Temporarily Assigned to Planet Earth

I kind of hate to write another post about religion, but while I'm on the topic I might as well mention one commonly held belief of religious people that puzzles me.

It amazes me that, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, a vast segment of the populace adamantly believes that God answers prayer. I'm not talking about prayers of praise or thanksgiving; I'm talking about requests-- requests that God control specific events so as to bring about a desired outcome.

My mother is firmly in this camp, and nothing I could say would ever change her mind. I could drive her around the country from one military cemetery to another and ask her if she believes the soldiers who died were the ones whose parents didn't pray for them to come home safely. I could take her from one pediatric oncology ward to another and ask her if she believes the children who die are the ones whose parents don't pray for their recovery.

I could remind her of the 24/7 "prayer-chains" that were held all across the country after a woman drove her car into a lake with her two young sons strapped in the back seat. I could ask her if she has forgotten that the entire "religious right" prayed that Bill Clinton would lose to Bob Dole.

None of it would matter, because every time she prays for something and it happens she believes it's Proof That God Answers Prayer, while every time a prayer goes unanswered it's because It Wasn't Part Of God's Plan.

As an undergraduate in the early seventies I joined Campus Crusade for Christ. I attended the regular CCC meetings and Leadership Training Classes, and I read the popular Christian literature of the day. The man who was the leader of CCC on my campus, Elmer something-or-other, was paralyzed by severe arthritis; he had been in a wheelchair since his own college days. His wife was named Mary, and Mary was a saint if ever there were one.

I remember Mary telling of a time when the women of her church held a day-long prayer meeting in which they prayed for just one thing: for Elmer to be healed. These women knew all about prayer; they were real pros when it came to prayer. They prayed with faith and trust and confidence-- all that. They knew that if they prayed in Jesus' name God would be Bound By His Promise to answer their prayer.

Sometime during that day one of Elmer's legs trembled briefly. That was all. And Mary said she knew then that God had heard their prayers, but that being in a wheelchair was part of God's Plan For Elmer's Life. It takes dogged determination to maintain that kind of faith. It takes desire and delusion and willful denial.

That's not to say I don't think there are reasons for believers to pray. One can give thanks and praise and at the same time be aware that God isn't going to keep the car running if one never changes the oil, whether one asks Him to or not.