Stories about a marriage to the devil, hospitals and city governments run by Satan worshipers, a camp in the woods for witches and a one-woman war against the forces of darkness are just a few of those told by a self-proclaimed former witch and a physician who claims to have delivered her from demonic.
Rebecca Brown and Elaine (no last name is given), have told
their story to Jack Chick, whose Chick Publications company has
published it in two cassette tapes, Closet Witches 1 and Closet
Witches 2, and two books, He Came To Set The Captives Free and
Prepare for War. Rebecca and Elaine have also had opportunity to
promote their message on the syndicated talk show Geraldo in
1987. (1)
The story readers and listeners are expected to believe centers
on two women, Rebecca Brown and Elaine. We realize that the
information contained here is sensitive and will be opening a
wound that will again hurt family members close to this
situation. This is not an attempt to dredge up the past, but to
expose the truth about these alarmist teachers.
Chick Publications, once known primarily as a publisher of
Gospel tracts, has gained notoriety as a publisher of
sensational stories, most notably those of John Todd, who
claims to possess knowledge of an occult, conspiratorial
society called The Illuminati, and Alberto Rivera, who claimed
to once have been a Jesuit priest who witnessed all kinds of
ungodly activities and plots by the Roman Catholic Church. (2)
Chick is no stranger to controversy but considers anyone who
disputes his publications' claims a spiritual enemy. On the tape
Closet Witches 2 he says "I think the listeners should watch
carefully who in the Christian circles will attack Rebecca and
Elaine to destroy their credibility and the message on this
tape. More than likely the attackers just might turn out to be
satanists or witches pretending to be believers in Christ and it
is going to be very, very interesting to watch."
Elaine goes on to tell of events that led her to further involvement in witchcraft and satanism. She describes her rise to power into satanism after being inducted into Satan's service at a witch camp. There she signed her name in blood and set out to climb the ladder of power in witchcraft. She tells of growing more powerful until, at a national competition of witches, she surpassed all her colleagues and was named top witch.
"A crown of gold was placed upon my head and my fellow cult members bowed down and gave homage to me," she says. "I was treated like a queen ... I was given all the beautiful clothes to wear that I could possibly want. I was bathed, my hair fixed and I was waited on hand and foot by servants. There were parties and I always had a handsome escort who was also my body guard ... My escort always tasted all of my food before I ate to make sure that it wasn't poisoned." (3)
That wasn't all, Elaine says. She married Satan himself, who donned a white tuxedo and rented a Presbyterian church for the ceremony. After saying their vows, the newlyweds were whisked off by limousine to the airport and Satan's luxurious private jet, Elaine says. On their way to their "haunted honeymoon" at a mansion in California, Satan sipped "very expensive wines and champagnes." (4)
Elaine says she became "Satan's representative on an international level" going around the world to meet with heads of state and foreign dignitaries to negotiate the sale of arms. She was possessed by a demon named "Mann-Chan" and spoke foreign languages fluently, she says. (5)
Elaine links the Roman Catholic Pope into the worldwide occult network she says she headed. "The Pope knew very well who I was. We worked closely both with the Catholics -- especially the Jesuits -- and the high-ranking Masons." (6)
The young doctor was Rebecca Brown, an intern. Elaine had her assignment and she went to work. However, Elaine says, "every time I did an incantation in the direction of that doctor, the demons came back unable to get through." (8) Elaine says her difficulty in wrecking Rebecca spiritually turned into a defeat for Satan. Through this purported incident and other events, Elaine became a Christian.
Satan was angry, Elaine says. "The first thing that they (MannChan, and fellow demons) did was fly right off and tell Satan what I had done," Elaine tells Chick. "Then the fur started to fly. That night after I had returned home Satan came to talk to me, but things were strangely different. Usually Satan would come up to me and put his hands on my shoulders or hold me in his arms. This time he stood back away from me and shouted 'What the Hell do you think you are doing?' 'I'm leaving you,' I replied." (9)
A heated discussion ensued and Elaine ordered him to leave. Elaine says "Satan came to me nearly twenty times over the next two weeks. Sometimes in a very charming mood, attempting to be a lover, but usually in a rage. He tried to persuade me to change my mind." (10)
Rebecca says God told her Elaine still had hundreds of demons and needed deliverance. Rebecca says "(God) told me that He wanted me to have Elaine move in with me immediately as she did not yet have faith enough to stand on her own. Her (earthly) husband had left her and remained with the satanists." (11) Since the hospital was under the control of satanists, Rebecca says she and Elaine were targets of "the Brotherhood" (i.e., a group of people who are directly controlled by, and worship, Satan).
Rebecca goes on to tell of God making many covenants with and audible revelations to her. The descriptions are vivid and graphic.
In one description, an angel was sent by God to kill Elaine after she had become and Christian. Rebecca relates her encounter with "a shining white-robed figure ... with a drawn sword in his hand. He was tall, very tall. His head nearly touched the ceiling of the room. He radiated power and his countenance was fierce. His skin was bronzed and the sword in his hand shown with a pure white light" (12)
What was his message? Rebecca quotes him: "I am sent by God the Father to kill this one who is so rebellious and disobedient. She has angered God." (13) Why had God sent an angel to kill Elaine? Rebecca explains: "He [God] had commanded Elaine to make a covenant with Him to protect them from an upcoming attack by the local satanists. Elaine had refused to do so, stubbornly insisting that she would fight and protect them." (14)
Rebecca says, in effect, that God had sent an angel to kill someone who would not make a covenant with Him to protect her from being killed.
Rebecca says she "threw herself prone on her face on the floor... (15) and pleaded with "Father" to spare Elaine's life. "...let your anger fall on me instead of Elaine," she sobs. Angry "Father" grants her petition: "The angel placed his sword into its sheath. 'Arise, woman,' he said. 'Your petition has been heard and granted.' Then he vanished." (16)
Rebecca also details some unorthodox views of the character of God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son. In Prepare for War, Rebecca describes a conversation she had with Jesus: "Suddenly, that gentle voice of the Lord spoke to me again saying, 'Talk to me, child.'
'I can't talk to you, Lord, I don't feel any different than before, and all you do is get mad!''
But I am not mad at you, I never have been. You see, I, Jesus, know how you feel because I have experienced weakness. Father has never experienced weakness, so He usually gets angry when His people are weak." (17)
While the purpose of this article is not an attempt to refute all of the faulty extra-biblical notions of Brown's theology, these are two glaring examples of what is being promulgated.
Rebecca goes on to say God wanted to make another covenant with her to enter into the "deliverance" ministry. Rebecca says she was told by God that this covenant was her call to "directly combat Satan and his demons" which would result in "loosing [sic] my career, my family, all my friends and nearly everything I held dear." (18) She felt that if she did not enter into this covenant with God that she would lose her relationship with the Lord. (19)
Rebecca says she accepted the commission. Joining her was Elaine, fresh from an eight-week exorcism of Mann-Chan and several hundred other demons. Together they joined God to fight Satan.
Their first challenge was the satanists at the "nearby hospital." Demons and witches -- the witches were doctors and nurses on the hospital staff -- were making patients sick. Their ministry, Rebecca says, blocked much of the witchcraft that was going on there. This defeat of Satan, coupled with the loss of his bride -- Elaine -- "caused Satan to lose face in his kingdom," Rebecca says. (19)
Rebecca says Satan launched a counter-attack, threatening to make Rebecca and Elaine human sacrifices. However, the Lord's protection prevailed and Rebecca fulfilled His desire to "open a private solo practice so that I would have a broader range of patients. This was necessary so that He could bring to me the people I was to minister to, especially cult members." (21)
Rebecca says that at her new, small-town location, she "was privileged to bring close to a thousand people out of hard core- satanism ... . Every penny I made went to help these people with food, clothing, transportation out of the state, medical care and so on." (22)
Rebecca and Elaine go on to tell of encounters with Satan, his demons, satanists and witches, curses and counter-curses, being shot at and having their house cursed. Another blow, Rebecca says, was that satanists were "the instruments of my mother's death." (23)
One final blow sent them running for their lives, Rebecca says: "Satan struck one of his final blows to our ministry in that area. The satanists swept in, and in one night, while Elaine and I were out of the house for a couple of hours, destroyed everything we had. They axed everything in my home, even our precious pets. They also destroyed my office and everything we had. Elaine and I escaped with our lives and the clothes on our backs, that is all. Satan's attack was so well planned that at the same time everyone turned against us ... . We had no choice but to flee the state." (24)
Their next stop, so the story goes, was a Chick Publications, where they told their story.
A look into Rebecca's background also is difficult. For starters, one must know that she has not always been Rebecca Brown, M.D. She changed her name from Ruth Irene Bailey, M.D. In a petition to the Superior Court of California, County of San Bernardino, dated Feb. 11, 1986, Ruth Irene Bailey, of Apple Valley, Calif., along with her attorney, Robert Salisbury, of Anaheim, requested a name change to Rebecca Brown. The reason given was: "petitioner has become known more by the proposed name through use as a pen name and use of the name in ministry than by her present name." (26)
Since Rebecca's two books were published in 1986 and 1987, it seems unlikely that she had become very widely known by her pen name in just the second month of 1986. Doing it to hide from "the Brotherhood," would be futile since one assumes those people could divine that information supernaturally even if they didn't see it in the San Bernardino Daily Press, a general-circulation newspaper where it was published once a week for four weeks prior to the date set for hearing on the petition. The name change then was officially registered April 25, 1986.
Rebecca had reason to change her name. However, it was not because of the notoriety she had gained under he new name, but the notoriety she had achieved under her old one.
Ruth Irene Bailey was born in Shelbyville, Ind., to Ebner and Lois Bailey on May 21, 1948. She was raised in Indianapolis. She completed high school, then earned an A.A. degree in nursing at IUPUI (Indiana University - Purdue University at Indianapolis) in May 1968. (27) She then worked as a nurse for seven years, (28) (on the tape, Closet Witches 1, she says she was a nurse for 10 years). She entered Indiana University at Purdue in September 1976. (29) She then transferred to Indiana University at Indianapolis School of Medicine. She received her Doctor of Medicine degree on April 30, 1979. (30)
She then moved to Muncie, Ind., to begin her internship and residency at Ball Memorial Hospital. This is the "nearby hospital" she refers to repeatedly in her books and tapes as "one of Satan's special hospitals." (31) Ruth began her internship at Ball Memorial with good recommendations from her school and two reputable physicians, Drs. Cavins and Steel of Indianapolis. However, it appears that early in her internship, she developed an obsession with demons and deliverance.
A spokesman from Ball Memorial, Dr. John Cullison, director of medical education, told the Indianapolis News that "Dr. Bailey provided 'very good care for a couple of years' after joining the hospital's residency staff in 1979. 'But then I began getting reports she was exorcising demons in the intensive care unit,' he said. 'I asked her to leave.'" (32)
During her internship and residency at Ball Memorial, her behavior became more bizarre. She began using candles in the rooms during her exorcisms. (33) Many times she told her patients "she was 'chosen' by God as the only physician able to diagnose certain ailments and conditions which other physicians could not. She believe that other physicians, including physicians from Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie, Ind., and St. John's Medical Center in Anderson, Ind., were, in fact demons, devils and other evil spirits' themselves." (34) No one at Ball Memorial would comment on these reports, citing confidentiality of records, but hospital representatives did help refute many of her charges.
For example, on Closet Witches 1 she says: "I always had the chapel to myself because no one ever used it." A visit to Ball Memorial's chapel indicated it was well used and that Bibles were available.
She says that "within six months of the start of her training at that hospital, the hospital administration had all the Gideon Bibles removed from the patient rooms." (35) A hospital representative denied this claim and Gideon Bibles can be seen in lobbies and waiting areas of the hospital.
She also says: "any minister that was coming to the hospital to visit patients was not permitted to visit with anyone except their own private parishioners, and, if the nurses found them evangelizing other patients they were to have them escorted from the hospital by security and asked not to return again. A chaplaincy service was not permitted, which was also unusual. Indeed, it seemed as if an effort was being made to wipe away any mention of Christianity within the walls of the hospital."? (36)
Many large hospitals have policies to protect patients from ministers or exorcist/healers who try to go from room to and cast out demons or apply healing techniques. As to a chaplaincy service not being permitted, Ball Memorial does not have a resident chaplain but does have facilities for pastoral counseling and care.
Her behavior became more bizarre as her obsession with demons worsened her mental state. At a later date, a Medical Licensing Board would hear that she had "stated on numerous occasions that she possessed the capability of 'sharing' her patients' illnesses in fighting the demons, devils and other evil spirits that were allegedly causing the various ailments and conditions." (37)
Ruth and Elaine did meet at Ball Memorial and eventually began living together. However, the real story of their meeting and relationship bears little resemblance to the story told to and promoted by Jack Chick.
Edna Elaine Moses was born Edna Elaine Knost in sleepy New Castle, Indiana USA. In 1986 she legally returned to her maiden name. (38) Elaine was born with a cleft palate which left her face somewhat disfigured. She tells Chick in Closet Witches 1: "I hated people, I had been so badly mistreated at home, I had been badly mistreated in school. Nothing like peers to hurt you the worst, kids your own age can just make your life miserable and it did mine because of my deformities." (39) It appears that Elaine carries some psychological scars from he disfigurement and the teasing she endured because of it.
Interviews with family members of Elaine disclosed her as living a life permeated with lies and fabrications. They expressed little surprise to her wild tales promulgated in Rebecca's books. Elaine's exaggerations proved, at times, an embarrassment for these family members, noting she would do almost anything to receive attention. For instance, one method repeatedly utilized by Elaine was her pretending to have seizures at public functions.
One medical record says Elaine has a "mixed personality disorder," and "is of questionable reliability." (40) This is evident when the cassette tape version of her testimony is compared with the book version and when one looks carefully at the story she and Rebecca have told.
For example, Elaine tells Chick she had a "fast-growing ability to influence others, to make them do as I wanted. I had unusual physical strength as well." (41) On the tape Closet Witches 1, Elaine says she used that strength in high school when she attacked a football player who called her a name in the school hallway. "... there was a football player, he weighed about 265 ... I ran at him knocked him down and began hitting him and I beat his face so badly that he had to have repair work done. I broke his nose and his jaws and knocked out his teeth, and it took eight teachers to get me off this boy. I would have killed him." Chick then asks, "Elaine, how big were you then?" Elaine responds, "Oh, I only weighed about 95, something like that. I stood about 5-foot-4."
In He Came To Set The Captives Free, she tells the story again, changing the number of teachers to five, the boy's weight to around 200 pounds, her own weight at 98 and the injuries to a broken nose, jaw and facial bones. (42)
The discrepancies between those two versions of the story are understandable. Anyone speaking off the cuff about an event that happened years ago could change such details slightly with each retelling. What is significant about the story is that interviews with several of Elaine's high school classmates, including members of the football team, denied the incident, as described by Elaine, never occurred -- no matter which version one cares to believe.
...continued.
Go to DRUGS,DEMONS & DELUSIONS Part II