So what do you make of it? (From Bournemouth Echo)

So what do you make of it?

7:00am Wednesday 16th July 2008

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IT sounds almost beyond belief to me. A very controversial evangelist claims miracles happen after the Holy Spirit turns up at his meetings.

Then a woman prays for a sign from the Holy Spirit and next thing you know she has a gold tooth in her mouth. She shows it to her friend who, behold, suddenly has a gold tooth, too.

What forces you to think twice, however, is that the ladies concerned are obviously not teenage pranksters but respectable women in their 60s. And evidently sincere about receiving a "gift from God".

What's more, if traditional churchgoers (including me) can happily swallow a claim such as the Resurrection and the promise of eternal life then a miracle involving a couple of gold teeth seems small beer by comparison, doesn't it? (And, yes, I do know what atheists will say to that.) My problem is that it seems a daft thing for God to do. If one of my choppers turned to gold I'd be pretty darned miffed about it. I'd rather a proper molar than a gold one.

And doesn't gold sound, well, a bit rich?

If the Holy Spirit were to give a miraculous sign, I would hope it would be something that would do some good in the world. Like feeding the hungry.

But what do I know? I can't explain it.

I may be a sceptic who finds gold tooth miracles hard to swallow but I can admire the women for standing up and bearing witness to what they say has happened, knowing they are likely to face mockery.

And next time I am in church I will listen with extra care when the priest quotes from St John's Gospel, saying, "I am the way, the truth and the life".

Just in case he's saying "tooth" instead of "truth".

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