…and this is a 
What year is it, anyway?
Category: Kooks • Religion
Posted on: August 20, 2008 6:55 AM, by PZ Myers
In the reality based community, when you've got a problem, you call an expert with some skills and training to deal with it. In the rest of the world, you call a priest to blame evil spirits and do nothing for a small pile of money. How else to explain asking a wizened old Catholic priest to explain 'perversions' and STDs?
Promiscuity, as well as homosexuality and pornography, says 73 year-old Fr. Jeremy Davies, is a form of sexual perversion and can lead to demonic possession. Offering what may be an explanation for the explosion of homosexuality in recent years, Fr. Davies said, "Among the causes of homosexuality is a contagious demonic factor."
Fr. Davies continues: "Even heterosexual promiscuity is a perversion; and intercourse, which belongs in the sanctuary of married love, can become a pathway not only for disease but also for evil spirits."
He goes on to blame all kinds of evils on demons. Forget medical explanations: we need to treat with leeches, stat, and if that doesn't work, an exorcism. And if that fails, there's always the 100% successful traditional treatment: tie them to a stick and set them on fire.
Comments
Posted by: Am I Evil? | August 20, 2008 7:02 AM
This crap seems to be happening so often, I'm becoming less sensitive to it. Ugh!
Posted by: Kristjan Wager | August 20, 2008 7:04 AM
I shouldn't be surprised by this sort of thing, but yet, I still am.
Posted by: John C. Randolph | August 20, 2008 7:07 AM
Leeches have their place:
http://www.medicalleech.info/
Let's not conflate them with completely useless things like geriatric exorcists.
-jcr
Posted by: llewelly | August 20, 2008 7:08 AM
So, having sex is like receiving an injection of demon juice?
I mean, unless it's blessed by the priest?
Posted by: Dancaban | August 20, 2008 7:09 AM
What explosion of homosexuality in recent years? You're only seeing what was hidden because they no longer fear bigots like you!
Posted by: Kobra | August 20, 2008 7:14 AM
Homosexuality exploded, did it? What color was the fireball?
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT | August 20, 2008 7:15 AM
I knew it!! You can catch teh gay.
Posted by: Fernando Magyar | August 20, 2008 7:16 AM
Hey PZ,
I agree that Catholics suck but...
leeches are FDA approved in modern medicine.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0PDG/is_5_3/ai_n13457690
Posted by: Kobra | August 20, 2008 7:16 AM
#6:
Or better yet, what color wasn't it?
Posted by: travc | August 20, 2008 7:17 AM
This sort of thing is quite common still, and kills many many people. (Malaria, AIDS, anti-vaccination...)
It is so childish to ascribe agency to explain everything which you don't immediate understand. But that is exactly what many (if not most) religious people do. If you don't grok how someone with cancer can go into remission, it must be a miracle. Baffled by why some people are homosexual but you aren't (are are trying really hard not to be), it must be demonic possession. All the same inane inability to actually think.
Actually, reminds me of a bit in Neal Stephenson's Snowcrash... before medicine, every disease was an evil spirit.
Posted by: Masks of Eris | August 20, 2008 7:20 AM
Hm.
Fr. Davies says that "man trying to build a better world without God - another Tower of Babel".
It seems he prefers digging a pit of Babel instead, deep, dank and lightless. "Contagious demonic factor" indeed!
Posted by: Fernando Magyar | August 20, 2008 7:27 AM
BTW, MaJeff, can't wait to hear your take on the contagious demonic factor :-)
Posted by: MAJeff, OM | August 20, 2008 7:29 AM
BTW, MaJeff, can't wait to hear your take on the contagious demonic factor :-)
I'm all about "promoting homosexuality" demonic or not. The more the merrier!
I'm just disappointed in PZ writing about homosexuality so much on a scienceblog. I mean, three posts (That OK freak, Neil Patrick Harris, and this) in two days? Outrageous!
Posted by: Kobra | August 20, 2008 7:30 AM
Bah! Nobody appreciated my joke? I must be losing my edge.
Posted by: Kobra | August 20, 2008 7:32 AM
... or, more accurately, my mind.
Posted by: True Bob | August 20, 2008 7:33 AM
The scariest part is he is a "qualified physician". I'm going to have to read that as "restricted".
Posted by: Chris Hughes | August 20, 2008 7:37 AM
"Forget medical explanations: we need to treat with leeches, stat, and if that doesn't work, an exorcism. And if that fails, there's always the 100% successful traditional treatment: tie them to a stick and set them on fire."
Hmmm - has the makings of a really good 'reality' TV show...
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT | August 20, 2008 7:37 AM
I know. I'm terribly disappointed. Just reading this blog is sure to turn people to the
pinkdark side.Posted by: Strakh | August 20, 2008 7:39 AM
I note he did not mention pederasty...Must be because it's just normal to a priest...
Posted by: j.t.delaney | August 20, 2008 7:41 AM
Crazy-talk like this is such a marvelous gift to the secular humanist movement -- the more demented and senile, the better, I say! Really, for the young people in the church just starting to doubt its authority, proclamations like these are so often a tipping point, turning moderate religious people into moderate skeptics. Seriously, we need to get a microphone into this decrepit old sleazeweasle's gob 24/7.
Posted by: Bride of Shrek OM | August 20, 2008 7:42 AM
Personally I blame The Homosexual Agenda (TM). There's a chapter in there to cover all things, this included. Just ask Justice Scalia.
Posted by: Monti0 | August 20, 2008 7:43 AM
Wow. Just wow.
Every so often, I get complacent and start thinking that the state of reason in the world isn't that bad.
...and then some nut-job loonie makes an insane statement like this and I get brought down to ground... hard.
Posted by: Kobra | August 20, 2008 7:44 AM
#21:
Man, I'm not even gay and I know the "Homosexual Agenda (TM)" is a load of shit.
Do people actually think the gays want anything besides equal rights?
Posted by: Bride of Shrek OM | August 20, 2008 7:45 AM
MAJeff @ #13
Yeah, and I'm still waiting for someone to post a link to Neil Patrick Harris on the cover. Us hetero girls are still allowed to drool and all.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT | August 20, 2008 7:46 AM
And your children. Don't forget that. For coveting or roasting depending on the kid.
Posted by: Kobra | August 20, 2008 7:50 AM
#25:
Oh, right. The old "Gays can't reproduce, so they must recruit" fallacy.
Posted by: Joshua | August 20, 2008 7:51 AM
Who's gonna complain about syphilis after they have been burned alive? No one, that's who.Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT | August 20, 2008 7:51 AM
coveting was supposed to be converting but... either or.
KoT
Posted by: True Bob | August 20, 2008 7:52 AM
So does Teh Homersexaul Agenda have a subgroup with the EAC? Or is it the EAC that has a Homersexual Clique? Too many moving parts.
Posted by: Mold | August 20, 2008 7:53 AM
Catholics refuse the modern Gay. For them, it is besser to embrace the manly manlove of manhood. Just ask Tom Monaghan about those manly man embraces at Dominos Pizza. The close clutching that comes from the death threat of a 30 min or less delivery guarantee.
Dagon's Scales. If it had been any but the catholic church sharing little boys for raping, the Fed would have done a RICO on their @ss and confiscated all goods and property.
When 'Merican beleevers thought it was just their priest, they could still hold to the faith. When it became obvious that nearly all of the church had broken their vows, the faithful could no longer accept the pronouncements from the people that enabled the rapists. When Father BoyRaper tells you that birth control is a vile, evil, nasty, perverse, abhorrent act...you recall his many,many sessions with your son.
Posted by: scooter | August 20, 2008 7:54 AM
It was bold, yet understated. Marvelous earthtones with a tasteful flash of highlight. It was FAAAABULOUS!!! and REALLY HOT!!!
Posted by: clinteas | August 20, 2008 7:56 AM
//Even heterosexual promiscuity is a perversion; and intercourse, which belongs in the sanctuary of married love, can become a pathway not only for disease but also for evil spirits."//
Arrrrrghhhh,the evil word : INTERCOURSE....*shivers*
Olympic games lead to Beach Volleyball,
Beach Volleyball leads to girls in bikinis padding their bums,
girls in bikinis padding their bums leads to erections,
erections....lead to the dark side.
Posted by: scooter | August 20, 2008 7:57 AM
Think flaming sweaty leather.
I know I am
Posted by: scooter | August 20, 2008 7:59 AM
You feel it too, huh ?
What are you wearing ?
Posted by: John C. Randolph | August 20, 2008 8:02 AM
If it had been any but the catholic church sharing little boys for raping, the Fed would have done a RICO on their @ss and confiscated all goods and property.
The record of the federal government's do-nothing policy towards Scientology says otherwise.
Basically, "religion" is a magic word that paralyzes law enforcement. It's not just the catholics who get that particular free ride.
-jcr
Posted by: Kobra | August 20, 2008 8:02 AM
#31: Purple, then?
(Purple flames are hotter than blue flames. I might have heard wrong. Also, purple is thematically appropriate.)
Posted by: True Bob | August 20, 2008 8:05 AM
Yeah, that's a form of birth control! The hypocrisy!
Posted by: Tony Sidaway | August 20, 2008 8:07 AM
He's 73, you say? Surely a lie! To my certain knowledge he's been kept locked up in the crypt of Westminster Abbey since Disraeli's government abolished the role of Witchsmeller Poursuivaunt!
Yon reporter must have caught him on the one day a year when he's let out so they can change the straw in his bedding.
Posted by: Andrés Diplotti | August 20, 2008 8:07 AM
So... Homosexuality causes demonic possession and demonic possession causes homosexuality?
Kobra @25:
"We are the Gay. Your children will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."
Posted by: scooter | August 20, 2008 8:07 AM
BDC @ 28
I outsmarted their Agenda, I turned my children into magical Crackers and gave that to the Gays.
They can nail those crackers all they want
Oh wait somebody already thought of that.
Wasn't that a subplot in Hansel and Gretal?
or something ?
Posted by: Kobra | August 20, 2008 8:10 AM
#40:
"They can nail those crackers all they want "
Pun of the week?
Posted by: Sigmund | August 20, 2008 8:18 AM
Come on, he can't help himself, the power of christ compells him.
Posted by: Samu | August 20, 2008 8:28 AM
"The reality based community", that's a good one
Posted by: immunosequestration | August 20, 2008 8:28 AM
wait isn't religiousity a perversion?
or is religiousity just a schizotypal pathology?
i always forget this and hope its NOT gonna be on the final.
Posted by: scooter | August 20, 2008 8:30 AM
OMG this article is hysterical
Satanists are rational? Nobody that dresses like that is entirely rational.
Awesome pun
Or moistened, I suppose.
That one made my brane fall out. And what does Fr. stand for?
Please don't tell me it's Friar.
Holy crap, I have visions of manly men prancing merrily about in Sherwood Forest, now.
SAVE ME from the DEMONS!!
auuuuugh
Posted by: Hessenroots | August 20, 2008 8:32 AM
"atheist scientism" ?
That's a new one for me.
Posted by: Andrés Diplotti | August 20, 2008 8:33 AM
That's how I know I'm not possessed.
I never found the power of Christ very compelling.
Posted by: Umilik | August 20, 2008 8:34 AM
... intercourse, which belongs in the sanctuary of married love....
There I was thinking it belonged in the "priest-altar boy sanctuary".
Very confusing. But I am glad some old shrivelled-up-testicled fart has set the record straight.
Posted by: scooter | August 20, 2008 8:35 AM
I prefer Scientistic Atheology. It sounds more wizardly.
Posted by: Gilipollas Caraculo | August 20, 2008 8:45 AM
This clown's ultimate leader is an old man who likes wearing pretty dresses, gaudy jewelry, fancy slippers, and wacky hats -- and who prefers the exclusive company of similar old men?
Posted by: outwest | August 20, 2008 8:51 AM
None of this is surprising anymore, but I am genuinely tired of reading or hearing this tripe.
Posted by: craig | August 20, 2008 8:51 AM
How come the cracker-worshipping trolls never show up in threads like these?
They'll show up in the threads where PZ laughs at their cracker, saying how horrible he is - but they never show up to defend the OTHER crazy aspects of their religion.
Posted by: RickM | August 20, 2008 8:54 AM
What I would like to know is, who pays for the goat?
Posted by: Kobra | August 20, 2008 9:04 AM
This talk about priests reminds me of a song by Stephen Lynch.
Altar boy, altar boy
Confess your sins to me
You will find the grace of god
Inside my rectory
Sunday mass or bible class
I catch him in my view
I close my eyes but there he lies
Spread eagle on the pew
And when I see him in that frock
My concience goes araye
I'll give him some communion wine thats
Spiked with spanish fly
Altar boy, altar boy
Is it gonna be heaven or hell
You can play my organ all night long
If you promise never to tell
Our father
Who art in heaven
Hallowed be thy name
I could dress him up like the pope and then i'd...
Oh dear god, the shame no no no
Lead us not into temptation
Deliver us from sin
We could pretend that he was Jesus Christ
And I was Mary Magdalene
Altar boy, altar boy
Confess your sins to me
You will find the grace of god
Inside my rectory
Oh altar boy, oh altar boy
Confess your sins to me
You will find the grace of god
Inside my rec...to...ry!!!!
Posted by: ElectricBarbarella | August 20, 2008 9:08 AM
Man, PZ, don't you know that anything that leads to teh secks is ebil? One position is allowed, only, and only if you are going to make the babies with it. OH!! And don't you go enjoying it either, that's just as ebil!!
As for the "gay agenda", I've yet to get any of my Christian "Friends" to pinpoint exactly what this is or means. Near as I can tell, it means:
***Sex with the same sex (which is not only ebil, but EVIL because it don't produce the babies)
***Infiltration of the sanctity of Marriage, since marriage is meant to produce the babies and ghey secks doesn't produce the babies; they want to ruin it.
***The Secks with yer childrens. Because they are having the secks that isn't producing the babies, they will take yer childrens and have the secks with them. But only if it won't produce the babies.
***Defiling anything that is considered "moral and just". Because the secks is dirty and ebil and only meant to produce the babies, and since the gheys can't produce the babies with their ebil secks, they are out to defile the morally just peoples of the world by giving them the ghey. Which is different than getting cooties, because the ghey turns you completely morally corrupt, whereas cooties is just an infection.
Umm, yeah. My head exploded.
Toni
Posted by: azqaz | August 20, 2008 9:11 AM
@42 Sigmund
The power of christ compells him... To be an ass.
@45 scooter
Fr. stands for Father, honorific for a catholic priest.
Posted by: Taz | August 20, 2008 9:12 AM
There is so much good stuff in this article. No contradiction in these two statements:
"Fr. Davies also warns in his book against so-called New Age and occult practices, as well as trendy exercise and "spiritual healing" regimens derived from eastern religions."
and
"Fr. Davies was appointed exorcist of the Westminster Archdiocese in 1986 after a four month training period in Rome."
Also, he better be careful with that "heterosexual promiscuity" stuff. If people start believing that could be caused by a "contagious demonic factor", CDF would be marketed and endorsed by Bob Dole.
Posted by: gdlchmst | August 20, 2008 9:18 AM
So he's saying that god doesn't want people to be self-reliant? I get it, god is the kind of sky-daddy that would break his children's legs so they can't go off to college.
Posted by: Tim | August 20, 2008 9:23 AM
Sex advice from the celibate, that should be so relevant. Don't seem to recall a homosexual explosion, or know any I'd wish to blow up, but it'd have to be magenta.
Posted by: SEF | August 20, 2008 9:24 AM
By which they undermine their own god-created-everything "argument" and still quite fail to account for how those alleged recruiters came to originate without a recruiter (or explain away the fact of homosexuality being natural in other animals too).Posted by: GirBoBytons | August 20, 2008 9:24 AM
"Among the causes of homosexuality is a contagious demonic factor." Thats an interesting statement. Do you think he fears "catching" the gay because he is speaking from expirience? "I wasn't gay but my demonic pool boy rubbed himself on me and I caught it...and I liked it! Never again I tell you!" Just a thought. ;P
Posted by: Kobra | August 20, 2008 9:27 AM
#61: You know, you might be right about that.
I should recommend a book for him: http://www.kobrascorner.com/opine/pattern-recognition.php
Posted by: zer0 | August 20, 2008 9:28 AM
I wonder how many little boys he's infected with his demon...
Posted by: monique | August 20, 2008 9:31 AM
In a way I feel kind of sorry for him. He's been manipulated by his faith to believe in a world driven mad by demons.
Anyone else spewing such idiocy about demons among us would be medicated and in therapy.
Posted by: druidbros | August 20, 2008 9:36 AM
I wonder if the good frier (pun intended) is developing an antibiotic for teh gay 'disease'?
Posted by: SEF | August 20, 2008 9:40 AM
Ahem...Posted by: Marty | August 20, 2008 9:41 AM
Kobra@ 6:
Obviously, the fireball from the homosexual explosion had all the colors of the rainbow.
Posted by: Matt Penfold | August 20, 2008 9:43 AM
It seems he is a qualified medical doctor, and also studied at Oxford.
When you are intelligent enough do to that, the excuses start running out.
Posted by: Kobra | August 20, 2008 9:45 AM
#67:
Looks like you missed my #8 comment. :P
Posted by: negentropyeater | August 20, 2008 9:45 AM
If one can believe that a priest, by saying the Words, can transform a cracker into what caused the Big Bang and life on earth, and that what caused this naturally considers homosexuality to be an abomination, it really can't be that difficult to believe that a priest, by doing the sign of the cross, sprinkling holy water, and saying the Litany of the Saints, can scare the enemy of what caused the Big Bang, and therefore cure homosexuality.
People should learn to respect these courageous priests, they have to go through a long and hard training to be capable of transforming crackers into God and scaring Demons, it's really not that simple.
Do people realise how difficult this training is, even sometimes so hard that vindictful Demons can push these courageous dedicated priests to have sex with children ?
Posted by: SEF | August 20, 2008 9:45 AM
Perhaps the nutter could be pressed into elaborating on what he imagines the other causes to be and, rather crucially, how he plans to discriminate between them so that he doesn't inflict unnecessary exorcisms (hint: all of them!) on perfectly natural homosexuals.Posted by: Kobra | August 20, 2008 9:46 AM
#69: I meant #9. Stupid typos.
Posted by: AgnoAtheist | August 20, 2008 9:51 AM
I grew up in pentecostalism. Spiritual warfare is the umbrella term for this sort of stuff. I was exorcised (not very dramatic) and I was part of exorcisms with people rolling on the floor swearing with bad-actor-accents. There were (are) church services where people were handed paper bags at the start to throw up in (demons come out this way apparently :)).
When a fundamentalist's view of demons begins to crack, they are on a path out of their faith. Belief in demons is a core part of both the teachings of the biblical Jesus and Pauline theology. As a gay child growing up in this crap, I used demons to externalize my feelings and give open armed acceptance to homophobia.
Posted by: craig | August 20, 2008 9:51 AM
When they say "the gay agenda" all they mean is "they're trying to make it unacceptable to hate and persecute gays."
Seriously, that's all they are complaining about... the items on what they say is the agenda all amount simply to "we can't be mean to gays anymore."
I really get a kick by the fact that they constantly use the phrase "forcing it down our throats." And what is being "forced down their throats?" Gays being able to do things other people get to do.
We're taking away their fun - we're taking away their recreational hate targets. I mean, what good is having a religion and being all created in a godlike image and chosen and shit, if you can't piss on the unchosen?
What's the point in creating a god to make yourself immortal and godlike and better, if you have nobody to be better THAN?
We're taking away their exceptionalism. We're forcing the big sweaty cock of averageness down their throats.
Posted by: SEF | August 20, 2008 9:55 AM
No: medical doctors are selected for rote memorisation (and a certain amount of egomania) not intelligence. Any intelligence a few of them may also have is incidental rather than any requirement or norm. And he is so old that he falls into the time when going to Oxford University was primarily about having the right connections, not intelligence at all (especially given his actual subject was Eng.Lit. - eg not science, maths or anything else even remotely close to requiring intelligence).Posted by: Elliott | August 20, 2008 9:57 AM
Did you read he only had FOUR MONTHS TRAINING!
4 Months and he's can be let loose on a gullible herd of Xtrians and then ractice this voodoo!
Still look on the brigh side - exorcism kills so it can be viewed as a kind of Dawrinism in action.
Posted by: Benjamin Franklin | August 20, 2008 10:08 AM
IIRC it was the wizarded Yogi Berra who said
"You no play da game, you no make da rules!"
Posted by: raven | August 20, 2008 10:14 AM
Got to give the RCC credit for managing to hang onto vestiges of the Dark Ages in the 21st century.
They really need to drop the celibate clergy schtick. Because no one wants to be a life long virgin these days, they are having a hard time recruiting priests and nuns and the ones they get tend to be a bit strange mentally, not very smart and rigid medieval personalities that can find millennial old superstitions to be reasonable.
The result is well known both inside the church and without. A huge disconnect between the celibate old men and the general run of the members. The priests ramble on about the evils of birth control and tell the people they should have 10 kids. The average family size of US Catholics is 2+, the same as the noncatholics. In other words, no one is paying any attention anymore.
Anyone who actually tried to follow all the RCC rules would end up going insane. And if the RCC tossed out everyone who didn't, they wouldn't have any members left. "Don't ask, don't tell."
Posted by: Carlie | August 20, 2008 10:19 AM
Hmmm - has the makings of a really good 'reality' TV show...
British TV is way ahead of you there...
Posted by: jagannath | August 20, 2008 10:21 AM
Lets see if I get this right?
An Exorcist is making bold statements that demons are possessing people left and right.
I mean is there not some term for such actions where one claims something to be broken in effort to gain employment as one who repairs the afore mentioned something?
Posted by: raven | August 20, 2008 10:24 AM
The demon causal theory of bad, terrible, and horrible things has gone out of fashion in much of xianity. The mainline protestants don't really buy into it much.
Segments of the RCC itself have been trying to downgrade it. They now maintain that most mental illness is non-demon caused, for example and have bought into the germ theory of disease.
They aren't the only one into demonology. The Mormons and fundies can demonize with the most backward of Catholics.
Stupid idea anyway. If demons are to blame for adverse activities and events, then where is free will? It isn't even supported that well by the bible.
Posted by: Rowen | August 20, 2008 10:28 AM
#55 Here's the gay agenda. . .
http://www.bettybowers.com/homoagenda.html
You just can't tell anyone or we'll smother you with satin pillows.
Everyone repeat after me.
We're here, we're queer, and we don't like your end-tables!!!
Posted by: Rayven Alandria | August 20, 2008 10:29 AM
Oh Man, don't diss the leeches Dahling, they be coool. They help reattach body parts.
Disgusting religious zealots, they not be cool. They hate our body parts.
Posted by: John C. Welch | August 20, 2008 10:29 AM
We are homo of gay.
Your children will be fabulous.
Resistance is tacky.
Posted by: tsig | August 20, 2008 10:30 AM
I know the Catholic church is an expert on man-boy love but I am confused. I thought they were in favor of it.
Posted by: The Chemist | August 20, 2008 10:33 AM
The man's a physician! That's not sarcasm, it's in the article. So of course he had something to say about alt medicine:
"Beware of any claim to mediate beneficial energies (eg. reiki), any courses that promise the peace that Christ promises (eg. enneagrams), any alternative therapy with its roots in eastern religion (e.g. acupuncture)." Needless to say, overtly occult activities such as séances and witchcraft are "direct invitations to the Devil which he readily accepts."
Sure, not because of any actual scientific evidence proving those things not to work, but because the devil's gonna getcha!
Lifesite News: the World Nut Daily of Catholicism.
Posted by: wazza | August 20, 2008 10:41 AM
Carlie: when I read that, I was thinking more along the lines of Nemesis, from the Armageddon trilogy...
Posted by: Rey Fox | August 20, 2008 10:42 AM
Forget about Teh Gay, I haven't had sex in quite some time, and now I'm worried that I'm going to turn into this guy.
"Really, for the young people in the church just starting to doubt its authority, proclamations like these are so often a tipping point, turning moderate religious people into moderate skeptics."
That's partly how it worked for me. I was already on the way out of the church by age 14 or 15 or so when the gospel at one particular mass actually had the "children must be subservient to parents in all things" and "women must be subservient to man in all things" bits. Now I went to a not-particularly crazy Catholic church, so it's entirely possible that in the following sermon, the priest tried to put that stuff in context somehow, but at the time, my thoughts were basically "Fuck this."
Perhaps I didn't have enough love in my heart. You know, that Bill fellow never returned to the "cracker in context" thread to give me good reasons to go to church. How disappointing.
"They'll show up in the threads where PZ laughs at their cracker, saying how horrible he is - but they never show up to defend the OTHER crazy aspects of their religion."
Oh, Rooke might show up eventually, this "evils of miniskirts" stuff is right up his alley. And with that disturbing image, I got to go to work.
Posted by: cognitive dissident | August 20, 2008 10:43 AM
The question "What year is it?" is irrelevant for those who do not learn with the passage of time.
Ooh, baby...bring your "contagious demonic factor" over here and possess me!
Posted by: Jams | August 20, 2008 10:48 AM
You know what would be wicked: an international "do something really gay" day. One day a year when boys should love boys and girls should love girls. I can see the poster now: A couple stereotypically straight looking men (or women) leaning toward each other, their puckered lips barely connecting while they look away cringingly. Supportive, yet icked out, they stand in front of a gaggle of stereotypically queer folk in full applause.
Any ideas for slogans?
Posted by: sjburnt | August 20, 2008 10:53 AM
Ahem. Read through the comments, and #2 wins.
" Posted by: Kristjan Wager | August 20, 2008 7:04 AM
I shouldn't be surprised by this sort of thing, but yet, I still am."
Posted by: Phiwilli | August 20, 2008 10:56 AM
Not only are leeches (as several above have commented) useful in current medicine, so are maggots - they're better at cleaning some wounds than surgeons are.
Posted by: negentropyeater | August 20, 2008 10:58 AM
Raven,
I'm not certain it's that much out of fashion:
-a 1999 Atlanta Journal-Constitution survey concluded that almost 50% of Americans believe people are sometimes inhabited by demons.
-Pope Benedict XVI s setting up exorcism squads to deal with what they view as rampant growth of demons' influence;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JFRqkHbuOo&NR=1
Posted by: AnswersInGenitals | August 20, 2008 11:01 AM
In as much that self-imposed sexual abstinence is about as unnatural a behavior as any other sex act, celibacy is amongst the most exquisite of sexual perversions (which might be why so few priests practice it).
Posted by: Iain Walker | August 20, 2008 11:01 AM
Other items of wigsome wackiness from the original article:
And precisely how does one rule out "non-spiritual causes"?