Man Shares Childhood Video Of When His Parents Hired An Exorcist To Get All The ‘Demons’ From His Room — It Didn’t Work
Turns out he's not possessed after all.
Andrew Hartzler, the nephew of Missouri Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler, recently shared a video that he privately took in order to show off the time his parents hired an exorcist to get all of the “demons” out of his room.
Andrew claims that the exorcism didn’t work, but the explanation for why it didn’t work goes much deeper than any demonology or exorcist could even conjure — their son wasn't possessed, just gay.
His parents hired an exorcist to expel the demons they thought were making him gay.
To start the minute-long clip, posted on June 1, 2023, Andrew explains, “Here’s when my parents hired an exorcist to get all the demons out of my room that they thought were making me gay.” The "exorcism" has since received over 1.7 million views.
It appears as though the footage was taken from hidden cameras set up in the home and follows a man who appears to be yelling at demons inside Andrew’s home. “Devil, go in Jesus name! You foul spirit, you leave in Jesus name!” he repeats.
He soon moves to the closet where we can see a bunch of toys and boxes set up, where the strange man says “something is happening in this closet in Jesus name,” he yells.
Photo: @andrewhastzler / TikTok
Yeah, there was something happening in that closet — Andrew was inside of it.
Hartzler even joked about it himself, captioning the video, “hi um ya obvi i was in the closet sir,” and as the man continues on in the video, saying more things like “Every evil spirit go now Jesus name!” it’s clear to see that he and Andrew’s family are not thinking clearly.
Realizing that he’s probably repeated himself a little too much, the exorcist switches his strategy and moves onto the closet where his clothes are being stored, and says “I plead the blood of Christ over this closet! Over every piece of clothing in here. Salvation in Jesus name, the presence of God.”
Needless to say, the exorcism didn’t work, and Andrew believes everyone should stand up for themselves.
There’s a general scientific consensus that when it comes to sexual identity and changing it, conversion and aversion therapy do not work. In fact, these forms of therapy can be very harmful to those who have to suffer through them.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, LGBT youth who were rejected by their parents and caregivers were more than eight times as likely to have attempted suicide and nearly six times as likely to report high levels of depression.
A man from “We Are Man Enough Podcast” stitched Andrew’s video and shared a personal anecdote about how a Christian therapist had him do aversion therapy. “She said for me to get some feces and put them in a jar and sniff them on a daily basis. I would look at these pictures of men and I would have to smell the dog c--p until I threw up,” he explained. “It wasn’t working.”
He relays all of the struggles he had with his sexuality, including his thoughts of suicide and suicidal ideation, and explains that coming out in his later years was a powerful thing for him as he finally feels like himself. Andrew would probably agree, seeing as his rise to internet stardom came from calling out his aunt who supports conversion therapy.
He captioned a TikTok on the subject of his aunt, “always stand up for what you believe in,” and don’t let an alleged gay demon exorcist bring you down, in Jesus name.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor for YourTango who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics.