Baptist evangelist asks for a sign…and gets one

Imagine being in the audience when you’re listening to a preacher at his pulpit, he asks for a sign from God, and he is suddenly struck by lightening. Sounds like a Monty Python sketch, right?

Well, it actually happened last week in Forest, Ohio. A Baptist evangelist was giving a sermon on penance and he asked for a sign from God.

At that very moment, according to those in attendance, lightening struck the church’s steeple, blew out the sound system, set the church on fire, and sent the preacher reeling as the electrical current went through his microphone.

The good news (pardon the pun) is that no one was killed, and even the preacher survived the strike. The damage to the church was estimated to be about $20,000.

Now, I’m not a theologian, but I can’t help but think that these church goers should find this troubling, to say the least. News reports indicated that most of the church members thought the lightening strike was, in the words of one congregant, “awesome.”

I’m not so sure. I can imagine that the coincidence of the strike must have seemed remarkable, but for those who are convinced that this was a “sign from above,” why are they so sure this is a good thing? After all, couldn’t this just as easily be interpreted as a sign of displeasure? I can think of many Baptists (Jerry Falwell types, for example) who seem to believe that their God would use lightening strikes to punish people, not reward them.

The pastor asks for a sign and God sets the church on fire? Maybe the church ought to consider getting a new evangelist.