05.13.08
pray
Recently, I’ve really stated understanding the power of prayer. My life and attitude has radically started to change in a positive direction, and I do believe that this shift towards a more positive, serving attitude is due directly to praying consistently. I know I sin on a regular basis and I’ll never be close to perfect, but progressing to be more like Christ is a huge step for me. Most Christians don’t even realize that they haven’t taken the first step towards being like Him, and I’m finally down that path.
But if you do believe in a form of prayer, please pray for China and Myanmar. These two countries are in desperate situations, and no matter what kind of help America gives (or if it’s right) at all, we should think about how to support the hell that those must be living through. Any form of human suffering should be painful for all of us to endure, and I think we need to recognize that.
But when you do pray, please don’t forget about this country. Earlier this year I wrote about my fascination with school shootings and searching for their origin. This morning a forth grader at Spring Independent School in Houston, Texas threatened another child on a school bus by placing a knife to his throat. I work with nine year olds at the Boys and Girls Club of Springfield, and never have I seen anything to indicate the level of anger that this boy must have been feeling. Violence is strangling our society to the point of suffocation, and this boy was probably influenced strongly by his environment to the point of believing this action was semi-acceptable.
Just pray.
James Maddux said,
May 13, 2008 at 6:12 pm
As well as India.
JT Eberhard said,
May 14, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Lauren,
I would argue that, rather than being a productive means to accomplish anything positive, that prayer is a neglectful act.
Consider the Wisconsin parents who recently shunned medical attention as they prayed for their daughter, who continued to slip further and further into a diabetic coma before finally passing away. Perhaps their faith was not strong enough, but statements like this make me doubt it:
“Dale Neumann told investigators that “given the same set of circumstances with another child, he would not waiver in his faith and confidence in the healing power of prayer,” according to the interview statement.”
The power of prayer pales in comparison to the power of human exertion. That seems to be an enormous understatement, but I can think of a no more overt way to word it. When kids are in health class and learning how to tie a tourniquet or perform CPR, we need to inform them that prayer is not an option. Faith in prayer kills people.
At the very best, prayer is a benign waste of time that convinces pious people that they are helping when they’re actually doing nothing.
Perhaps God simply said “no” to the Neumann’s prayers to save their daughter. That would make God’s feasible answers to prayers “yes,” “no,” and “maybe.” You’ll find that you get the same answers praying to any god - you’ll also find that you get them by praying to your kitchen table.
Now, here’s the good news. The credit for the positive influences in your life belongs entirely to you. It has nothing to do with some nebulous being granting us conscience and fortitude we would not otherwise have, but rather the power of human dedication once we decide we want to be better people. The schnazzy thing is that anybody can make that decision, despite what they believe about the hereafter.
You could try to be like Christ, whether he existed or not, and come out ok (assuming you neglect the parts where Jesus destroyed the livestock and cursed villages that would not accept him, amongst other heinous acts in between admonishing his followers to turn the other cheek), but I’d wager that you will form a more complete person by envisioning Lauren as you, not the bible, want her to be and trying to emulate that person. It’s more difficult to actually shoulder the responsibility of being a good person - if it were easy, everybody would do it. After all, lots of people pray…
As an example, last time you were over at the CF’s, you admitted to engaging in activity you knew to be flagrantly immoral. How easy would it be to pray about it, or to believe that even though you are being consciously selfish that god forgives you? How difficult would it be to decide to look at things like avarice and prayer in terms of the good that you could be doing with the resources of time and money that go into them, rather than the comfort and peace of mind they give you? If you ever wonder why there are so few good people in the world, it starts with the difficulty of that decision, and the influences that aid us in not making it.
Best,
JT
http://jteberhard.blogspot.com
http://tehjuggernauts.blogspot.com
mydollface said,
May 15, 2008 at 2:10 am
JT,
I would agree with you that sometimes prayer can be used unnecessarily as a substitute for modern medical treatment. I’m sure you could cite me case after case of those believing in prayer to the extreme that they neglected to seek proper treatment. However, they are multiple cases of ‘miraculous healings’ that involve the power of healing. But since we are focusing on the recent news of the tragedy of the young girl in Wisconsin, other news outlets have addressed by opening up a discussion on the power of prayer.
The article discusses multiple religious view points on prayer, including a quote from a local rabbi, priests, reverends, and a chaplain at their local science medical hospital. The quote that stood out the most to me was said by Rev. Susan Zencka:
“I believe in wholeness, and I believe in prayer, and that God does have the ability to change us. I don’t expect a lot of miraculous interventions.”
And later on in the article, Reverend Duane is quoted as saying,
“Often times God uses sicknesses as a great lesson teaching time. It’s a great time to learn patience, experience the power of God, a great time God can deal with us on a very special way. God often times gets our attention when we’re flat on our back, when we have no place left to turn.”
I agree with both of the previous quotations, and I find them essential to my Faith as a Christian. My family has been struggling to understand God’s purpose in Kyle’s life ever since he was diagnosed with autism in 1995, and we have all prayed consistently for his prayer on a daily basis since that October afternoon. It is difficult to understand or comprehend the power and importance of prayer in a Christian’s spiritual life, especially under strenuous circumstances, but can make a dramatic impact in their environment.
I’ve been directly impacted by autism, and I believe that my brother’s presence in my life has been an incredible blessing for my family. Admittedly, the Bishops are rather materialistic and superficial, but with my brother’s presence we understand the value of quality over quantity, of love over material goods, and positivity through trials. My brother, in his disorder, has taught me more about the world than I think he ever could without his simple spirit and lack of value for the objects of this world. He’s perfectly content sitting on the couch with my mom and I for hours at a time, and needs no more than our love to have a smile on his face.
I sometimes do question God’s answers to my prayers, but I don’t believe that I could simply change my brother’s disorder by “the power of human exertion.” There are factors in my life that are simply out of my control; those I give to my God.
How could that be a waste of my “resources of time”?
The Lauren I want to be, JT, is a Lauren remembered for her grace and confidence, and for her loving, servant spirit. I’ve got a long way to go, but being like Christ isn’t a burden or a heavy load. It’s simply a long road that I have chosen to go down, along with millions of others. It’s our choice to follow Him or not, and I take it one step at a time.
Thanks for the comment,
Lauren
JT Eberhard said,
May 15, 2008 at 5:27 am
Lauren,
Thanks for the response. I’m going to take one more comment and point out a few of the spots where I feel the logic gets a little…fuzzy.
I’m not sure how the “Science Behind Prayer” article really responds to anything I had to say. In fact, I find it has nothing to do with science at all. If you are looking for scientific experiments done on the power of prayer, they are easy to find. In fact, in the most prevalent such experiment ever done, those granted the boon of prayer had more heart complications than their counterparts.
What your article did have was people from various faiths evincing their views on the power of prayer, which in itself defeats the idea that prayers given ambiguous answers can really support any god. Religions tend to be mutually exclusive - if Christianity is right, then the Jews (who believe that Jesus was not the on of god) and the Muslims (who believe that anybody accepting the divinity of Jesus is destined for hell - Koran 5:71) must be wrong. Yet they all put forward tales of answered prayer and miracle healings as evidence that their god is truly reaching his hand into their lives. This reason is either equally compelling for every faith or it is equally bogus for every faith (thankfully for my purposes, equally compelling reduces to equally bogus since these faiths are so diametrically at odds).
Another thing is that these healings are never anything that could not simply be a kind turn of nature. It always seems to be some invisible malady that gets cured rather than something that must be the work of a particular deity. For instance, why won’t god heal amputees? If god exists, he has endowed many species of lizard with the ability to regenerate limbs - why not extend us a bit of that ability? Do amputees just not pray as hard as people with cancer? It seems that the world without god ubiquitously answering prayers
would look identical to the world you’re inviting me to entertain where he does.
Your statement that you agree with the quotes from your article does not address why you believe them - it only reiterates what you believe, and I think we’re already on the same page there. My whole contention is that, although you are nobly trying your best to form an accurate view of reality, that in this case your reasoning is a bit lacking. Restating what you believe doesn’t really get us anywhere.
All the same, let’s address Rev. Duane’s quip. Surely god can envision a better means of making you a better person than by afflicting those you love with handicaps? The guy is all-knowing, I’m sure a method of improving you while simultaneously allowing those like your brother to live a full life, unencumbered by conditions such as autism, is easily within the scope of his omnipotence. Indeed, if such cruel uses of power are to be canonized as evidence of god’s love, what could ever possibly convict him of malice? Furthermore, if any human being attempted to exonerate themselves by the same line of defense, we’d rightly and easily see through it. What if I approached a random person and shot them in the kneecap. Could I really expect society’s approbation rather than their disgust because this trial would help my victim to become a stronger, better person?
That being said, you, your brother, and the rest of your family have my deepest sympathy. I really do feel for you.
Later, you state that you cannot change your brother’s condition by human exertion, and you are right, but neither can prayer, and any time spent praying for your brother could easily be spent hugging him. Of course, it is your time to do with as you please, but I can only suspect which of your options would be more productive. And though you may not be able to alter his condition of your own accord, your efforts to raise money for autism research will help provide the funding for people who one day will. I can only assume that after decade of their human exertion that the solution will not be to pray more.
I realize that it is your choice to follow Christ. What I’d like to point out is that this is by no means a necessary path to moral wisdom - in fact, religious certainty, as in the case of the Neumanns, is often the catalyst which results in good people, with good intentions, performing the most insidious acts. Historically, those doing their best to walk the path of Christ have defended slavery, murdered apostates, and subjugated women just to name a few. For eight centuries, we murdered witches at the behest of men who are still canonized as Saints, and if you think men like Augustine and Thomas Aquinas had not read the sermon on the mount, you are gravely mistaken.
The truth of the matter is that the scriptures in both the old and new testament that result in this behavior still contaminate the bible. The difference is that generations of free-thinkers have made Christians ashamed to abide by the tenants that have defined your faith for most of its existence. What you call following Christ is nothing more than you emulating what you deem good out of Jesus’ message (as I said before, Jesus had a bit of an angry side to him when people would not receive him which I can only assume you discard).
What seems so clear to me, is that you are the one making the judgment calls on which parts of Jesus’ life you want to assimilate into your own. And, if it is you making the decision on which of Jesus’ actions and admonishments were moral or immoral, what do you need Jesus’ example for?
Even today, walking the path of Christ remains the only defense for suppressing the rights of perfectly normal men and women who happen to be afflicted with another of god’s brutal opportunities for self-improvement - homosexuals. The fact that you have navigated this labyrinth of sacred prejudice and emerged unscathed has nothing at all to do with Christianity and everything to do with your own compassion and empathy. In this case, it seems as though god is like a pick-pocket who loans you your own money on generous terms - your gratitude is understandable, but misplaced. You are the source of all the love you attribute to Jesus.
You are to be commended for this, though I can’t help but wonder if you could/would do more without believing that the creator of the universe is vetting and forgiving your every self-indulgence when there is good to be done elsewhere that is within your power. I anticipate that you would hold yourself to higher standards than the god you know to be in conflict with everything logical. I really do think you are capable of more.
Anyway, that concludes my assessment of your post. Respond or don’t as you see fit.
Best,
JT
http://jteberhard.blogspot.com
http://tehjuggernauts.blogspot.com
JT Eberhard said,
May 16, 2008 at 12:49 am
Lauren,
Hrm, I could have sworn that I posted a comment - moreover, a comment that took me over an hour to compose out of an expectation that you would acknowledge the respect I have for your thoughts - why else would I take so much time?
Do you happen to know where it went? Has word press messed up?
JT
JT Eberhard said,
May 16, 2008 at 12:50 am
Hrm, there it is. This is weird.
I blame technology.
JT
mydollface said,
May 16, 2008 at 2:01 am
JT,
I thought that the comment was automatically approved as your two response comments were.
I did read your comment in its entirety, but, unfortunately, due to the fact that it’s Finals Week and I’m working full time, I haven’t had a moment to sit down and type out the detailed response it deserves. I respect you and your opinions very much JT, and even though we disagree, I do enjoy engaging you in a civil and open discussion about our views on religion.
Thanks for dropping by, and I’ll reply to your comment soon.
Lauren