'...The word haunted is usually linked to the notion of ghosts and mysterious places (houses, caves, and dark forests). It comes up in these weird horror movies that young people love...
...the notion of haunting has to do with the presence of strange, seemingly uncontrollable powers of uncertain origin that can cause havoc and fear in one's life. When haunted we cower and shrivel before things perceived as greater than we are. We become less than we were created to be. We are slaves to something beyond us which, often, we can barely discern.

The Bible describes people and situations where haunted best describes the experience. Saul, first king of Israel, was certainly a haunted man. Ammon, son of David, was haunted by lust, and Absalom, another son, was haunted by revenge. Judas Iscariot seems to have been haunted by self-hate. Simon Peter must have been haunted whenever he recalled his denial of Jesus. And I bet Paul—despite being forgiven—was haunted by memories of the persecuting days before his Damascus conversion. Some things do not totally go away in the relative shortness of a lifetime.

Legion, the man of Gadara, was horribly haunted until Jesus broke the evil control with a power-word and restored him to civility, dignity, and a right mind.

A person can be haunted by guilt, by fear, by regret, by anger and resentment. He or she can be haunted by envy, discontent, or lust. The list, I suppose, is rather large. Can addiction be described as a haunting? If so, it makes sense that a twelve-stepper begins with the affirmation, "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable." Could a rephrasing of this read, "We admitted that we were haunted by alcohol … "?

I need to add that there is a positive version of haunting. Biblical people call it conviction and attribute it to the Holy Spirit who is said to poke and prod about the soul and kindle a sorrow that leads to repentance. This seems to have been the experience of David the king and Jonah the runaway prophet. They were haunted back into a right way. I feel like I've met Nathan, David's accuser, more than once, and I equate the innards of that whale with feelings I sometimes get when I am in a small, fully packed commuter jet on a hot day. Either the jet or the whale can haunt you into attentiveness when God has something to say to you. In such a fix you almost always end up repenting of something.

If haunting describes the effect of any kind of power that is greater than ourselves, how might the spell of an evil haunting be broken?

I'd like to suggest that this is one of the uber-effects of genuine worship.To place oneself under the "spell" of an everlasting God who is known to be righteous, holy, wise, all-knowing, gracious and redemptive is to begin the breaking of the haunting. In worship one is caught up in the thrall of that power which intimidates and shatters all other powers. The demons are defeated; the fear subsides.
Over the centuries, our biblical ancestors have taught us that haunt-breaking worship includes song, praise, thanksgiving, adoring silence, prayer, the reading of scripture, the Eucharistic event, the "I-believes," and acts of contrition.

So what if these things are not happening in many congregations today? What if churches have ceased being a safe place for haunted people? And what if increasing numbers of folk have chosen other things than worship to occupy their time.

Would that suggest an increasing number of people who will go all the way through life being haunted … in the wrong way?'