Colorado State Representative and Assemblies of God pastor Ken Summers, who oversees the Teen Challenge addiction centers, has some unusual methods to “cure” people of homosexuality. He envisions homosexuality as a demonic possession requiring an exorcism to “get the gay out.”
An isolated incident? Think again …
Minnesota congress woman Michele Bachmann’s donated over $9,000 to a Teen Challenge in Minnesota. The Minnesota Teen Challenge has received over $10 million in government funding, and there’s been a lot of demon casting-out going on at that Teen Challenge.
A Connecticut church, Manifested Glory Ministries in Bridgeport, posted a video of an exorcism of a teen’s “homosexual demons” on YouTube. It has since been taken down.
What a great idea. Blame everything on “demons” so you don’t have to take any personal responsibility. It’s not your fault.
These people are insane. If there’s a better argument in favor of church/state separation, I haven’t seen it.
I know, it’s better to light one candle than curse the darkness, but I’m all out of candles.
H/T: Neurological Blog, Religious Right Watch.
-David Drumm (Nal)
Praise the lord….
Nal,
I remember once a family at my church had a laying of hands on their car to cast out the demons that were causing it to not work. Amazingly, it worked (of course the laying of hands was followed by a visit from a member of the congregation who worked as a mechanic).
J. Brain,
That is one well turned phrase. You have my admiration for it.
Were someone to ask me (no one ever has, nor do I expect anyone ever will) what my notion of the capability of human brain biology to have a notion of “a demon” or “demons,” my reply might be “a demon is a belief, expressed in word-form, which contradicts itself in such a way as to result in dissociative trauma in the brain of a person who has internalized said belief.”
Or,
Demons are make-believes which make people believe in demons.
Ken Summers…
you don’t even have to go further than his name to assume he’s gay. His curing gays and being pastor only secures it.
This one’s definitely browsing rentboy…
Hey, I think I’ve found a program they can cut to keep unemployment benefits going.
These are the people that wanted limited government right?
That was an excellent book, by the way.
This sort of thing is on par with Pastor Helen Ukpabio* who asserts she can expose children who are witches in Nigeria, which results in children as young as 3 or 4 yrs old being tortured, killed or cast out by their families.
There’s a psychosis that frequents religious sects which tend to superstition and biblical literalism. There’s really no other way to regard a mental perspective like Ken Summers’ other than as hallucinatory psychosis. He and those like him who participate in these ridiculous and extremely harmful assaults on homosexuals are actually the ones who most need treatment. Barring that, they should be locked up for the verifiable damage they cause in vulnerable people under their sway.
*http://www.happyghana.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1004:children-abused-killed-as-witches-in-nigeria&catid=20:africa-a-world-news&Itemid=31
You have woven separate instances into one seamless lie.
Nal wrote:
“These people are insane. If there’s a better argument in favor of church/state separation, I haven’t seen it.”
That pretty well sums it up.
(Ralph Reed was on C-SPAN last night (a National Press Club event) singing the praises of the “religious right” and their plan to replace Obama in 2012 with someone who is “pro-family, pro-life” — someone like Marco Rubio. Reeds group calls itself “The Faith and Freedom Coalition.” His defintion of freedom certainly isn’t mine.)
Nal,
I think the darkness is “inside” the heads of people like these. Candles won’t help.