A Prophet or a Phony?

Back in 1993, I found myself unemployed and hating it. The company I worked for lost its contract with Crane back when Communism died and the government was too short-sighted to see that terrorism was our worst enemy.

After four months of unemployment, I took a job at a nearby publishing company typesetting, writing, editing...general weekly newspaper stuff. I was making the same amount I did in unemployment, but I couldn't stand staying at home any longer. A few short months after I was hired, I was asked if I wanted to do a side job after hours. I would be typing a small book from the author's hand-written notes. Sure...I could use the extra money.

So after putting in my eight hours every day, I'd open up the author's notebook and begin typing. It was all religious stuff, and I don't consider myself a religious person. The author claimed that the Virgin Mary visited her almost nightly, and she held conversations with Mary. The farther I got into the book, the more boring it got. The conversations were pretty much the same thing over and over. The woman would ask Mary what she should tell everyone and Mary always told her "Pray! Pray the rosary!" I mean, how many times did it bear repeating?

Ho hum...this was worse than typing up the 4-H fair results. But it paid well, since I type fairly fast. It soon became apparent to me that someone other than the author had hand-edited the woman's writings. One interesting tidbit that I found was a conversation the woman had with Mary where she asked about the big earthquake that was predicted to happen on a certain date in the Midwest. Mary verified it, and said there would be great devastation and so-on. Famine, pestilence, thousands dead...the whole bit. And I was typing this some time after the earthquake prediction. The earthquake never happened.

Guess what...whoever edited the writing before I saw it crossed that part out. It didn't come true, so why make the woman out to look like a fool. Another time the woman asked Mary about a friend of hers who had cancer. Mary said the woman would be cured. That too was marked out. No doubt she died, or it would've made the book. But the final straw was the one where Mary told this woman that SHE (the woman--not Mary) would do more fantastic works and miracles than Jesus. That part was left in the book. I'm still waiting for this woman to walk on water or bring someone back from the dead. It hasn't happened yet.

After I finished the book and it was printed and distributed, I purchased a copy to give to my mother-in-law, who had heard this woman speak and thought she was the greatest thing since sliced bread. A couple of weeks later, I asked my mother-in-law what she thought about the book and the author. She kind of rolled her eyes and said, "I don't know about her anymore". Then I told her what was left out of the book.

I'm not saying the woman is a bad person, or that she set out to run some sort of scam. But what I am saying is not to take everything you hear or read as the truth. Maybe she was telling the truth as she "saw" it, for whatever reason. But then someone covered up the prophecies that didn't come true.

Guess the editor should've done the editing in a thick black marker so I couldn't read what didn't come true.