Accused exorcist turns self in
Church speaks out against attempt on autistic boy, 14
BY MARCELA CREPS
mcreps@heraldt.com
August 2, 2007
mcreps@heraldt.com
BLOOMINGTON — Eddie Uyesugi II turned himself in to Monroe County Police at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday. His bond was set at $20,000 surety, $500 cash, Monroe County Sheriff’s Detective Brad Swain said.
Uyesugi faces preliminary charges of confinement and battery with injury. Uyesugi is accused of beating a 14-year-old autistic boy during an hours-long ritual exorcism in May.
The pastors for Cherry Hill Ministries in Bloomington released a statement Wednesday denouncing Uyesugi’s behavior in his attempt to “cast demons” out of the boy during a ritual session conducted at the request of the boy’s mother.
“We emphatically denounce the method, manner and mentality of this unauthorized and unsupervised exorcism attempted by this young man,” said Kim Norris, pastor of Cherry Hill, in a prepared statement.
In the press release, sent by the church’s attorney, the church emphasizes that Norris was the one who contacted Child Protective Services about the incident. It also states that the Uyesugi was immediately expelled from the Cherry Hill School of Theology and was asked to resign membership in the church.
Norris said the church believes in “deliverance through prayer,” as do many Christian churches. He said this is done through laying on of hands with no harmful physical contact.
Child Protective Services officials said Wednesday they will not make any official statement.
What is exorcism?
While the term exorcism has traditionally been used by Catholics, most Protestants and charismatic Catholics prefer the term deliverance, according to Candy Gunther Brown, Indiana University associate professor in religious studies.
Brown said many who practice deliverance are trained psychologists and psychiatrists who know and understand mental illness, but also recognize there are limits to what medicine and counseling can provide. She said many believe there is a third force — the spiritual effect — that benefits from deliverance ministry.
As for what happened in the case of the autistic teen, Brown said that type of force is not the standard.
“I cannot think of a single kind of Protestant or Catholic group that would endorse what you just described,” she said. “That’s not at all a kind of standard practice.”
Brown said the tradition of casting out of demons took place up until the 4th century and experienced a resurgence in the middle of the 19th century. She said many believe the resurgence is an attempt to recover what’s been forgotten by the churches.
As deliverance has gained new emphasis, so have the practices. Brown said the aggressive tactics used to battle demons have changed. Instead of shouting at demons and causing people to vomit, the practice is more subdued, with quiet talking. She said that while old practices might including finding out how the demons got in, the new practice attempts to keep the demons from reacting to the process.
“The emphasis is on binding demons and commanding them not to manifest,” she said.
While many people don’t believe in deliverance or exorcisms, she said large segments believe there are spiritual realities such as angels and demons that can’t be explained.
“Even with all of the advances, there are a lot of Americans who believe that is not a sufficient explanation,” Brown said. “That’s why you still see the practice of deliverance ministry.”
She also said that what Uyesugi tried to do was not something any beginner should attempt.
“He just didn’t know what he was doing,” she said.
Brown said the Bible has a number of examples of Jesus casting out demons and healing the sick, which people will point to as examples of how and why prayer would work.
“That’s kind of a world view that we’re talking about,” she said. “It’s a world view that there is a supernatural that interacts with the natural.”
Uyesugi is accused of battering the teen in the process of casting out demons. Police have said that although Uyesugi was a student at Cherry Hill, he performed the acts without the knowledge or direction of the church.
Marcela Creps is a reporter for the Herald-Times of Bloomington, a sister paper to the Times-Mail.
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