By Janet Fife
Recently I wrote about schools of deliverance ministry popular in charismatic
circles during the second half of the 20th century – ministries of which I had
personal experience. More recently another school of inner healing and
deliverance has become popular, and of this I have no direct experience.
Bethel Sozo (so called in the UK to distinguish it from the older Sozo
Ministries International, run by Marion Daniel) comes from Bethel Church in
Redding, California. It was founded by Dawna De Silva, who with her co-
leader Teresa Liebscher writes much of the literature.
One obvious difference between Bethel Sozo (BS) and most earlier schools
of deliverance ministry is its organisation. Previously deliverance was often
offered at a retreat centre such as Ellel; by itinerant missioners like Marion
Daniel or Eric Delve; or in parishes such as St. Aldate’s, Oxford and St.
Michael-le-Belfrey, York. Some clergy, like Michael Green, carried out
deliverance both in their own parish and while travelling. At churches like the
Belfrey a number of people (including myself) were trained in Wimber’s
methods of power healing and deliverance, and both staff and congregation
were strongly encouraged to attend Wimber conferences on his UK visits.
Later in the 1990s Wimber’s organisation began to establish a number of
Vineyard churches in the UK where his methods were used.
BS has no retreat centres or churches of its own, but there are Sozo teams
based in other churches. Most of these belong to networks such as New
Wine and the Vineyard, but a number of others to established denominations
such as the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, and the Baptist
Union. A map on the BS UK website will guide you to your nearest ‘Sozo
Church’ or ‘Sozo Resource Church’. The National Facilitator of BS UK is an
LLM (licensed Lay Minister) in Rochester Diocese; she is on the Council of
Reference too. The C of R also includes a London associate vicar and a
(former?) Norfolk churchwarden who volunteers at Holy Trinity Brompton’s
Healing Room. Teresa Liebscher is a Trustee.
Sozo is described as ‘a gentler form of deliverance’ and differs in several
respects from the older methods. Practitioners like Michael and Rosemary
Green, Ellel, and Wimber made a clear distinction between healing and
deliverance ministry. The latter involved routing demons, whether they were
oppressing or possessing a person. Healing, on the other hand, was usually
physical or emotional and did not involve confrontations with evil spirits.
Some practiced ‘healing of the memories’ but again this was usually
differentiated from deliverance. Often ministry to a client would progress to deliverance only after healing had been attempted, or if what were considered
clear signs of demonic presence were detected.
With BS that distinction is blurred. Healing and deliverance are seen as much
the same thing, and when a ‘spirit’ is referred to it’s often unclear whether a
human attitude or supernatural entity is meant. In Sozo: Saved, Healed,
Delivered an ‘orphan spirit’ seems to be considered a demon, but is defined
in the glossary at the end of the book as an established attitude. In the same
book a ‘stronghold’ is variously described as ‘demonic’ and ‘a mindset’.
This vagueness is characteristic of much of the BS I’ve researched. It might
be considered a positive; in classic spirituality the devil is often seen as
working through human weaknesses and temptations. In reading BS
literature I was occasionally reminded of C.S. Lewis’ portrayal of devilish
strategies in Screwtape Proposes a Toast. Unlike Lewis, however, de Silva
and Liebscher seem unable to distinguish between a metaphor and a fact.
When a literal belief that a client is oppressed by demons (and BS considers
that most of us suffer demonic oppression) combines with an unclear
message about whether a particular aspect of the client is demonic or natural,
the resulting confusion could be unhelpful. Is this a habit I need to change,
which requires self-discipline, or was it the influence of an evil spirit I’ve just
been delivered from – in which case I can just relax?
The BS approach is more subtle than that of, for example, Ellel, but they still
see demonic influence as pervasive. They inhabit a universe in which a
demon might appear in the corner of your living room, or repeatedly come to
your bedside to harass you – and in which it’s OK to order the demon to ‘go
bother’ your colleague instead.
This preoccupation – some might call it an obsession – with supernatural
phenomena is typical of Bethel Church. It’s a charismatic megachurch with a
heavy emphasis on miracles, and teaching a version of the prosperity gospel.
Bethel’s School of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM) is known for practices such
as ‘grave soaking’ (aka ‘grave sucking’), in which adherents visit the grave of
a holy person or gifted healer to absorb their ‘anointing’. BSSM is a 1-3 year
course, which boasts 13,000 graduates from 100 countries. In 2017 It was
reported to earn about $7 million – a mere 20% of the church’s income. There
is now a branch in London.
When the massive Carr Fire threatened Redding in August 2018, Pastor Bill
Johnson and other Bethel leaders prophesied rain and commanded the wind
to shift. In the event the church campus and most of the town were saved, but
1,564 buildings were destroyed, 121,000 acres burnt, and 6 people killed. 25
of the 800 Bethel staff lost their homes and possessions.
Bethel teaches that people can be raised from the dead. The Dead Raising
Team claim their 60 teams worldwide have resurrected 15 people, according
to a report in Newsweek of 12 Dec. 2019. The DRT has its own Facebook
group, and a website via which you can request their ministry. As the
Newsweek article appeared, the church were praying that a 2 year old girl be
raised from the dead, and ‘declaring life over her’ (Bethel prayers often come
in the form of commands). Only after 6 days did funeral preparations begin.
The child’s parents had believed she would come back to life – their anguish
doesn’t bear thinking of.
In Shifting Atmospheres Dawna De Silva writes of her neighbours’ lawns
being dead after a 3-year drought, and of ‘declaring life into the
neighbourhood…this lawn will be watered.’ She takes credit for her
neighbour ‘lavishly’ watering his lawn the same evening, and for ‘the spiritual
atmosphere of dryness’ shifting. She doesn’t consider the environmental
impact of using scarce water supplies on suburban lawns.
The teachings of De Silva and Liebscher reflect those of Bethel Redding: that
because of Jesus’ victory on the cross we have a right to health and
prosperity. All we have to do is ‘live in the victory’ and banish those spirits that prevent us from doing so. The question is: do our clergy and bishops
realise what they are harbouring in some of our churches? And, in view of
Bethel’s expansionist plans and increasing popularity, are they prepared for more churches to become ‘Sozo churches’.
Well! I can see why you’re concerned, Janet! This is outside my experience, and quite contrary to the training I received. And I would agree that seeing devils everywhere is harmful.
I think your comment about ‘the distinction between a metaphor and a fact’ is telling. This kind of ministry is generally undergirded with a fundamentalist theology that regards demons as ‘facts’ in a scientific sense, often in contradistinction to a ‘secular’ counselling profession that can only see them, in an equally scientific sense, as imaginary. This makes it impossible to develop any nuanced and considered understanding of what may actually be going on with people who exhibit what may be considered symptoms of ‘demonic’ activity. This kind of fundamentalism also leads to these kind of weird conceptions like the ‘grave soaking’ you mention (probably based on 2 Kings 13:21). Whereas going to the grave of an admired person to get inspiration, and maybe in some sense feel and absorb their presence, is not quite so weird if you don’t feel the need to give it some kind of biblical underpinning.
Thank you Janet for bringing this movement to the fore which I had never heard about and I would wholeheartedly agree with English Athena. As someone from a non-liberal background I would flee a mile from such but I would be wary of fleeing as far as John. Caution would make me wary of consigning all spiritual things (a general word) as imaginary for in that case God might also be imaginary.
With respect, that is not what I said. Fundamentalism (whether Christian or secular) leaves two sharply defined choices. Either demons are real – they ‘exist’, or not real – they don’t ‘exist’. There is no middle ground. An approach that allows for metaphor and the free play of imagination, as well as a properly disciplined critical approach to bible texts, would avoid these sterile polarities and enable an exploration of that middle ground, with possibilities for a far healthier view of the whole area of spirituality, including deliverance ministry. As to whether God is imaginary, I’m inclined to think that God, being beyond our understanding, could perhaps be described as both the ultimate Real and the ultimate Imaginary.
John, I think you and I and Athena agree on this. I believe that angels and demons exist, but not as the crude caricatures depicted by Bethel. There is so much we don’t know about the spiritual realm, human psychology, and physics. In some New Testament passages they seem to be referring merely to forces we don’t understand: organisational psychology, crowd mentality, acquired situational narcissism, how any human organisation, however small, takes on a character and ethos of its own. I found Walter Wink very helpful on this but it’s years since I read him. I need to refresh my memory.
I suspect Jung might have some helpful clues too. Archetypes, collective unconscious…
Created spirits, both good and bad, also exist, I think. But I find the accounts in Sozo books, and Bethel teaching, unbelievable.
Sounds as if we’re all of pretty much the same mind.
Is that so EA? Do we all think that there is nothing real in the spiritual realm apart from God ?
Well I don’t! I thought we were all cautious about throwing baby out with the bathwater. Keeping an open mind, you know! I worry about the extremes, but think there may be more than we understand. Isn’t that pretty much what most of us feel?
Thank you for this Janet, though I have to say I wish there had been no need for you to write it! A resurgence of this type of ministry is incredibly traumatic and frightening for anyone who has been abused by it. Reading it made me feel ill but of course I had to go and look at the site, the ‘hook’ that this type of ministry has is powerful and long lasting, and saw under guidance this ‘liability release form,’
https://www.bethelsozo.org.uk/guidance/
Any ministry that requires a vulnerable person to fill in such a form is downright irresponsible and dangerous, how the charity commission can allow it I don’t know. As regards these ministries appearing in Anglican churches that is very worrying as there are very few safeguards on deliverance ministry, as the church only concerns itself with exorcisms, and has yet to define spiritual abuse! The last thing that is needed in a post Covid world is a return to the Toronto Blessing era with all its judgements, prejudices and narrow world view.
Yes, Trish, I agree completely. I was going t o mention the liability release form in Part 2. The more I look at Bethel, the more there is to find out, and the dodgier it is. It’s worrying that it’s becoming more common over here.
Andrew Brown in the Church Times. An excellent and humane summary of the CDM on the current issues.
Janet, thanks for a well-researched article. Appreciated.
Your phrase about someone who can sit back and relax after a demon had gone reminded me of someone’s remark about the book of Exodus, where it proved easier to get the people out of Egypt than to get Egypt out of the people.
I look forward to part two.
Yes, it’s one of the features of the more irresponsible deliverance ministries that it can give people the impression they are absolved of personal responsibility for their failings and lapses.
In one of the books quoted above, the author recounts being abroad on a speaking tour, away from home and husband, and at night having a strong urge to look at pornography. She ‘knew she was sexually pure’ so the urge must have been a demonic attack. It’s a pity she couldn’t have looked honestly at herself and her shadow side (as Jung would have put it) and learned something about herself. A temptation is not a sin, and it need not be demonic. We’re all capable of being tempted without the devil having to put in the effort on it.
My experience of all this kind of Christian activity, which has been considerable, leads me to give it the widest of wide berths these days.
First of all, it seems to me to be, almost without exception, anti-intellectual woowoo, based on nothing more than a rather unthinking appropriation of Bible verses and passages. How they translate to the world of today is left deliberately vague, because, frankly, any more serious examination would show up the holes in the thinking far too clearly. There is no serious theological reflection, and a lot of lazy romanticised emotion-driven talk.
Secondly, and more concerningly, all of this, from St Aldates to Wimber and Vineyard and the rest, has, in my experience, been used in dangerous and very unhealthy power games . “Exorcisms” for being LGorB are far from unknown. There is a very crude understanding of an interventionist God and a lot of agonising about what is going on when people are not “healed”.
I am conscious that many people still think the various manifestations of pentecostalism (which began in the latter part of the last century) in the Church of England are a good thing. On Fire Mission, for example, and much more besides. And I do not want to quench the life of the Spirit at all. But the experience of the last fifty years is surely overdue for a thorough-going re-evaluation.
We have lived through a long period of decline in which the new wave of the Spirit was going to revive and energise the church as a whole. I don’t see this. Nor do I see a way out of our present difficulties by this route. There is too much manipulation and too much that has gone wrong in these contexts that is not really open to challenge or examination. In returning and rest shall you be saved. Give me Mattins and Evensong, good liturgy, thoughtful preaching, sober prayer and a life of good works every time .
I think you’ve hit something there Jeremy. Does the revival or Toronto blessing or exorcism lead to liveliness and growth in the Church concerned? And usually it doesn’t. Kind of proof, I agree. I do think that in rare cases, there is something that requires prayer, and which doesn’t yield to proper professional care. And I slightly disagree that we just need mattins and evensong. If we want to attract new people, our worship needs to be comprehensible! But, yes, many evangelical sermons seem to be sentimental and not exactly tightly reasoned. Not mine, though! I hope! It’s not compulsory, you know.
I think the charismatic movement(s) flourished because so many churches (and Churches) had become overly cerebral and arid, rather than keeping a healthy balance between the brain and the heart. As John Habgood once remarked, people value feelings and engagement, and we in the C of E are cerebral and detached.
I think the hunger for a true experience is a natural and valid one; so is the thirst for authenticity in religion. But experiences must be weighed and subject to analysis. St. Teresa of Avila was absolutely right when she said that the ‘consolations’ (as she termed them) are nice to have, but they can be illusory and it’s unhealthy to focus on them. And there are far too many charlatans about.
As a teenager in the USA my faith got a turboboost from the Jesus Movement. That was a genuine revival that did result in many younger people joining the Church and did result in genuine and positive change, so while I’m very cautious about the charismatic movement nowadays I don’t reject it completely.
You’re right about the power games. They’re absolutely rife in the charismatic movement, and the more vulnerable and gullible are wide open to manipulation.
Getting back to Bethel Sozo, they have been accused of operating conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ people. They deny it, but do have 3 separate organisations targeting LGBTQ+ people:
CHANGED is ‘a community of friends who once identified as LGBTQ+’.
Equipped to Love ‘pastors homosexuality’.
Moral Revolution is ‘promoting God’s original design for sexuality. We envision a society that celebrates true femininity and masculinity, lives from virtues and protects the pre-born’.
Bethel Redding claims to ‘love’ gay people, but to ‘honour’ those who ‘change’ their orientation. It would be better if they were just upfront about doing conversion therapy, at least it would be clear to people where they were coming from. Redding must be a bad town to be gay in.
Re conversion therapy, I wonder why it is that this is one of those terms that does not get defined when it is used.
People are bound to think that this failure to define is deliberate, and is for the purpose of lumping together widely diverse practices.
Electric shock therapy, and even more horrible things like corrective rape, might be thought to be what is being talked about unless one defines terms. In fact both of those are, to y knowledge, not presently to be found anywhere.
The example often given by Core Issues Trust is this. If a man feels that his homosexual attraction (which exists concurrently with his attraction to his wife) could potentially harm his family (and very often it could; nor is it easy to see how it could help his family), then he is not merely entitled to explore ways of lessening it but (more) is doing the right thing by showing intent. That is a positive step. Each person needs to rein in their sexual urges to some degree and in some way. That is clearly an especially relevant way for him to do so, in his particular circumstances.
Plus, the same people who object to his doing so (at the family’s cost) often seem to have no objection at all to a formerly ‘straight’ person moving in a non-straight direction. Considering that it is hard to maintain that sexual attraction is not fluid (Lisa Diamond) they have their work cut out already in disallowing ex-gays from existing (for in a world of 7.7 billion people, all sorts of people will genuinely exist), but it makes their position even more difficult if they allow ex straights but disallow ex gays, since that is in addition discriminatory.
So we need to define ‘conversion therapy’.
Conversion therapy is very easily defined. Here is a clear example from Wikipedia: ‘Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of trying to change an individual’s sexual orientation from homosexual or bisexual to heterosexual using psychological, physical, or spiritual interventions.’
Some great discussion here. Thank you.
A reflection. I have been reading Thomas Merton’s autobiography. He flirted with communism in the 1930s but rejected it. He found that the attitude “anything must be better than capitalism, so let’s destroy capitalism,” was deficient, as they had not got anything to put in it’s place. Talk of the classless society was simply too vague to be practical.
So here’s a suggestion. Before seeking to remove something, in our case faulty deliverance ministry, have a good plan for what will do it’s job better. I recall that Jeremiah was called to to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant (Jer 1:10). Negative and positive.
To those who want to give this whole subject a wide birth, let’s remember that the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy (John 10:10). Please tell me how am I to help people whose lives are being ruined in this way if I neglect the tool of deliverance?
David, how do you detect the presence of a demon? What are the criteria for your diagnosis?
And, from another angle, can’t you pray for someone without being sure whether the problem is demonic?
I do love this discussion!
I agree with your point English Athena. James 5:16!
Janet, here’s a thought of my own. If the fruits of the Holy Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal 5:22-3) then maybe the fruits of an evil spirit might be hatred, misery, a short fuse, badness, unreliability, violence and a loss of self-control. A ghastly list! But there are people who struggle with such things.
Janet, I think a childlike attitude is called for. To quote Postman Pat (notice how my grandchildren keep me up to the mark), “You can never be sure, there’ll be knock… knock… letters through your door” . 1 Corinthians 12:10 talks of discernment of spirits as being a spiritual gift. I think it is surely an area where we need a missive from God.
Thank you David. I asked the question because you asked for ‘something to put in the place of’ deliverance ministry. The answer to that will vary according o the symptoms of the client. Paul had his own list to oppose to the fruits of the Spirit (sometimes called the 7 Christian Graces): ‘fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these’ (Gal. 5:14-21 NRSV). Interestingly, he calls them ‘works of the flesh’, not of evil spirits. Even sorcery and idolatry are sins, not demonic oppression or possession.
There were rare occasions when he identified a demon at work, as in the slave girl who was possessed by a spirit of divination, but she followed him around for several days before he identified it as demonic and cast it out.
In cases like those you describe above, I would suggest a combination of psychotherapy and spiritual direction (you might want to call the latter pastoral counselling).
Thanks Janet. Interesting, as always.