In a small town in America, a person decided to open up his bar
business, which was right opposite to a church. The church & its
congregation started a campaign to block the bar from opening with
petitions and prayed daily against his business.
Work progressed. However, when it was almost complete and was about toopen
a few days later, a strong lightning struck the bar and it was burnt to the
ground. The church folk were rather smug in their outlook after that till
the bar owner sued the church authorities for $2 million on the grounds
that the church through its congregation & prayers was ultimately
responsible for the demise of his bar shop, either through direct or
indirect actions or means.
In its reply to the court, the church vehemently denied all
responsibility or any connection that their prayers were reasons to the bar
shop's demise. In support of their claim they referred to the Benson study
at Harvard that inter-cessionary prayer had no impact !
As the case made its way into court, the judge looked over the paperwork
and at the hearing and commented:
'I don't know how I am going to decide this case, but it appears from the
paperwork, we have a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer and we
have an entire church and its devotees that doesn't.'