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    Brights’ Responses to “I’ll Pray For You”

    Filed Under religion 

    Peacebang recently wrote a post about an advice columnist’s suggestion to a reader who didn’t want a co-worker praying for her.

    My comment to PB’s entry was that it didn’t offend me if people pray for me. I pray for others, in the sense that I intentionally focus on them, e.g. “hold them in my thoughts.” What I don’t do is beseech a higher power on their behalf.

    There was a controversial clergyman (I cannot remember his name, but I think he was from New Jersey?) I saw once on television, and he told a quick story about a family member becoming very sick, and all of these people told him they were praying for her. He said he had to ask himself, Would God really make my loved one heal because all of these people happen to know me and can pray for her? Would God not heal her if I wasn’t as well-known, or if fewer people prayed for her?

    At The Brights’ Net, there is a posting on this very subject. I think the responses to “what to say when someone says ‘I’ll Pray For You’” are a fair representation of how the average atheist would react.

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    2 Responses to “Brights’ Responses to “I’ll Pray For You””

    1. Steve Caldwell on November 4th, 2007 10:17 pm

      I think that was Bishop John S. Spong — he commented on the subject of intercessory prayer.

      He didn’t think it would be just for God to help his wife because he was famous and a lot of Episcopals were praying for her recovery if that also meant the spouse of an unknown janitor in Newark NJ would go unnoticed by God.

    2. hafidha sofia on November 4th, 2007 10:22 pm

      Yes, it was Bishop Spong! I kept trying to remember his name, and recalled that he was a bishop, but I couldn’t reconcile him being both a bishop and being married (I’d assumed at the time that he was Catholic), so left out those details.

      Thanks for filling in the blanks, Steve.

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