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Voices of the Western
Dominican Province
ON
BEING A BROTHER:
Kathryn Kuhlman
and the Miracle Years
By Brother Daniel
Thomas, O.P.
“He touched me and made me whole.”
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Katherine Kuhlman
was an internationally known miracle worker who was most
popular in the 1960’s and ‘70s. She had a daily radio broadcast
which was aired both nationally and internationally and a weekly TV
program, I Believe in Miracles. Before 1970 I had never heard of
her and didn’t even know who she was.
My initial introduction to Kathryn Kuhlman came
through my Charismatic friends, Bob & Suzzie Fern. They were the
ones who wrote to her when they learned about my airplane crash
which happened on November 9, 1970 in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
It remains a
mystery to me how these friends could hear about my accident,
immediately write and post a letter from the west coast to the
Kuhlman Foundation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and receive a
response in a matter of a few days. After seeing the letter that
Miss Kuhlman wrote back to my friends, which is dated November 12,
1970.
I became interested in this women who prayed me
through the first 4 days of my accident recovery. What is more
spectacular is the fact that I was unconscious for exactly four days
and came out of that unconscious state on the same day the Miss
Kuhlman’s letter is dated.
You can
read
the account of this plane crash along with photographs of the
damage done to the aircraft – an 18-seat commercial flight out of
Minneapolis, Minnesota - by clicking the above link.
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Brother Daniel after 28 days
in
hospital after the plane crash. |
After being shown
the letter from Kathryn Kuhlman and realizing how her prayers
had helped get me through that crisis I then began listening to her
radio program in the early part of 1971. Kathryn Kuhlman was a
flamboyant, evangelist who conducted “miracle services” all around
the world. She could be heard on numerous radio and television
stations and recognized by her signature opening, “I believe in
miracles!” Kathryn Kuhlman spoke with an exaggerated voice which
emphasized vowel sounds so that she could somehow get four syllables
out of the word, “Ga-ow-o-od” Her presentation style was showy and
she spoke in long, drawn out sentences. She appeared like an overly
decorated sugar frosted cake and many people turned her off right
away.
I came to believe that this was a kind of
protection for her so that only those who were deeply seeking a
miracle from God would stick with her and put up with her glitzy
stage presence.
In January of 1971 two of us decided that we
would make the trip from Oakland, California to Los Angeles to
attend one of Kathryn Kuhlman’s monthly miracles services held at
the Shrine Auditorium. I had been listening to her radio programs
which often had excerpts from these services and she always seemed
to say that there were hundreds of people who could not be squeezed
into that auditorium which could easily hold 7,000 people. Without
even knowing what to expect or how we were going to get in we took
off on a Friday afternoon.
We stayed overnight at what was then St.
Raymond’s Dominican Retreat in Thousand Oaks. Being enthusiastic charismatics we invited three of the Brothers who lived there to
join us on that Sunday morning as we continued our journey to
miracles. It was The five Dominican D’s: Daniel, Donald, David,
Denis and De Porres. Denis was hesitant and wanted to back out of
the trip saying, “I don’t know if I really have the kind of faith
you guys seem to have. I don’t even know if I have the faith to
continue being a Dominican Brother!” Somehow we convinced him to go
with us.
When we arrived at the Shrine Auditorium in
downtown Los Angeles we had our first pangs of despair: there were
scores of parked buses and lines of people everywhere. There were
ambulances disgorging people in all states of physical trauma
waiting to be pushed or wheeled into the auditorium. All five of us
were dressed in black trousers and shirts with the little white tab
collars that said we were Catholic priests or brothers. As we were
wandering around, trying to find the best line someone who looked
official came up to us and said, “Hello, Fathers, just go over to
the stage door at the side and they’ll let you right in.” Who said
there weren’t any “perks” left to those wearing clerical blacks?
At the side door we were ushered right in and
greeted like long lost family members and told, “Of course you’ll be
sitting right up on the stage. Miss Kuhlman loves to have a
smattering of a ‘Catholic presence’ at these services.” We were then
taken to seats in the first two rows just in front of the 250 voice
choir which was still practicing. The auditorium was filling up and
there was an energy in the air that went all the way up to the
highest balcony. Two grand piano’s graced the stage and played along
with the pipe organ as the choir continued their practice. There was
still more than half an hour before the service would begin.
At precisely one o’clock the house lights dimmed,
the stage lights went up, the choir rose and began with a mighty and
powerful anthem. There were two or three more grand choral pieces
and then the musical mood shifted. There was a noticeable change.
The crowd went silent in a moment of expectation. Then with a great
flourish everyone rose and began singing, “He touched me. And oh,
the joy that filled my soul. Something happened and now I know. He
touched me and made me whole.”
Immediately, Kathryn Kuhlman came on stage with
both hands raised high above her head. She was not young but was in
good physical shape and the slim-fitting white dress with puffy
chiffon sleeves gave her the appearance of an angel floating back
and forth across the stage. The audience was ecstatic. Applause and
singing filled the entire auditorium.
Kathryn Kuhlman moved back and forth across the
stage. She was smiling and obviously glad to be here. She was wired
with a transistor mike and her voice could be heard even above that
of the thousands who were now singing, “Alleluia, Alleluia,
Alleluia...” She knew just when to break in with a “Sing it a-gainn-na.
Al-le-luoo!-ya...” This prayerful singing went on for quite some
time until she told them, “Please be seated.”
Some folksy talk followed, she introduced the
choir and its director, her soloist and piano player. She pointed
out a large group of people from here or there and, of course, said,
“I understand that there are HUN-DREDS of people who couldn’t get in
and are listening on loud speakers outside.”
The choir sang another song. Her black soloist,
Jimmy MacDonald sang a special piece that was one of her favorites
and her pianist, Dino Kartsonakis played his own ivory-breaking
rendition of a familiar hymn on the concert grand that ended in a
flourish with his hands flying over the keys. The grandeur was
emphasized by the addition of the pipe organ, and choir. The
audience broke into a standing ovation led by Miss Kuhlman who was
clearly the mistress of ceremonies.
There are several things that I specifically
remember about that first service. Kathryn Kuhlman never left the
stage or sat down during the service that lasted almost three hours.
Even while soloists or choir were singing she could maintain “a
center stage presence” while standing over towards the side. She
would raise one arm and proclaim a, “Praise God, Amen,” while
gesturing with the other toward the soloist or choir.
Her ushers were well trained and they were
instructed to go right up to someone with a crying baby and escort
them out into the hallway where they could listen on speakers while
not disturbing people who had come great distances to be in this
service. She even went so far as to ask, “Will somebody go and wake
up the usher for that section and tell them to take the crying baby
outside”
She also did not let the audience of 7,000 get
out of control. When someone way up in the balconies began shouting
and praying in tongues she interrupted saying, “You must be new
here. We don’t do that sort of thing in this service!” How easy it
could have been for a crowd so large to turn the Shrine Auditorium
into a ‘holy-roller-type’ gathering that would have been both
dangerous and very much out of keeping with her style.
Of course there was an offering but it taken up
in the speediest and most efficient way I have ever seen and she
made sure that everyone knew, “You’re all welcome here from the
richest to the poorest. If you can only give one copper cent you’re
as much loved by ‘Ga-ow-o-od’ as the richest one here.” The choir
sang a hymn. The baskets were passed. The collection was over. Miss
Kuhlman began her sermon.
It’s hard to keep track of the time sequences and
I don’t remember how long she had been preaching before she said,
“Do you know what I’m talking about? The love Ga-ow-o-od has for
you? There’s someone here who doubts that love. There’s someone here
- right here on the stage - who is looking for that love.” With that
she turned, came over to where I was sitting, looked right over my
shoulder to Brother Denis and said, “Come here, honey. Don’t you
know that God loves you?” She led Denis over to the center of the
stage. He was on the verge of tears. She held both his hands and
pulled him close as she continued, “You’ve been chosen by God.
You’re one of his special people. Why do you doubt Him?”
She let go of him. He was now crying.
She said,
“Look how much Ga-ow o-od loves him.” She moved back towards him and
he fell backwards onto the floor of the stage. It was the first time
I’d seen someone ‘slain in the spirit.’ He wasn’t hurt and he got
right back up. I think that she might have sent a couple of more
prayers toward him and each time he would fall down backwards.
I know that she called me up and I was very
concerned that I might fall in such a way as to further injure my
back which was still healing from the airplane crash. When she
extended her hands toward me I tried to resist falling but couldn’t.
Down I went. But I wasn’t hurt.
When I got back to my seat I wondered how she had
singled Brother Denis out of such a large crowd. Later, I would come
to understand that this was all part of the style of her miracle
services. She somehow sensed what a person was being healed of and
would call it out, “Someone up here on my left just got your hearing
back. Plug your good ear and you can still hear me fine.” Then
again, “A back injury... a leg or knee. Over here cancer. And here
arthritis in the neck. And someone with a heart condition.”
The people would come down to the stage claiming
their cures. Each would be prayed over and most would be “slain in
the spirit” and fall down on the stage. One person came up and
claimed that her arthritic knee was cured. When Miss Kuhlman asked
her why she was crying the women said, “Because I’m Catholic and I
don’t think this is supposed to happen like this”
With that, Kathryn Kuhlman turned towards us, and
with a sweep of her chiffon draped arms, said, “That’s alright.
We’ve got Catholics here to pray over you. Come on up, boys!” We all
went over to where the lady was standing and gathered around her. We
extended our hands out toward her to pray. Miss Kuhlman said
something like, “Who said Catholics couldn’t do this?” And with
that, down we all went. All of us in a pile on top of this old
women! I don’t begin to know how and why this happens. I know this
much, though, it isn’t ‘power of suggestion.’
There was another time when a group of us
Dominicans had come to the Los Angeles service. As before, we were
invited to sit on the stage. I told the group that we should use the
rest rooms now since we wouldn’t be able to leave the stage once the
service began. Just as we were exiting stage left, Miss Kuhlman
stepped into the wings. An assistant had told her we were there and
she approached me with a “glad to see you again embrace.” Then she
turned toward one of the other brothers and said, “The Holy Spirit
is on this one,” and placed her hands on top of his head. Down he
went. Right there in the wings of the stage. And he had no prior
knowledge that this phenomenon ever happened. In fact, while we were
downstairs in the dressing room area he said, “What was that all
about and what just happened to me?”
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The service continued with many people coming
down to the stage to give their testimony about their healing. One
of the Brothers who was sitting right next to me had just been
released from the hospital with a mild heart condition. When I heard
Miss Kuhlman say, “Someone has just been healed of a heart
condition. Not a heart attack but a heart condition,” I wanted to
poke Brother Donald. But then I thought, “If he’s been healed he
should know it.”
I watched the people come down on the stage.
There were all kinds of healings: the ears, the back, the knees and
legs but no hearts. She stopped again - right in the middle of
someone else’s testimony - and turned toward the choir, “Someone
here on the stage has been healed of a heart condition. I’ve said
that several times already. You need to claim that healing.”
Still, Brother Donald didn’t move even though I
was jabbing him in his side. If he didn’t have a heart condition
before my jabbing him I would surely have given him one then! A week
or so later, when he went back to his doctor he was told, “I don’t
know what to say. Your heart looks fine. What happened? What did you
do?” Brother Donald said, “You’re supposed to say, ‘pick up your mat
and go home.’”
I don’t begin to know how Kathryn Kuhlman did
what she did. I was there, on the stage many times and saw things
happen that I couldn’t ever begin to explain. I saw a drug addict
come up who appeared to be in her thirties. She went down right next
to my chair and I watched her physical appearance change right
before my very eyes. When she got up she was a changed person. She
looked like her 16 year old self should look.
Earlier I had seen some Dominican Sisters coming
into the auditorium and then I saw them sitting in the audience. At
the end of the service I went down to them. One of them looked very
skeptical and asked me if they had paid us or coerced us to act the
way we did. When I asked why she looked so hesitant she told me,
“Because we’re supposed to go back stage in a few moments to meet
her and I don’t want anything like that to happen to me.” I told the
nun not to box God out of her life and that I would be praying for
her.
We all ended up back stage - a crowd of about 75
persons. When Kathryn Kuhlman came out of her dressing room she went
right over to that one nun who began to back away. I’ll never forget
what Miss Kuhlman said. “Honey. Why are so fearful? You are so lucky
to be a Sister today. Why if I hadn’t been born into a Methodist and
Evangelical family I’d be wearing that white habit myself!” Kathryn
let go of the sisters hands and began a gesture to pray over her.
The sister back stepped some and when Kathryn Kuhlman finally
touched her she fell backwards right into a large trash receptacle.
I wish I knew where or who that sister was. I don’t know if she
remained in the convent or not. I know that two of the brothers who
encountered Kathryn Kuhlman in this story are no longer in the
Dominican Order but I’m sure that they have not forgotten how this
women, anointed by God in such a special way, touched their lives
and made them whole.
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Kathryn Kuhlman took a great chance when she was
publicly so partial to Catholics. Many of her followers, who were
involved in more fundamental denominations, didn’t think highly of
this kind of fraternization. You can imagine what they thought after
she was given a private audience with Pope Paul VI!
I know that I was happy that she was so open and
friendly to us. Whenever we went to the services in Los Angeles we
knew that we would be able to get in and get “prime seats” on the
stage. One time when I took my parents I had to beg the staff to let
me sit in the audience with my folks instead of on the stage. And
every time I was there I saw many signs of God’s healing presence.
Some critics would say that these kind of “miracles” don’t last. So
what if they didn’t last forever. Even Lazarus eventually died …
again. I can’t remember how many times we made trips to Los Angeles
or other places to attend Miracle Services. I know that I saw
thousands of people gathering time after time - hoping for a
miracle. Some were healed. Many were not. Even though I was not
directly touched during those services I saw that lives were changed
and my life was changed, too.
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In the end I will cherish the fact
that a letter
got from my friend on the west coast to Kathryn Kuhlman and her
letter, dated four days later, came back assuring me that I was in
her prayers. And I was unconscious exactly those four days. That
might in itself be a miracle. I still have that letter, a reminder
that a wonderful women of God touched my life and surrounded me with
miracles too great to count.
Kathryn Kuhlman died in 1976. Her ministry began
small but never simple in Boise, Idaho in around 1928. She never had
it easy in a time when women weren’t necessarily seen as leaders in
churches. Like any prominent person she had her critics and there
were always some who were looking to find the “cracks” in her
ministry and ways to discredit her. She was committed to following
the Holy Spirit and continued to expand the ministry. She eventually
traveled all over the world conducting miracles services for
thousands of people at a time. Her flamboyant, eccentric style
turned many people away from her but I just saw this as a means of
“thinning out the crowds” so that there was more room for people who
really wanted to “give God a chance” to do his miracles.
You can find more about the Kathryn Kuhlman Foundation at their
web site
http://www.kathrynkuhlmanfoundation.org
For a biography of Kathryn Kuhlman check out:
http://walkingpreacher.hostrocket.com/kathryn-kuhlman.html
Brother Daniel is currently (January, 2009) in
his fourth year on assignment as a missionary in Kenya. You can read
more about his experiences in his “Letters From Africa” at the
following URL link:
http://brotherdaniel.opwest.org
March 4, 2009 |
