Exorcism a Routine Event at Colorado Republican's Addiction-Recovery Clinic, Says Director

[Shallah Kali]

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2010/10/28/11193/546

Over the last summer in Colorado, as covered in the Columbine Courier News and the Colorado Independent a controversy broke out concerning Colorado-area Teen Challenge addiction recovery centers overseen by Colorado State Representative and Assemblies of God pastor Ken Summers, when Columbine Courier news reporter Emile Hallez Williams reported that Summer's centers practice "reparative therapy," an evangelical euphemism for attempts to "cure" people of homosexuality.

Running for reelection this year, Ken Summers denied that his centers practiced "reparative therapy" but Williams stuck by his story. That raises questions concerning the methods that Summers' centers might use to "get the gay out." Over the last few months I've been doing a good deal of research on the growing trend of exorcism on the evangelical right. That research led me to a May 1, 2010 podcast, in which the Assistant Director of one of Summers' Teen Challenge centers, Matt Lane, recounts an exorcism at the 180 Men's Teen Challenge Denver center and states that demon possession is a "very common" problem they deal with at his center.

A May 1, 2010 blog post on Daniel Petruska's "Director's Blog" reads,

"Life at Teen Challenge is far from what most of us know as normal. In this podcast the Teen Challenge staff talks about what a normal day is like around the center. Listen in and get a sneak peek of everything from routine schedules, teaching topics, mentoring moments and deliverance from demon possession as the staff takes you on a six-minute tour of a day in the life of Teen Challenge."

More at the link: http://www.talk2action.org/story/2010/10/28/11193/546


A series of articles on Teen Challenge and it's coercive techniques by Dogemperor, a walkaway from a fundamentalist family: http://teenchallengecult.blogspot.com/2008/05/daily-kos-dogemperor-teen-challenge.html

[BadgerKid]

1. My name is Minga! n/t

[ljm2002]

2. "deliverance from demon possession"...

...is just part of a normal day at the Center! Ha ha ha ha ha!

For some reason it made me think of a TV show I saw a few years ago showing Ozzie Osborne and family moving. The part that cracked me up in that one was the pictures of the cardboard boxes - marked "Bedroom 1", "Kitchen", "Living Room", "Dishes", "Books", "Devil Heads", ... I laughed out loud at that too.

Goes to show, a "normal day" in one household / teen center may be wildly different from what you and I think a "normal day" would consist of.

[RagAss]

3. Deranged Slapdick !

[Qutzupalotl]

4. I read the headline too fast and thought it said

Republican-addiction recovery clinic.

[derby378]

5. You should see my library on exorcism and demon possession

I've got some scary video of a mass deliverance ceremony.

Basically, it looks like a lot of folie a deux, pseudopsychotherapy, and misfiring temporal lobes. Not to mention nonsensical demons such as the "demon of wordly dancing." You think I'm making this stuff up?

[Shallah Kali]

6. I believe you. I have read too much on far right religious fundies to doubt

remember the demon infected candy article from last year? - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/29/christian-broadcasting-ne_n_338738.html


Jesus made me puke: undercover with the christian right. - matt taibb
http://www.rickross.com/reference/fundamentalists/fund240.html


McCain-Endorser's Church Casts Out "Demon of Anal Fissures
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/5/7/121842/8729


Evangelist Who Thinks Gays Are Possessed By Demons Suggests Obama's worldview May Be "Aberrant"
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2010/6/17/151331/250

Demons Cause Influenza, Suggested Peer-Reviewed Medical Journal Paper. But it Gets Worse.
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2010/8/14/184346/958

Generational Curses, Deliverance Centers, and the Kingdom Health Care System
The growing obsession with demons imperils reality-based discourse on issues
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2009/11/23/2349/5841

Soldiers of Christ: Inside America's Most Powerful Megachurch - jeff sharlet
http://www.rickross.com/reference/fundamentalists/fund196.html

Larry Huch is founder of the Texas megachurch DFW New Beginnings and a former director of John Hagee's Christians United for Israel. In his book 10 Curses that Block the Blessing, Huch explains breaking curses from witches by relating the story of a couple he had advised. The young mother had a sexually transmitted disease that she acquired shortly after her marriage, and was passed on to her infant. After a few questions, Huch informs the couple that the STD was a curse put on the young woman by her grandmother at the couple's wedding. Huch then claims to have removed the curse and cured both mother and baby. This was one account in a chapter titled "Witchcraft - It's More Common Than You Think." Read more on Huch's view of curses at the Apostolic and Prophetic magazine The Voice Magazine.

[derby378]

8. Many thanks for the links!

:hi:

[Shallah Kali]

9. You are most welcome

I hope others found them useful as well. It is surprising to find out how popular exorcism is in this day and age and sad to know it is used on young people to try to exorcise away teh gay :(

[Kurovski]

7. Don't be silly.

"Exorcism" is a Republican euphemism for "rough trade hand job."