The Dark Sacrament Read Online Free PDF Page A

disciples—the fishermen and the others of modest means—were better candidates than most churchmen of our day, largely because the apostles, and those who came after them, turned their backs on excess. In our time, it is increasingly difficult to find clergymen who have not drifted far from these first principles.
    We [priests] have become used to the comforts of society, and we find it difficult to give them up, even in such a cause as freeing someone from evil influences. How many of us throw away our worldly goods and follow Him, as Christ said was necessary?…Simplicity in behavior, frugality in manner, lack of ostentation and of any kind of excess was His rule. His disciples manifested these qualities and in this respect were much more suited to confront evil in possession of Man than we are today. How many of us can claim to live up to the rule or vow, at least in theRoman Catholic Church, of voluntary poverty and scrupulous adherence to absolute obedience? It is precisely in these areas that many clergy of today are lacking. Days of prayer and fasting are regarded as too onerous and as a result lip service only is often given to the solemn occasion. We are not sufficiently prepared, with our desirable houses, cars, housekeepers, secretaries, money in the bank or schemes for making money, ambitions or whatever, for the enormous task of casting out the Devil.
    Finlay ends on a cautionary—and utterly chilling—note. He reminds us that the Devil can see through the exorcist who is unprepared, be it spiritually, mentally, or physically.
    He [Satan] knows that underneath the show of bravado there is a soft underbelly, a weakness, a vulnerability which he can exploit. As a result he knows he it is who will emerge the victor. The unfortunate sufferer remains unchanged in all this—if he is lucky. Often he is left worse off than before.
    THE BATTLE FOR HEARTS AND MINDS
    It was inevitable that a respected critic would emerge to debunk the whole charade of the unqualified exorcist. In 2001, Michael Cuneo, a Fordham University professor, published American Exorcism (with the wry subtitle Expelling Demons in the Land of Plenty ). It exposed the dubious practices of charismatic and evangelical preachers and their “deliverance ministries.” In a devastating broadside, he turned his attention to one such typically American organization, the Faith Movement. He identifies it as belonging to the same culture as “the tabloid television business, with its mock seriousness, its weepy sensationalism, its celebrity fawning—soul food for the bloated and the brokenhearted.” Or to the shopping mall: the “community without contact, community contrived precisely to avoid contact.”
    It is all too good to be true, he asserts, this fake American dream. It is “living, strutting, pulsating caricature: One almost expects it at any moment to break into a Bugs Bunny cartoon.”
    The Faith Movement is…a collage of American clichés. The preacher as snake oil salesman or used car salesman; the preacher as Vegas showman. Miracle-workers in pink Cadillacs and pinkie rings, soul-savers in three-piece glitter suits and sixty-dollar haircuts. This is the world of the Faith Movement. Gushing emotionalism, grasping materialism, tears on demand, hustles blessed with a thousand “Amens.” The product of old-fashioned hucksterism, New Thought optimism, and Southern-fried bornagainism, the Faith Movement is one of the fastest-growing enterprises on the American religious scene today—and also one of the most wildly controversial.
    Cuneo reports that he was present at a great many deliverances of the sort, and was not impressed. He reports that, in many cases, the participants witnessed what they claimed to be paranormal manifestations, but that at no time did he himself share their experiences. He concludes that most—if not all—such banishments were either fraudulent or can