Modern Miracle Workers
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Modern Miracle Workers

-or-

It's A Sin To Ask For Proof

(A Poetic Quest for Evidence)

Mark Smith  1978, 1993

Claims a man quite foolishly, that he can, like Jesus, walk on the sea. Dare I argue with such a fool, or rather take him to a swimming pool? But to the pool he refuses to go, saying "The Spirit of God doesn't put on shows."

Claims a man the dead he can raise. So I decide to test him, thinking his head's in a haze. To a green cemetery him and I go, where we walk to a tombstone- a dead man below. "Raise him up!" I challenge with a smile. Instead he walks away, uttering "IN-FI-DIAL!"

Claims a man to have the gift of tongues. Just like Paul, he can converse with everyone. So on a plane to New York City him and I go, taxi to The United Nations, arrive in the morning's glow. I stop fifty nationalities, fifty languages diverse. I introduce each to my friend, hoping to see them all converse. But my friend- clucks like a chicken the same two syllables to each and every man. The fifty walk away, not even one understands. I say to my friend, "Stan, what kind of damn show was that?"  "It's the language of angels, and you've got to be spiritual to understand."

Claims a man the sick he can heal, and if I don't believe him, I'm a spiritual heel. But risking the displeasure of this ignorant fake, to a local hospital, him I do take. I put on him white coat and gloves, and bring him to the Emergency Room above. In stumbles a man with severed hand- nothing but a bloody stump near his watch band. I turn to my quack, and say, "What about this?" But he says "Aha! Putting the Lord to the test? Why, that is EVILness!!" Then out he stormed, back to his faithful few, where he "heals" backaches and headaches and anything else easy to fake. He also sells jars of Holy Goo, and has a TV show- looks just like a zoo.

So lucky for fakes and frauds, wherever they may be, what P.T. Barnum once said, turns out true indeed. "There's a sucker born every minute" And yes, they'll swallow anything, it's true. But I'm not one of them, and I hope now neither are you!