When you write for a Christian website like Charisma, your faith-based conspiracy theories never get fact-checked. If you felt it, it’s automatically true.

That’s why Apostle James Alford is allowed to say that praying in tongues stopped a plane from crashing.

The reality is he heard a voice in his head before the start of a flight, and eventually the pilot said there was a problem with the engine and they couldn’t take off in that specific plane. Alford links the two, assuming his prayers prevented the tragedy.

… After we boarded the plane and taxied onto the runway, the pilot came over the intercom and said our flight was delayed. At that moment, I heard the Spirit of God say, “Begin to pray in tongues.” … After the wait, our time to take off finally came. God said to me, “Don’t stop!” As I continued to pray, the pilot revved the engines up, and the plane proceeded to accelerate down the runway. Right at the point of takeoff, the pilot hit the brakes and drove off the runway. At that moment, the Spirit of God said, “Now you can stop praying.” The pilot then came over the intercom and said one of the engines had gone out, and if we had tried to take off, we would have crashed.

Sure, he could thank the pilot for recognizing the error, but instead he’s giving all credit to his ability to speak Christian gibberish to God. As if the reason 9/11 occurred was because there weren’t enough Christians on the flights.

It also suggests the Christian God would be cruel enough to kill hundreds of innocent people because one guy didn’t pray hard enough. That’s not a God worth worshiping.

Alford’s irrational theory should come with an asterisk in its headline, yet it’s what we’ve come to expect from Charisma and any other outlet that treats Christian mythologizing as reality.

(via Joe. My. God. Image via Shutterstock)

