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Published: Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2012 / Updated: Monday, Oct. 15, 2012 04:47 PM

Wait for tip before finishing job

Last week I was forwarded a YouTube video.

If I’m anything like most people, if I click on the link, it is 10 seconds before the latest dancing cat or idiotic parody of “Call Me Maybe” has wasted my time before the file is hastily deleted, but for some reason I watched this video. I got a huge, chortling belly laugh out of it, mostly because the video was supposed to be serious, but the content was so ridiculous.

This wasn’t Mr. Peepers and Tabby posing in top hats and formal wear. It was a local minister talking about how the power of prayer can re-grow limbs. I don’t want to publically shame the fool, so he will remain unnamed – I just wanted to poke fun and callously ponder if somebody has already lost an arm and a leg in “donations” and is scurrying to re-grow them.

I figured a claim of such an extraordinary magnitude would have medical documentation on this miracle, but who am I kidding – this is YouTube where any idiot and a camera can broadcast whatever they want to millions. No, this was the story of a “friend” who had lost a finger and it had almost completely re-grown until those who were praying became distracted just before it could be fully restored. There has to be a prayer tip in there somewhere.

I got it! Don’t stop praying until the tip is delivered!

Call me a skeptic, but now I want to know what could have distracted the prayer group. Did somebody more prominent lose a whole hand or something? Couldn’t they have restarted the process and delivered a “super finger” to the afflicted guy? Maybe they were just about to get to the fingernail and McDonald’s started their Monopoly promotion all over again leaving the poor guy no way to thumb a ride on the Reading.

Then again, maybe we just can’t put a finger on it.

Or perhaps we can. Some people have no shame when it comes to manipulating people looking for spiritual direction. If that means fabricating a story about the power of prayer, to them it is fine. I personally would tend to at least focus on things that might happen to give me some credibility. It’s always a pretty good bet to predict an earthquake and total devastation of California because everyone can see that coming a mile away, right? Or maybe claim that a tsunami will soon take down the West Coast just like it did Japan – at least there is historical evidence of tsunamis.

Putting aside my wonderment at why the East Coast always gets spared the doomsday scenarios, at least those claims of dark days for West Coasters could be plausible. Come to find out, this particular minister also predicted those things as happening too – probably to cover his bases. Now, it is confined to giving people a finger story.

Sometimes I feel like giving a finger, too – without the story.