Sermon Illustrations

DELIVER US FROM EVIL

Dr. Thomas Dooley gave a chilling example related to this prayer. It came from his experience in Southeast Asia between 1954 and 1960. Dr. Dooley authored three books about conditions there, the most well-known being 'Deliver Us from Evil', published in 1956. The subject was his impression of the refugee camps in Haiphong and the repulsive cruelty of the Stalinist regime from which the refugees fled.

The title "Deliver Us from Evil" came from an incident which Dr. Dooley had personally witnessed. Three young Vietnamese children had been brought to the border by the Communist police of North Vietnam. Their vocal cords had been cut (or tongues cut out) as punishment for treasonable speech.

When Dr. Dooley asked the guard how children so young could possibly have committed treason, the guard asked Dooley, to recite the Lord's Prayer. When Dooley reached the phrase, "deliver us from evil," the guard stopped him. "That is the treason," he declared, "for there is no evil in the People's Republic of Vietnam."

(The American Thinker - Feb. 16, 2008 - "Boomers and the Vietnam Shrug" - By Frank Dudley Berry, Jr. From a sermon by Rick Crandall, How To Pray a Perfect Prayer, 5/20/2011)

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