The problem is that there is not a universally accepted definition of the terms “exorcism” or “exorcist”, so different people may mean different things when referring to such. Catholicism, for example, makes a distinction between an exorcism and what is referred to as a “deliverance prayer.” An exorcism is conducted by a Catholic priest or a bishop using the Exorcism Rite. He draws upon the authority that Christ has invested into the Church to order demons to leave.
On the other hand, a deliverance prayer involves praying to Jesus (on behalf of oneself or another) to cast out a demon. Naturally, anybody can make such a prayer, especially if the one doing the praying is a baptized Christian. Consider this in light of the ministry of the seventy disciples sent out by Jesus. Because there were only twelve Apostles (who were the initial Christian priests), most, if not all, of these seventy disciples were not apostles. According to the gospels…
The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you. (Luke 10:17-19, RSV).
Examples of Catholic deliverance prayers include the Our Father (i.e., “deliver us from evil”) and the Prayer to St. Michael. There are members of the Catholic laity who conduct deliverance ministry, using prayers such as these. One such example which comes to mind is documented in the book
Beware the Night by Ralph Sarchie and Lisa Collier Cool. I read this book a few years ago but I do not remember a whole lot about it. If I recall correctly, it involves a police officer who is a practicing Catholic who does deliverance ministry in his spare time. Situations which he feels are authentic and needing an actual ordained exorcist (i.e., the deliverance prayers were not effective) are turned over to the proper Church authorities.
However, the person described in the OP is obviously not a Catholic (seeing as he claims no allegiance to any church) so I will now address this phenomenon as it exists outside the Catholic Church…
There is a very popular ministry within certain areas of Protestantism which is called “deliverance ministry.” This usually involves a minister who is considered by some to be especially gifted in terms of casting out demons with deliverance prayers. In many cases, they are billed as being “exorcists” who are doing “exorcisms”, but their services do not actually use the Catholic Rite of Exorcism. To them, the terms “exorcism” and “deliverance prayer” are interchangeable.
One such minister often interviewed on various TV documentaries is Bob Larson. To illustrate what I have been referring to in this post, you can visit his homepage at
Spiritual Freedom Church, and you can watch some of his deliverance services on his own
YouTube Exorcism Channel. Please note that I have no opinion one way or the other concerning the validity of Larson’s ministry for the simple fact that I don’t know much about him. I simply saw him interviewed a couple of times on cable documentaries concerning exorcisms, and decided to use his particular ministry for sake of illustration in this thread (I found the web links via Google; I have not actually read or watched any of the content). However, when I glanced at Larson’s homepage, I noticed a link to a “Got Demon?” online test as well as an invitation to “Meet the Teenage Exorcists”, and I must admit that stuff like this makes me question the overall credibility of the Spiritual Freedom Church.
And finally, there are people who claim to be exorcists who are neither Catholics nor Protestants, but are instead involved in New Age spirituality or the occult.
In any of these cases involving non-ordained ministers/practicioners, I suspect that some of them are fervent believers, and others are con artists.
So yep I say hes a phony.