Hey, Pat Robertson - Does God Answer Prayer?

It is always interesting to visit Pat Robertson's CBN or 700 Club. One just never knows what the Rev. Mr. Whacko is going to be doing or saying next. In 2001, Robertson claimed the 9/11 tragedy was due to America's moral failures (homosexuality, abortion, no prayer in schools, etc.) and a few years later suggested it would be a good thing to assassinate the president of a sovereign country, so it isn't unreasonable for people to wonder what will be his next gross violation of ethical/moral behavior and common sense.

Robertson is assuming a somewhat lower profile these days, thus his usual outrageous statements have not been forthcoming as often. Instead he is emphasizing the need and the importance of prayer. Robertson is one of those TV evangelists who knows the mind of God and thus puts no faith in recent studies which show clearly that intercessory prayer has no value, and in fact, in many cases, causes more pain and problems for the prayee.

In the minds of TV evangelists, nothing clears the air better than an anecdote. Anecdotal stories serve as evidence. Robertson loves them, and offers a diverse array of anecdotal stories about people healed by prayer. (All the better to con the folks out in TV land into sending him money!).


Here's one such story: It's about Ameng. Ameng was raised in Indonesia in a Buddhist family. But he was sent to a Christian school. Eventually, he "prayed to receive Jesus as his Savior." Ameng married a Muslim woman. His wife "began to suffer with a painful lump on her breast."

"We could not afford to see a doctor," said Ameng. "Besides, we were afraid that the doctor might tell us that it was cancer. We were definitely hopeless."

Ameng then came upon Indonesia's version of The 700 Club, called Solusi. Lots of people on Solusi said they'd been healed by prayer. Ameng began praying. His Muslim wife didn't mind. God soon began to heal his wife. "A short time later, the tumor and the severe pain were completely gone."

(This may be nitpicking, but notice that according to Ameng, he never took his wife to see a doctor so we do not know what was wrong with her. In the beginning she had a "painful lump," but at the end of the story he refers to "the tumor." The implication is that she had cancer, but that is never stated. The truth may be that nothing whatsoever was wrong with her.)

Then there's the story of Barbara Torra from Dunmore, Pennsylvania. She hurt her back and was suffering excruciating pain. It was unbearable. "I was crying all the time," she said. "I was just in so much pain."

This went on for eight months. But Barbara was sure that God would heal her. In the beginning she went to a doctor who said she had "suffered damage to the fourteenth vertebra in her back." Evidently, she did not go back to the doctor, and if the doctor prescribed any treatment she did not follow it.

What she did do was study the Bible and she "kept claiming Scriptures" [that's fundamentalist talk] and kept saying, 'No, that this pain is not going to be on my body. I just relied on God to heal me.'" And Barbara watched The 700 Club. One day she paid special attention to the prayer segment. "I just knew that day God was going to do something special for me. I think it was the second word of knowledge, and the host said, 'There's somebody out there being healed in their lower back, their L-4 disc, with bulging disc, and God is completely healing you and restoring your back."

Well, Barbara knew right away that he was talking about her and she got on her knees and praised God and cried and thanked him. Sure enough, "Over the next three days, Barbara realized she was totally healed."

Now Barbara says that she knows God is "always faithful," and she knows "God heals today. ... God heals today, and His word is the same today, yesterday, and forever."


There isn't any question that the medical profession has confronted instances where, in spite of all evidence suggesting healing is impossible, healing has occurred. It would also seem to be the case that for some people, their mental approach to a physical problem can be either beneficial or detrimental.

These two anecdotal stories, however, tell us nothing of the so-called "power of prayer." In the first instance, we have no knowledge as to Ameng's wife's problem. She may not have had a problem at all. There is neither evidence of a problem, nor evidence of healing. We have a tale told by Ameng which may or may not reflect reality, but in any case, there is no reason to assume the intervention of a deity.

In Barbara's case, again, we have only her word. We do not know if, in fact, she continued to see a doctor or if she underwent treatment by a medical professional. The implication is she did not, and I think she would have stressed the fact that medical procedures had not helped her. The rest of the story is pure malarkey. Assuming Barbara is a real person and that she really had a back problem, and that it is now better, I wish her well. But, again, there is absolutely no evidence of a god's intervention. It's all in Barbara's mind.

In fact, Barbara's back condition may have improved on its own. I've had the exact problem Barbara described and after a period of time, it did resolve itself - temporarily. Eventually, surgery was required. I wonder if The 700 Club will advise its viewers if Barbara at some point in the future undergoes the knife?

Again, in neither of these cases, is there a need to postulate a deity-healer.


CBN and The 700 Club offers up a glut of these kinds of stories. But because Robertson is the type of person who begs for contributions for planes to assist the needy in Africa and then uses them to haul diamonds from his mines, I wouldn't put it past him to make up most of these tales of prayer and godly intervention.

And while he may gloat over these "true" stories which he imagines point out the power of God, he also warns his viewers that sometimes "Your prayers aren't answered." Then he asks, rhetorically, "How come?"

Well, the number one reason for unanswered prayer is that "it's the wrong time." He quotes Paul, who said, "In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son." Even though people had prayed for the Messiah for years, it couldn't happen until the "fullness of time," which for Robertson meant that "The Roman Empire had to get peace. There had to be roads all over the Roman Empire. There had to be a common language. You go down the list of everything, and people's hearts had to be open. ... So that's number one. So you pray, and it's the wrong time; you don't get an answer."

Nothing! Nada! Not even a notice that it's the wrong time. How would you know it's the wrong time? Wouldn't you think God was ignoring you? If you are in dire need and praying desperately, it sure as hell is the "right" time for you!

Secondly, Robertson says prayers are not answered 'cause you're not ready. Ready for what? Well, says the reverend, there's something wrong in your life, like sin! "If there's sin in your life, you're not going to get it." Then, he confuses the issue by saying that what you pray for might be bad for you and destroy your life; but that doesn't fit his argument. Anyway, he concludes "So God's not going to give it, because you're not ready."

That sounds a lot like number one: the wrong time; not ready. Hey, I'm ready! I need your help, O God! This is the time! I need it today; I'm ready now! Where are you? You healed Ameng's wife and Barbara's back, why not me? Ameng's wife was a damn Muslim, for Christ's sake!

But Rev. Robertson has another reason you don't get your prayers answered. This sounds a lot like the first two, too. It is that "the answer you're asking for will hurt you. God will not give you the appropriate answer that you're asking for, because the answer to your prayer will hurt you." So, says the Rev, you don't know what you're asking, or you're asking for something selfish, or you're asking for something "to consume on your desire" (whatever that means).

The Pat tells this story: He wanted land for CBN. He tried all kinds of things, and of course, he prayed. "Nothing, just closed doors, because I was asking for the wrong thing. God was giving me something much better. Before it was finished--we now have, instead of six acres, we now have 700 acres along an interstate that is very valuable."

Whoopee! God wanted Pat to have something much better than what he was asking for. Wait, that doesn't sound like "the answer you're asking for will hurt you." I mean six acres may not be much, but it's six acres. How could that hurt?

Here's the best (worst?) part of this pious fraud's theology of prayer. Let's say someone you love dies. "And you say, 'Well I want him back to life again. And the answer here, very simple, is Heaven is better. And whether we like it or not on earth, we don't want to see a loved one taken away. ... But Heaven is better, and God says, 'He's with me, and I have brought him to this point ..." blah, blah, blah.

The life of a 26-year old mother of two young children was snatched away by cancer in our little town a few weeks ago. She and her husband, good Baptists that they were, decided this was God's will and God wanted her with Him in Heaven. That's how they got through the ordeal and believing that fantasy is what is helping the husband and her parents and friends get through the long, lonely days since she went to be with her Heavenly Father. That is all a fantasy, but hey, whatever works!


Robertson's theology of prayer is the equivalent of throwing a brick of moldy cheese to a drowning rat. It's a mishmash of pious nonsense that he's cobbled together from biblical passages and fundamentalist theology. Heaven is not better because we have no clue if, number one, there is a "heaven," and number two, what this heaven would be like! All we know and all we have is right here, right now.

To say that there is a god who kills people through car accidents, war, cancer or whatever, so He can bring them "home to heaven" is not only irresponsible but evil and immoral. Such a god would not be worthy of the slightest attention, much less worship and adoration.

Robertson's reasons for unanswered prayer are laughable. When you are truly in need and pray to a deity it is definitely NOT the wrong time and whether there is sin in your life is irrelevant (who hasn't "sin" in his/her life according to the fundy code?), and when you're praying for healing or a way out of a situation which is killing you, unless god is a horrible ogre, those are not the "wrong" things to pray for!

Finally, reflecting on Ameng's wife and Barbara, one must consider the incredible arrogance implied in those stories. Of all the needy people in the world, of all the starving children, of all the people in pain and torment, of all the people dying of cancer or who will never see or hear or speak or walk again due to disease or accident or war, why would the deity stoop to "cure" either Ameng's wife or Barbara and not do the same for others in much worse condition?

Is it that they prayed and others didn't? But we know that at this very moment, millions of people are praying desperately for relief, for healing, even for death. Here's my own anecdote. I know a 93-year old woman, nearly blind, on a respirator, crying out to god daily to take her "home," but god doesn't answer!

The New Testament figure we call Jesus said that the Heavenly Father knows what you need before you ask. Well, why doesn't he do something? And why would we need to try to manipulate him to focus his healing power in our direction through prayer if he cared at all?

People are certainly free to believe that god hears their prayers and answers their prayers. Unfortunately, such belief remains just that; a belief with no basis in fact! Pat Robertson should know, for god answered his prayer in 1988 by telling him he would be president of the United States, and, in 1992, god told him the same thing again. Whoops, god must have been wrong!


Robertson, a charlatan, but no fool, plays on this fantasy of answered prayer in order to manipulate his viewers into sending a continual flow of their hard-earned money to finance his extravagant lifestyle and his many fraudulent, but pious enterprises.

Let us pray!