Few uses of prayer are more cynical than the Family Research Council’s weekly voodoo-doll ceremonies in which white male fundamentalists in Washington pray that God will see the light, agree with their self-serving ideologies, and smite their political foes.
XGW could simply whine about that and set the record straight — but there’s already too much whining within the exgay activist movement, and exgays (and those who care about them) would be better served by some constructive role models.
“Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”
So I’d like to either start a prayer blog, or identify an existing one with the same purpose: Answering fundamentalist superstition and prejudice with true walks of faith.
Unlike the holier-than-thou movement, this website would model humility. Unlike the judgmentalists, this site would model interfaith journeys and the truths that are learned from people who are different from us. Instead of manipulating God and spirituality in the pursuit of power over other people, any “prayers,” meditations or contemplations would be directed at self-improvement and improvement of one’s environment and understanding of other people. Occasional readings could be borrowed from Thomas Merton, Kahlil Gibran, and other meditative writers.
Just a thought… Feedback and/or pointers to qualifying websites would be welcome.
Well, I guess to start with you’d have to avoid using judgemental terms like “holier-than-thou” and “whiners” to describe the opposition.
Yeah, I know they are.
Very true.
‘Scuse me…
I thought I was already doing that.
THANK GOD! You are not like those other men!
— Especially not like those “Holier-than-thou” types you whined on and on and on about!
— Now if you’ll just lie down here on these timbers, I need you to die for my sins!
— Now to be more constructive:
— If you really think they are wrong — TERRIFIC! — That’s what it means to be a thinking person! To constantly be making judgments about the world in which you live!
— But how about helping the rest of us simpletons out by telling us HOW they are wrong! Stop assuming everyone already agrees with you. Don’t just mock those you can’t stand (at least not exclusively)! Identify where and how they are wrong and then tell us how and why YOU are right! But be prepared. The same measure you use on those you mock will be used on you!
Being philosophical here, isn’t the very act of lighting a candle cursing darkness itself? Afterall, light remove darkness, no?
Years ago, when I waa a child, Eleanor Roosevelt would begin her teevee program with the lighting of a candle and say: It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.
For you younger people, I should explain who this lady was. She was the widow of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President of the US from 1933 to 1945. He served during the Great Depressiona and World War 2. Mrs Roosevelt was a famous liberal in her time. The attacks on her from conservatives and evangelical churches were very much like those against Hillary Clinton. Pretty much the same accusations and the same charges.
Voo Doo is a religion and should be capitalized. To put it in lower case letters is an insult to the followers of this religion. Which path is sweetness and light compared to Evangelical Christianity. IMHO, of course.
I realize that Vodoun is a real religion, and by lowercasing the word and hyphenating with “doll” I believe I was making a distinction (as I have done before) between the real religion and the Hollywood caricature — a caricature that the FRC and Pat Robertson transform into reality, ironically, among Christians who cast spells against their enemies even as they claim to hate the “occult.”
Dalea at November 19, 2005 11:38 PM
Voo Doo is a religion and should be capitalized. To put it in lower case letters is an insult to the followers of this religion
I frankly don’t give a tinker’s damn (no that is not an epithet). If you notice, I do not capitalize “christian” either. One reason is that, like voodoo, nobody knows what that means.
To echo Boo…A use of “true walks of faith” to describe yourself is what, I imagine, you consider is so menacing with the other side.How about: “a walk of faith, open to considering the lives and the viewpoints of those different to ourselves. We do this is the service of our common humanity.”Nah. Identify, isolate and make irrelevant.
Although I have to agree with the idea that there needs to be some sort of prayer response to what the fundamentalist Christians are up to, boo and grantdale have pointed something out very valuable. Prayer isn’t about “opposing” anything. It is about stating the truth.
But the “truth” is very difficult to speak in words. Most importantly, a prayer of truth cannot be either coercive or acknowledge that it has “enemies”. To answer xeno, the lighting of a candle is not cursing darkness. Darkness isn’t the enemy of light, it is the absence of it.
I suggest that the kind of prayers that truly work in this situation follow the model of the basic Buddhist prayer:
“May all sentient beings find happiness and the causes of happiness.”
Or in this case:
“May all people who question their sexuality be free to make their own choices about the matter.”
And here’s the rub: In some cases the free choice will be to pursue an ex-gay path, for reasons that one can only see from the view of the person making that choice.
Mike, about the closest thing I can think of to what you’re talking about is the website leavingfundamentalism.org.
Or the “Worth Repeating” section over at the Evangelicals Concerned site.
And, of course, there’s always our friends at Soulforce.
I’ll tell you something about the fundamentalist mindset. You can present a fundamentalist the most logical, evenhanded appeal to reason and compassion you ever heard, and, if your words conflict in any significant way with fundamentalist ideology, you’re likely to hear “Well, that just sounds reasonable and compassionate because The Devil put those ideas in your mind, and The Devil is an expert at deceiving people.”
But hey. Who’s to say you can’t light a candle and curse the darkness.
kurt, thanks for the links.
This is an interesting concept. However, I think most folks (both here and on fundamentalist sites) are missing what a prayer actually is. It is not (IMHO, of course):
Self-improvement
Bettering one’s environment
Making judgments
Casting spells
Opposing anything
Stating the truth
Stating anything at all
Meditative thoughts
Manipulating God
It may contain, at times, components of the above, but prayer is – by definition – communication with the Deity. There’s nothing particularly wrong with letting others know what you’re saying to the Deity – any more than there’s a problem with letting them know what you’re saying to a neighbor or friend – but if the purpose of your “prayer” is for someone else other than you or the Deity, it isn’t prayer.
As for a sample prayer, let me offer this:
Oh, God (or whatever you use)
I bring you praise
I recognize you are greater and wiser than I, and desire that your will be done in my life and the world around me
I request that help me meet my physical needs
Please forgive my weaknesses, faults, and failures
Please help me forgive the weaknesses, faults and failures of those around me
May you continue in your powerful benevolence
Amen
This is my paraphrase of The Lord’s Prayer (the prayer given by Jesus to his disciples when they requested knowledge in how to pray). You, of course, may want to pray some other way.