Praying as a Performance Art

 


I've always been suspicious of those who pray in front of others. Why is it necessary? 

One of the most obvious acts of prayer as performance is done at abortion clinics. People shout prayers that tell women going to doctor's appointments in these clinics are "murdering their babies." Now there are teachers in schools going through the motions associated with prayer in front of their students where prayer in school is not allowed. They are defending it as "freedom of speech."

We all know people who simply cannot understand why they cannot make everyone else around them know they are Christian. It is an uphill battle for them to master the rules or to see things from a different perspective. 

It is concerning, however, to see how blind the public is to injustice and how hard it is for it to become recognized. Slavery remained legal for some 400 years. Segregation and Christian prayers in schools went on for 100 years after that. Today we have to wonder if our country will slide backwards into some of the past injustices. The teacher demonstrating how to pray and the President praying with prosperity gospel preachers is part of sliding backwards. 

Explaining the respective power roles people have and religion is hard to explain to people and hard for many to understand. If a truck driver says a prayer over her meal at a truck stop, it is harmless because she is not in a position of power over others. If this same person became a teacher with power and influence over children it is something else entirely. 

The preacher, Jay Bakker, son of preacher Jim Bakker, wrote a couple of books about his life and views. He is gay and supports gay rights. He wrote that in our culture there is something about being a preacher that changes the relationship between two people. The preacher holds a position of power over some believers and has a responsibility to limit exercise of it. Same with a teacher. 

Putting on a performance of prayer should be scorned by all other Christians. For some reason it is admired.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who Suffers from a "Hardened Heart"

Image
Some years ago on this blog there was a discussion about what the Bible calls "The hardened heart." The "hardened heart" was the explanation given for why people like me cannot accept the tenets of Christianity. We are unable to believe there are floating spirits and gods or imaginary places people go when the die. Now, a prominent Christian preacher and author has given us a way to diagnose the "hardened heart." It contained some surprises.  Rev. John Piper, who spoke about the hardened heart, said we can see this in a person who lacks "ordinary tenderness and compassion." He went on to describe the characteristics of a person without the affliction of the hardened heart. A healthy person displays empathy and sympathy. Those with the hardened heart are like stone. Jesus wanted compassion for the poor. The hardened heart discussion referred to atheists only if they are sinners and then it was indirectly. Sin, Piper said, hardens one's heart a...
Read more

Young Women can see Bull$hit a Mile Away

Image
Republicans including their Forced Birth subgroup is bother by recent election results and polling. All show young women going to the left. A poll shows young women are 30% more likely to be very liberal than young men. The link advises the Forced Birth community to give young pregnant women an uplifting message. The message suggested is, "Buck up. You've got this. You can give birth and have a happy life." Another way of saying this is, "It will be OK if you miss work and/or are fired because of the birth. If you cannot make your rent payment, it's OK. Somewhere out there is another place to live. We don't know where but be optimistic."   This is an add on to the new version of the Forced Birth message, "We're for both the baby and the mother." They are not and never have been for the mother. Their message has always been to condemn women who have abortions. Now, the "thoughts and prayers" message, which costs no money, it the me...
Read more

Will the Complexity of Societies Empty Mother Earth

Image
Who is in charge of the huge arch of human experience on planet earth to see if humans are doing what it takes to survive over thousands of years into the future? The answer, of course, is no one. There are a few people looking at it and writing about it, but no central authority has the responsibility to guide human behavior and activity toward a sustainable path. The link points out a couple of interesting facts about we humans. We now think our first humans-like ancestors came into being about 300,000 years ago. That would make the number of generations of humans at about 15,000. That is, each of us has 15,000 grandparents who lived before us.  During nearly all of those 300,000 years, humans lived on a sustainable path. Unsustainability started only 10,000 years ago. That is when humans stopped walking around finding food and started living in one place by planting and growing foods. Prior to that, the same technology was mostly passed down from one generation to the next....
Read more