You would think this sort of thing only happens in Africa or, at a stretch in some backwoods bible belt county in the United States. But no, it has happened in South Australia, in an area I might be moving to. According to the Sydney Morning Herald:
A South Australian police officer has been charged with trying to perform an exorcism on a teenager at a church youth camp.
The 28-year-old off-duty senior constable and two other adults have been charged following a camp run by the Lutheran church in the Barossa Valley in April, Adelaide’s The Advertiser reports on Tuesday.
Now my understanding of the Lutheran Church in Australia is that they are more or less mainstream. I have had arguments with a local pastor on evolution, but I assumed that he was just an obsinate idiot. I expect this sort of crazyiness from fringe elements or evangelicals.
I do note that when the head of the Church for South Australia and the Northern territory when asked for comment he responded:
“The Lutheran Church does not endorse or encourage any actions which are abusive or which results in the limitations or freedoms of any individual,” Mr Voigt said.
Note that they didn’t say they don’t do exorcisms.
The South Australian police force has responded was well with:
The South Australian Police Minister, Michael Wright, says an exorcism allegedly carried out by a police officer in the Barossa Valley is not reflective of the state’s police force.
And I should hope not. I wonder how many officers would don the armour of god rather than a stab vest?
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[...] South Australian policeman stood down for exorcism | Sean the … [...]
You would think this sort of thing only happens in Africa or, at a stretch in some backwoods bible belt county in the United States.
Looks to me like you Aussies may be growing your own Bible Belt. Dare I say, Ken Ham?
Ah but we got rid of him pretty quick
You made some of the same ad hominems and strawmen I spoke about in a blog post I made on this story. Gotta love those gut reactions. I suffer from them all the time as well so I'm a bit of a hypocrit in pointing this out.
http://bastardsheep.com/2009/07/07/they-come-in-a...
Man, were we sharing the same brain?
AdHominems Strawmen? Maybe sweeping generalisations. Can you be more specific in the interests of educating me?
The only comment I can see that even resembles any form of Ad Hominem attack is when you refer to your local pastor and mention the assumption of him being an 'obsinate idiot'.
I can't see any real problems with this blog and I am usually the one that points out strawmen and Ad Hominem attacks on blogs I view.
I think you were right when you just said you were making sweeping generalisations.
Saul, I take Ad hominum attack to be attacks made against the person in an attempt to derail their argument. I think with this post I was merely being insulting:D. If I call recal correctly the pastor in question is a loon and his arguments were shite as well.
Yeah, I know, that's why I only said that bit about the pastor resembles an Ad Hominem argument…I wouldn't say it actually is one.
I can't see any Ad Hominem here so I can only guess that Bastard Sheep was referring to that bit of name-calling, I can't see what else he could possibly consider as Ad Hominem.
Most people don't seem to understand what the term means in all honesty. Most seem to think that if you use any name-calling during a debate then it's automatically Ad Hominem…what they don't realize is that as long as the person has responded to a claim with a proper rebuttal then whether they use name-calling all not is irrelevant.
Not only have you not used name-calling to respond to the pastor, the contents of your debate are not even present, so how anyone can make a claim of Ad Hominem, valid or not, is beyond me.
Nice blog by the way.
From memory my post was very close to one that Bastard had written. Either I had read it and run with same ideas (subconcously- I make it a habit of linking or hat tipping when I steal ideas
) or we have very similar was of thinking. But I am not sure what he was referring to with the ad hom. I think he was unduly harsh on his own work. .
Thanks for the kind words on the blog.
Fair enough, I have to admit I'm usually my own worst critic…I've lost track of the amount of times I edit comments I post with IntenseDebate.
And you're welcome.
The Lutherans are also hosting AIDS denialist Meryl Dorey at St Mark's, Mt Barker.
That figures, one of the Lutheran pastors in town here is a Christian Scientist and evolution denialist
Charges have been dropped as the people "agreed" to restraining orders. I was not under the impression a restraining order was something the receiving party had to "agree" to? How is this in any way shape or form a compromise?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/07/06/294...
Apparently one can consent to orders.
[...] commented on the original story here in July of last year. As it stands the 8 men involved in the “alleged” exorcism have had [...]