Laughing Matter
It is very seldom this correspondent spontaneously laughs out loud while reading (Jeffrey Bernard has done it to me a few times with some insights in his low life columns, as has John B Keane with a few incidents in his novella ‘Letters of an Irish Parish) but a reported response by Oliver Moody of The Times newspaper to a declaration made by Morris Cerullo (American Televangelist) managed to stimulate a spontaneous snigger out of this correspondent.
Before explaining how Oliver triggered a titter from this correspondent, a bit of background is required about Morris. Morris Cerullo is the head of MCWE (Morris Cerullo World Evangelism) administration. Earlier this summer, Morris and his administration headed to England for a six-day tour billed as his ‘Mission to London’.
Around this time, Morris was receiving bad press due to MCWE’s failure to file their tax returns on time in 2011 & 2012 (8 months late); and because of the consequence of a previous visit to London (1992), where a 25 year-old women Audrey Reynolds had gone on stage with Morris, to tell him his faith healing had cured her of Epilepsy. She subsequently stopped taking her medication and suffered an epileptic seizure in the bath, and drowned.
Oliver informs the reader that these issues did not deter 1,500 people from showing up to his first night at the Earl’s Court arena, where one of Morris’s preachers encouraged them to give as generously as they could, by saying “I’d love it if everyone possible gave £100”. Members of the audience then held up envelopes stuffed with cash, while ushers went around the auditorium gathering the envelopes using plastic buckets.
We are informed that Morris then makes his entrance into the arena and begins his ministry by asking the audience, if any of them have relatives in prison. A few hands are raised. Morris then declares “tonight the prison doors are going to open….Oh God let a supernatural miracle take place across the audience….let the prison doors open”.
What gave your correspondent a giggle was Oliver’s response to above statement.
The following evening he rang the Ministry of Justice to enquire, if they had any door difficulties in their incarcerated facilities over the previous twenty-four hours. He was informed by a spokesman there, that no such problems had been reported with any of the prison doors in that time period, and also there had been no escapes.
Unfortunately for those audience members (with incarcerated relatives), they have received the same delivery of service from Morris that he gave to the Inland Revenue & Audrey Reynolds.
