As Ed Brayton has reported (hat tip to Les), televangelist Rod Parsley is charging mindless fucking sheep...er, that is, devout and faithful Christians fifty bucks for three wonderful blessings:

Specifically, he said that God would bless them with three things. He would make sure they heard His voice more clearly than ever; he would make sure they were "protected from the deceptions of the adversary" (Satan, presumably, but perhaps Bill Clinton); and my personal favorite, he promised them that they would receive protection from making bad decisions - but only for one year.

What we really want to know is: if they're truly granted Protection from Bad Decision Making (a 7th level Abjuration spell, if we recall correctly), does it work retroactively — enabling them to go back and not make the decision to hand over fifty bucks for such a completely stupid deus ex placebo?

Rod Parsley will make you a Level 10 Creduloid!

Charging for prayers - wasn't that one of Martin Luther's complaints that he nailed to the church door? The more things change ...

I don't want to sound holier than thou, but since I'm an atheist, I took my $50 and drank enough beer that I saw the face of God.
Although, within the stated guidelines, that might be considered to be making a bad decision.

maybe we should all buy parsley's "blessing," make sure we get it in writing... then sue the crook when we do something dumb (b/c we all know we will sometime this year).

if it's in writing, doesn't that make it a contract? and if the court says it's not, that nobody reasonable would interpret parsley's statement literally, doesn't that make it fraud?