Exorcism and Fried Chicken

Awhile back, this image was all over social media. A church near Bardstown, KY seemingly was advertising a public Satanic Exorcism, complete with all the fried chicken you can eat for 50 cents.  That sounds like a hell of a deal!  And let’s be honest…at first glance, this image almost seems believable.  I can totally see this area hosting a large tent-revival type of church service, where faith healers smacked the demons out of the afflicted, and fried chicken was plentiful. 

But, sometimes things aren’t as they seem. A quick reverse image search reveals the non-doctored, original version, which is from 1940 and can be found at the Library of Congress.

As you can see, the mundane phrase ‘Church Picnic’ was changed to the much more interesting ‘Satanic Exorcism.’ You can still get your unlimited fried chicken for 50 cents, though. The original photograph also gives us a slightly larger perspective. It appears that this advertisement for St. Thomas’ church picnic was displayed at Hession Roofing Company, either on the actual store itself, or the owners’ home.  In fact, in this ad from the early 1950′s, the home featured looks almost exactly like the home in the photo!   One further thing to note, though.  St. Thomas in Bardstown, KY is a Catholic Church. I’m not a theologian, but I know enough about the Catholic religion to confidently say that church-sanctioned satanic exorcisms would not be a festive, public event. I can’t, however, verify whether or not fried chicken would be an integral part of the process. 

I know it’s been awhile since this photo originally started making its rounds, but I realized I never actually got around to blogging about it!  I still see it pop up every now and then, so it’s a great reminder to not believe everything you see. There is a LOT of outright fakery, and a lot of misinformation being passed on as fact in the paranormal community. This photo probably started as a joke, without any malicious intent, but there are people who see this and automatically assume that it must be true. Always take a few minutes to verify information, especially if something seems too good to be true.  Happy Haunting!