rituals to cast these demons out – that’s not just crazy, that’s Antonin Scalia crazy. I’d like to believe that Pope Francis doesn’t really believe this crap, but rather just feels he has to stay “on script.”

Like Maher I think a lot of people want to give Pope Francis the benefit of the doubt in the hopes that he is the level headed reformer that he seems to want to portray himself to be. 

However that is simply impossible when you realize that the Pope still supports some of the church's most egregious dogma as well as the idea that people can literally be possessed by invisible magical creatures that exist to spread evil and torment mankind.

Here is what the Pope said back in October: 

Pope Francis has told a convention of exorcists from around the world that they are doing sterling service in combating "the Devil's works", as the Catholic Church warned of a rise in Satanism and the occult. 

The Pope, who frequently cites the fight against Satan in his sermons, said that exorcists needed to show "the love and welcome of the Church for those possessed by evil". By treating people who were possessed, priests could demonstrate that "the Church welcomes those suffering from the Devil's works," he said in a message to a conference organised in Rome by the International Association of Exorcists.

On an almost daily basis I interact with, and treat, individuals with behaviors that two hundred years ago would surely have seen them beaten into submission (Spare the rod, spoil the child.), locked up in a sanitarium for their entire lives, or terrorized by a religious nut who would tell them that the source of their problems lies in their lack of faith and the fact that they have allowed themselves to become a dwelling place for evil.

Today we treat with patience, medications, and behavior modifications, people who would have received the kind of treatment that even farm animals were spared hundreds of years ago.

The idea that this Pope continues to promote this superstitious nonsense rips away any facade that he is reasonable or modern in his thought process.

Stephen Colbert does a little mocking of the Colorado state lawmaker who believes that President Obama needs an exorcism.

Click image to play video

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

On last night’s episode of The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert savaged Dr. “Chaps” Gordon Klingenschmitt, the former Navy chaplain turned Colorado state lawmaker. 

Colbert played a clip of just some of the bizarre things that this Dr. Chaps has said:


“The demonic spirits inside the homosexual agenda are trying to redefine family,” Klingenschmitt says in the clip, “trying to homosexualize your children. Jesus, if he were giving marriage counseling to two gay men who were married, Jesus would command them to get divorced.” 

“Yes,” Colbert responded, “if Jesus were their marriage counselor, he would tell them to get divorced. And he would take 65 minutes to do it, so he could charge them the second hour. But it’s not just the gays — everyone needs a little Klingenschmitt exorcism.” 

“Don’t you think there’s something inside the atheist complainer that’s wrong,” he says in another clip. “I have a solution! Let’s do an exorcism, cast the devil out of them! Julius Genachowski, the outgoing FCC chairman, has not enforced decency standards. The demonic spirit inside of him influences him to abuse, and dare I say, molest and visually rape your children.”

Good job Colorado Republicans, this guy is the perfect example of our current GOP.

Later Colbert plays the clip where Klingenschmitt suggests that the President is possessed by a demon, after which he has this to say:

“Yes,” Colbert said, “Obama’s possessed by a demon — and he won’t even show us its birth certificate. Now, saying the president is possessed by a demon could be seen as a tad inflammatory, but after he was elected, Klingenschmitt told a Colorado newspaper that, ‘I would say it is time for people of good will on both sides of the political debate to come together to have reasonable discussions about these issues.’”

Like I said the other day, it is becoming increasingly difficult to define the line between where the actual quotes from Republican politicians end and parodies of them begin.

If any of you think that this Dr. Chaps guy sounds familiar it's because we did our own reporting on him just last week.

Colorado just elected an exorcist to their House of Representatives. And here you thought YOUR state had gone off the deep end.

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

The radical anti-LGBT religious activist Gordon “Dr. Chaps” Klingenschmitt won a seat in the Colorado House of Representatives with almost 70 percent of the vote, the Colorado Springs Gazette reports. 

The former Navy chaplain’s victory was not surprising, as Republicans outnumber Democrats by a 2-to-1 margin in the El Paso County district Klingenschmitt now represents. 

The notoriously anti-LGBT Klingenschmitt came to national attention last year, when he attempted to exorcise a “demonic spirit” from President Barack Obama. 

“We pray against the domestic enemies of the Constitution,” Klingenschmitt said, his eyes tightly closed, “against this demon of tyranny who is using the White House occupant. That demonic spirit is oppressing us.”

Here is the video of Klingenschmitt "exorcising" the demonic spirit from the White House.

As you can see it was clearly not a REAL exorcism (There was not green puke or anything), and if it was it was the laziest one that I have ever witnessed, and I have actually seen a fair number.

Here is more from Think Progress:

Here is a collection of choice Klingenschmitt quotes: 

1. “Almighty God, today we pray imprecatory prayers from Psalm 109 against the enemies of religious liberty…who recently issued a press release attacking me personally… Let their days be few, and replace them with godly people. Plunder their fields and seize their assets. Cut off their descendants. And remember their sins. In Jesus’ name. Amen.” 

2. “She gave her life to Jesus. She welcomed the Holy Spirit. And I looked into her eyes as she began to weep and I said, “You foul spirit of lesbianism, this woman has renounced you, come out of her in Jesus’ name,’ and she began to wrestle with that and suddenly her eyes began to bug out and then she began to weep, and weep, and weep as the Holy Spirit forgave her sins… She was baptized the next day and then she became one of the best evangelists in our church, started carrying around her Bible telling all of her friends about Jesus and she started dating boys.” 

3. “Almighty God, please bless Lowes Home Improvement stores for their wise decision to stop advertising for the TV show All-American Muslim, which is nothing but Islamic propaganda designed to whitewash the fact that practitioners of militant Islam not only slaughtered over 3000 American civilians, but routinely kill millions of Christians worldwide.” 

4. “Sen. Franken recently released a video in which he blames the high rate of suicide among homosexual teens on school bullying, by abusing these sad tragedies as his own propaganda tool. By spreading even more lies to more teens, Franken is ultimately causing more suicides. Teen suicide is tragic enough without Senator Franken recruiting more kids into homosexuality, which causes depression, self-hatred, self-rejection and self-murder.” 

5. “Sexual harrassment [sic] is banned in the military, unless you’re a homosexual abusing a Christian, then it’s openly encouraged.” 

6. “Federal bureaucrats will enforce Obamacare to exterminate the elderly, systematically. We must take a stand.” 

7. “Picture this: four NFL players coming out as gay, and then this whole youth movement of coaches recruiting children into the homosexual lifestyle and punishing Christians because they voice an opposition to that sort of thing in the locker room… that is a demonic use of the sporting industry.” 

8. “Is bestiality now a perceived sexual orientation? Well since it’s not defined in the ENDA bill, yes it is!” 

9. “An atheist chaplain would be the perfect vehicle for convincing wounded warriors that they should end their lives because there’s nothing in the future and there’s nothing now, so why not just save money and kill themselves.” 

10. “In other words, it doesn’t matter what your skin color is, it matters what’s inside of your heart. And if your heart is full of corruption or sin or immorality — in this case, homosexuality — then you should be discriminated against.” (There are more of these over at Think Progress.)


Holy cow this guy makes Ted Cruz and Louie Gohmert seem rational.

What the hell Colorado? Did nobody check this guy's biography, or do some Coloradans like their wing nutty politicians with extra nuts?

I swear if we do not do something to keep these superstitious idiots out of office, our country is doomed.

I mean what's next, a President who bases his decisions on advice from an Astrologer?

Oh wait.......

Exorcisms on the rise. So nice when the 17th century stops by for a visit, don't you think?

Courtesy of Slate:

This spring, a new school for exorcists opened in Illinois. The Pope Leo XIII Institute for the “education & training of priests in the holy ministry of exorcism and deliverance” was launched at the Mundelein Seminary in February — when the first cohort of trainees arrived for a 10-day seminar. For just $1,500 (plus $960 room and board; check and credit card accepted; donations welcome and tax-deductible), priests received instruction from some top exorcists — using a curriculum that was reportedly pre-approved by a committee of credentialed bishops. 

The time was ripe. Just a month before the school’s quiet opening, headlines the world over broadcast news that exorcism is back. The Catholic Church is training a new class of priests to perform exorcisms: allegedly, to meet a growing public demand. “Diabolical possessions are on the increase as a result of people subscribing to occultism,” noted Father Francesco Bamonte, president of the Italy-based International Association for Exorcists. “The few exorcists that we have in the dioceses are often not able to handle the enormous number of requests for help.”

So to be clear, there are parishioners asking for help with mental illness, depression, or some other easily identified  malady, and in response priests are frightening them into believing they are possessed and then offering to traumatize them by subjecting them to a ritual that should only find acceptance on a movie screen.  

Catholic priests who have spoken openly about exorcism tout a predictable line, as reported by the Telegraph in January: “The rise in demonic cases is a result of more people dabbling in practices such as black magic, paganism, Satanic rites and Ouija boards, often exploring the dark arts with the help of information readily found on the internet.” Never mind that I haven’t seen a Ouija board since the ’90s — the church says, as the church has said for decades, that our spiritually plastic ways are guiding us into Satan’s den. 

Other observers point to the growing influence of Pentecostalism, with its direct and physical experience of Godc—cor films like “The Rite” (2011), which was based on a real American priest. 

Exorcism is “the practice of expelling evil spirits.” By popular accounts, crazy things happen when those demons are given the boot: “There are foul smells, vomiting, foaming at the mouth, foul language, psychological attack as well as a physical attack, languages you’ve never heard, items flying across the room (what we call poltergeist activity) … voices that sound like they came out of ‘The Exorcism’ movie,” Rev. Steven Maness, a New Jersey-based exorcist, tells me. 

In theory, only Catholic priests with permission from superiors can conduct exorcisms. But recent decades have given rise to gaggles of rogue agents — many of whom charge a hefty fee for their services, as opposed to affiliated priests who usually claim to exorcise for free. Some speculate that the church’s new exorcism push is an attempt to steal back authority from these unaffiliated mavericks. It’s “a response to public demand, but it’s also about quality control,” John Allen, an author and Vatican expert, noted in January. “A lot of it is fairly dodgy theoretically — they are self-appointed exorcists running around purporting to be acting on behalf of the Church.” In 2008, a senior Italian priest made £3 million ($5 million) by performing unsanctioned exorcisms at his “House of the Sainted Archangels” in Florence.

Oh I see. So the movie industry frightens impressionable people into believing in demonic possession and then religiously garbed charlatans make money off of their ignorance and pain.

The correct thing to do when you meet somebody claiming to be possessed by a demon is to get them immediate psychological counseling, NOT exacerbate their condition while profiting off of their illness.  

Go ahead, somebody ask me again what I find objectionable about religion.

Catholic Bishop performs anti-gay exorcism as a way of showing love to the gays. Boy I'm glad he doesn't love me!

Courtesy of Alternet:  

Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, took to LifeSiteNews during last week’s March for Life to defend his recent performance of an anti-gay exorcism. The gay rights foe explained that he performed the “minor exorcism” in order to “renounce Satan and break our relationship with the Devil” and “drive out the Devil from his influence that seems to be pervading our culture.” 

He called the exorcism a “fitting” response his home state’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage, adding that it is appropriate for a time when the “church is under persecution or some opposition, and certainly the redefinition of marriage is very much in opposition to God’s plan for married life.” 

Paprocki said that the exorcism was done out of love for gay people, whom he explained need to be disciplined like children being punished by their parents: “Like any good parent will tell you that sometimes you have to disappoint your child, sometimes you have to say ‘no’ and sometimes you even have to punish them.”

So to be clear, this bishop believes that gay people are possessed by the devil, and need to be punished for being naughty.

Oh yeah, that is definitely the way to reach out to the gay community. 

Now see this is why we cannot have a reasonable conversation with these fundamentalist morons.

They see everything in the world the way that a small child sees the world, separated by good and evil.

You actions are either good, ie sanctioned by religion and the Bible, or evil, ie fun to do and things these hypocrites WISH they had the balls to do.

With that kind of mindset there is no way to have a frank conversation about homosexuality, abortion, premarital sex, evolution, or anything that the two sides disagree about. Because if you disagree with them you are under the influence of Satan.

Yeah that's a conversation stopper right there.

Rather enlightening discussion about the existence of Satan.

I am struck by the fact that many on the panel did not want to come right out and say that they believed in demons or that the Devil takes a corporeal from and yet, they simply cannot bring themselves to reject the concept of demonic possession or the existence of Satan outright.

Remember kids this is a conversation taking place in 2014.

By the way I love this show and have watched numerous episodes of it, and posted a few videos as well. It is my belief that if we had more open conversations about religion, God, and the Devil, that it would do much to increase the number of non-believers.

P.S. For those who are interested here is part two. 

Woman kills two of her children during botched exorcism attempt.

Courtesy of New York Daily News:  

A 28-year-old mother killed two of her children and severely injured her two others during a botched exorcism attempt, police said Saturday. 

Police described a shocking bloody scene at the Germantown home Friday morning when they found a 1-year-old and 2-year-old dead in a home due to multiple stab wounds. A 5-year-old and 8-year-old were also injured and are receiving medical treatment, Montgomery police said. 

Police announced Saturday the mother, Zakieya Latrice Avery, 28, and another woman, Monifa Denise Sanford, 21, were trying to perform an exorcism on the children. They were both charged with two counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder.

This is an inappropriate time to insert my feelings about religion, so I just want to say that I feel terribly for these children and hope that those who survived received comprehensive counseling and are placed in loving homes.

We are making progress in stamping out superstition, I just wish we could somehow speed it up.

Bishop plans to exorcise Illinois to rid it of gay marriage. Yeah, that should work.

Courtesy of the CNN Belief blog:

The devil made them do it? 

According to a Catholic bishop in Springfield, Illinois, Satan was behind his state's recent legalization of same-sex marriage. 

So, next Wednesday, at about the same time Gov. Pat Quinn signs the gay marriage bill into law, Bishop Thomas Paprocki will hold an exorcism ceremony "in reparation for the sin of same-sex marriage." 

Paprocki, who's something of an expert on exorcism, says he's just following the Pope's marching orders. 

When Pope Francis, then Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, was an archbishop in Argentina, he called that country's legalization of same-sex marriage "a 'move' of the father of lies who wishes to confuse and deceive the children of God." 

In a statement released on Thursday, Paprocki said: "The pope's reference to the 'father of lies' comes from the Gospel of John, where Jesus refers to the devil as 'a liar and the father of lies.' So Pope Francis is saying that same-sex 'marriage' comes from the devil and should be condemned as such."

In my mind I have a picture of this idiot throwing holy water on the ground and screaming the rites of exorcism while a mocking crowd forms, and men with white coats step out of a van with straight jackets at the ready.

Oh, now they won't do that will they? Because you know religion is not classified as a mental illness.

At least not yet.

By the way, speaking of the Pope, it may be time to stop giving him a pass and believing that he is really all that different from those who proceeded him. This is what he said on Thursday: 

“The spirit of curiosity distances us from the spirit of wisdom because all that interests us is the details, the news, the little stories of the day.” 

Such a spirit, he warned, brings about dispersion and distances people from God. The Vatican leader further noted that Jesus himself warned against a worldly spirit of curiosity, as it causes confusion and impels people to want to feel that God is “here or there.”

So to paraphrase a little, what is being said is that being inquisitive and asking questions damages our relationship with God. And of course that message has been enforced since the beginning starting with the story of the Garden of Eden.

So the very thing which makes us humans, and that is behind ALL of the great discoveries which have allowed us to conquer the skies, improve our health and longevity, and explore both inner and outer space, are against the will of God?

I think that is pretty much all I need to know about religion, and its impact on our future.

Man kidnaps estranged wife and subjects her to exorcism.

Blanca Farias, looking quite calm for a woman possessed by 3 devils.

Courtesy of ABC News:

A California woman says her estranged husband and son kidnapped her outside a Walmart, told her she was possessed by three devils, and took her to a church where a pastor performed an exorcism that made her physically sick. 

Blanca Farias of Stockton, Calif., says she agreed on Sunday to meet her husband Jose Magana-Farias, 42, to discuss the fate of their marriage. They had separated in January. 

Instead of going to a nearby coffee shop, however, Farias says Magana-Farias and their son Victor Farias, 20, threw her into a pickup truck and drove her to a church 47 miles away. 

“They were saying I had three devils inside of me,” Blanca told ABC affiliate KXTV. 

When they arrived at the church in Bay Point, Calif., Farias says she was restrained and a pastor covered her in oil, some of which she was forced to swallow. 

“They started bathing me in oil,” Blanca said. “They made me swallow some of that oil. I was throwing up and this pastor was saying, ‘You’ve got the devil. Get off of her, get off of her,’ until I fainted.” 

Blanca said she believes her husband was motivated to conduct the exorcism after he learned that she had been seeing another man since their separation. 

Just before the exorcism, Blanca texted that boyfriend who in turn alerted police that the woman had been kidnapped. By the time Magana-Farias returned the woman to her home in Stockton, San Juan County deputies were waiting for them. 

Magana-Farias and his son were arrested. 

Both men were charged with felony kidnapping, conspiracy to kidnap and false imprisonment, according to a sheriff’s deputy at the San Joaquin County Jail.

Three devils? Damn that is a lot of devils!

You know I was pretty sure that at least one of my ex-wives was possessed by something evil as well, but I just divorced her and walked away.

Ya know, because I am NOT a superstitious moron.

So here is my question. How come the pastor was not arrested? Isn't he also complicit in the kidnapping of this woman and her abuse?

Trio of teen exorcists heading to England to battle the forces of Harry Potter.

(Okay one of the young ladies is twenty, but the other two ARE teens.)

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

A trio of Arizona “exorcists” has ventured to England to fight what it describes as the endorsement of satanic elements in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter book series. 

“Harry is using this magic for good,” 18-year-old Brynne Larson explains in video posted by the Daily Mail on Monday. “So here we have the dangerous idea that you can use this magic for good or bad. When in reality, all magic is bad ’cause you’re getting your power from Satan.” 

Larson and friends Tess and Savannah Scherkenback will be profiled in a BBC special on Friday discussing both their longtime friendship and their training by Larson’s father, Rev. Bob Larson, who claims to have performed 15,000 exorcisms. 

The BBC reported that Bob Larson asks for donations of $200 for each exorcism. The three girls claim in the video that the popularity of Rowling’s books marked the culmination of a rise in occult activity in England. 

“The spells and things that you’re reading in the Harry Potter books, those aren’t just something that are made up,” 18-year-old Tess Scherkenback says. “Those are actual spells. Those are things that came from witchcraft books.”

The spells in Harry Potter books are NOT made up? Well that would certainly be news to J.K Rowling, who worked so hard to invent her own word combinations for her books.

This is clearly yet another bizarre pitch for reality show fame by a gaggle of giggly girls promoted by Rev. Bob Larsen, a well known charlatan.

However the Fundamentalist freakout over the Harry Potter books is all too real.

As I watched the video up above I thought t looked strangely familiar. And indeed it did.

Personally I have always thought that the main irritation by the Christian community when it comes to the Harry Potter books is that children scrambled to read them, and they they supplanted the Bible as the most popular book. And why not? After all they are better written by far, and the allegorical lessons are much easier to understand.

But what they don't teach us is how to perform actual magic. And only an imbecile would think otherwise. Or, a trio of imbeciles.

Teenage karate kicking demon fighters? This is just chock full of WTF?

This is absolutely sickening on a number of different levels.

Clearly these people asking for exorcisms are mentally ill. ("I have welts on my legs where they held me down and raped me." Those are not the words of a sane person.)

But instead of receiving the kind of help that they obviously need they allow their superstitions to convince them to spend their money on these charlatans.

Part me wants to laugh at the image of this girl band of demon hunters being taken seriously by ANYONE. But another part of me just feels sad that there are still so many people so easily manipulated by this kind of superstitious nonsense.

I can only imagine how much more beautiful Alaska would be if we could get rid of this ugliness.

You may remember this unbelievable douchebag as the guy who believes that homosexuality is caused by demons and has used exorcisms to pray the gay away.

Just one of the truly ugly parts of this great state.

(H/T to my friends over at Bent Alaska,)

Things to worry about during your next trip to Australia: indecipherable Aussie slang, man-eating sharks, and demonic possession. WTF?

The Catholic Church has revealed how growing interest in satanism and the occult has led to a rise in exorcisms across Queensland.One priest, who asked not to be named for fear of "reprisals", said he was carrying out at least one exorcism a fortnight.

More requests for exorcisms came from the Gold Coast than anywhere else.

An exorcism involves holy water, sacrament and Bible reading and can go on for many hours, the priest said. Linda Blair made the subject famous in the 1973 film, The Exorcist.

"Being possessed by a demon is terrifying in one's mental and emotional life," he said. "Some of these manifestations are extremely powerful, causing people to be plagued by disturbances. They hear voices and see hideous creatures in their sleep.

Do you know what else is terrifying? Being a superstitious anti-science Aussie bedwetter.

The idea that there are still people in the world who believe that hearing voices is caused by demonic possession rather then possible schizophrenia or psychotic depression is absolutely mind numbing!

There are readily available medications which can cure or suppress this problem and very useful therapies that can help the afflicted person deal with it.

Going to a priest for this is like going to a chiropractor for a toothache.

As long as there are superstitious people in the world there will be priests, witchdoctors, and mediums willing to take advantage of them.

Poor countries + primitive superstitions = death of innocents.

A former priest began a seven-year jail term Wednesday for murdering a young nun during an exorcism ritual when she was bound, chained to a cross and denied food and water for days.

Irina Cornici, 23, died from dehydration, exhaustion and suffocation during an ordeal that stunned Romania and prompted the Orthodox Church to promise reforms and psychological tests to screen potential clergy.

The former priest, Daniel Corogeanu, and four nuns were all convicted and sentenced in September but Corogeanu was freed pending an appeal, which he lost Tuesday. He was picked up by police in the remote northeast Wednesday and sent to jail.

Cornici, who had previously been treated for schizophrenia, had believed she heard the devil talking to her. Corogeanu and the four nuns decided to try an exorcism ritual in June 2005 using techniques that the Romanian Orthodox Church condemned as "abominable".

Faith without knowledge is a dangerous combination in any country, but in a place as steeped in ancient superstitions as Romania it makes a poisonous combination.

It is almost embarrassing to share the planet with these backward thinking fools.

I feel terrible for the young woman who was victimized for having a problem that could have been easily addressed by mental health professionals.

Ignorance is where religions find their foothold with the naive.

Officers responding to a report of an exorcism on a young girl found her grandfather choking her and used stun guns to subdue the man, who later died, authorities said Sunday.

The 3-year-old girl and her mother, who was also in the room during the struggle between 49-year-old Ronald Marquez and officers, were hospitalized, police said. Their condition was unavailable.

“The purpose was to release demons from this very young child,” said Sgt. Joel Tranter.

Officers arrived at the house Saturday and entered when they heard screaming coming from a bedroom, Tranter said.

A bed had been pushed up against the door; the officers pushed it open a few inches and saw Marquez choking his bloodied granddaughter, who was crying in pain and gasping, Tranter said.

Before science primitive people made multiple assertions about he world that were later proven to be false. The earth is flat, the stars are Gods looking down on us, illness is caused by demons, and many, many more.

With information literally only a click away it is unbelievable that there are still so many who will not put their primitive superstitions aside and allow the truth to filter in.

This was a three year old girl! And she suffered because the people who are supposed to be caring for her are uneducated, backward thinking idiots.

This is what faith over science creates!