"Exorcism" at South Australian Lutheran Camp

Did you catch this news story a few weeks ago? I only caught up with it through reading the LCA President's comments on his page here.

I know none of the details, but it did remind me of the Vollmer case refered to in the news report above. I had close second-hand experience of that one, due to the fact that one of the men who was charged and served a three month sentence in relation to it was married to my cousin. I remember at the time being terribly frightened by the inept actions of these amateur "exorcists".

The Catholic Church not only believes in exorcism, but has trained exorcists (always priests) who are licenced by their local bishop. So my problem is not with the idea of exorcism. I am terrified that amateurs might take into their own hands both the diagnosis and the cure. Both the cases refered to in this post were misdiagnoses. That's bad enough. But, worse still, God help anyone who attempted an "exorcism" on a real demon without the expertise and experience required.