Lost Your Healing
William Branham's healing ministry relied on a self-protecting system in which alleged successes were promoted as proof of divine power while failures were blamed on the supposed sins, doubts, or disobedience of the person seeking healing. Working alongside F. F. Bosworth, Branham helped popularize the idea that people could "lose" or fail to "keep" their healing for reasons unrelated to the healer, allowing failed outcomes to be reinterpreted as moral or spiritual failure. Examples such as the boy whose missing eye was blamed on reading comic books, Walker Beck's failed healing being blamed on tobacco, and revival claims surrounding Ronnie Coyne's prosthetic eye illustrate how Branham's movement used spectacle, victim-blaming, and unverifiable healing testimonies to preserve the reputation of the healer even when promised miracles did not occur.
William Branham frequently claimed that his "discernment" and "healing" power never failed.[1] This is largely due to the fact that alleged "healings" that were unsuccessful were not counted in the results; when a person was not healed, Branham claimed that the lack of success was a result of the "secret sins" of those seeking healing. When exposed faith healer F. F. Bosworth worked with Branham, the two sold tracts that described "How to Keep Your Healing" that included a summary of the many ways in which a person could fail to be healed that was not the fault of the "healer". The two seemed to be aware that in every crowd, there were many people whose conditions would continue to improve regardless of any intervention — medical or spiritual.
In some instances, Branham included "secret sins" that many people would not consider being "sinful", and blamed these "secret sins" for the failed healing. In 1953, for example, Branham told a young child that his failure to be healed was the result of his reading comic books. The child had lost one eye, and Branham claimed that the missing eye had returned and that the boy (who still had one good eye) could read. When the healing never came, Branham blamed the child's "sin" of reading comic books.
Little boy, setting there on the end, you’re kindly dressed with a little yellow looking shirt on, you got something wrong with an eye. Isn’t that true, son? That come from a—a kid throwing a trinket. You was standing around a post or something, and a boy throwed a trinket, and hit you in the eye, put it out. But that—that changed. You got so you could see. Then it left you again. You was reading some kind of a little old book, some kind of a little old comic story magazine. Is that right? And it went away from you. Now it’s blind again. You shouldn’t do that, son.
Branham, William. 1953, November 15. A Greater Witness (53-1115E).
This technique was something that James Randi picked up on very quickly, and documented in his book exposing the deceitful practices of the alleged "faith healers". Randi witnessed the same technique used by Branham in Vandalia, IL. Walker Beck also never received the healing described by Branham, and Branham blamed his failure on Beck's usage of tobacco.
The Reverend William Branham, a former game warden from Jeffersonville, Indiana, is often credited with bringing the modern evangelical/fundamentalist healing movement into existence in the 1940s. Pastor Branham was a fire-and-brimstone Bible thumper who offered his audiences spectacular performances and grand promises. He also was quick to blame his victims for their failures. In June 1947, in the town of Vandalia, Illinois, he apparently had cured Walker Beck, a deaf-mute. When he heard the next day that Beck’s condition was as bad as ever, Branham replied: "I hear that Walker has smoked a cigarette after I told him that he would have to give them up. Because of this he will not be able to hear or talk and in all probability he will be afflicted with some greater trouble—perhaps cancer." Tobacco seemed an unlikely cause for Beck’s deaf-mute condition, since he had been born in that state. Randi, James. The Faith Healers. James Randi Educational Foundation.
Claiming to restore the eyesight of a missing eye was not unsusual in the revivals. Ronnie Coyne claimed to have been healed after one of his eyes was lost and replaced with a prosthetic eye made of plastic. Ron's stage act appears to have been financially motivated, however, as he also decided to join in the revival as an evangelist. Branham advertised Coyne in his Voice of Healing publication.