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Potential victim's attacker is scared off by guardian angels is a common glurge theme. (Another widely-circulated tale about a girl who barely avoids becoming the victim of a rapist also draws upon this theme): Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2000] These tales are obviously parables, but since the version cited in the example section above has been embellished with details intended to demonstrate it to be a true story, we've once again received numerous Is this true? queries about it. As a literal account of an actual occurrence, this one has a few implausibilities: These details are all obvious plot devices: The attackers have to count exactly how many guards stood watch over their intended victim, and their leader has to confess to the missionary that they conspired to kill him, because without these revelations the missionary wouldn't have known how many guardian spirits were protecting him, and thus the unexpected news that exactly 26 Michigan congregationalists had gathered to pray for the missionary's safety at the very same time several would-be attackers had approached him wouldn't seem nearly as astonishing. Additionally, given that Michigan is in a time zone that places it anywhere from five to eight hours behind the time zones on the African continent, one would be hard-pressed to find a region of Africa where it would be night while it was morning in Michigan. Once again, we have a lovely little parable someone couldn't help but attempt to dress up. A more plausible version of the same story appeared in the 1986 book Touch the World Through Prayer: However, the story had appeared in print even prior to that. Billy Graham's 1975 Angels: God's Secret Agents contained this telling of it. Missionaries protected by the prayers of loved ones at the precise moment of danger is a common tale. Here's an example from a 1979 collection of anecdotes and inspirational tales: We found yet another example of this sort of tale in a 1954 collection of inspirational anecdotes, which had itself reprinted it from a 1950 collection. In that tale (which is too long to type in here), the tent of two female missionaries serving in Africa is surrounded one night by headhunters. Rather than cower in the dark, they light their lamp and proceed to make and drink tea all night. In the morning, they discover the headhunters have left. Months later, one of them receives a letter from a mission supporter back home telling how she'd been unable to sleep on that very night and so had stayed up all night to pray for the safety of the missionaries serving at that particular station — had the missionaries had any sort of special need that evening? As usual, we make the point that inspirational tales don't suddenly gain the power to change lives because someone claims they're fact, nor do fictional tales lose their power to inspire believers to move mountains because they were made up. Folks will find inspiration in parables whether the tales have a factual basis or not; thus, this true story! flourish is unnecessary at best and downright insulting at worst. Moreover, it's sadly ironic that so many tales contrived to display a particular belief system as The One True Way include fabrications tossed in to better carry the message. The Christian commandment about not bearing false witness just isn't getting the mileage it used to.
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