“How to Cast out Demons and Evil Spirits” by TB Joshua
Review by Beau Dashington
Sometimes when you’re reading a certified Piece of Shit™ book you walk away in utter confusion, scratching your head and wondering just what the person was thinking when they committed pen to paper.That’s the case with TB Joshua’s How to Cast Out Demons and Evil Spirits, a genuinely stunning array of spiritualism, homophobia, exploitation, chicanery and skullduggery that will have out leaping out of your chair and barking like a dog (more on that later).
TB Joshua was a world-famous Nigerian televangelist, who for a time hosted YouTube’s most popular Christian channel. His famous church in Lagos was the number one tourist attraction in the region, bringing millions of tourists from all over the world. It's difficult to exaggerate how influential this guy is; he was the personal spiritual advisor to leaders from many countries, and he sold out stadiums all over the world.
His YouTube clips are all pretty much the same. Some poor person is brought out in front of the hundreds in his church, they explain their sickness, which are often quite tragic. But fear not, TB Joshua knows the score and can diagnose any illness, since his diagnosis and prescription are always exactly the fucking same. He tells them they are possessed by a demon, and following his suggestions, they end up flailing on the ground or barking like a dog.
But maybe you are worried about demons in your own life, and can’t go traipsing across the globe to Nigeria. Well fear not, this book is here to help. It is a literal how-to guide for dealing with demons like the dog demon in your daily life. And let's be clear; this book is not dealing in metaphors. The demons he’s referring to aren’t porn, or video games, or some other worldly cravings. He’s talking about actual demons that can sneak up on you while you’re sleeping and possess your body and your mind.
Some of what these demons do seems almost laughable. They can trick you into hating your wife. They can make you bad at sex. They can make you give birth to demon babies in your sleep. They can make your children into “imbecile babies” as he calls them – we’re still checking if that’s the technical medical nomenclature. Sometimes they also possess a woman and make her dress un-sexy for her husband, wearing “smelly socks and potato sacks.”
Some of it is funny, but a lot is outright hateful; Joshua repeatedly claimed that demons were responsible for homosexuality, for which he was eventually booted from YouTube. He also thought that if a man is too supportive around the house – doing the laundry or cooking – he will start turning into a woman. This, he says, is where transgenderism comes from.
It’s hard to summarize in a few words how much this guy sucks. He preyed on the poor, the uneducated and the desperate, exploiting them for funds and internet views. He was a prolific sexual predator. He built shoddy buildings that collapsed, killing hundreds. He pawned magic cure-all water to people dying of Ebola.
But outside of the offensive parts, the worldview he espouses is so shocking and odd that it is almost fascinating. I didn’t even mention yet that there is an entire section of the book devoted to marine demons, to which humans are particularly vulnerable since we are 70% water.
Which I guess means we are all 70% demon? We’re not sure, we’re still doing the math on that one.
But we’ve done the math on this book, and the calculations conclude this one is a real stinker.
