Monthly Archives: March 2006

The Horrible Perspective that Age Brings

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For whatever reason, a lot of the people I know have been blogging about religion lately. I’m not sure why, but it reminded me of my third-grade teacher. I don’t remember much about the third grade. I don’t even remember my teacher’s name. But what I do remember is that we had "quiet moments."

My teacher explained this to us a couple of times. I think she gave us a speech at the beginning of both semesters. She said that while she couldn’t give students time that they could use to pray in the morning, nothing in any rule book or law book forbade her from setting aside "quiet moment time" that we did not have to use for prayer, but if we found the time convenient for prayer, that would be okay and she wouldn’t stop us. Not that she was suggesting we pray. Oh, no. Perish the thought. I remember she made a very big deal about explicity stating several times that she was not telling us to pray. But if we did, and if mandating a time when we had to keep quiet and bow our heads down made that convenient, well then that would be all right.

At the time, it made no sense to me or anybody else in the class. I’ll be honest; our teacher told us to do a lot of things that seemed odd. In general we just shrugged and did what we were told. It was less trouble that way all around. So if she said, "Memorize these names and dates! You’ll need to know this!" then we did it. And if she said, "Cut these shapes out of construction paper!" then we did it. And if she said, "Bow your heads down and keep quiet–and pray if you want to, not that I’m suggesting that you should!" then we did that, too.

I remember thinking that it was strange that our teacher would make such a big deal about not telling us to pray, but I didn’t care enough to say or do anything. I wonder if I should have. Maybe, or maybe not. It probably would have gotten her into big trouble. Maybe me, too!

The strangest part about it all is that though I’ve read numerous articles about school prayer and bringing Jesus into the classroom in the newspaper and online news sources over the years, I never once thought about my experience in the third grade. I’m not even sure what made me think of it today. But it’s a little weird to look back and say, "Hey, wait a minute…"

Pro-Family Atheist

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Atheist Peter Wall is afraid that something like “Brave New World” is on the horizon.

“…I can…see the seeds of legal arguments that may give traction to the idea of removing reproduction from the hands of individuals…If both the mother and the father, both of whom are still required to contribute gametes for successful reproduction,…have no incentive or desire to take responsibility for the fruits of their reproduction, the argument only strengthens that this function be taken from them. It will get even stronger as the universal pre-school movement progresses and the two eventually meet up and create a continuous, state-mandated and state-controlled child-production facility. (I know that sounds crazy, but just keep watching. The historical trend has been going for over 150 years now; we’re closer to the end than the beginning.)”

I don’t know about you, but I’m not used to support for traditional families coming from atheists.

Investigating NFP: Supporting Families

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Those who have been following my series on NFP, especially Pius’ speech about large families, may find this short article interesting.

"In his weekly pastoral letter, Archbishop Agustin Garcia-Gasco of Valencia, Spain, said greater charity must be shown to those families that are most in need, for while ‘the working class was considered the poor in the past, today’s poor are the families.’”

"In his letter, the archbishop warns that in today’s world, ‘Choosing to have a family and raise kids is seen by many as way of ending up poor.’"

"’Families are the poor of our time,’ he said, noting that ‘all of us can contribute to establishing social changes so that the right to have a family is a reality.’ ‘There are many countries that have policies harmful to families,’ he warned."

If anyone knows where the full text of the Archbishop’s letters can be found, please let us know.

Update 03/25/06: Here’s an automated translation of the whole letter.  It’s not perfect, but it’s readable.

Healing Prayers

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"In churches, mosques, ashrams, ‘healing rooms,’ prayer groups and homes nationwide, millions of Americans offer prayers daily to heal themselves, family, friends, co-workers and even people found through the Internet. Fueled by the upsurge in religious expression in the United States, prayer is the most common complement to mainstream medicine, far outpacing acupuncture, herbs, vitamins and other alternative remedies."

"’Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism — every religion believes in prayer for healing,’ said Paul Parker, a professor of theology and religion at Elmhurst College outside Chicago. ‘Some call it prayer, some call it cleansing the mind. The words or posture may vary. But in times of illness, all religions look towards their source of authority.’"

"The outpouring of spiritual healing has inspired a small group of researchers to attempt to use the tools of modern science to test the power of prayer to cure others. The results have been mixed and highly controversial. Skeptics say the work is a deeply flawed and misguided waste of money that irresponsibly attempts to validate the supernatural with science. And some believers say it is pointless to try to divine the workings of God with experiments devised by mortals."

"Proponents, however, maintain the research is valuable, given the large numbers of people who believe in the power of prayer to influence health. Surveys have found that perhaps half of Americans regularly pray for their own health, and at least a quarter have others pray for them."

Click here to read the rest of the article.

"[The apostles] cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them." – Mark 6:13

"Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven." – James 5:14-15

I’m curious. Have any of you every prayed for your own or someone else’s healing? Did it work? How did you know?