A Christian organisation based in the United States has attracted international criticism after it posted a video on the YouTube website showing church elders trying to “cast out a spirit” from a gay sixteen-year-old.
Manifested Glory Ministries have defended the clip, which shows the youth lying on the floor of a church in Connecticut, USA as people shout “you homosexual spirit, we call you out right now!”. The organisation maintains that the young man had asked for the ceremony, but has now removed the video from the internet.
“He was dressing like a woman and everything” said spokesperson Patricia McKinney, insisting that “he didn't want to be like that”.
She claimed to have “nothing against homosexuals” but added that “we just don't agree with their lifestyle”.
Human rights groups were quick to condemn the event. Robin McHaelin of True Colours, an advocacy group for young gay people, said she had come across a number of cases of adolescents being threatened with exorcism because of their sexuality.
She suggested that those who carried out such ceremonies on a young person were “killing his spirit”. She is planning to report the YouTube case to the local welfare authorities.
Exodus International, a group widely accused of homophobia due to its attempts to 'heal' people of homosexuality through prayer and counselling, said it did not support the approach of Manifested Glory Ministries.
Other Christians have vocally condemned the 'exorcism' as homophobic and abusive.
Roland Stringfellow, a minister in California, said he had been subjected to anti-gay exorcism himself in the 1990s, which “caused nothing but shame and embarrassment”.
In Britain, Sharon Ferguson of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM) said that she has frequently come across people who have been subjected to such exorcism ceremonies in the UK.
"It...fills me with horror that this sort of thing is still going on" she told Premier Radio, adding that it did “untold damage”.
Printer-friendly version