Witnesses say he appeared at the scene of a Missouri car accident Sunday, anointed and prayed with the teenage victim and then vanished without a trace.
"Officials are still scratching their heads over the priest, who they say appeared out of nowhere. Perhaps more mysteriously, the local fire chief said he does not appear in any of 80 photos from the accident scene...We're looking for the priest and so far, no one has seen him. Whether it was a priest as an angel or an actual angel, he was an angel to all..."
Read the article at:
foxnews
"Whether he was a priest or an
actual angel, he was an angel to all."
What remarkable treacle.
Seriously, an angel? The ones that God sends to destroy entire cities, that fight demons? The ones that-even when sent with "good tidings"-have to tell those they don't intend to destroy, "Be not afraid?" because they are so terrible and awesome to behold?
Or just a priest or minister-doing what, well,
priests do?, and it being followed with a positive outcome that might have occurred without the priest?
Or, yeah, sure, "an angel."
The inexplicable-or apparently inexplicable-has always occurred, from time to time, throughout history.
What you believe in each instance, is really up to you.
Looking at it scientifically (
facts, Sukerkin) what do we know?
There was an accident.
The emergency responders were unsuccessful in rescuing the victim, whose condition was worsening
She prayed, and asked them to pray with her.
Some of them did.
Someone showed up dressed as a priest, and prayed as well.
The rescuers say that the someone dressed as a priest said that their equipment would work.
Another company showed up with equipment that did work, and the accident victim was saved.
The someone dressed as a priest could not be found.
Those are the facts as presented-we can come up with all sorts of conjecture about what they mean-or derive meaning, or belief from them-but, as is the nature of faith or belief, we
cannot know-indeed, some believers would say that we aren't meant to-that, to answer Bill's questions about "who was actually impacted by the event," and its implications (good questions, btw, Bill) we'll likely never know.
As for the priest, probably just a simple priest or minister-doing, as I said,
what they do-and maybe he'll come forward, and maybe he won't. Maybe he'll be found-it's hard to believe that in this Internet age, someone under such circumstances could remain hidden for long: if he's actually a local minister or priest, the press will track him down by going from one church to the next, until they're out of state if they have to, just to prove that he
wasn't an angel.
And if he was, well, what of it? If it didn't happen to you, it really shouldn't matter much to you, before this descends into an "evils of atheism/religion" discussion.
You can not disprove the existence of Sasquatch. If a person has seen-as thousands have- what they think to have been a Bigfoot (even if it was just a big smelly bear) you're not going to convince that person that they didn't.
You cannot disprove the existence of UFOs. If a person has seen-as thousands have-what they think to have been an "alien spacecraft" (even if it was just a bolide, or swamp gas, or a weather balloon) you're not going to convince that person that they didn't.
Likewise in this incident-for those who were there, anyway-and, just as an the case of UFOs and Sasquatch, thousands will believe whatever they chose to.
In the end, as the priest proves to be more and more elusive, and the facts around the case become more clear (the road was blocked 1/4 mile away, and it's a part of Missouri that's relatively flat and open-it sounds like the "priest" just "disappeared.) it's worth discussing possible explanations, and not at all worth discussing how positively awful those who believe another explanation are, simply because it doesn't agree with what you choose to believe-that is, after all, the path that leads to war and genocide, whichever side of the equation you're on.....
.
