Miracle Time

Grant holds what he describes as “two great miracle services” at the Eagle’s Nest Cathedral every Sunday. He claims he has to spend more than $8 million annually for the TV time alone for his show “Dawn of a New Day.” At his revival meetings, as he tours the United States from coast to coast, miracles seem to fall from his fingertips. He apparently fills dental cavities, straightens limbs, adds vertebrae to ailing backs, and cures tumors, deafness, blindness, digestive problems, “broken hearts,” otherwise-damaged hearts, diabetes, paralysis, fractured bones, arthritis, gallbladder conditions, high blood pressure, colitis, obesity, bone spurs, kidney problems, and almost any other disease our species is heir to—all by mumbling some magical syllables (“speaking in tongues”), touching the sufferers, and grinding his teeth. It seems he also reverses hysterectomies. Declared one woman:When they opened me up, they found all my ovaries and tubes were back and they just couldn’t understand it!

In another case, an afflicted woman had her leg and foot problems remedied by the Reverend Grant. Her testimony revealed,I couldn’t wear high-healed [sic] shoes for 13-15 years. I praise the Lord that I can now.

Is there no end to this man’s good works as he solves such a heart-rending fashion problem? At every revival meeting that Grant holds, people are commanded to get up out of their wheelchairs and run, not walk, up the aisle and back. Canes and walkers taken from cripples are dramatically broken and thrown up onto the stage while those who held them moments before trot about in ecstasy. It seems that the deaf hear, the blind see, tumors vanish, and bacteria are slain at a wave of his hand. From the point of view of showmanship, Grant’s act on stage is exceedingly dull and repetitious, so much so that he is known to play with his victims’ hats and ties, according to his one-time director Rod Sherrill, simply because he, too, is bored by it all. His performance is rather colorless when compared to that of another healer/evangelist, David Paul, who sweats, postures, bellows, and shrieks while performing some remarkable acrobatics. But at least Grant’s method of “calling out” (see Chapter 2) requires a certain amount of skill.

How Blind Is “Blind”?

Faith-healers get great mileage out of appearing to heal the blind. But remember what “blind” really means. The dictionary says it means “unable to see,” but the law has established a definition that enables a person who is able to see poorly to adopt the designation legally. Faith-healers are often deceptive—perhaps innocently—when using the term. The Center for the Partially Sighted, in Santa Monica, California, says that 94 percent of “visually impaired” persons and 75 percent of those termed “legally blind” have usable though limited vision. Certainly most of these can see the number of fingers held up before them, and many can see well enough to read, though with great difficulty. Thus, when a faith-healer holds up a number of fingers in front of a person “healed” of blindness, it is usually not difficult for the person to say how many fingers are being displayed. The audience is encouraged to believe that the “blind” individual was not previously able to perform this simple determination. Grant is fond of that demonstration, and he has another trick he uses when confronted with a “blind” subject who can see well enough to find a seat in the auditorium. While walking about during his performance, he uses a cordless radio microphone. It broadcasts to the amplifying system. If he holds it to his own lips or to the lips of a subject, only his or that person’s voice can be heard over the system and will be recorded on the videotape. But that person can hear Grant clearly if he speaks without the microphone. This gives rise to a trick he uses to be sure of the results. It consists of Grant asking the subject to tell him how many fingers he is holding up, then placing the microphone before the subject’s mouth and at the same time saying the required number out loud, which the subject merely repeats! Joseph Barnhart and I saw this trick used right beside us when we attended a Grant meeting in St. Louis, Missouri, on November 4, 1985. We were accompanied by members of the Rationalist Association, in St. Louis, who readily agreed to assist in the project by passing out 2,000 leaflets requesting people to contact us through the Rationalist Association if they had actually been healed. No reply—not one—was ever received.