The Policeman and the Prophet - Day 39

 “Didn’t you see the millions of dollars he was bringing in? Didn’t you see the wealth he was amassing? Didn’t that tell you something?”

She smiled an embarrassed smile. “Wouldn’t God reward his own? In my mind, God was rewarding a man who was bringing so many into his fold.”

“It makes sense, Frank,” said Father Bill.

“Okay, but that seems to have changed and I’ll ask you, why?”

She exhaled heavily. “I guess it started at our crusade in Little Rock, Arkansas. He was doing what we call ‘the drift’. Billy will walk up to the first row and pretend to pray for someone. Actually, that person is one of our people and when he touches the person’s head, the person will fall backward into their chair. They are supposed to have been touched by God. It’s almost funny. Once that first person falls back into his chair every single one of those around him will do the same.”

“Because someone has told them to fall back?”

“No, absolutely not. Not a person has said one thing. They don’t have too. These people are so mesmerized by Billy and the lights and the music that once they’ve seen the first person fall back, they think this is what happens when the ‘holy one’ touches them, if they have faith. Detective, I promise you that no Evangelical is going to stand in front of thirty or forty thousand other Evangelicals and even hint he doesn’t have faith. It’s simple, you have faith, you fall. They fall every time. On the stage it’s the same thing. You saw someone else fall, they must have faith, if I have faith, I fall.”

“We know they select the people they will “heal’, you know that. Yes, that is true. And, some are healed. Very few, but some are healed.”

“Really?”

“Yes, in those people’s mind they have a pain, or have headaches, or something, but it’s in their mind and when Billy lays hands on them, that same mind, their mind, cures their problem, cures their disease.”

“After Father Bill was supposed to be ‘healed’ he got  phone call. Is that normal?”

“If they didn’t have a way of getting in touch with him, Father Bill would have never walked on that stage that night. They’re going to have a phone number or an address or something. They will get a phone call. Jesus will have talked to Billy and expect at least a thousand dollars.”