Maryland “Exorcism” Murders

Yesterday was a very busy day for me with the media. My phone rang off the hook with national media requests to discuss the horrible murder of two children in Germantown, MD. A mother killed her one-year-old boy and two-year-old daughter in an exorcism gone wrong. The mother, who had previously been treated for severe mental illness, believed she was driving the devil out of her children, as she stabbed them to death. Intervention by the police prevented her from killing two other children. Much of my day yesterday was with CNN, which will air a special report with my interview on Anderson Cooper’s show AC360 (10:00 PM ET, 7:00PM PT).

There were so many requests for interviews I could only do one. The Dr. Drew show wanted me, but I was unavailable so they asked for my daughter Brynne, one of the Teenage Exorcists. She joined a panel of mental health experts to talk about what this crime was all about. I’ve always liked Dr. Drew for his no-nonsense approach to dealing with issues of bad behavior, especially addiction. Dr. Drew, and his guests, did a great job of discussing the mental health issues related to this gruesome crime. Brynne chimed in noting that this was not an exorcism, and that none of the deliverances she has ever done resulted in someone being harmed, let alone dead. But I was disappointed that all the attention of Dr. Drew and his guests, except for Brynne Larson, was on the psychological aspects. Not one person brought up the subject of religious delusions and bad theology, as well as a distorted understanding of exorcism, that was a factor in this crime. As I told CNN today (and hopefully you’ll hear tonight), if the devil was in anybody, it was the mother, not those innocent children. Someone needed an exorcism, all right, and it was the mom and her accomplice who did the work of Satan by killing their kids. The murdering mom will likely be locked away for life and because of her mental condition, perhaps she should be lest she be a threat to other children. But they’ll also lock her up with her demons, never to be free, allowing Satan to win twice. Like the Dr. Drew discussion failed to do, as a society we need to own up to the work of the devil in our midst and stop trying to always explain away with a behavioral explanation the evil of demonized minds.

An encouraging word:  THE WORLD WILL NOT UNDERSTAND YOU

When you walk as a believer in the ways of God and the will of God, don’t expect the people around you to “get it.” 1 Cor 1:18 (AMP) says, “For the story and message of the cross is sheer absurdity and folly to those who are perishing and on their way to perdition, but to us who are being saved it is the [manifestation of] the power of God.”  Outside of God, tithing makes no sense, loving your enemies is even more absurd! (Let’s not even talk about performing exorcisms.)  But with God, doing these things puts you in His will and hooks you up to the most powerful force in the universe.  Just because the world doesn’t understand it, doesn’t mean you should change anything to make your Christianity more palatable to those around you. (See Romans 12:2)