‘EVIL PRESENCE’

Pastor Says Autism Is ‘Demonic’: ‘God Doesn’t Make Mess Ups’

Rick Morrow has already resigned from a local school board following an uproar over his remarks.

A Missouri pastor is facing backlash after claiming during a sermon earlier this month that autism is a creation of “demonic” forces. Pastor Rick Morrow of Beulah Church in Richland told congregants that autism can be “healed” by “cast[ing] that demon out.” “If it’s not demonic, then we have to say God made them that way,” he said, according to footage of his sermon on the Baptist church’s Facebook page. “Well, my God doesn’t make junk. God doesn’t make mess ups,” Morrow said. In the wake of his comments on Sept. 6, a petition was launched on Change.org calling for his ouster from the Stoutland Schools Board of Education—and he promptly resigned earlier this week, KY3 reported. But he doubled down on his original comments in an interview with the outlet, suggesting the controversy was really caused by people attaching a “Hollywood description” of demons to his remarks. “And when I say a demon, you people want to, like I said, they want to get that Hollywood description of what a demon is, this nasty, so ugly and, and that’s not the case, it’s just an evil presence. It’s just the presence of evil,” he was quoted as saying.