I was thinking back recently to a comment my brother's mission president made to him: "you're not a man until you cast out a devil!" What is the missionary (and presumably male) obsession with casting out devils, rebuking others with hands raised to the square, etc?

I, regrettably, attempted this twice on my mission after feeling "prompted" to do so. The first was while serving on a college campus. We had set up a booth in the student union and one guy proceeded to blast Pres Monson about something. I don't remember what he said, but once the "spirit was offended" (or more accurately, my testimony threatened) I raised my arm to the square and said, "I prophecy in the name of Jesus Christ that one day your words will stand as a testimony against you" and rebuked him in the name of The Lord. I remember thinking I was just like Abinidi in the BOM and couldn't wait to write home and tell my dad what I had done! This is excruciatingly embarrassing to admit that I did that and even moreso that I felt proud of myself at the time for doing it.

The other instance occurred when my companion and I tracted into a women's house who was obviously possessed by the devil. In hindsight and with the benefit of working in the medical profession I recognize she was simply suffering from some acute form of a mental illness or on drugs or both. Anyway, she invited us into her cold, dark home and began making weird gestures and telling us that she could see into our souls. We were both a little freaked out, but being spiritually enlightened by my calling as an Elder I recognized this as an opportunity to cast out the evil spirit that had possessed this poor woman's body. I used the old 'arm to the square' technique and rebuked the evil spirit by the Holy Melchizadek Priesthood and anxiously awaited for the weeping and whailing spirit to depart. Nothing happened. I started feeling nervous and embarrassed as I was sure some kind of exorcism should be taking place. When nothing did I panicked and raise my arm to the square again (this is getting ridiculous) and demanded that either the demon leave or we would. When nothing happened we left. Shaken as to why nothing seemed to happen my companion astutely observed that I was inspired to say that either the demon or us should leave and clearly the Lord wanted us to leave. That answer was comforting and satisfying and so we latched on to that and spent the next few hours marveling at the amazing power of the priesthood and how spiritual an experience that was.

Subconsciously, that experience always ate at me because the "evil spirit" was not subject to command like Lucifer was to Peter in the temple video. I always rationalized it away with my companion's reassuring words.

It's so embarrassing to look back at what I used to be and how I acted. That poor woman needed professional help and some genuine concern and all I gave her was a raised right arm and a rebuke. I'm sure Jesus would have done the same thing...

Does going inactive constitute casting out a devil?

Ha ha!! That's funny!

Only if you arm is to the square and your middle finger is in the upright and locked position.

Congratulate yourself on being enough of an adult to be embarrassed by your earlier behavior. It's amazing what a few years of maturation and a little training in a medical or mental health field will do for a person.

had a companion in the that raised his arm to the square during a first discussion with a young fam...

" I command you by the Holy P-hood to know these things are true"

his name was Elder AngeL ( irony there )..

Long story short we got our ass handed to us and barely made it out with our flannel board and cardboard cut outs of Joe, God and Jesus.
My mission Pres Paul Dunn was not amused....

a pretty effective conversation stopper, even without magical priesthood powers.

I imagine that the average person would take that kind of religious fanaticism as a cue to back away slowly.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/10/2014 01:26PM by imaworkinonit.

I agree, most people would just back away slowly if a religious fanatic raised their arm to the square and started saying what they would consider to be weird stuff. My TBM ex-husband did that to me, and the thing I did pretty much the next morning was to file for divorce as it was the last straw for me.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/10/2014 01:39PM by adoylelb.