Politics aside, this brings up a problem: the problem of prayer. Does God or the Cosmos or whatever hear our prayers? Are they “answered”? What happens if we make a mistake when we pray?
A little background: Republican senator Tom Coburn from Oklahoma – a medical doctor by the way! - implored people to pray that a Democratic Senator would be unable to vote on the health care bill on Sunday. The likely “target” was Sen. Byrd from West Virginia. He’s 92 and in poor health.
A caller into a CSPAN show was worried that the prayer may have backfired:
“Our small tea bag group here in Waycross, we got our vigil together and took Dr. Coburn’s instructions and prayed real hard that Sen. Byrd would either die or couldn’t show up at the vote the other night,” the caller said.
“How hard did you pray because I see one of our members was missing this morning. Did it backfire on us? One of our members died? How hard did you pray senator? Did you pray hard enough?” he continued, his voice breaking.
Watch:
Whew! Sen. Inhoff wasn’t slain by the terrible sword of the Lord by mistake.
But seriously, I have some compassion for the caller. I remember in the 5th grade during our daily morning class, Beth prayed that we would all do as well on the exam to the degree in which we studied for it.
We were stunned! Most of us gasped. How could she have prayed that? Out loud?
A pall descended upon us as we sat, hands folded on our desks, heads bowed, eyes closed. We … were … DOOMED! Oh the humanity! We really believed that Beth’s prayer would be answered.
Can the gates of Heaven, can God’s ears be petitioned the way we assault Congress with faxes and emails? The group that sends the most faxes wins? Is prayer like that?