A Priest, Some Prayer — and A&E’s Risky Move? Not.

How about , instead, individuals reflecting proponents of conservative Christian viewpoints as I have found them, consistently, to be? Passionate? You bet — but, also, intelligent, attractive, articulate, competent, compassionate. 

The creative powers-that-be might be startled at how legions of decent folk — those who’ve ended up disgustedly turning their backs on network offerings or boycotting the movie theater — would respond if their rarely honored convictions were once again tendered some much-deserved courtesy. 

Last week, a big swathe of America was transfixed by the tale of an apparent celestial visitation accompanied by answered prayer: a young Missouri woman trapped in an overturned vehicle, stymied rescue workers, her desperate request for prayer as her vital signs are sinking, an anonymous priest’s appearing, unbidden, and his assuring everyone she was going to be fine, her successful rescue promptly following the groups’ heavenly supplication, the cleric, thereafter, nowhere to be found. Poof.

Father Patrick Dowling eventually came forward, identifying himself as the mysterious man-of-the-cloth. Fox Insider reports:

Dowling says he was traveling between mass assignments in his diocese .. when he got out of his car because of something he says he couldn’t put his finger on …”If you have faith, you stop […] that is the only explanation I have,” he said. “I didn’t hide, and I just stood there, waiting, praying for Almighty God to intervene … because there was something exceptional there in the matter of her rescue.

He went on, self-effacingly, to clarify:

You must remember, there were many people praying there … and they were all praying obviously for healing and for her safety …I was probably part of the answer to their prayers. I came by and anointed and absolved, [but] I didn’t say another word … I did not say anything like the machinery would begin to work or they would succeed in getting her out of the car. That did not come from my lips, though two people heard it.

With or without the visible angelic piece, the account quivers with the hallmarks of other-worldly intervention, broadcasting a reminder: a personal, attentive Creator hears and acts on the requests of needy people.

The subsequent, hushed-breath fascination of news-watching, news-reading multitudes, moreover, confirms there remains a market for stories involving God and good-old-fashioned, circumstance-altering praying. Hearts still resonate to that.

Hollywood, A&E, take note.

Hey, Sheriff Longmire – you, too.

Image: promotional image for A&E’s Longmire