MarkT

"Like A Mighty Wind" Mel Tari

{ 3:07 PM, 25/4/2009 } { Posted in Fundamentalism } { 0 comments } { Link }

It is unfortunately true that Christians who refuse to use their God-given
minds and who desperately WANT to believe in miracles are easily conned. Mel
Tari's "Like A Mighty Wind" is a case in point.

http://www.amazon.com/Like-Mighty-Wind-Mel-Tari/dp/0892211210

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE MYTH:

In Indonesia, God sends a group of Pentecostal children on an evangelism
trip to a neighboring village (apparently without parental supervision). God
tells the children to go straight to the village without stopping, but, on
the way, the children pass a fruit tree and decide to stop and eat some
fruit. They take off their nice clothes first so as not to get them dirty
while climbing the fruit tree.

Soon, the children are playing and munching happily, but all that comes to a
crashing halt when they look around and discover that their clothes are
gone. Then they see the clothes--way up in the top of a huge tree that they
cannot climb.

God is punishing the children for their disobedience. The children cry and
pray and repent, and so God speaks to them and tells them to send one of the
boys to climb the tree. The boy doesn't think he can do it, but when he
starts climbing the tree, his hands and feet stick to the bark like a
spider. He scampers up the tree and retrieves the clothes, and the children
continue their evangelism trip.

COMMENTS:

This whopper appears to have originated in the twisted mind of Mr. Mel Tari.
It is one of many, many ghastly lies promoted in his books Like a Mighty
Wind and Gentle Breeze of Jesus. According to Mel, there was a Great Revival
in Indonesia, during which people were raised from the dead, evangelists
walked on water, amazing healings occurred, and water was turned into
special God-brewed nonalcoholic wine. Too bad nobody got any pictures.

The most disturbing thing about this story is that it reveals Mr. Tari's
twisted concept of God. In this story, God sounds like a schoolyard bully,
stealing little kids' clothes and holding them out of reach until the
children start to cry.

And the spider-boy? That's just weird.

Side note: In 1994, evangelist Mel Tari was convicted of fraud in a
California courtroom and ordered to repay hundreds of thousands of dollars
that he stole from a former supporter. During the court proceedings,
excerpts from Tari's books were read and the victim testified that these had
led her to trust Tari, believing that he could perform "physical and
financial miracles".

To see an article on Tari's fraud conviction in Christianity Today archives,
click on the link below:
http://www.ctlibrary.com/ct/1994/august15/4t950b.html

from http://www.pentecostalfreedom.org/forbidden_fruit.html
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MarkT

"Like A Mighty Wind" Mel Tari

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