Rightwingwatch.org:
Obama Is Possessed By Demons, Requires Exorcism
“Dr. Chaps” is so convinced that President Obama is possessed by demonic forces that he wrote actually wrote a book called “ The Demons of Barack H. Obama.”
In the book, Klingenschmitt claims to have uncovered fifty demons “ruling” Obama , including the dark spirits of “sexual abuse,” “genocide,” “paganism,” “witchcraft” and “homosexual lust.”
On his TV show, Klingenschmitt once performed an exorcism “against the demon of tyranny who is using the White House occupant” to “oppress us.”
Just when you thought you had heard it all…tsk tsk. the Reverend Klingenschmitt has just been elected to the Colorado State Legislature. He is known for his rather extreme attempts at displaying his political beliefs. According to Rightwingwatch.org:
Televangelist and Religious Right activist Gordon Klingenschmitt will soon be starting a new job as a Republican member of the Colorado House of Representatives. This is a big promotion for Klingenschmitt, who has until now been laboring away as the host of a TV program called “Pray In Jesus Name,” where he offers his own special brand of unhinged comments on issues ranging from gay rights to Obamacare and the animal kingdom.
Klingenschmitt, an exorcist who goes by the nickname “Dr. Chaps,” has promised to “tone down” his rhetoric now that he’s an elected official, but it will take a whole lot of toning down for him to sound even like a run-of-the-mill extreme anti-gay activist.
“Dr. Chaps?” I don’t even want to know. Does his moniker have anything to do with his extreme anti-gay stance?
I fear Colorado has its work cut out for it. Part of the state is young, pot-smoking and progressive. The other part apparently caters to tele-evangelist exorcists. This dude sounds like the invasion of the soul snatchers. People like this are just scary. It is even scarier that he now hold office in Colorado.
Can I assume that the exorcism didn’t work?
Pretty safe bet….
I believe “Dr Chaps” comes from the fact that he was a career chaplain in the US Navy. Grad of the USAF Academy; MBA and Ph.D in Theology from Regents University. Not sure of the denomination but I did see him referred to as an evangelical Episcopal priest. Got court-martialed in the Navy for wearing his uniform to a protest — at the White House, I think. He often went head to head with the Navy brass over the right of a chaplain to display the beliefs of his own religion in servicing the troops rather than being forced to use bland, covers-everything-and-everybody methods. I believe he took a reduction in rank so he could serve on a Navy ship in the Iraq-Afghan war zone. Pro-life and pro-traditional marriage, he doesn’t back down in a debate.
15th Colorado State Assembly district is at Colorado Springs, where he lives. He won a GOP primary and then took 70% of the vote in the general against a very liberal Dem woman. Local paper called it a contest of the far right against the far left for a vacated seat.
I figured he was from near Colorado Springs. that appears to be a hot bed of very fundamentalist Christianity. I am not sure exorcising the President of the United States even falls under “fundamentalist Christianity.”
I knew he had been a Navy chaplin but I sure ever associated that with “Chaps.”
Too bad. Next time we’ll have to try the Pope. He has been talking recently about exorcism.
Yea, the Pope is really in to exorcism. I am really glad that the Church is no longer in denial over it. Do I believe it happens? I sure believe people believe it happens. Perception is reality.
I doubt if even the Pope could do one via TV though.
The Pope isn’t necessarily ‘into exorcism.’ Catholics have always believed in the existence demons and demonic possession, that’s just basic catechism. Reading the Gospels it seems Jesus is often dealing with demons. Just as a matter of fact, the Rite of Baptism, the initiation rite into the Church, includes an extensive exorcism prayer. So if you’ve ever been to a Catholic baptism, you’ve been to an exorcism.
What’s on the books and what’s actually talked about as reality are not necessarily the same thing. I know when The Exorcist first came out the Catholic Church got a lot of publicity over its role with exorcism (I know other religions do them also.) At the time there was a great effort made to dismiss that the Church dealt with exorcism.
Perhaps I should have said the current Pope speaks of exorcism more openly than previous representatives of the Vatican.
The last three were certainly talking about the devil…
Quote from Pope Francis
“Maybe his [Satan’s] greatest achievement in these times has been to make us believe that he does not exist, and that all can be fixed on a purely human level.”
“The Devil is a being that opted not to accept the plan of God. The masterpiece of the Lord is man; some angels did not accept it and they rebelled. The Devil is one of them.”
“The presence of the devil is on the first page of the Bible, and the Bible ends as well with the presence of the devil, with the victory of God over the devil.”
Quotes from Pope Benedict XVI
“Whatever the less discerning theologians may say, the devil, as far as Christian belief is concerned, is a puzzling but real, personal and not merely symbolical presence.”…..
..…”The more one understands the holiness of God, the more one understands the opposite of what is holy, namely, the deceptive masks of the devil”
Quote from Saint Pope John Paul II
“Begone, Satan!’ The Messiah’s resolute attitude is an example and an invitation for us to follow him with courageous determination. The devil, the “prince of this world”, even today continues his deceitful action. Every man, over and above his own concupiscence and the bad example of others, is also tempted by the devil, and the more so when he is least aware of it.”
Many feel that when we overly emphasize the devil that we let man off the hook for his own bad behavior. I am reminded of the old Flip Wilson skits of “The Devil made me do it.”
On the other hand, I do believe that there is evil in the world…true evil…the kind that makes the hair on the back on your neck stand up. Can that evil be personified?
The part I find funny about this guy doing the exorcism on Obama, is that after he does it, and Obama (presumably) doesn’t change, doesn’t that mean the exorcist failed? I mean, if you perform the exorcism, you’d better see some results, right? Otherwise, the exorcist’s faith is too weak, or the demon is too powerful for you to handle. Either way, that doesn’t sound good for the exorcist.