Posted on 11/11/2010 8:38:52 PM PST by marshmallow
Pity the poor exorcist, caught between evil spirits eager to invade human bodies and a society skeptical that demons exist outside of Hollywood horror movies.
Even some church leaders look askance at exorcists as peddlers of a practice best left in the Middle Ages. Most American exorcists, particularly the handful of priests appointed by the Roman Catholic Church, keep a low profile, hesitating to open themselves — or their church — to ridicule and quacks.
But exorcists may soon be moving out of the shadows.
U.S. Catholic bishops are sponsoring a conference this week (Nov. 12-13) in Baltimore on the "liturgical and pastoral practice of exorcism." Fifty-six bishops and 66 priests have registered to hear about the shortage of trained exorcists and the growing interest in the mysterious rite, according to Catholic News Service.
That's good news for the Rev. Gary Thomas, a loquacious, Silicon Valley priest eager to dish about exorcism and the art of spiritual warfare.
Thomas is pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Saratoga, Calif., and the official exorcist for the Diocese of San Jose. According to Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., who is helping organize the Baltimore conference, Thomas is one of only five or six active exorcists in the U.S.
Last year, Thomas wrote to 121 Catholic bishops and 41 seminary rectors, urging them to train more priests in demon de-possession. Included with the letters were copies of "The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist," a book by journalist Matt Baglio that details Thomas' three-year journey from California clergyman to university-trained "spiritual detective."
"I hope that you will take the time to read this book and become better informed about a subject that many Catholics priests deem superstitious and medieval," Thomas wrote in the letter to the bishops. These are apocalyptic times, the.........
(Excerpt) Read more at newsok.com ...
You would try, and you would fail. Sophistication is something one either has or hasn't.
and as for being snarky and cynical...why not? Some beliefs deserve to be mocked.
Perhaps so, but not by someone who's attempting to be sophisticated about it.
Call me back when you have teenagers expelling a being who can curse them out in Aramaic, Latin, Greek, and Egyptian, and tell them all about what they do when nobody is looking -- in front of their mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters.
Derek Prince is listed in a some Catholic charismatic online sites. I have several myself. Also ST. Joseph radio show once had a whole hour on pleading the blood of Christ or Jesus for spiritual warfare.
Along with 80% + of the general population—particularly the BETTER EDUCATED amongst them.
Ahhhhhhhhhhh . . .
I gather you are unwilling to share what it means
. . . to you.
INDEED.
Some of us . . .
try to appreciate the full range of fitting mockery . . . from barnyard flippancy to C.S. Lewis finesse.
I gather you’ve not known such teens.
Pity.
The Vatican . . . locked into
. . . a form of Godliness but denying the power there of . . .
. . . Traditions of man and rituals of idolatry and blasphemy do NOT cut it in many situations with many demonic forces.
Persistent application of Blood of Jesus bought authority and anointing through Holy Spirit born child-like faith IN CHRIST is required.
PRAISE GOD.
He was the real deal. A powerful man of God.
His ministry facilitated deliverance and freedom in Christ to millions.
. . . to you.
On the contrary; Ungara is a fictional planet, as per the link I provided.
That's what it means to me. Why would you think it means anything else?
Demons are real. But it only takes one exorcist to rebuke and vanquish them...the Lord Jesus Christ.
"Only a third of adults, however, believe it's either very likely or somewhat likely that intelligent aliens from space have visited our planet, according to a survey of 1,003 adults conducted by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University."
http://www.reporternews.com/news/2008/jul/26/you-are-not-alone/
To say otherwise would be a lie.
and "capital L" Libertarianism,
Incorrect. "small L". I don't vote Libertarian because a) they can't win at the national level and b) they're isolationists who advocate cutting defense spending to an unacceptably low level.
who denies social conservatism,
I certainly deny that I'm a social conservative. And why not? It's true, after all.
and who posts opinions ridiculing others for having social, fiscal, political, and religiously conservative beliefs
If by "political" you mean defense and foreign policy, that's certainly not the case, nor is fiscal. As for social and religious beliefs, I will certainly mock certain absurdities such as creationism or faith healing now and then, but I try to restrict my attacks to the actual belief, not the person themselves. I don't always succeed, but no one's perfect...
So, you came on the Religion Forum with the intent to disrupt and mock the beliefs of others?
I see. That sure is interesting......
If you have such a low opinion of them, why didn't you just scroll past the thread? Why come on here and poke a stick in someone's eye?
The irony abounds......
I found this thread on the main forum page. How does one tell that a thread is on the Religion Forum?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't such beliefs as Islam and Mormonism regularly mocked on this very forum? Is the problem that it's your particular ox that's being gored?
If you have such a low opinion of them, why didn't you just scroll past the thread? Why come on here and poke a stick in someone's eye?
Again, please correct me if I'm wrong...but don't you on occasion comment on threads involving evolution, and mock those who believe in it? Why don't you just scroll past the thread?
Still no answer.
Fascinating . . . this lack of articulating what it means to you.
I suppose I should have defined things better . . .
. . . that is, that UFO’s were real and not figments of people’s imaginations, swamp gas etc.
Um...I just did answer.
Fascinating . . . this lack of articulating what it means to you.
I'm collect comics, and I picked a screen name out of a hat (so to speak). Why should there be any deeper meaning?
UFOs are certainly "real" in the sense that they are optical phenomena or misidentified objects in the sky. They're just not Greys, Klingons, or Wookies...
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