In a small conservative Midwestern town, a man started building a tavern. The local Baptist church started a campaign to block the bar from opening with petitions and prayers. Work progressed, however, until the week before the tavern’s opening; lightning hit the building and it burned to the ground.

The church folks were rather smug in their outlook after that, till the bar owner sued the church on the ground that the church was ultimately responsible for the demise of his building, either through direct or indirect actions or means.

The church vehemently denied all responsibility or any connection to the buildings’ demise in its reply to the court.

As the case made it’s way into court, the judge looked over the paperwork at the hearing and commented, "I don’t know how I’m going to decide this, but it appears from the paperwork that we have a bar owner that believes in the power of prayer, and an entire church congregation that doesn’t."