Updated again Wednesday afternoon
May day opinion has links to several articles about this.
The Observer today has three articles on related topics:
First, on the front page, it has Rising Tory star Philippa Stroud ran prayer sessions to ‘cure’ gay people.
Then on page 7, there is Secret Christian donors bankroll Tories.
And on page 38, Henry Porter writes that A little bit of religious bigotry is tolerable in a healthy society.
Update
Andrew Brown writes at Cif belief on Bigotry and homelessness
The New Frontiers church to which Philippa Stroud belongs and where her husband is a major star is the fruit standard of fruit loopiness among English evangelical Christians. It was at a New Frontiers church in Brighton that I once went to hear the New Zealand evangelist Bill Surbritzky, a man who believes that not merely homosexuality but smoking and swearing are caused by demonic infestation. But it is very successful and it is not in the least bit American…
Cif at the polls covered this further, see No anger over Philippa Stroud?
And Cif belief has Feedback on Philippa Stroud
The Twitter aspect was dealt with comprehensively by Benjamin Cohen for Channel 4 News.
Ekklesia has more background on her husband.
Meanwhile, Andrew Brown also wrote about the Citizens UK meeting, see Faith trumps party politics.
“Following the Money” UK. Your turn, Rowan.
“She wanted me to know all my thinking was wrong, I was wrong and the so-called demons inside me were wrong. The session ended with her and others praying over me, calling out the demons. She really believed things like homosexuality, transsexualism and addiction could be fixed just by prayer, all in the name of Jesus.” – re Phillippa Stroud, Exorcist – “The Observer’ – This testimony of a young trans-sexual’s bizzare experience of an attempted exorcism at the hands of Phillippa Stroud and her evangelical christian friends, raises thoughts of a religious ceremony more in keeping with the fundamentalism… Read more »
The only answer to Phillippa Stroud – the amateur exorcist – together with all her Conservative Fundamentalist buddies who are hoping to fund their puritanical programme to ‘govern’ the UK, is VOTE LABOUR. At least, Gordon is upfront and no bigot.
I was talking to an ordinand at Westcott recently about the usefulness of the language of demonic possession. He argues that it can be useful on a personal level as a part of the Ministry of Deliverance (though I am pretty sure he wouldn’t have argued that homosexuality should be described in such language), and he defended the idea of exorcism in rather literal terms. The ordinand is not by any means a reactionary or even an evangelical, and I was left with the impression that this is a fairly standard conviction in the Anglican priesthood (indeed, I’m told that… Read more »
rjb — Actually, the Book of Occasional Services of The Episcopal Church (official but a level below the Book of Common Prayer) has a provision “Concerning Exorcism” (one page, two paragraphs). The short version is, “This is to be referred to the bishop.” Good provision.
I have never had occasion to utilize this provision, nor have I heard of anyone else utilizing it. I interpret this provision as a polite way of saying “Don’t even think about it!”
A review of the lack of further media coverage of the Stroud story:
http://bit.ly/c1tqZ8
How on earth does a British election story become one of the most talked about subjects on Twitter in the whole world, but then get next to no coverage in the mainstream British media…
The electorate decided not to adopt her. Was that an answer to prayer ?