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This chapter describes the miraculous power of the Holy Ghost and its particular mediations through the radio loudspeaker. Through this exploration of prayer translated through the radio apparatus, this chapter also introduces key performances of charismatic worship and techniques of prayer that recur throughout the book. Articulating the phenomenon of “radio tactility” as an efficacious point of contact for the communication of healing virtue, this section moves comparatively between performances of divine communication in southern Appalachia and broader Pentecostal practices of the twentieth century. While grounded in the contemporary practice of curative radio prayer among charismatic communities in southern Appalachia, this chapter also recalls formative practices of faith during the Charismatic Revival of the early 1950s, when millions of listeners tuned in to Oral Roberts’s Healing Waters radio broadcast and were instructed to put their hands on the radio during the healing prayer.

This chapter describes the work of The Balm in Gilead, which grew out of the efforts of Pernessa Seele, an immunologist at Harlem Hospital, to organize local Black faith leaders to address AIDS through the Harlem Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS. As Seele trained African American clergy to incorporate AIDS education into their ministry, she also confronted entrenched homophobia in Black religious institutions. Accordingly, The Balm in Gilead designed programs that would help churches accept and include gay members. In 2001, Seele contracted with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to extend her work with Black churches to sub-Saharan Africa, setting up programs in Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania. She argued that because of Black people’s particular relationship with church and faith, the approach that The Balm in Gilead had developed in the United States would work in Africa as well. At the same time, this work intersected with a growing interest in addressing “global AIDS” among U.S. leaders, including Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, who saw the spread of the disease in Africa as a growing threat to international security.

Duffin reviews the history of clinical trials that have been devoted to proving whether or not prayer “works,” within the confines of Evidence-Based Medicine. Failure to find statistically significant results is construed as evidence that prayer does not work, further contributing to the simplistic belief among physicians that miracles cannot happen. The Italian feast day celebrations at Conshohocken Pennsylvania reveal the great devotion to these saints among people from Haiti. Another survey is conducted to determine the source of their faith. It uncovers the strong parallels with the Marassa twins of Vodou religion.