By Janet Fife
Prof. Ralph Hanna once entered a Caifornia classroom, dumped his rucksack on the desk, and, eyeing his students, said in a rich Texas drawl: ‘Latin ees not daid. They jest changed its name to perteck its reputation.’ I’m tempted to say the same of medieval exorcism rituals: they haven’t died out, they’ve just changed their name to deliverance ministry.
That would not be fair, however. Deliverance ministry is more subtle and, in my view, perhaps even more dangerous than exorcism. Proponents of exorcism hold that a person can be possessed and controlled by one or more demons. Usually this would be seen as a fairly rare, though serious, occurrence. Many practitioners of deliverance ministry, on the other hand, inhabit a world infested with demons. They believe that even devout and faithful Christians are routinely troubled by these malign spirits. Everything from paisley pattern to Body Shop products has been described as ‘demonic’, with advice that Christians should avoid them. People may become ‘demonised’ by being the victim of an assault, touching a dead body, or having ancestors who were Freemasons, alcoholics, or went to seances.
This is a world view dominated by fear. ‘The Enemy’ (as they call Satan) and his minions are everywhere, they are powerful, and if we are not constantly on the alert they will get us.
Mommy told me something a little kid should know,
It’s all about the devil and I’ve learned to hate him so.
She said he causes trouble when you let him in the room,
He will never ever leave you if your heart is full of gloom….
(‘Let the Sunshine In,’ by Stuart Hamlen)
I heard one woman lament that her church’s round-the-clock prayer scheme had no one to cover the 3-4 pm slot, so that children coming out of school would be ‘unprotected’. It’s exhausting to have to foresee every danger in order to be able to pray about it. And it stems ultimately from a failure to trust God.
Full disclosure: in my charismatic days I both participated in and was the subject of deliverance ministry (not always willingly, I may add). I stayed at Ellel Grange twice soon after it opened in the late 1980s; Ellel has since become notorious for its focus on the demonic. During my second curacy, in a large charismatic church, I was trained in John Wimber’s methods of power healing and deliverance. And I have had encounters with various leaders practicing this ministry, including Michael and Rosemary Green.
The demonologies taught by some feature hierarchies of evil spirits with different realms of responsibility. The demon or demons to be confronted are identified by the symptoms and history of the patient. As just one example, Ellel identify ‘how the spirit of Jezebel operates through ungodly control’. There may be talk of ‘generational spirits’ or curses. Repeated or chronic illnesses are commonly identified as the work of a ‘spirit of infirmity’. In one such case I knew, a young woman with ailments moving round her body was thought to be possessed by a spirit of infirmity and prayed for accordingly, without effect. but was eventually diagnosed with an auto immune disease.
Advocates of deliverance ministry can rightly claim that it is ‘biblical’, and Jesus is recorded as carrying out several exorcisms. There is no biblical justification, however, for many of the theories about ranks and classes of demons. Such a study is inherently unhealthy. The gospels and Acts do not show exorcism to be more than an occasional feature of the ministry of Jesus and the apostles, but Ellel and others assume deliverance to be a part of the Christian life. If it were expected to be a normal part of the ongoing ministry of the Church we would expect to find instructions to that effect in the epistles. We do not.
To some all this will be foreign and bizarre: how can people living in the 21st century not only believe this stuff, but act on it? To others, including intelligent and educated people, the world of angels and demons is not only scriptural, but it makes sense of the world as they experience it. It may be a straw to clutch for the desperate, or offer an illusion of hope to those whose problems seem to have no solution.
It was my disillusionment with these approaches to healing ministry, and concern at some of the things I had taken part in and witnessed, which led me to research an MPhil on ‘Charismatic Healing Ministries and the Sexual Abuse Survivor’. I concluded that to a survivor, inner healing and deliverance ministries pose a serious risk of causing further damage.
This blog doesn’t offer scope for discussing all my reasons for that conclusion, but one of my most serious concerns is the use and abuse of power. There is inherent power imbalance in this kind of ministry. The person to be prayed for will be outnumbered, and usually those doing the praying will be ‘taking authority’ over whatever conditions or spirits they feel are afflicting the candidate. It’s very seldom that the pray-ers will have even the most basic knowledge of psychology and serious mistakes can be made. And it’s extremely difficult for those being prayed for to challenge the ‘diagnosis’ of those ministering, if they feel misjudged or concerned about the course the ministry session is taking.
Moreover, deliverance ministry attracts those who already have an unhealthy attitude to power. Here is an opportunity to ask questions about intimate aspects of people’s lives; to make pronouncements over them; to ‘exercise authority over’ demonic realms. It can be a real ego trip. At the last session of an Ellel course on deliverance, the leader commanded all the evil spirits in the room to ‘manifest themselves’ (a term frequently used). I will never forget the utter bedlam that ensued, as 60 or 70 people moaned, howled, and wailed. Instead of quieting things down, the leader walked among the crowd praying with people individually while the rest continued in their noisy distress. After some minutes I caught a glimpse of his face – he was enjoying it. I never went back.
Obviously, a bad experience of anything tends to make you think it can’t ever be good. In my understanding, deliverance is a more general term. You can be delivered from grief, or depression, say. My training was quite definite that you should be alert to the possibility of mental illness, and encourage people to seek professional help. I have encountered superstition. But when something ghastly happens, like the Soham murders, people are quick to invoke the concept of evil. And I was involved in prayer for someone who firstly was plainly depressed and secondly did appear to be oppressed in some way. The cleric who asked me to be involved kept in touch with them, involved their own incumbent with their permission, and together they got them to a doctor. There was much prayer, but nothing outlandish.
What happened in Soham was undoubtedly evil. That doesn’t mean there were necessarily any evil spirits (demons) involved – human beings are, unhappily, capable of great evil without any demonic involvement.
Can you say more about how you can be delivered from grief or depression, without their being demonic in origin?
Well, delivered just means that it’s gone. Treatment or prayer. I don’t see devils everywhere, but I’d hesitate to claim that evil as something other doesn’t exist. Not would I claim that evil deeds don’t come from human beings. We need to accept that they do. In theory, each of us could do the same.
Neither grief nor clinical depression just disappear. Healing takes time, and a crucial factor is that one (or hopefully, several) people are willing to sit with the sufferer in their darkness and pain. There are no shortcuts.
The search for shortcuts is one of the things that trouble me about much healing/deliverance ministry. Being listened to can be healing in itself, but looking for a quick exit can be damaging. Expecting it is even worse, especially if it means the sufferer is abandoned or blamed. And that happens far too often.
I didn’t mean it would go instantly. Maybe the first step?
Thanks Janet. Good on you!
I wrote http://www.pennantpublishing.co.uk/castout.pdf on this subject in about 1990. If you only read one paragraph, the final one is the most helpful to my mind.
In sum, Jesus expected his followers to cast out demons, and other people doing it badly is not a reason for not doing it ourselves, to my mind.
Thank you David. Granted that Jesus expect this followers to cast out demons in his name, but which followers did he mean? HIs immediate disciples; those authorised as ministers; or all Christians until the end of time? How often did he think this ministry would be necessary, and might modern medicine and psychiatry replace it? I haven’t time to read all of your article so you might tackle these questions; apologies if so.
In the early Church converts were exorcised just prior to their baptism. I haven’t seen evidence that exorcism/deliverance was thought necessary on a frequent basis after that. Patristics isn’t my subject so perhaps someone more knowledgeable might comment.
The baptismal exorcisms have been preserved in Anglican liturgy. Candidates are required to renounce ‘the devil and all rebellion against God’; ‘the deceit and corruption of evil,; and their sins. The sign of the cross is then mad eon the forehead of each candidate, and the minister says, ‘May almighty God deliver you from the powers of darkness, restore in you the image of his glory, and lead you in the light and obedience of Christ.’
Janet, regarding which followers are called to cast out demons, please watch my video Getting Involved at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmzfPakyQ4I&feature=youtu.be where I address this in just 60 seconds. (To see the series, please visit http://www.diychurch.co.uk.) Note that this video has attracted little interest to date – just one hit per year!
More later.
I’ve just doubled the number of hits for this year!
Granted that Jesus told the 72 followers to heal and cast out demons. However, those they were exorcising were probably not followers of Jesus, since the 72 were egging out to tell them about Jesus. One of the concerns I have is that modern deliverance ministries assume that Spirit-filled Christians routinely need deliverance ministry. I don’t see this in the New Testament.
Secondly, some of the cases described in the Gospels would now be diagnosed as epilepsy, schizophrenia or some other psychiatric illness, and treated medically. Again, I’m not convinced Jesus would be casting demons out of those same people today, nor that he’d want his followers to do so.
Thirdly, a lot of damage can be done by people ignorant of medical, psychological, and psychiatric conditions practicing deliverance ministry. That’s why the Church of England holds that cases of demonic possession must be referred to diocesan exorcists who are trained and know what they’re doing.
Thanks for sharing your video clip.
Thanks Janet. First para – agreed. Ephesians 6:18f comes to mind as a guide here. Second para, did you watch the story told by Clive Jackson? He has benefitted from medication and deliverance working helpfully together. Third para – I feel sad about this state of affairs personally. Why should I need somebody else’s permission to obey what I believe is the call of Jesus? The letters to Timothy give guidance here. While there are commands and instructions scattered throughout, none of them apply to how to pray with someone. I like the phrase “point these things out to the brothers” (4:6). By all means explain the risks to me. None of us want to do harm to somebody. That’s why I was so hesitant to get started on deliverance ministry at all, and why I appreciated the book Christin Set Yourself Free. I could practise on myself. From the book I gained the approach when helping somebody that we agree together what prayer of command is appropriate, and then it is the person who is being ministered to who gives the command rather than me. I just agree strongly! (Matthew 18:18-20). Wonderful!
David, you maybe don’t need much support, but others do. It’s like DBS checks. With most people, it will turn out to have been unnecessary, but an outside observer can’t tell which. And no one should claim to be doing something in the church’s name without it’s authorisation. So you do have to refer to the bod in charge of deliverance. I have seen clergy just going off on their own. No harm done in this case, but everyone did look foolish. Discipline is important.
No, I haven’t seen the video by Clive Jackson.
Athena is right – whatever our own views, we must follow the Church’s guidelines on this. The Scriptures tell us that we are to obey those set over us in the Church. Perhaps the way forward for you would be to have a chat with your diocesan exorcist. Are you carrying out this ministry with the approval and support of your vicar and other church leaders?
In 1 Timothy 4:6 St. Paul exhorts Timothy to warn believers about being taken in by cults and false doctrine. That does seem appropriate to some of the movements and practices I wrote about.
I intend to write more about deliverance ministry and the damage it can cause. It can’t really be covered in a comment here. But in short, I have seen people become physically and mentally more ill after deliverance ministry. This can happen because the ministry directly aggravates their condition, or because the person thinks they are cured and stop taking their medication, or for other reasons. The Church of England’s ban on exorcisms (other than those carried out by specially trained diocesan exorcists) came about because a man who had been subject of lengthy exorcism session went home and murdered his wife in an horrific fashion.
That was an extreme case, but it does serve as an example of the dangers.
Janet and English Athena, thanks. Do these diocesan advisers on deliverance lay on courses on how to do deliverance ministry well? Are they encouraging it? I don’t think so. There job is to close it down. I see their existence as yet one more example of Jesus saying one thing and the so-called church trying to enforce the opposite.
Driving a car can cause harm. The attitude we have as a society is to try to teach people to drive well, to have clear rules of the road, and to encourage people to be responsible. Perhaps our attitude to deliverance should be similar. Encourage folk in doing it well. Or do you want people in bondage to stay there for fear that trying to release them might misfire?
I wish I had more opportunities in this field than I do. I have only prayed for a handful of people in this way since 1993, so don’t get too worried about me and my ways.
Janet, when you research your next piece, please include my short article in your reading. I took trouble over it – it makes original points, and I am still pleased with it all this time later, which is very unusual for me regarding my writing. I look forward to what you have to say.
Training and encouragement would be up to the Bishop. The former Bishop of Carlisle used to run regular courses in healing ministry, and deliverance was one section of that. And we were expected to know the procedures and the relevant people as well. I’m not in a position to know what goes on as a general rule.
I hav Eno idea why autocorrect changed whatever I originally said to ‘egging out’! Possibly ‘going out’?
Thanks for this piece Janet.
In your opinion how much of what goes on in this ministry area has a basis in reality? Can you put a percentage figure on it, or say use a scale of 1-10?
Steve, I know you weren’t asking me, and I don’t know, anyway. I would be extremely concerned about the abusive stuff that goes on under that umbrella, as anyone should be. But I know the deliverance person in two dioceses, and both are high church, and not remotely barking, but rather serious. And I have encountered people who believe themselves to be oppressed. Now that is a separate issue, but you can’t hold your sides and roar with laughter and tell them it’s nonsense and there’s nothing there! Even if that is very likely the case, the fear people feel is very real. And I have been in situations where I have felt there is something “other”. My own belief is that it is very rare. But after all, we believe in a God who is “other”.
I’m afraid I couldn’t put a percentage on it but I’m quite skeptical. I would agree with Scott Peck (and with Athena, below) that demonic possession/oppression does exist but that it’s extremely rare.
The human psyche is very complex and capable of more than we realise. It’s been demonstrated, for instance, that poltergeist phenomena are usually caused not by evil spirits but by repressed and denied energies within a person finding physical expression in ways that seem impossible. The phenomena match the nature of the inner conflict. The 3 cases I’ve encountered all fitted that pattern and were best dealt with by counselling. In the 3rd of those my advice was asked, I advised counselling, and someone went ahead with deliverance ministry anyway, with unhappy results.
The Baptist theologian Nigel Wright wrote a book called “The Fair Face of Evil”, published in 1989 and later revised (and published with a new title as the juxtaposition of the title and the author’s picture on the cover caused much mirth among the students at Spurgeon’s College where he was a lecturer). In this he exposed the ridiculous and warranted “demonic heirarchies” which some of the deliverance ‘enthusiasts’ had espoused and sought to demolish as unbiblical the dualism which they were propounding. Roland Howard’s later book “Charismania: When Christian Fundamentalism Goes Wrong” has two highly critical chapters on Ellel and the London Healing Mission, among others which aren’t specifically about deliverance ministry (the same author also wrote a book on “The Rise and Fall of the Nine o’Clock Service” – that seems a long time ago but it’s clear that spritual abuse, if not more, was taking place there.
“Deliverance” is not a risk free enterprise. It really does matter if it doesn’t work or worse, goes wrong. You can do immense damage to a vulnerable person by clumsy work or careless “diagnosing”.
Depression is a hideous illness, but an imprecise diagnosis containing so many potential components as to render its declaration almost meaningless.
How do you know someone has depression? Did a doctor tell you? What do doctors know about depression? Precious little in my experience, and speaking as one.
Recovery from depression takes serious work on the part mainly of the sufferer. To avoid this with quick-fix prayer ministry or more heavy duty deliverance misses the opportunity for life changing discovery of new ways to think and live. Some of the areas to address include diet, exercise, drugs, not drugs, trauma recovery, psychotherapy, friendship, social activity levels, sleep habits etc. The list goes on.
I do suspect Janet is right that some people in ministry relish the advantages they have over the vulnerable or the suggestible perhaps.
I suppose behind my earlier question, and thank for your replies, is an attempt to pin down where God is actually working and where we’re simply making it up.
‘I suppose behind my earlier question, and thank for your replies, is an attempt to pin down where God is actually working and where we’re simply making it up.’
That’s what really intrigues me, and set me on my research all those years ago. The answers are not simple, and are almost entirely subjective.
A consultant neurologist told me she might take a patient to a healing service if she felt they were ready to let go of an hysterical or psychosomatic illness’; the ministry might provide the trigger that enables them to do so, without being supernatural.
Doctors have told me that a healing accomplished through what is medically classed as hypnosis can occur, especially in suggestible people, but tends to be short-lived. Again, this is something I’ve seen a number of times. Unfortunately, when relapses occur deliverance ministers will often class the problem as demonic in origin.
Or God might on occasion choose to work through a very flawed method and minister.
There is so much we don’t know about the human mind and about physics, let alone the ways of God. But I think deliverance ministry is best avoided, unless conducted with the assistance of an experienced doctor or psychotherapist. So much harm can be done, and, sadly, is being done.
I certainly meant that if you suspect depression, point taken about lay diagnosis, you should be encouraging people to go to their doctor. But if they came to you, you can’t just brush them off! They may very well not take your advice, but if you pray with them, following all the guidelines on not working alone, they may start considering what you say.
A relative of mine (so I’d better not be rude about it) attended the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministries. Bethel’s leader Bill Johnson, a gifted speaker, was preaching one year at New Wine. His approach to the supernatural was to try very hard praying or ministering or whatever else they were doing to achieve results. Hence the school. I must say I was impressed by his sincerity and moved by personal testimony of losing his father despite all the prayers. He was the opposite of sceptical, biased towards belief, towards faith perhaps.
And this does present a great challenge to us. To be sceptical at times seems to deny faith and yet we all know tales of charlatans at work.
What I do value is Janet’s study. By asking questions and studiously researching these matters, I believe we achieve a better balance of realism and healthiness.
I was given a book authored by one of the Bethel team and dutifully read it. I had a number of concerns not least of which was how self-referenced it was. There was, I recall, virtually no mention of anyone else in Christendom’s views, just sources mainly on the Bethel leadership team.
We cannot have a theology or a psychology or any other “-ology” which is entirely self-referenced. Our doctrines must be tested by a wider field than just me and my mates, if we want to be taken seriously. Even then, our peer reviewed precepts will be far from fault free, but please let’s be rigorous in this.
If we believe that God created us, then it is incumbent on us to make use of the not insubstantial cerebral cortex that distinguishes us from much of the animal kingdom. Yet in matters of faith we show great tendency to ignore our ability to reason.
That’s interesting, Steve. I’ve been looking at Bethel Sozo and plan to write on it soon.
Here’s a happy coincidence.
I had a phone call today from a lady who had stumbled across her prayer diary from 1992. The record of her deliverance ministry was recorded there. Apparently, I had likened her situation to the plot of The Silver Chair, by C. S. Lewis, one of the Narnia Chronicles, in which the prince who is bound and helpless in the silver chair is released to do the work of kingship to which he is called. She said that she herself would not be here if it hadn’t been for the prayer sessions then, and that other lives had been saved since as a result of them. Encouraging.
That’s great. One doesn’t normally get to catch up with people like that.