Baptists Scare the BeJesus Out of Me

About a couple years ago, I used to go to a Baptist Church, attending a 12-Step program for Christians.

WHat scared me away was that the devil kept talking through a couple of church ladies to tempt me to attend Sunday service by bribing me with a free guitar. Also an ex-junkie told mehis life story to get me attend service, which had the opposite effect. Perhaps I'm too judgmental, but then I'm a Buddhist.

Now, that was mind blowing to have those kinds of experiences.

Though it did confirm one thing to me: churches where fear of the devil being preached usually has a good chance of the devil talking through any church member than a Korean Pentecostal church where the pastor has a history of exorcises.

That's because in pagan times, before the Christian missionaries appeared, Korea had shamans who did a lot of exorcisms. IMO that's probably how the Catholic Church got into the exorcism business, as it actually predates Christianity.

Except, in pre-Christian times, the shaman would either capture the evil spirit or be the receptacle for it, which was less dangerous to a shaman than an ordinary person plagued by such spirits.

And the odds that the shaman was no different from a schizphrenic person today was pretty high, since much of what a shaman trains for, you'd have to be fearless to go through.

The average person, being untrained, most likely would go nuts. However, the properly trained crazy shaman would have a ritual to perform as self-exorcism.

Did the pastor ever go an exorcism at this Baptist church? Hell no! That sort of thing is only popular in certain Pentacoastal circuits. This is a Baptist church, for God's sake.

My only regret is, I couldn't be the good Christian my ex-girlfriend was expecting to sweep her off her feet.

You could say, the devil in that congregation is what chased me away.

In short, in my eyes, the devil protected the Buddha for me. If my Buddha can do that to the devil, then I have all the spiritual protection I need!

Seung Cho and Korean Exorcism: Shamanism and Its Influence on Korean Christianity

Romantic satanism, being influenced by the Catholic Church and especially by Hollywood, is nothing more than Hollywood theatrics. Movies like Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist are loosely based on fact yet full of inaccuracies and confabulations. The boy involved in the story that the Exorcist is based on went on to kill another person, but the judge refused to allow any evidence related to his previous exorcism. As well, the Catholic Church successfully suppressed the boy's story. Even so, romantic satanism is a myth.

Likewise, demon possession is an extremely rare thing.

In the case of Seung Cho, he never was possessed by a demon. He was probably majorly depressed with a touch of psychosis, and the only demon that possessed him is human nature.

Yet his mom was convinced he was possessed and was seeking a Protestant exorcist to "cure" them. It should be pointed out that exorcists are shamans, and they exist in Christianity only in the form of Catholic priests. That a Protestent evangelical layman was known as exorcist is only possible in the Korean Christian community, since shamanism was popular in Korea before the modern era.

However, let me point out that "demons" do not exist. What actually exists is the belief that supernatural beings exist. Thus, an exorcism is performed, not to "remove" a demon, but to remove from the minds of the possessed's loved ones the belief that s/he is possessed. Once that is done, the possessed's loved ones can give feedback to the possessed that s/he is "cured."

Hopefully, s/he does not cling to the delusion that s/he "possessed". Yet it is the duty of the possessed's loved ones to effect his "cure."


Sadly in the case of Seung Cho, he returned to college before the exorcism was performed.