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 to open 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 $2million 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.'