An urban myth is a story that might have once been true and has since been
exaggerated or distorted so frequently that it has become a fiction, or it is a story that is fictional, but so many have claimed that it happened to someone that they know, that…there is a perpetual claim that it is true. The old, ‘it happened to a friend of a
buddy of mine’ schtick.
One such urban myth is about a church which was situated right next to a wild tavern. Every night, the tavern would have no end of drunken noise, brawls, and police cars showing up. On Sunday morning, when the fellowship was entering the church, they would be witness to drunks passed out on benches and on the ground outside of the tavern, and ladies of the night leaving the tavern rooms. One day, the tavern burned down due to a faulty gas stove in the kitchen. The tavern owner claimed the insurance and commenced rebuilding the tavern. The pastor of the church asked the tavern owner not to rebuild the “den of drunkenness. The house of ill repute”. But the tavern owner continued to rebuild the tavern. Next, the pastor and the fellowship lobbied the local town council to put a stop to the reconstruction of the tavern, but it was voted down, as the mayor and council felt that the tavern owner had every legal right to rebuild the tavern. So, the fellowship and the pastor wrote a letter to the tavern owner informing him that every Sunday and at each small group meeting and each Bible study, they were praying that God put a stop to the tavern rebuild. Which they did. They prayed, and
prayed, and prayed.
The tavern was rebuilt and on the day of its grand new opening, it was struck by
lightning and it burned to the ground. The tavern owner sued the church, citing that the tavern was destroyed because of their prayers. The church’s defense in court was that the tavern owner’s claim was ridiculous and had no merit whatsoever. The judge was quoted as saying:
“I am in a real pickle here. On one side I have a tavern owner who believes in God
so strongly that he is convinced that God struck the church with lightning in responseto prayer. On the other hand, I have a church community whose faith is so weak,that they believe it is not possibly an act of God.”