The BBC allows sectarian fundamentalist's full reign to promote their mediaeval claptrap under the cover of 'religious broadcasting (Everyman's The Exorcist, 9.00pm Wednesday 16th January 2002 : BBC2. ) .
Even though many innocent children and adults have been killed by exorcism.
Even though the Church of England is already aware of dangers like these:
Perhaps the most celebrated case, which caused the Church of England to completely revamp its rules, was where a man who had been made insane through exorcism killed his wife by tearing her face apart until she choked to death on her own blood.
The killer was a member of a local church whose leaders became convinced he was possessed. They subjected him to a day and a night of exorcism. Under this maltreatment the man became violent and was then taken to a Cof E vicar whose involvement only made things worse. The vicar eventually called in Methodist Ministers supposedly 'skilled' in exorcism to exorcise the man again. Twelve hours later when the 'exorcists' became mentally and physically exhausted, the man was told that 40 demons had been exorcised but the Spirit of Murder remained. Whereupon he was taken home to his poor wife. In a fit of insane violence brought on by the exorcism, he murdered her with his bare hands.
This completely avoidable tragedy was a direct result of the exorcism. Exorcisms like the ones Everyman are causing to be legitimised. An expert witness, consultant psychologist Hugo Milne, was asked by the judge at the Gawber trial whether the exorcism had caused the man to kill. Mr Milne said :
"It was entirely related to his trance state and his eventual killing of his wife. It caused it.".The judge accepted that view in his summing up and also made clear that the man had been a loving husband who had been exorcised into committing an unforgivable act of murder completely out of character. Incarcerating him in a mental institution the judge said he now had to live with the knowledge that he had deprived his three small children of their mother and father. His defence counsel railed at the fact that the people who had caused the exorcism were not charged and made it clear that he thought they should be imprisoned with the husband as accessories.
After the trial , which got nationwide publicity, the CofE published new guidelines and set up 'official' exorcists in each diocese. The idea of course was to intercept and control the mediaeval idiocities of 'maverick' vicars. This can be clearly seen when, a year later, the Archbishop of Canterbury's office condemned impromptu exorcisms by a CofE vicar in a church near Gawber. The clergyman eventually resigned.
People's memories are very short and today the original intent behind those rules is being misrepresented by a new wave of exorcists. What were restrictions are being passed off as 'guidelines' developed to cope with what they see as the 'increasing need for exorcisms'. A need which does not really exist but which is fuelled by irresponsible programs of this low calibre.
The 'star exorcist' of the Everyman program, Tom Willis, Ex CofE vicar, is plainly aware of the history and dangers of exorcism. In 1996 Willis was quoted in a critical article in the CofE Church Times under the headline EXORCISM CAN BE DANGEROUS and which discussed the misuse of exorcism. Cannon Dominic Walker warned that exorcism is now being applied indiscriminately for any type of problem . He had discovered that victims of sexual abuse had been summarily exorcised. They had been despicably told 'if you've been abused then you are demonised'.
In defence of his own position Willis said
'I don't do many exorcisms of people, but I do about 30 or so exorcisms of buildings a year, ...a number of Clergy had performed exorcisms where psychological help might have been more appropriate. '
Willis omitted to define what situations were 'appropriate' for exorcisms nor how one would obtain skill in identifying them, but he did criticise the Church of England's 'guidelines' saying they were 'vague'.
This measured response contrasts with a newspaper piece on 17th February 1995 where he was billed as an 'Occult Expert' and head of a training course for exorcists being held in Scarborough. Regardless of the 'vagueness' of the CofE guidelines Willis had been able to train ten other CofE vicars in exorcism at this course. The course covered Hauntings, Poltergeists and finished with 'Occult Practices and Oppression'; all key motifs of the Christian Fundamentalists' war wagon.
Indeed, when Sue Macgregor did a piece on it for Radio 4 she countered that doctors and psychotherapists said that those who thought they were demon-possessed needed medical treatment. Not neccessarily so, said the Reverend Kevin Logan. Logan had been a main-player in the Satanic Ritual Abuse Panic of the 1980s. Famous (amongst other things), for claiming that 86% of children had suffered some occult 'oppression' and for blessing children (who had supposedly suffered from satanic contamination ) on camera for that appallingly unprofessional Cook Report program The Devil's Work, which created most of the Satanic Panic. Logan said there was a war going on, that the church needs to be able to cope and learn the 'strategies of the enemy'. Doctors have their place but so do ministers. '
N.B.: In March 1988, just prior to the Satanic Panic which they helped start, The Christian Missionary group Reachout, which Logan helped out with and supported was reported as conducting chain-exorcisms of adults in Rhyll.
Then in Woman's Realm a star exorcee Muriel Scorah explains how Willis exorcised her from.... Spiritualism. Now Spiritualism may appear eccentric to some, but it is actually a form of the Christian religion. Spiritualists go to church, pray to God and hail Jesus as The Messiah. Here we have another indicator of the inability of exorcists to define what may and what may not require exorcising. Everyman are irresponsibly pushing the drama of Exorcism but many of the people whom they are celebrating clearly have an agenda of intolerance for alternative beliefs.
Tom Willis said he was 'concerned about the growth of Satanic Groups'. We must remind our readers that Mr Willis was one of those Christian activists who believed in the since disproven idea of Satanic Ritual Abuse. He appeared in numerous sensational newspaper articles which claimed that it existed.
Just as in the case of the poor Gawber woman who had her face clawed to shreds by a loving husband made insane by exorcism, memories of the nationwide panic over the myth of Satanic Ritual Abuse (and the 86 children who had their lives destroyed by misguided action by the authorities ) have also faded sufficiently from public view to allow opportunists at Everyman to peddle this poison yet again.
The situation wouldn't be so dangerous if self-styled exorcists weren't pro-active but they are VERY active. Exorcism can be clearly seen as a form of missionary activity. The Christian Counsellor magazine, the journal of the Waverly College, was at the forefront of promoting the idea of having 'counsellors' on tap after every traumatic incident. The College even set some of the benchmarks for the national qualifications for 'counselling', yet in 1992 it published a major article serialised over four consecutive issues concerning Exorcism as an adjunct to Counselling. Here we have a clear example of the recruitment of Christian activists to minister to people who are emotionally vulnerable under the guise of psychological counselling. Who knows how many poor children and adults have been abused and sought help from 'counsellors' only to be abused yet again in exorcism ceremonies of one kind or another.
Perhaps the most appalling thing about BBC's Everyman is it's cultural and moral blindness. Their view of society is imperialistic and simplistic. They may acknowledge the token Sikh, Moslem or Buddhist but appear to think that everyone else is a nominal Christian. Of what use is a program on Christian Exorcism to Jews, Buddhists, Moslems, Atheists, Pagans or Voodooists? Are we to assume that non-Christians are immune to these supposed demons, or will the Christian exorcists interfere with adherents of non Christian beliefs as well?
The ultimate justification for this program is the usual ,unspecified, supposed threat of ''evil' for which no proof has ever been offered. In contradistinction we have the pile of documentary evidence proving the extensive and terrible harm exorcism can do. It is mediaeval superstition of the worst kind. This program should not have been commissioned and questions should be asked as to why it was. It will undoubtedly be used by the new wave of exorcists as 'further proof' of the need for more exorcisms - until another Gawber case explodes across the headlines and the promoters of the barmy idea slip silently out of view again. This program will definitely result in a glut of vulnerable people rushing to be exorcised. If recent history is anything to go by a proportion of them will incur unnecessary suffering in the future and maybe even die in the process. The fault for that will lie partly at the door of Everyman.
Ends.
John Freedom, Mortlake 16 January 2002
More details: www.saff.UKHQ.co.uk
POSTSCRIPT: John Freedom's awful prophecy comes horrifingly true as 8 year old Victoria Climbe is beaten to death by Christian Fanatics in an Exorcism. Right under the noses of London Social Workers! Government spends millions on a sack-cloth and ashes whitewash whilst the Everyman team hide their faces from view. . www.saff.ukhq.co.uk/witchild.htm
More Cases of lunatic exorcism below. Does the BBC condone this too? Where are the people at Everyman who promoted this evil?
Daily Telegraph (Filed: 22/09/2006)
A priest and four nuns have pleaded not guilty to murdering a young nun who was strapped to a crucifix with a cloth in her mouth during a five-day crucifixion ritual. Father Petru Corogeanu and sisters Nicoleta Arcalianu, Adina Cepreaga, Simona Bardanas and Elena Otel told the court in Vaslui, eastern Romania, yesterday that they had performed the exorcism at the Tanacu Monastery to try to help 23-year-old Irina Cornici. They said at the time that she had been possessed by Satan. It emerged after her death that Cornici had been diagnosed as a schizophrenic. Father Corogeanu told the court that the exorcism ritual was "quite normal" and blamed medics who attended to Cornici for her death. He has been excommunicated.
Send Any Cases of Exorcism You See to: saff@ukqh.co.uk.
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