An American pastor was fired from a Missouri school board and has been criticized after a sermon he gave in which he claimed that autism in children is the result of demonic forces inside them, an expose from the Independent has revealed.
The pastor, Rick Morrow, preaches at the Beulah Church in Missouri and live-streamed the sermon, which got 114,000 views.
“I know a minister who has seen lots of kids that are autistic, that he cast that demon out, and they were healed, and then he had to pray and their brain was rewired and they were fixed,” he says during his speech.
Morrow claimed that a demonic source for autism is a preferable explanation over the inherent diversity of human beings. “If it’s not demonic, then we have to say God made them that way, like, that’s the only other explanation,” he asserted.
The following week the pastor addressed the issue again, reaffirming his views and clarifying that when calling autism demonic he meant “the presence of evil.”
Pushback from the congregation
The comments section of his video was highly critical of Morrow's remarks. “This preaching is far from Christian,” one user wrote. Another, a mother, promised to stop attending Morrow’s church services.
A petition was established via Change.org to have Mr. Morrow removed from the local school board where he served. It later emerged that he had submitted his resignation when the controversy became public.
“I can confirm that the District has received a letter of resignation from the Board member, which will be presented to the board as a whole at the next meeting,” a statement from the school board said.