From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
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‘It was the tidiest exorcism on record — completed in minutes and absent the pungent mess typically associated with demonic possession.
While most everyone at Berry College, located just north of Rome, doubts junior Nathan Mallory’s claim that he cast the devil out of a former student, the alleged exorcism has reignited a festering debate about religion’s role at the liberal arts institution. [How do you reignite something that’s festering?]
“There is a concern that something like this could go on here,” said junior Kyler Post, managing editor of the Campus Carrier, Berry’s student newspaper. “People are afraid we’re going to be looked at as some sort of radical, right-wing school.”
At the heart of this debate is the school’s unabashedly Christian WinShape program, bankrolled by Chick-fil-A founder Truett Cathy. Mallory is among the 100-plus Berry students to receive a WinShape scholarship.
“The WinShape students live together, worship together, study together,” said Berry religion professor Harvey Hill. They pledge to abstain from alcohol and drugs and must attend weekly chapel meetings at facilities located about three miles from the main campus.
That’s where the alleged exorcism occurred, on Sept. 24, in Mallory’s Pilgrim Hall dorm room. School officials have not released the name of the young woman Mallory claims was demonically possessed.
“While we were worshipping, she began to repeat ‘no, no, no’ just like the other demon-possessed cases I’ve seen in the past,” Mallory wrote in an e-mail to WinShape students. “That’s when [the demon] showed itself.”
“Her face changed right in front of me and the most evil, hideous grin came on her face and her eyes seemed to turn red and I prayed that the Holy Spirit would just take over from there and he did,” wrote Mallory. The student did not return calls seeking comment.
Berry officials have been quick to distance the college from the exorcism, removing Mallory from his job as a resident assistant.
… Boasting eight deer for every student, the private liberal arts college, founded in 1902 as a Protestant institution, sits on a bucolic 26,000 acres. Roughly 1,800 students attend Berry.’
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26,000 acres for 1,800 students! A 1:8 student/deer ratio! An exorcism if you say NO three times! Whadda place.
October 10th, 2009 at 12:07PM
Poor girl. Same thing happened to my 7th-great grandmother.
October 10th, 2009 at 12:16PM
It was festering because it had been ignited.
October 10th, 2009 at 12:41PM
Like the ulcerated forests of California.
October 11th, 2009 at 7:05AM
Down among the festering palms? No, wait, I think that’s sweltering palms.
October 11th, 2009 at 7:08AM
You’re trying to remember down among the pestering fines.
October 11th, 2009 at 7:59AM
That is WAAAY too many deer for 26,000 acres. If they really have 14,000+ deer running around, it has to be one of the scrawniest herds around. I suggest that at the next exorcism, the devils be directed into the deer, which, like the swine in the New Testament, will cast themselves into the nearest pond (surely they have a few) and drown.
October 11th, 2009 at 5:35PM
I never engage in spooney loonerisms.