Books such as Scott Peck's...
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Books such as Scott Peck's People of the Lie, tell convincingly of the power of evil as an imposed force in the lives of some people. It was not quite so difficult then for a Vermont pastor to take seriously the stories of a poltergeist in the parsonage of a neighboring parish. Whether you believe in such things is as immaterial as the apparition itself.
The fact is there was a major disturbance in the spirituality of the household. Many popular ghost stories tell of efforts to exorcise the ghost in oppositional ways. The clergy come to drive the errant spirit away with the power of prayer which condemns it as evil. Stories suggest that the evil then turns on the exorcist. In the case at hand, however, the clergy looked to Mark 3:20-25 for a clue to an alternative. The errant spirit, they theorized, is estranged from its essential self. It is not able to find its own rest. What it needs, then, is not condemnation but Christ-like intercession ... one who will act on its behalf.
Privately and unbeknownst to even the householders a prayer, confessing the estrangement of the spirit from its essential self, was offered in the name of Jesus Christ. It was a prayer of peace, not of confrontation. Several months later the residents reported that the disruptive occurrences had suddenly stopped. Was there a ghost? Are there ghosts? Who knows? What is significant is that the love of Christ has power over all things, even that which we do not understand.
- Bond
The fact is there was a major disturbance in the spirituality of the household. Many popular ghost stories tell of efforts to exorcise the ghost in oppositional ways. The clergy come to drive the errant spirit away with the power of prayer which condemns it as evil. Stories suggest that the evil then turns on the exorcist. In the case at hand, however, the clergy looked to Mark 3:20-25 for a clue to an alternative. The errant spirit, they theorized, is estranged from its essential self. It is not able to find its own rest. What it needs, then, is not condemnation but Christ-like intercession ... one who will act on its behalf.
Privately and unbeknownst to even the householders a prayer, confessing the estrangement of the spirit from its essential self, was offered in the name of Jesus Christ. It was a prayer of peace, not of confrontation. Several months later the residents reported that the disruptive occurrences had suddenly stopped. Was there a ghost? Are there ghosts? Who knows? What is significant is that the love of Christ has power over all things, even that which we do not understand.
- Bond
