Dr Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission has defended a church that performed a gruelling exorcism on a 16-year-old boy.
Manifested Glory Church in Bridgeport, CT, has been widely condemned after a video was released showing the boy writhing around on the floor as a preacher attempted to rid him of the demon supposedly behind his homosexuality. As others held the teenager in place, occasionally propping him up, the preacher shouted, “You homosexual spirit, we call you out right now. You have no power. … Loose your grip, Lucifer, you sex demon,” among other commands to the Devil.
Now Dr Cass has decried critics, accusing them of intolerance:
Where is the tolerance for a church who tried to help a young man who freely asked for help to overcome homosexual temptations? … No church deserves to be maligned for trying to help a troubled teen who asked for prayer.
He insinuates (helped by Christian Newswire’s headline, which unnecessarily identifies Manifested Glory as a black church) that racism is behind the criticisms:
White homosexual activists who demand tolerance for their sexual sin have no right to defame black Christians for practicing their Constitutional religious liberty. … As far as we know, this young man went to church on his own prerogative and left the church physically unharmed.
This kind of demonic deliverance is in fact found in Pentecostal and charismatic churches regardless of ethnicity, which leaves Dr Cass’s accusation baseless.
The real concern here is that a 16-year-old – white, black or anywhere in-between – was subjected to such an intense ordeal. And if he did consent to being treated in this way, to what kind of abusive teaching must he have been exposed to get to the point where he was convinced his sexual orientation was the result of possession by Satan?
Watch the video below:
A couple of comments. Regarding what they’re actually doing here, it’s pretty typical Pentecostal stuff. I used to see this in the backwoods of Texas all the time, but they do this to alcoholics to overeaters. The fact that this time it was the “demon” of homosexuality is almost irrelevant. They have a demon for everything (kind of like the Hindus have a god for everything).
This still doesn’t excuse the vile consequences of anti-gay religious theology. But the exorcism itself is both barbaric and mundane.
I wonder how many gang members or those convicted of violent crimes get this kind of public humiliation for THEIR demons?
Wonder how many ‘baby daddies’ and ‘baby mommas’ are advised to keep their lust in check or else risk AIDS?
Or how much they are told what a burden they are on taxpayers through social services or incarceration?
One only has to watch the pm news, or be in law enforcement on any level to know that this concentration on gay people as damaging to our society and to their individual selves rings so stupidly hollow.
I really, really, REALLY hate being polite when this kind of crap goes on.
Ya feel me?
Folks, it doesn’t end there.
This child will be subjected to further religious abuse and spiritual terrorism. Those who practice this kind of abuse are quick to latch onto the scripture that teaches if the demon comes back and finds “the house” swept clean but unoccupied, he will return and bring with him more demons that are worse than he is.
Now whenever this child experiences any attraction to a man or develops a crush/romance on a boy his age, He will be plagued with doubts, stress and anxiety that his demons have returned and have increased tenfold.
His abusers have secured their hold on him until such a time he can break free of the abusive cycle.
–Voice of experience (who thankfully broke free)
I just got off the phone with Dr. Cass. He’s a very patronizing man.
My essential arguments was that what is happening is that although this kid (to Dr. Cass), might have shown up willingly, gay children are are given little choice to be or do anything else unless they submit to their church community’s will.
As I mentioned being instructed in all kinds of religions, he took it as an anti Christian attitude.
He made quite a few leaps of assuming I was anti Christian for pointing out abuses of other minorities we should be wary about.
He said he witnessed a lot of gay people changing their orientation.
But I told him that doing so is usually under duress and without any other option that’s accepted either.
He pretty did want many men in his position do, he called me a relativist and emotional for empathizing with gay people as a member of a minority that’s been devalued.
And even though being gay is different from being black, so is being a Jew from being a woman.
But that doesn’t mean we didn’t have MUCH in common and that being the most devalued and silenced members of America.
Anyway, he kept going back to either sweeping generalizations or invoking Scripture.
How tiresome.
Really. Tiresome.
I don’t care how many years he’s spent AROUND gay people, and in the only way HE cares to be.
It won’t make him more informed about gay people or knowing how to teach about them more than a gay person could.
I tried.
Regan, you are a braver woman than I am. Thank you for sharing your insights.
Dr. Cass doesn’t get that the real defamation of Christianity comes from churches like the one in Connecticut.
this kid was forced into this the same way i was forced to go and confess to the priest that i was gay. then he raped me. these people are evil.
I agree with Cass that the “exorcism” itself is fine. The individual and church are free to do what they choose. Sad and silly, Yes. Immoral, No.
The issue is the awful beliefs and attitudes leading up to the exorcism.
The race card is also wrong. A white church tried excorsizing a white gay for mine.
I disagree, Ephilei.
Thrusting into someone’s abdomen until they vomit is extremely dangerous, no matter how many “demons” the assailant imagines to be in the victim’s belly.
Ephilei, sorry…but these exorcisms ARE very wrong. First of all, they assume that it’s a demon that’s inside this child, and that homosexuality is something that can be vomited as such.
Children have been accidentally suffocated during such activity. Pushing on the diaphragm can lead to disruption and muscle spasms. The mildest problem would be hiccups.
The most severe could be a respiratory arrhythmia or hernia.
Dr. Cass’s attitude that what he calls ‘pagan’ religions which are non Christian are invalid and don’t have the same worth as Christianity. Dr. Cass’s decades long experience AROUND gay people who he says changed their homosexual ways dismisses so many things, and dangerously so.
He denies that religious taboos against other personal or social issues never changed or aren’t a denial of necessary personal freedoms. As in the case of blood and organ donation (even from animals), autopsy and contraception.
He wants Christianity to take credit for everything good that’s occurred in this country, but none of the bad.
When I told him about the abuses of Native Americans by missionaries, to not even keep their names, he dismissed it as justified since the Indians were pagans.
He’s bought into believing that homosexuality is caused by some kind of sexual abuse, but dismisses the idea that gay children are initially mentally and emotionally abused by the expectation that religious belief can and should change them, or else they suffer any number of threats.
He didn’t care that people belonging to any given group under such socio/political duress is no stretch that a member of that group wouldn’t WANT to be such a person.
And lastly, sometimes abusers say they are hurting, controlling and macromanaging your life out of love.
He counts on gay people and people in general not knowing the difference.
I think saying it’s about your eternal soul and relationship with God is a terrible thing to say while allowing the most vital social networks do the job of abject pressure.
This ultimately forces a person into going along to get along. He supports all the discriminatory laws in place. And although he told me to prove MY feelings in Scripture or else he would too.
DADT, the Boy Scout ban and so on, are NOT in Scripture, neither is marriage bans for that matter or school bullying.
In a country where we are and should be free to choose which religious path we want to take, hedging that in favor of governmental public policy against a single group takes the sincerity out of Christians acting out of ‘love’.
It shows a lack of patience for God getting to any one of us in due time.
Most of all, he argued most forcefully that being gay is changeable and should be changed.
And THIS is what makes credibility for gay people so extremely difficult.
I don’t think it’s wrong for me to think, since this attitude is so entrenched and persistent, that ex gays think about this.
The ones who say they WANT to help and that their conduct is valid as a personal social choice, would ONLY be right, WERE there a choice.
There is no choice to be gay, THAT’S the point.
Regan,
Having heard Dr. Cass on a local radio show, you get points for trying but it’s easier to try and move a sand dune one grain of sand at a time. Cass’s idea of discrimination is anyone anywhere saying something bad about anything remotely Christian. His ideas of “persecution” are blown out of proportion misunderstandings. There is no reasoning with people like him.
Thanks Scott, it’s mental and emotional exercise for me. However immovable this person is, talking to them allows me to learn how to cover every question and comment. How to answer each one and what to expect.
It helps me learn how to keep cool, when what I really want to do is something else.
There are always people who question for the right reasons and have not certainty and know it.
These are the teachable and reachable.
I also like knowing how committed I am to going DIRECTLY to who I need to.
It was a long distance call and worth the time.
There seem to be a number of issues that make this less than cut and dry.
1. The person on the receiving end is a minor and our laws generally provide extra protection for them.
2. If any physical harm is being done, I don’t see how that can be shielded by any laws or guarantees concerning religious practice. I’m not an attorney or a constitutional scholar, but this would seem to be so. One can certainly work oneself up into a frenzy like that and even vomit with no outside assistance — I’ve seen it.
3. This sort of thing goes on in pentecostal churches somewhere in this country virtually every day. If not for “demons of homosexuality” then for something else. The scene here was erily familiar to me as I started my faith in a pentecostal denomination (Assemblies of God).
Keeping in mind previous legal caveats, I think it would be nearly impossible to legally discourage or punish whatever mental anguish might come from such an event. Perhaps it has been done, I do not know. But quite frankly, I doubt we will ever be able to legally punish religious groups for mental anguish, at least those groups considered anywhere near a genuine religion and not a cult. It would be interesting to know if this has been done or even attempted.
I am personally appalled by the scene, and I think if there is any kind of outside influence that can cause this church to rethink this type of activity, it should be exercised. However, I have no doubt that many people even among those reading XGW will recognize the theatrics and atmosphere exhibited in this clip as something they have witnessed without a second thought.
The act of exorcism is in scripture, Christian and otherwise. Realistically, It won’t be going anywhere anytime soon just because many of us are offended by it. That said, I believe if these people in the video were to actually meet whatever a demon really is, they would faint dead away and/or lose control their bodily functions.
PS: I see no reason for race to be part of the equation, the church I was part of was 100% WASP. I’ve seen little difference between what happened there and in churches of color.
How many of these non-denominational Pentecostal churches’ leaders have theological training, counselor training, and ordination from reputable authorities?
Does anyone know of reputable surveys or statistics?
I rather doubt there are any stats on that, but then again they don’t have to have any of that. That would be a case of “buyer beware” I think. As I said, this stuff is a deep part of many people’s faith, you won’t get rid of it. And the A/G is the fastest growing denomination in the country I believe, and they don’t slack on foreign missions, either. Not all of their churches do this, but a bunch do.
I agree with David that this sort of behavior is commonplace in many churches. I, too, grew up among Pentecostals and saw more of it than I would like to remember. My last effort to become straight was an exorcism conducted by a tenured professor at a well-respected, mainstream evangelical theological seminary. I was working on my doctorate, and he was my academic advisor. It was only slightly different from the YouTube scene. Lots of shouting at the demon: “Tell me your naaaaaaaaaame!” When I reported that my hands were tingling, I was told it was because of the vile things I had touched with my hands. Of course, now I know it was due to hyperventilation. I actually feel a bit betrayed now, years later, that someone I trusted and who should have known better tried something so ridiculous to free me from my own self. At least it forced me to understand how wrong-headed anti-gay theology is. I’m an adult, though. I hope the 16 y/o kid in the video gets some good counsel soon and comes to see that neither he nor his sexual orientation is evil.
If the leadership of this so-called “church” has no accreditation in either mental health or theology, then that’s all the more reason for Connecticut’s child-welfare authorities to initiate criminal proceedings against the perpetrators of this abuse.
Even when religious practice is legitimate, it is not a blank check for adults to endanger the health of children. And in this case the “religion” itself is a fraud.