Chamblee54

This is Wednesday, the day before my birthday/national day of prayer. We are cleaning out the files here, and have two more reposts about prayer. There is one more for tomorrow, and which point we will get some original writing.
Prayer is not always a good idea.
That is up there with G-d and Motherhood, but somebody has to say it.
Many of my objections are in the phrase, ” Prayer is talking to G-d, and Meditation is Listening.”.
In our culture, we love to talk and don’t have time to listen. Talking is yang, active, power. Listening is yin, receptive, passive, and indicates respect for the person you are paying attention to. This is difficult for many.
No one ever says ” I am going to meditate for you”. Maybe you should.
Prayer is used as an aggressive weapon. “I am going to pray for you” is the condescending conclusion of many a religious argument. I have had it shouted at me like a curse.
There is the matter of prayer as entertainment. While this may be cool to those who are on the program, it can be repulsive to others. Once I volunteered to lead the prayer before a dinner. Here is the story, with some more cool pictures.
Now, prayer is not a completely bad thing. One of the cherished memories of my father is the brief, commonsense blessings he would give before meals. In the context of a church service, prayer plays a useful function. Some famous prayers are beautiful poetry. In Islam, the daily prayers are an important part of the observance. Who am I to say it is wrong? ( A note to the Muslim haters…We are all G-d’s children)
When someone is in a bad way, people want to think they can help. Arguably it does not hurt to pray for someone, but it is nothing to boast about.
One problem is when people are proud of their prayers. There are few as prideful as a “humble servant”. While it may mean something to you, not everyone is impressed. And in a religion obsessed with converting others, you should care what man thinks. .

There is a saying, “For G-d’s sake”. The usual meaning is that something is really important. An example would be “you need to replace that balding tire, for G-d’s sake”.
There is another meaning which comes to mind after the inauguration. We need…really really need…to get religion out of politics. For G-d’s sake.
Three ministers were prominently featured in the inauguration. Gene Robinson was seen by some as an olive branch to Gays and Lesbians offended by the antics of minister number two ( pun intended). The selection led to a few gratuitous anti gay comments. Then, when it was show time, his prayer was not a part of the telecast. Hmmm.
Minister number two is Rick Warren. Widely seen as an egomaniac and a hatemonger, his selection was praised by some as “building bridges”. He made a prayer that seemed to please few. It should be noted at this point that this reporter did not see the proceedings, but is going from the abundant internet coverage.
And what does all of this say about G-d? To use prayer from a hatemonger for “building bridges”. Separation of church and state is a good deal for the church. When you use prayer as a decoration in a ceremony, it loses any meaning.
The last of the three ministers was Joseph Lowery. He quoted a rhyme about different colors of people. Some were pleased by this, and others were offended. Here again, what does all of this say about G-d?
In the last few years, religion has been exploited by the right wing politicians. Being a Christian is somehow supposed to make you a conservative. The semantics and Bible justification for all this is rather tiresome to this reporter.
A recent example is a internet thing called “Pray Obama Fails”. (HT to JoemyG-d).What this person does not understand is that if Obama Fails, all of us fail. It is like the war in babylon…many of us were opposed to it, but if our armies lose, then we all lose. The person who prays for Obama to fail is praying for America to fail. And what sort of G-d do you direct a prayer like that to?
Maybe it is time to get prayer for entertainment out of the public arena. For G-d’s sake.