According to a Pentecostal acquaintance/co-worker, humans are susceptible to all types of demonic spiritual influence. If you're angry, you're being influenced by a spirit of anger. If you're jealous, that's the spirit of jealousy, etc. Basically any perceived negative human emotion or reaction or experience is a spirit of something. I remember quite a lot of preaching on all these spirits when I was still attending church. I didn't buy it then either. But I think I was probably under the influence of the spirit of skepticism even back then. Considering my upbringing, I'm surprised that "spirit" survived since one of the goals of my childhood indoctrination into Christianity was to utterly destroy any skepticism I might have possessed.
I was fortunate my skepticism survived, but this particular acquaintance and many, many others were not so fortunate. Being attacked by demonic spirits is just one freaky belief out of countless others. I once saw a book this above-mentioned acqaintance brought to work to share with another co-worker. "The Blood of Jesus" by Elaine Davenport. I saw it on a desk and I couldn't resist a peek. The back cover summary of the book made me laugh and want to vomit at the same time. It also gave me some insight into the psyches of a couple of my co-workers. The book summary stated how to plead the blood of Jesus, how to create a blood line around your property to protect your family and home from Satan, etc. Later, out of curiosity I looked up the author's website. Most Pentecostal insanity doesn't usually shock me, but in this case I did mutter a "you're fucking kidding me" under my breath when I read the author's blog posts and the comments section.
On the subject of protecting your family, she mentioned that you could either buy a handgun to protect your family and property OR
"...you can “in faith” draw a blood line around your home, boldly declaring to Satan that he has no legal right to touch you, your family, or your possessions..."
There are SO many books and lectures and sermons covering the subject of spiritual warfare and how to be a prayer warrior, how to rid yourself of the spirit of (insert negative human emotion or experience here) and how to fight Satan and Pentecostals just eat it up. (I know because I WAS one) They revel in any perceived demonic attack because to them it means whatever they're doing is making the devil really mad! And if the devil is mad, they're doing a good job for Jesus! They would be worried if the devil WASN'T attacking them. And they do love to brag about it. They love to exchange their spiritual war stories. I've heard literally hundreds of them. The stories all consist of common events - unfortunate things that happen to everyone from losing their car keys when they were getting ready to leave for church, to having a bad dream, to suffering because of a bad economy, to losing a loved one or being diagnosed with a serious illness. I know folks who consider every event in their lives as having a supernatural cause. The owner of the above mentioned book IS one of those. The author of the above book certainly seems to be as well.
Most don't live at that extreme, but I've run across quite a few. They aren't your everyday Christians, but considering how popular books on the subject of Christian spiritual warfare are, I think it's safe to say there are a lot of deluded folks out there.
It's one thing to believe in a god, but believing yourself, or your family, or your church, or your entire country is under attack by Satan? Sounds a lot like paranoid delusion to me. If I'm not mistaken, paranoid delusion is a mental disorder. Whether it is taught, or innate, it is still a mental disorder. These pastors and apologists and authors are not only catering to it, they're perpetuating it!
So if you consider yourself a spiritual warrior or under attack by the devil, get a good therapist and some medication.
And stop buying those stupid books!!
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