Elgin Taylor, STAR Writer

Lluidas Vale, St. Catherine

What should have been a regular JUTC bus ride from Spanish Town, St. Catherine, to Cross Roads, St. Andrew, ended up quite differently on Thursday after several passengers attempted to exorcise a demon from a youngster.

What started out at the terminus in Spanish Town as the usual occurrence of someone preaching on a bus, quickly changed on the journey to either a dramatic unsuccessful exorcism or a bizarre clash of preachers.

The incident was sparked by a student, who was preaching, boarding ten minutes into the ride and apparently spreading a different message from a preacher who had been on the bus from Spanish Town.

The first preacher had been speaking about the salvation of the Lord, with some of the passengers listening attentively and shouting 'Amen' and 'Praise the Lord', but then the student, fully-clad in uniform, boarded the bus and began preaching about the laws of God and how they should be kept.

Suddenly the mood inside the bus changed and both young men began shouting at the top of their voices. It became clear that a competition was in the air. But things took another turn as the first preacher, now joined by another, started accusing the young student of being possessed with a demon.

He was grabbed at the top of the head while one of the preachers shouted, "I bind you in the name of Jesus, release him ... The Blood of Jesus is against you."

By this time, the preacher, his friend and about a quarter of the passengers began speaking in tongues.

The student, with eyes wide open in amazement at the treatment he was getting, responsed calmly. "You know not of what you speak."

The incident was like a scene from The Exorcism of Emily Rose. One person grabbed him by the shoulders and began shaking while others rebuked 'the devil from the pit of hell' to come out of him. But the only response they got was the student slowly turning his head and telling his accusers repeatedly, "You know not of what you speak."

After a while, the preacher became worn out and sat down to take a breather. But soon he was up again conducting the exorcism.

It was obvious that not all the passengers were in agreement with what was taking place. At the end of the ride several persons expressed their disgust. "This a damm foolishness. Mi a Christian, but fi dem come pon mi bus an' a gwaan like jackass, mi shame 'cause dem almost a cause war," the driver said.

The ride ended with much debate as other persons said they felt the evangelists did not believe enough and so did not have the power to cast out the demons, while others wondered whether there had been any demons at all.

Efforts to contact a representative of the Jamaica Urban Transit Company to see if there were any reports of the incidents were unsuccessful.