EVANGELIST A. A. ALLEN:

This is a response to Beast_FCD blogged At Atheist Haven 02/25/09



Early one spring morning back in the 60's, my family and I were eating breakfast when we heard a knock at our door. Two Christian proselytizers informed my mother that the greatest man since Jesus had come to town. And he'd be conducting tent Church services in our neighborhood that evening. And come prepared to be saved and healed: (Wallets and purses in hand!)


My mom became real excited about this, and later on that evening, she headed off to the revival services with my siblings and I in tow. When we arrived at the tent, the service was all ready in progress. So we just took seats and began watching the show. As I looked around, I noticed that in the front row, were people in wheelchairs and lying around on stretchers. And on the right side of the stage, there was a coffin with flowers on top. After an hour or so, he said, he was starting to feel the presence of Jesus. And he was now ready to start performing miracles. And those wishing to be healed can start coming to the front of the stage.


A few folks started moving forward, but most remained seated. The first one to be healed was a lady in a wheelchair. She said in to the microphone; that she had been paralyzed now, for over 25 years. He then told her, "in the name of Jesus, you will, walk tonight." Then the organ started playing, and he put his hands on her head: then he started commanding her to stand up on her feet. After a few moments, she slowly began to rise up and out of her wheelchair. A few minutes later, she was running around, hands in the air praising Jesus, and acting like a fucking fool. He then healed about five others, which were in the front row. Then he made his way back on the stage, and approached the coffin. Standing next to it, was a woman crying and saying, that in that coffin was her husband, that had died two days earlier. As this guy started praying over her dead husband and the organ changed its tune. After a few minutes or so, the lid on the coffin began to rise. At this point I was scared shitless and just wanted too cry. And just then, I saw a man's head, rise up out of the coffin. The women started screaming, and so did I. As she bent over to grab him, the preacher held her back, saying, "just give him a few more moments, the miracle isn't over yet!" As this corpse was still awakening, and the organ changed its tune, this time playing an upbeat, and happy song. At this point, the service turned in too, what I can only describe as a healing frenzy. People were running up to the stage to be healed while the Church ushers, collected money in big baskets. This went on for an hour or so, before we left. My mom wrote this man a check that night, and placed it in one of the baskets. Later on that summer she received a free invitation, inviting her to his church camp in Miracle Valley, Arizona.


My mom decided to accept his invitation. So that next week, she headed for Arizona, my siblings and I in tow. We arrived on a Monday, besides the fact it was hot as hell, the place wasn't all that bad. Well the food was OK at least. There were Church services going on, almost the whole time we were there. But the fourth one that I attended: I saw something that I had seen before in the tent. The corpse which he was raising that day, was the same one from back in the spring. Me being a little kid and all, I first thought: boy, this guy must sure die a lot. But then as I started looking at the others that he was healing; I realized that they were the same ones from the tent service last spring. I pointed this out to my mom, but she didn't seem too concerned. She said he was just doing god's work.