by Fergus Butler-Gallie, Telegraph
A Republican candidate for Colorado governor has put his ability to banish demonic spirits on the ballot. Is it right to call him a crank?
I think the last time (more diabolically interested readers may be able to correct me) that exorcism played a role in the politics of a major power was during the Loudun possessions in 1634. Cardinal Richelieu rather cynically used the purported mass possession of a group of sexually charged nuns, and their subsequent exorcism by a handsome young priest, as a way to remove political enemies – including the priest – who opposed his desire to remove the town’s wall.
Now, however, exorcism is back on the political agenda in none other than the United States. Victor Marx, a Republican candidate for governor of Colorado, claims that one of his key qualifications for the role is that he is capable of performing exorcisms.
He claims to have exorcised multiple demons, including from a woman against whom his dog took umbrage by a swimming pool and numerous times over the telephone. Marx’s other qualifications include running a Christian karate centre in Honolulu and calling in private air strikes on Islamic State. Marx’s opponents for the nomination – who condemned his very presence in the race – are Senator (Barbara) Kirkmeyer and Representative (Scott) Bottoms. One wonders how the American satirists manage.
It’s easy to write off Mr Marx as a crank – as the voters of Colorado are expected to do. However, what makes him dangerous is arguably not that he takes demonic possession seriously but that he is so nonchalant in his identification of and response to it.