Listening to the current national conversation, one might believe our only two options for managing a public health crisis are either to follow the advice of medical experts or to “pray about it.” Aside from the latter choice being misguided and possibly deadly, it also suggests that prayer must be done in isolation from other action. I would suggest that those who believe in praying can offer their heavenly petitions while keeping their distance from others, wearing their masks, and washing their hands. It doesn’t have to be an either-or.
Most of the atheists I’ve known have at some point made a statement similar to this one: “I just don’t believe in some great fairy in the sky.” Well, I am a theist, not an atheist, and I also do not believe in some great fairy who rules the universe with a magic wand. The space here does not allow a theological treatise on God’s nature; and even if it did, I’d be ill equipped to lead that study. However, since one’s approach to prayer is determined by one’s concept of God, it might be helpful to look at the source which many of those who have opted to “just pray about it” claim as their inspiration: the Christian Bible.
I’m a writer and retired English professor, not a theologian, and I don’t want anyone to think I’m launching into a sermon. But since “thoughts and prayers” is one of our current cultural clichés, I decided to do a bit of digging to see what prayer really is and how it’s recorded in religious texts, the Bible in particular. Here are a few of the things I learned.
Prayer is mentioned hundreds of times, and hundreds of individual prayers are recorded in the Bible. Prayers fall into several categories: worship, peace and comfort, confession/repentance, forgiveness, and petition. (Remember, I’m not a theologian, so I don’t claim my lists are exhaustive.)
I’m as confused as anyone else by some of the prayers and the concept of God recorded in the Old Testament. Asking God to destroy whole civilizations, including every man, woman, child, animal, and cockroach evokes a concept of God which is a bit scary; so if it’s okay with you, I’ll stick mostly to the New Testament.
What I find in the New Testament prayers is not humans abdicating their own responsibility but humans asking God to empower them with the strength, boldness, endurance, and wisdom to carry out those responsibilities. Those who pray for God to end a deadly virus while they continue on in their normal routines are abdicating their own responsibilities and evoking the “great fairy” image of a God who might, with a wave of the magic wand, rid the world of a disease. Those who choose praying about gun violence, while stockpiling munitions and voting for lawmakers who allow such stockpiling, abdicate their human responsibility to guard the social welfare and expect God to save people’s lives. Those who admonish us to pray for our “president” while they vote for those who enable his corruption abdicate their human responsibility to elect responsible lawmakers and expect God to change someone who doesn’t want to be changed. It doesn’t work that way.
Although Philippians 4:13 is not a prayer, it seems a good place to start: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” I start here because I think this verse suggests a divine-human partnership in which the human is committed to right actions and the divine is the source when enables the human to carry out those actions when they are in accordance with divine principles. Such requests as “help our team win” may not exactly meet the requirement of aligning with divine principles. Just saying.
Romans 8:26–“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought . . .”–reinforces the idea that God strengthens humans to do good works but does not promise to clean up the damage when humans act in their own selfish interests.
Borrowing just one example from the Old Testament, remember the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. In the book of Genesis, Abraham negotiates with God to spare Sodom from destruction brought on by the corruption that has engulfed the city. God’s response is that God will spare the city if Abraham can find a particular number of righteous people. The number continues to decrease until God finally says, “Okay, warn your nephew Lot to take his family and leave, and then I’ll do the job.” The story gets a lot creepier after that, but the point I’d like to make here is that God is unwilling to take action without some human cooperation. God is not our fixer.
The Lord’s Prayer, sometimes called the Model Prayer, suggests the same spirit of human-divine cooperation: “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” There are no freebies here; those who want God to do God’s part must first be willing to do their own part.
In Jesus’ well-known prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, just before his arrest, Jesus prays: “My father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want” (Matthew 26:39). Even Jesus knows it’s not all about him and his freedom to do as he wishes while God takes care of the business of running the world. Jesus makes himself a willing participant, knowing the grave suffering he is about to face.
Some people today seem to view God as the Michael Cohen in the sky, the fixer who will clean up human messes without our having any responsibility to help. I don’t believe it works that way. I believe if prayer is to have any effect at all, it must be active, not passive. Prayers recorded in the Bible are answered or unanswered depending on the degree to which they align with what is already known of God and God’s plan. The person praying is asking to be equipped for his/her personal mission. I agree with the adage, “Put feet under your prayers.” To put it another way, pray on your feet, not your butt.
Sending “thoughts and prayers” to families torn apart by gun violence or police overreach, while opposing any action that might reduce further incidents of carnage, is an insult to those families and makes a mockery of human communication with the divine. I’ve read numerous comments from finger- waggers on social media admonishing those who oppose the current corruption in our government to just shut up and pray about it. “Pray for our ‘president’; don’t point out his incompetence and criminality.” Am I allowed to do both?
Those who believe in prayer should by all means keep praying. Our nation needs all the help it can get to climb out of this mess, and seeking guidance and strength from the Almighty seems a good place to start but not to end. My mother often told me “God helps those who help themselves.” It’s our job to make this nation what it should be: yours and mine. Some may believe God has a part in it; I believe that. But I don’t believe God will take the wreck we’ve made and put all the pieces back together while we continue to do things which exacerbate the problem. We have to help ourselves if we expect God to help us.
Here’s my prayer for the day. (Just to be clear, I don’t own a hunting rifle.)
Now I kneel me down to pray,
A bottle of hand sanitizer a few inches away.
A mask is nearby, on demand
In case a non-family member is close at hand.
My hunting rifle is locked away in its case
And an assault rifle would be out of place.
I’ve written my senators and my rep
Encouraging them to stay in step.
I’ve done what Jesus said to do:
Love my God and love all of you.
I didn’t vote for Donald Trump
Because I’m not a big dumb lump.
My mail-in ballot is ready to go,
With votes for all of the candidates who show
Integrity and an ounce of wit,
Who know how to get us out of this shit.
I’ve tried my best to do my part.
Now I ask you, God, to strengthen my heart
To continue the fight for right and good,
And to keep doing all I should.
Our country’s in a great big mess,
So we ask you all of our hearts to bless.
Amen