Casting Out Demons in Colorado Springs

Tragic shootings can happen anywhere -- a school, a mall, Phil Spector's house -- but when the site of the carnage is New Life Church in Colorado Springs, the response is likely to be somewhat different. When it comes to violent crime and other societal ills, many evangelical Christians are deep believers in root causes. Not so much poverty, homelessness or mental illness, but the real root causes: demons.

The founding pastor of the New Life megachurch, the now-disgraced Ted Haggard, was nothing if not media savvy. He once warned his followers not to talk about demons and supernatural battles when secular reporters came calling. But behind closed doors, Haggard was a major proponent of spiritual warfare, the battle "against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

That's from the book of Ephesians, but the Bible is ambiguous about what it actually means, and some modern evangelicals interpret it a way that many theologians say the Bible never intended. A full explanation of spiritual warfare, especially as understood by more sophisticated believers, requires more space than we have here (you'll find more in my forthcoming book, Rapture Ready! Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture), but the pop Christian version espoused by Haggard and his ilk is fairly straightforward: Demons, literal ones, minions of the equally literal living Satan, are everywhere, infecting cities and nations with sin and death. The job of the Christian believer (though to be fair, not the most important job, most evangelicals would say) is to cast out these demons by locating them, identifying them, and saying the right incantatory prayers to dispel them. If it sounds like the stuff of fantasy books, that's because it is. The modern understanding of spiritual warfare is largely derived from two hugely influential novels by Christian author Frank Peretti that have sold millions of copies since the mid-1980s.

The first step in spiritual warfare, the location of demons, is known as spiritual mapping. This step-by-step guide explains one version of the process, which involves combing neighborhoods for cults (such as Mormon temples and Unitarian churches), porn stores, establishments "owned and/or operated by the homosexual community," and "abortuaries." It's not clear if Haggard used exactly this tactic, but he quite famously relied on something like it when establishing New Life Church. As the Colorado Springs Gazette explained in 2004, "Haggard was instrumental in creating an evangelical-friendly environment in Colorado Springs, partly by using a technique called 'prayer walking.' [C. Peter] Wagner said Haggard and members of his ministry would walk through town in the early 1990s, praying as they went, establishing beachheads for a spiritual rejuvenation." (Wagner is the head of Global Harvest Ministries, a leading spiritual warfare outfit with close ties to New Life.)

So what does this have to do with the recent shootings? Though you probably won't hear any of New Life's members say it for the cameras -- they literally got the memo, remember -- it's almost certain that a fair number immediately concluded that the attacks were Satan's revenge against Colorado Springs' evangelical community for doing its job too well. As a pastor named Dutch Sheets told the Gazette, Colorado Springs -- "the evangelical Vatican" -- would be a hell of a prize, so to speak: "There is a great warfare for this city, and there's no doubt in my mind that Satanic forces would be doing everything possible to hinder (the work done here)."

After all, they already believe Satan tempted Haggard with meth and man-whores for the same reason.

Comments

[marcuspfrench]

Thanks for reading my post, I'm a programmer by trade, not a writer, so thanks for taking the time. I'm glad to hear that your understanding of the evangelical/charismatic understanding of the spirtual realm goes deeper than Frank Peretti, (especially knowing you are writing a book on contemporary Christian culture). In the Christian circles I've been involved with, there has been very little if any talk of Peretti or his novels. Much more influential has been the work of Neil T. Anderson (Bondage Breaker, Victory Over the Darkness, etc...). If you're talking about spiritual mapping, that is something I have only heard of once in my time as a Christian. That may be very influenced by Peretti, I really don't know. Please make more of an effort in the future to differentiate between spiritual mapping and the wider realm of spiritual warfare.

-- The Thinking Charismatic

[amberglow]

and these people think Mormons are cultists?

way too weird--and entirely unAmerican.

[ShawnMichel]

I lived in Colorado for forty years.

Then I got sane and moved.

The state has morphed into something unrecognizable from when I was a kid; it has become a mecca of fundamentalist wackjob paranoia and plasticized religion, of suburban slovenliness and hyperindividuality, of gross indifference to others and profound dishonesty.

No wonder these killings happened there. It's a true miracle more haven't.

SMdM

[realitytrumpsbull]

Hmmm....know what? I had to walk a lot last
time I was in the springs, and it wasn't 'cause
I was on a spirit quest, it was because I didn't
have taxi money, and I was trying to get to
the store and didn't have a car. I didn't see
meth nor man-whore one.

What I DID see, though, was some pretty expensive-looking architecture with a cross on it, and there's more places like that. The news
about the kid with the rifle talks about him
going and attacking people at two of these
places in Colorado.

They say everyone has to believe in something,
well, I believe I'll have another beer. I
believe I'll also give churches an even wider
berth than I have previously, especially
megachurches.

On another story, did you hear they finally
cleaned house at Oral Roberts U? Kid stole
like, 50 million, or something...

[Kodachi]

I was surprised by the armed security guard in the first accounts of the shooting, but it looks like the church doesn't usually have them and the security was due to the shooting at the training center.

[mandycat]

About seven years ago my husband and I were in Colorado Springs. (I can't remember exactly why; we usually avoid the place as creepy and depressing.)

While eating lunch I read an article in the local newspaper, somewhere around page 24, about a bunch of fundamentalist nutbag missionaries. They specialized in driving through residential neighborhoods luring children into their vans, then taking them to a house where the children were cajoled and threatened until they agreed to "accept Jesus as their savior" and to receive some form of baptism on the spot.

In any other locale, there would have been a huge uproar. Kidnapping children is generally considered serious business. Not so in Creepy Springs; that was the last anyone ever heard of the matter.

[gulopartisan]

This "demon-haunting" takes the already dangerous Antinomian heresy to its ultimate extreme. Antinomianism accounts for the apparent hypocrisy of fundies. Having declared that no "law," not even God's, applies to you once you are elect, you are free to deny history, science, legal accountability, and basic morality and ethics. If you are saved, and you decide to rape your own child and then cook and eat her, God wanted you to, and who are we to challenge God? The Antinomian becomes God as surely as a third-stage syphilitic becomes Napoleon.

Haggard's "religion" steps from "I did it and it was good" to the logical next step: "I had no choice. I'm not responsible. I didn't really do it at all, you see, so when I denied it, I wasn't lying." Ted didn't want to take it up his butt, he just thought he did, because Satan got him to thinking about that big, hard, hot.... Well, you know. Satan made him; Satan just made him!

No responsibility, no accountability, no free will. That this pre-infantile worldview pawns itself off as "the Jesus message" makes me want to spit.

[derik]

For evolution to continue (and it will) we do need these town walking prayers. Otherwise, they would start street walking and doing the "nasty fun" thing with each other. Then we end up with all those town crawling babies. Ah, the wonders of evolution. If only we could drop the tax subsidies they get then life would be nice.

[marcuspfrench]

I did a critique of this post here:
http://marcuspfrench.blogspot.com/2007/12/critique-of-out-demons-in-colorado.html

[retarius]

You know, I really don't get religion at all...I wrote a brilliant (if I say it myself) expose of religion a couple of days ago, but HuffPo didn't post it...but seriously, all these gloomy posts, what's up people?...doesn't anyone see how funny this shit is? Gun-nuts and born-agains joined at the hip in the Repugnant party, shooting at each other...armed guards at church, lone gunmen...what will they think of next? Maybe we'll get lucky and they will wipe each other out...
Listen I know that some people may find this in poor taste, and that maybe some of the people shot were nice people and all...but you have to admit it's funny stuff....it would get even funnier if Charlton Heston showed up to do a breakfast rally for the NRA and did a 'from my cold dead hands' speech...

[Steve Real]

I've never been to a Church with armed guards before,
ever.
Has anyone else been to a church
that carries Colt .45's and hired powered rifles?

It tells you a lot
about their basic psychology.

All the same
what a horrible tragedy.
And these people
do deserve our prayers
and support.

[badmormon]

Organized religion has turned morality upside down. War and violence are no longer problematical but most sex is considered the deepest of sin. Well the violence has come to visit the christians and I wonder if they will change their minds.
It was the christian conservatives in the US that promoted the violent war against Islam but now a little violence has come to their house. Payback is a bitch.

[kkuate]

Ted Haggard's seeds have sprouted and are giving off fruit...Now, followers of the false prophet are gathering the harvest.

These are the poor devils who blindly casted votes for Bush in 2000 and 2004. Bush is now laughing his way to the bank, along with his buddies who dwell in high places.

[HeevenSteven]

Funny, looking back on my road to freethinking, It occurs to me that the very first piece of religious gobbledygook I got rid of was the idea of a Satan.

Epicurus riddled it out a long time ago:

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

[retarius]

If all those churchgoers had been carrying concealed weapons this wouldn't have happened....guns don't kill people, people kill people...we have to protect ourselves from Satan's evil instruments etc etc