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(Chris Lewis) writes:
According to PaPaPeng :

Doesn't sound right. The juice to drive a microphone is in the low DC
voltage value and runs on milliamps. Its even weaker than the current
that drives the big speakers. Water or no water I have never come
across anyone being zapped by a frayed microphone wire let alone
suffer injury by one.

As others have mentioned, PA systems are different than consumer-grade
stuff. 70 volt audio lines etc.

A source close to the scene indicated that this particular mic was on
48V phantom power and may have fallen into the font and then been
grabbed by the pastor. That'd certainly be enough to have this happen
considering as little as 100mA for 2sec is enough to fibrillate your
heart.

"70V audio lines" are typically only for commercial PA applications
with speaker distribution systems (e.g. installed musak in a store),
and wouldn't be involved here, as we're on the input side of the PA.
However, phantom power, a DC standard of 48V for biasing electret
condenser mic capsules, is extremely likely to be present on the
3-conductor XLR cables that are used with PA systems. If there is any
current limiting in their design, it's in excess of an amp iirc.

--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/