Exorcism as Religious Counseling

This is from Jonah Goldberg’s latest g-file:

In a less politically correct age, we would refer to the Most Reverend Prophet Alpha Omega Bondu as a witch doctor. Maybe even an “ooga-booga guy.” But when Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., gave the Most Rev. twelve grand to evict seven evil spirits from a Haitian psychiatric patient (that’s $1,714 per spirit � a great value), the New York Times refused to traffic in any stereotypes. In fact, it bent over the other way, even refusing to call the service an exorcism. Instead, the Times reported that the $12,000 in taxpayer dollars had been spent on “religious counseling.”

(A few quick asides on the Rev. story, just for color: The patient had hacked his wife to death and set her on fire in front of her children. Even though the Most Rev. only managed to exorcize four out of the seven spirits � a mere $6,800’s worth � he was paid the full amount. The $12,000 payment was approved by the business manager of the hospital, who was also member of Bondu’s church. The Times ignored the story entirely for three months, and then only mentioned the exorcism in passing, as part of a general story about the hospital’s problems.)

When Jesus asked the demoniac his name he replied “My name is Legion; for we are many.” Since a legion is between 3,000 to 6,000 soldiers then at $1,714 per spirit Jesus could have charged between $5,142,000 and $10,284,000.