[UA] De-Lurking for a second...

[Stuart Anderson]

Liam Astley wrote:

> From: "James McGraw" <pdytjem at nottingham.ac.uk>
> Subject: Re: [UA] De-Lurking for a second to offer this odd news item.
>
> > What strikes me about this is that the police in South Africa have an
> occult division.
>
> there was a documentary on the telly about them a few weeks ago (i think it
> was dispatches on channel 4). quite worrying. the main team consists of a
> middle-aged man and woman, both of whom were evangelical christians who
> actually believe that evil spirits exist and that satanic cults kidnap and
> sacrifice people. most of the programme was them tracking down and arresting
> a quack psychic that they believed ritually murdered someone.
>
> liam

    The Christians send teams of young, evidently unemployable kids through
Colorado Springs and down into Manitou Springs (an adjacent town with a long,
rich history of misunderstood paganry) to wander through bad areas and praying,
dancing, speaking in tongues and what have you. It's a weird thing to watch.
Cranked a notch up for praying for the sinners at rock concerts, yet not as
ritualistic as an exorcism, or as official as what you have in that story.
    There are several high-profile, high-dollar Christian organizations here in
town. And several more Christian groups that came here in the early nineties
because it seemed like the thing to do. I've wanted to do something for a long
time where the smaller, more hysterical groups band together to do something,
and one of the big boys, like Focus on the Family, perceives a danger and
initiates a crackdown, like the medieval church versus the heretical monks. I
had not been able to come up with a good catalyst, but the little groups could
put together some kind of PI firm.
    They'd specialize in possessions, deprogramming, providing protection for
Christian businesses in heathen neighborhoods, that sort of thing. We have at
least one firm in town already that advertises as a Christian business. (We have
a separate Christian Yellow Pages in town, for Christians that only want to
patronize other Christians.)  It's distressingly easy to see how quickly this
kind of thing could get out of hand.
    My question for the group is: how many cities in the world are so heavily
identified with a right-wing evangelical agenda that this type of scenario would
have meaning?
--Stu


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