A man at the pharmacist was on his cell phone:
"I have been having trouble staying on a straight path, blamelessly.... Yeah.... Can the church help me?.... Yeah... Yeah.... I keep going to all the wrong places, and I can't help myself.... Yeah.... I have been to many different churches, but no one has been able to help me.... Yeah.... Yeah.... Yeah.... It is the demons inside of me that's taking over, and I was wondering if you could help me get rid if them?.... So you have classes starting tomorrow?.... Yeah."
What I wouldn't give to hear the other end of the line. My suspicion is that whoever he was talking to - I presume a clergyman - was thinking the same as I (why not?), that no demons have possessed him, and as soon as he accepts that the human nature is frail he will be able to take responsibility for himself and stop blaming imaginary beings. I don't know what the wrong places he is going to are, but he may have a real problem (gambling? drugs? prostitutes? atheist meetings?), and if that's the case he ought to get some real help. A quick search finds many people who can help with addictions for gambling, drugs, and prostitution.
Just one of the problems with religion - the practitioners often set them selves up as quacks and healers with a mandate from God, and so stop people from getting help that actually works.
ReplyDeleteAnother problem is that when contacted by people like this guy, they can't exactly say that he should go somewhere else where people have real qualifications. Same problem, really, but the point is even churches who don't believe in exorcism is sort of obliged to pander.
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