Pastor to Parishioners: Sure, I Can Cure You of Anxiety or Any Ailment, But You'll Need to Pleasure Me First

A Wauconda, Ill. pastor has come under investigation for his rather unique healing techniques. According to a Chicago Tribune report, Philip Livingston of Light of the World Ministries -- which some describe as a cult -- used "light therapy" on several female parishioners which he claimed can cure them of everything from drug addictions to yeast infections. And, how can we forget: While he's performing this ritual, he's naked, the women are naked and they're having sex.

At first, the participant lay on a couch. Clothes stayed on. Private areas were not touched. Livingston's wife helped, according to the Kane County testimony. Then Livingston increasingly went in alone with each participant. Both got naked. Livingston touched her private parts, even inserted his fingers into them. The women touched his penis while they prayed, according to testimony. Livingston testified the therapy was separate from his church, used merely as a "spiritual guidance" to benefit some followers. He said light therapy had shown "miraculous" results, that he reduced anxiety in a victim of molestation and turned homosexuals and sexual addicts into "virtuous people." His wife not only was "healed" of spiritual and emotional issues, but rid herself of chronic yeast infections, he testified. Livingston said the ritual wasn't sexual. He said he was never aroused, something [Linda Ericksen a follower of pastor Livingston, whose husband became Livingston's assistant pastor] disputed. Ericksen also disputed the ritual's healing power. She told the Tribune it was coupled with constant demands that she tell Livingston everything she was thinking. When she told Livingston she was uncomfortable with the ritual, he told her she was really feeling the sin in her needing to be expelled from her body by more intense therapy, she said. "It would make me really angry inside that I had to pray for him that way," Ericksen told the Tribune.

source: Chicago Tribune

This sort of control we've seen time and time before, most notably in the Eddie Long case where he justified his sexual relationship with young boys with Biblical scriptures. And, like in that case, minister Livingston's followers are standing by him. During the trial, Linda also dropped a few other bombshells. She said when she became pregnant with her and her husband's child, Livingston "exiled" her to her apartment and directed her husband to live elsewhere. Three months later, Livingston told her she had to leave the group. She also claimed Livingston had another church member's 13- and 10-year-old daughters walking naked in his home and once a week he took the older girl into a room used for the ritual. The fat perv monster must be stopped.