From: simon@dcs.warwick.ac.uk (Simon Clippingdale)
Newsgroups: alt.atheism
Subject: Cerullo Bodycount Increment
Date: 13 Oct 92 21:02:59 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Warwick University, England

The following is reproduced without permission from "The Freethinker",
August 1992, published by G.W.Foote & Co., 702 Holloway Road, London N19 3NL,
tel. (+44) 71 272 1266. "The Freethinker" is a secular humanist organ,
published monthly since 1881.

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EPILEPTIC IN DROWNING TRAGEDY AFTER "MIRACLE CURE" AT CERULLO MEETING

The Morris Cerullo road show, staged in cooperation with hundreds of
London churches, has moved on from Earls Court. There were many complaints
about advertisements for his Mission to London ("Some will see Miracles"),
particularly those illustrated by pictures of abandoned wheelchairs and
broken white sticks. The Advertising Standards Authority rejected complaints.
"We didn't believe anyone would take them literally", a spokesman said.

But eyewitness reports revealed that large numbers did take literally the
promises of miracle cures through the power of prayer. Southwark Coroner's
Court held an inquest on one of them.

Audrey Reynolds, a 25-year-old computer operator from Clapham, south London,
was a devout Christian. She suffered from epileptic fits which were controlled
by prescribed drugs. This necessitated taking pills three times a day.

Miss Reynolds attended the opening meeting at Earls Court and was prayed over
by Cerullo and his associates. Convinced that the evangelist's prayers had
wrought a miracle cure, she discontinued treatment for her congenital brain
abnormality. She told her mother: "I have stopped taking the pills and I'm
not sick."

Six days later, Mrs Reynolds returned from shopping and found her daughter
dead in an empty bath.

Dr Richard Shepherd, a pathologist, said that Audrey Reynolds had died from
drowning. The position in which she was found indicated that she had thrashed
around during an epileptic fit and the bath plug had been pulled out.

Mrs Reynolds told the court that she had advised her daughter to continue
taking the pills.

Sir Montague Levine, the Southwark Coroner, said it was a tragedy she went
to the meeting. He referred to the danger of people believing they were
miraculously cured of a serious condition.

But religious charlatans who make glib promises about miracle cures attract
the gullible and the desperate. They came in their thousands to Earls Court.
Cerullo has a supporting cast of miracle-workers and fundraisers. The latter
strongly imply that God runs a celestial cash-and-carry supermarket, the
number of cures on offer depending on the amount contributed to Morris
Cerullo World Evangelism Inc.

A Sunday newspaper journalist accompanied two disabled women to one of
Cerullo's meetings. She reported: "On one side sat a well-dressed couple
with a pushchair with a huge black bible underneath. Their little girl,
pretty in pink and white, was severely handicapped. She could barely see
and lay unresponsive and unaware, blonde head lolling to one side. Her
parents smiled bravely. Mr Cerullo had told audiences that week that
`awesome' events would take place."

At the end of the prayer everyone would be cured, Cerullo announced from
the stage. Thousands prayed, wept, danced and spoke in tongues. As for the
little girl: "The adults surrounding her held up her head but it repeatedly
flopped back. An organiser told her hopeful parents that miracles were not
always immediately obvious."

Cerullo and his team promote the idea that disability is a form of punishment
for sin and satanic possession. People are healed by the power of God, he
asserts. But those who came to Earls Court expecting a miraculous recovery
left just as disabled and a lot poorer than when they arrived.

Cerullo's toe-curling demagoguery will soon be televised throughout Europe,
including Britain. Earlier this year the authorities granted his evangelical
business empire a licence to start a satellite channel on Astra, the
European Family Network. He promises prayer dedications, Christian pop
music, personal appearances by celebrities and much more.

Morris Cerullo promised "awesome events" at Earls Court. He left a trail
of disappointment and misery.

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Cheers

Simon
-- 
Out-of-context quotes from s.r.c #7:
   "The next time someone asks you to pray for something, send God a quick
  prayer right away. Then ask Him to remind you to pray about it again, later
  on in the day. If the request is truly important, He will. Try it; it works!"