The “Demon-Possessed”Pastor

Back when I was music minister at the West Covina Church of Christ in California, 1973-1975, I had the privilege of serving with senior pastor, Ron Keller.  An incident happened there which, when I thought about it later, seemed quite funny to me, although at the time it wasn’t funny at all.

Apparently, Ron’s sermon series on a variety of movie topics had caught the eye of someone at the local ABC station and a reporter wanted to come and talk with Ron about it.  The most recent movie on the list was The Exorcist.  If you were around then, you may remember that the movie’s release created quite a stir, so Ron had decided to use its title as a springboard for one of his sermons in the series.  Ron later related to me his conversation with the reporter, who taped the interview.  

The reporter asked Ron if the sermon series had been popular in the church, to which Ron replied that the congregation seemed to enjoy it; church attendance had been good for the series.  (I’m sorry to say that I don’t remember the titles of any of the other movies in the series.)  The reporter seemed interested in the pastor’s topics on this sermon, so Ron, rather unwisely I suppose, expounded on satanic activity.  

“Well first of all, there’s temptation,” he said. This is a very common activity of the Devil.  Everyone is tempted.  “Have you ever been tempted?” he asked the reporter, whose response was to sit stone-faced and silent.  

Undeterred, Ron continued: “Then there’s oppression.  The Devil can do things to people to make their lives miserable.”  Ron then went on to explain that, while he was preparing the sermon series and particularly the one on The Exorcist, he sometimes had awakened in the middle of the night feeling as though he had a crushingly heavy weight on his chest.  “I suppose that might be oppression,” he said.  “Even Christians can be oppressed by the devil,” he mused. 

“Last of all, there’s possession, demonic possession,” Ron said.  “That’s when a devil takes control of someone and makes them behave or act in a certain way.  This, I think, is the subject of the movie.”  Ron’s mistake in the interview might have been to try to explain temptation, oppression, and possession to someone who, it turned out, was really pretty clueless about spiritual matters.  The interview ended cordially enough and the reporter left.  

That evening, though, on the evening news, the announcer enthusiastically headlined the interview with Ron, which was to air on the later newscast: “Tonight,” according to the announcement, “we have an interview with a local pastor who says he is demon-possessed and that it is good for church growth!”  

When Ron called the station to object to the characterization, the person at the station said, “Well, people say all kinds of things that they don’t remember saying!”  “Check the tape,” Ron said.  As far as I know there never was a retraction from the station.  Oh, well.  The media doesn’t always get it right!

On a side note, I actually was rather pleased to have heard Ron’s sermon on the topic.  Two years later, when my wife and I were married and unwittingly moved into a haunted house, I used the information I gleaned from Ron’s sermon in a very practical way.  See “Ed and Louise’s Haunted House.”

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