late night programming
I was channel surfing last night and came across a program called Touched By God. It consisted of a pair of televangelists taking turns healing someone in the general TV viewing audience, first by detailing their ailment with great empathy and emotion, and then saying that God has one way or another cured it or lessened it in intensity. There was a bunch of trivial crap about people with tension in their forearms and a crick in their jaw when they chewed, and a couple of "rise and walk again!" healings. Well what happens when a little, hopeless crippled orphan with webbed toes has his ailment accurately detailed (by chance), is told that he can walk again, and tries to stand up? I'll tell you what, he falls over, hits his head on the coffee table, and suffers brain damage. So many sad, desperate, faithful people must tune into that show, just waiting for God to be channeled through a pair of charlatans and be told that their ailment is now healed. And I wonder whether what the televangelists are doing is good. They do give people hope, and maybe they actually believe they have these powers. But most likely, they're just assholes taking advantage of crippled people and wasting an hour of their lives that they could spend in physical therapy.