Past Programs
Religion and Beliefs - 2008
Exorcism in the afternoon
01/11/2008
What do the words 'demon possession' and 'exorcism' bring to mind? The violently spinning head and green projectile vomit of 14-year-old Regan, in the 1973 horror classic The Exorcist? Or something even closer to home in, say, suburban Sydney?
For the last 35 years, breakaway Sydney Anglican minister Peter Hobson, together with his wife Verlie, has conducted a weekly demon expulsion service in rented halls in suburban Sydney, casting away unclean spirits.
Come with us through the doors of the very everyday Crows Nest Community Centre on an ordinary Sunday afternoon, and sit in on the sometimes exceedingly strange sounds of an exorcism in the afternoon. You will never think about demons in quite the same way again.
Sound engineer: Steven Tilley
No Way Out
12/04/2008
According to official statistics, one woman a month is killed in the UK by her family in the name of honour, usually because she has rejected or tried to escape from a forced marriage, or has found a partner to love of her own choosing. Though honour killing is sometimes thought to be a Muslim problem, it occurs in many patriarchal communities around the world, including Hindu, Sikh, and Christian too.
In this feature from our Global Perspective series on the theme of escape, three women, one of them in hiding in fear of her life, talk about why they have become targets of such rage and threatened violence. And how the very people who they would have hoped would protect them have turned on them. For these women who have challenged their family's expectations, there is a life-long price to pay -- they can never relax, it feels like there's 'No Way Out'.
Produced by Shazia Khan - BBC
