Are "Prayer and Fasting" Stopping the Cornonavirus


You may have missed it, but during the third week of the month just passed, July, the Governor of Louisiana held three days of fasting and praying to end the Coronavirus. The next week numbers of the sick and the dead went up in Louisiana. A couple of months ago the President declared a day (or maybe it as a week, can't remember, don't care) of prayer against the virus. The nationwide number of cases immediately went up. The lesson in this may well be don't pray, it causes illnesses.

We all know days or weeks of prayer are not about helping the country or anyone in the country. They are about helping the politicians or clergy who propose them. It is a trick as old as the faith.

People of faith can help. A large group of clergy where I live had a press event today. Clergy who spoke said people of the faith should wear face masks. That is a way for them to express and carry out concern for their fellow man. Many branches of the faith are not holding services until it is safe to do so.

The Governor of Louisiana went out of his way to say the reason for proclaiming his days of prayer is his Catholic faith. When he does such a stunt it seems to me he is emboldening clergy and others to wade into the issue using religion. This includes those who demand to hold dangerous church services. There are still some of these. Invoking religious liberty to make people sick and kill some of them is very logical to some believers.

Clergy or politicians who think bragging about their prayers helps themselves may find it backfires. As time goes on it is becoming more clear to the general public this disease is unaffected by prayers or religious freedom. There seem to be plenty of preachers and politicians getting sick. 

One group I have not seen on TV are the faith healers. I've heard Benny Hinn say about himself that his healing powers come from him being "anointed." Whatever this means we should see him heal a stage full of people infected with the coronavirus. 

If prayers and faith healers don't show some progress soon there will be others as skeptical as me.  

Comments

  1. Ardy BAugust 5, 2020 at 5:38 AM

    Jon,
    Then we got the likes of evangelist Franklin Graham stirring the stupidity stew. Does religious freedom include sending the faithful to an early grave? That’s fine if they want to move their appointment with glory up but endangering the rest of us and our families should get them confined and quarantined to their church and a thumbs down at the pearly gates. If this is Christianity at its finest, to hell with the whole kit and caboodle.

    https://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2020/08/franklin-graham-calls-on-christians-to-defy-californias-lockdown-order/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jon LindgrenAugust 5, 2020 at 7:11 AM

      Ardy B "If this is Christianity at its best.."

      Interesting how every Christian who posts here and I guess every Christian everywhere sees his/her self as Christianity at its best. From the outside one can see the flaws and think, "That can't be Christianity. What are they thinking?" Christianity is a ship without a rudder.

      Delete
    2. Ardy BAugust 5, 2020 at 7:52 AM

      Jon Lindgren August 5, 2020 at 7:11 AM “... Christianity at its best”

      These days it is harder than ever in my lifetime to tolerate the extreme convergence of the political and the religious. I suspect there is political value to a resentful Trump of augmenting an increase in COVID cases to punish a state like California by a call from a staunch ally and tool like Graham to congregate against medical advice in the name of religious freedom.

      Delete
  2. tsmAugust 5, 2020 at 4:25 PM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  3. tsmAugust 5, 2020 at 4:30 PM

    don't you fellas ever get bored: trashing Christians, conjuring up religious bogeymen, reassuring each other of your righteousness?. maybe for a change you should look into cultural Marxism and its fanatical myrmidons. or maybe you have and have kinda liked what you found out?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jon LindgrenAugust 5, 2020 at 5:19 PM

    Unknown "don't you fellas ever get bored: trashing Christians, conjuring up religious bogeymen..."

    I'm glad you asked. No, I don't get bored at all. Don't you get bored talking up invisible beings no one has ever seen and an ancient book written by unknown authors?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. tsmAugust 6, 2020 at 7:07 AM

      I don't get bored talking about invisible things like justice, causality, thoughts, political theory, etc.

      Delete
  5. Jon LindgrenAugust 6, 2020 at 11:19 AM

    Unknown "I don't get bored....like justice, causality, thoughts, political theory, etc."

    That's good. Those are ideas. If we refer to God as an idea it makes sense.

    ReplyDelete

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