Deliverance ministry

In charismatic Christianity, deliverance ministries are activities carried out by individuals or groups aimed at freeing people of demonic possession. Leaders of and adherents to these ministries emphasise the activities of evil spirits in practically every physical, psychological, emotional, or circumstantial malady that a person may be experiencing, drawing support from a selection of Biblical passages. They believe that exorcising the spirit or spirits in question will alleviate the problem. They also organise the cleansing of houses of items that are believed to be inviting to demons, including fantasy or horror novels, and artworks depicting pagan gods or frogs. The practices and many of the underlying beliefs of these ministries are not generally accepted by most Christians.

The rise of deliverance ministries in the United States appears to have occurred almost immediately following the release of the film The Exorcist in 1973, and the film has been credited with creating interest in casting out demons, even though the practices of deliverance ministries differ widely from the highly ritualised exorcisms carried out by the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. The same year, a Baptist minister named Frank D. Hammond and his wife Ida Mae Hammond published a book entitled Pigs in the Parlour which virtually became the textbook for the deliverance movement.

The deliverance movement lost considerable momentum by the 1990s when two of its most popular figureheads, Mike Warnke and Rebecca Brown were exposed as having fabricated large parts of their autobiographical books on Spiritual warfare. Nevertheless, as of 2003, these ministries still continue to be popular with some Christians, particularly in the United States, where the best-known current practitioner is Bob Larson.