Posted: Mon Dec 31 2001
Women Sued For Intercessory Prayer

Sheila Seagal did not take kindly to the news that her friends had been praying for her. In fact she is taking them to court. It all began several months ago when Sheila's husband Johnathon took a job in the nearby city of Wachiheebokata. Since then he has been living in a rented apartment and only returning on weekends. The couple plans to sell their house and both move to Wachiheebokata. The problem is that the house is not selling.

"It was costing us a great deal of money keeping up rent and a mortgage -- not to mention the gas mileage." Sheila explains. "But in three and a half months I hadn't had one offer on the house."

Not long after, Sheila went to the elders of her church to ask them to pray for her. That was when she found out that a group of her friends were already praying for her. "I really didn't mean to eaves drop but while I was standing outside the schoolroom in which we meet with the elders I heard my name mentioned. I was just flabbergasted when I realized that they were praying that I would NOT find a buyer!"

Sheila confronted her friends and asked why they would do such a thing. "They were very apologetic and said that it was only because they didn't want to lose me. Wachaheebokata is a long way off and they thought they would never see me again. I was touched." Sheila dabs at a tear as she relates this part of her story...then her eyes narrow, "At least until they refused to take back the prayers."

That, says Sheila, was when things got ugly. Soon it wasn't that they wanted her to stay at all. "They were just praying to be mean." Sheila approached John-Mark Luke, the pastor of the church and told him what was going on. He claimed that it was out of his hands. The minister was sympathetic to her plight -- he had seen cases of harassment prayer before -- but there was very little he could do. "We're not Catholic here. All of my congregation have direct lines to the CEO. I can't override them." He told her.

So Sheila tried to round up a group of the godly to outpray her friends. The friend's responded in kind and soon the entire church was embroiled in a prayer war.

Eventually Sheila's side won out by one prayer and she did sell her house. But she was still out several months mortgage and that is why she is taking everyone who prayed against her to court to try and recoup her losses.

"Clearly the success of Ms. Seagul's case relies heavily on getting a judge who believes in the power of prayer." Says Sheila's lawyer, Dilbert "Doc" Dewey, "Before bringing the case I toured the courthouses where the case will be tried. I found that 7 out of the 9 courtrooms displayed the ten commandments on the wall. I like those odds!"

Pastor Luke is saddened by the whole incident but happy that it didn't go even farther than it did. "I've seen harassment prayer get to the point of praying for slashed tires and rocks through windows." He says shaking his head. "and it was amazing how quickly those prayers got answered."


--Phillip Matanka