From last Friday’s China Post:
Four clergymen were ordered yesterday by the Taoyuan District Court to face a detention of 30 to 40 days for injuring a woman during an attempted "spiritual healing" of her.
The priests allegedly used bed linens to bind the woman when trying to exorcise evil spirits from her, following the same practices as seen in the movie "The Exorcist."
[…]
Taoyuan District Court ruled to have the priests detained…on the grounds that exorcising evil spirits does not require such violent practices.
Uhhh, am I correct in understanding that the Taiwanese court just claimed to have expertise in the field of demonic possession?
Your honor, we find the defendant’s soul is legally the property of Marge Simpson, and not of, the devil.
Turns out the woman was suspected of being taken over not because her head was spinning ’round, nor because she was speaking in tongues while spewing pea soup all over, but because she was a square peg:
The four clergymen were invited to expel evil from the woman by her younger sister, who thought something must be wrong with the woman, as she liked to stay home alone. [emphasis added]
My handy copy of mad Arab Abdul Alhazred’s Necronomicon (as always, the final authority on such matters) says absolutely nothing about introversion being a sign of possession by malevolent spiritual beings.
Putting mayonnaise on perfectly-good LOBSTER, on the other hand…