Scary Stories

Posted by owner on December 10, 2009

The Dark Sacrament

David M. Kiely & Christina McKenna

Harper One

 

If you know a skeptic you want to scare, you might want to get this book. But I can’t think of any other reason to purchase it.

 

It’s not that the book isn’t well written and thoroughly researched. It’s not that I doubt the authenticity of the stories told. In fact, The Dark Sacrament is powerfully written by a journalist who knows his business. And it’s based on interviews with people living today. And it relates exorcisms conducted by two well known Irish churchmen, one an Anglican priest and the other a Roman Catholic monk. The book in fact delivers just what the subtitle promises: “True stories of Modern Day Demon Possession and Exorcism.”

 

For anyone interested in demonization, it sounds like a must buy. Especially when one reads the comment of the highly respected Ben Witherington III of Asbury Theological Seminary, who writes the following endorsement: “This is perhaps the best account written in my lifetime about this difficult and troubling subject, and I would commend it to one and all.”

 

But the more I read, the more I disagreed with Witherington. The problem is, these stories are just too “out there.” Apparitions. Howling banshees. Demons casting a chill over a house constructed over an ancient altar. A demon incubus that torments a housewife for some fifteen years. Flying Bibles, smashed religious pictures, friendly and frightening ghosts. Doors that open and close by themselves. Frightening moans and groans. They’re all in here, along with a child taken over by demons through play with a discarded Ouija board. And boy, these stories raise the hackles. You definitely don’t want to read them when you’re alone at night!

 

And that’s the problem with this book. Like so many TV shows exploring the paranormal, this book focuses on the external and the just plain frightening. The impression one has is that demonization is primarily a matter of weird things happening around us. And that’s simply not the case. It’s far more typical that demons remain hidden, and affect our lives in ways that most people are unlikely to suspect. The demon that gains access through a traumatic experience and finds expression in exaggerating natural fears ruins far more lives than howling banshees or flying pictures. The demon that gains access through early abuse and finds expression in exaggerating natural anger or distrust of God and others is far more destructive than a cold “presence” sensed in an empty room.

 

So, as I said, I recommend staying away from The Dark Sacrament. It’s difficult enough for believers to take demons seriously without reading a book that give the impression demonic presence is always marked by the obviously supernatural and the especially scary.

 

Are the stories in this book true? I don’t see any reason to doubt them. Are the stories about typical demonic activity? That I do doubt. Will reading this book provide insight into the invisible war’s impact on your own life? Not at all.

 

What I do recommend is that you purchase the other book reviewed below.