SOME THINGS I’VE NOTICED

28. October 2009 by Frank.

I know some christians that like to post on Facebook.  Some of the things they post spark memories of when I used to do such things.  Some of them are things I was aware other people were doing but never bothered with myself.  Some are definite behaviors I indulged in.

The first one that sparked a memory was the request for travelling mercies.  I used to hear people pray for this all the time, I never did because I thought it was foolish.  But there were people who wouldn’t go more than a few miles without having the whole church praying that god would grant them travelling mercies.  Somehow, it seemed to me, these folks thought god wasn’t aware they were going anywhere and that travel can be dangerous.  They wanted some kind of force field around their vehicle to protect them from potential harm.  Having been involved in several wrecks over the years, I had already come to the conclusion that god wasn’t going to prevent an accident no matter how many times you asked him or how many people you had praying for you.  He never seemed to be the least bit concerned that your insurance premiums were going to increase nor did it seem like he cared how badly anyone got hurt or how much property was damaged.  When my wife had a seizure and drove the car into the side of a building, folding it up like an accordion, we gave him credit for keeping her from getting hurt but I could never get over why he let it happen in the first place.  So even as a christian I thought travelling mercies were bullshit.

On the other hand, some one else has to go for some nasty medical tests and wants prayers to keep himself from bad results.  I indulged in this sort of thing not necessarily asking others to pray for me but calling on all my own faith, rebuking the devil, claiming the blood of Jesus, and standing firm against any evil that might befall me because I was a man of god.  Because satan wanted to bring me down.  Even though I believed in divine healing I still didn’t want to come down with some horrible affliction.  Unfortunately, god let me down with all this as well.  My faith was no match for high blood pressure and god did not intervene.  There was no protection or deliverance from the stroke, either.

There also wasn’t any result with casting out the epilepsy demon from my wife.

The only thing that works with any of this is man-made medicines prescribed by human doctors who like to think they’re gods.  The thing of it is, I don’t see how anyone can continue calling on god for matters of health.  You witness enough suffering (go spend some time in a long term care facility) and agony of both the saved and the unsaved and then tell me you see the hand of god involved with any of them.  Watch your best friend be eaten alive by cancer, watch a mother’s grief when her daughter’s head is torn off in a motorcycle accident, watch an elderly woman grieve because her husband was killed by some teenaged moron with a cinder block while her husband tried to help the kid get his car out of a snow drift, watch your own mother die in agony because her pancreas decided to consume itself, watch your father-in-law die from an untreated and undiagnosed black spot on his foot and then come and convince me that god gives a shit about anyone’s health and wellbeing.  All these people were (and still are (if still alive) christians) when it happened.  God neither prevented, intervened, nor relieved any of this suffering despite the prayers of several churches full of mighty warriors of faith.

Not very impressive for the creator of the entire universe.  When I see these prayers being requested I just shake my head.  I used to believe despite all the evidence to the contrary so I can’t really criticize them too harshly.  But sooner or later you’ve got to admit there’s something radically wrong with believing in a caring healing god.

The Baptists have a sort of work-around for these things.  They don’t pray for the sufferer to be healed.  That way when nothing happens they’re off the hook.  No, they pray for the doctors to have wisdom or for the medicine to do the job it was designed to do.  I’ve seen several of these types of requests lately.  This sort of prayer lets god get away with doing nothing because they can blame the doctor or the medicine for failing instead.  I used to go along with this while in church but secretly prayed for complete healing while alone.  It didn’t do any good either way.

Least in frequency, are posts praising god for answering prayers.  Don’t want to jinx the results, you know.  I used to have to pressure people to get up and praise god in church.  It was worse than pulling teeth.  Their faith was so tenuous that they were literally afraid that praising god would somehow cause everything to fall apart. 

Looking back on all this now I wonder how otherwise intelligent people can become so deluded.

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