It was the tidiest exorcism on record -- completed in minutes and absent the pungent mess typically associated with demonic possession.
While most everyone at Berry College, located just north of Rome, doubts junior Nathan Mallory's claim that he cast the devil out of a former student, the alleged exorcism has reignited a festering debate about religion's role at the liberal arts institution.
"There is a concern that something like this could go on here," said junior Kyler Post, managing editor of the Campus Carrier, Berry's student newspaper. "People are afraid we're going to be looked at as some sort of radical, right-wing school."
At the heart of this debate is the school's unabashedly Christian WinShape program, bankrolled by Chick-fil-A founder Truett Cathy. Mallory is among the 100-plus Berry students to receive a WinShape scholarship.
"The WinShape students live together, worship together, study together," said Berry religion professor Harvey Hill. They pledge to abstain from alcohol and drugs and must attend weekly chapel meetings at facilities located about three miles from the main campus.
That's where the alleged exorcism occurred, on Sept. 24, in Mallory's Pilgrim Hall dorm room. School officials have not released the name of the young woman Mallory claims was demonically possessed.
"While we were worshipping, she began to repeat ‘no, no, no' just like the other demon-possessed cases I've seen in the past," Mallory wrote in an e-mail to WinShape students. "That's when [the demon] showed itself."
"Her face changed right in front of me and the most evil, hideous grin came on her face and her eyes seemed to turn red and I prayed that the Holy Spirit would just take over from there and he did," wrote Mallory. The student did not return calls seeking comment.
Berry officials have been quick to distance the college from the exorcism, removing Mallory from his job as a resident assistant.
"This involved a small number of students and was not related to any event sponsored by the college or any approved student group," said Debbie Heida, Berry's dean of students. "We are looking into what happened and will take any appropriate action needed for the well-being of our students and the community."
A WinShape official said the program did not endorse or condone the exorcism.
"It's a theological belief and practice as diverse as the student body here," said Robert Skelton, WinShape's director for students and institutional development. "We work with young adults, and sometimes you deal with the young more than the adult."
Skelton said Mallory was influenced by missionaries he met this past summer in India, where he volunteered as a relief worker.
"He kind of migrated to a group that participated in exorcisms," Skelton said. "His heart is solid as gold."
Post said WinShape officials and students refused comment in the days following the controversy, leading some to question their role in the exorcism.
"I've heard the word ‘cult' thrown around by students and even some faculty," Post said. But even WinShape students are split, as Mallory acknowledged in an interview with the student paper.
“This is a revival. This is not a WinShape thing,” he told the Campus Carrier. “In fact, people from main campus are some of the most faithful people that come [to the Bible study sessions].”
Berry has always straddled the secular fence, Hill said, though it remains a fundamentally conservative institution.
Last year school officials refused to recognize a gay student organization, claiming Berry does not endorse single-issue advocacy groups. Opponents pointed out that the school funds organizations representing African-Americans, Hispanics and Baptists.
"At Berry there's always been a debate over the school's religious mission," Hill said.
Boasting eight deer for every student, the private liberal arts college, founded in 1902 as a Protestant institution, sits on a bucolic 26,000 acres. Roughly 1,800 students attend Berry.
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