The Moody Church

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Tonight was the “Wednesday Prayer Meeting” at Moody Church, which is connected with the Moody Bible Institute and all other things Moody in Chicago. It is non-denominational and Christian.

I don’t think I’ve ever felt more relieved to be an Atheist.

First, some background. I’ve said before that I don’t think people should pray for petty, materialistic things; if you’re praying, pray for the “right” reasons (I think you can use common sense to figure out what I mean by that).

Also, please understand that I don’t think praying for someone random helps. If you are going through a stressful time, prayer can definitely calm you down (if you are a believer). If people are sick and they hear that they are being prayed for, I do think this can help them feel better. It relaxes their bodies and they feel better, emotionally and physically. But if I’m told to pray for Bob in Alaska, and Bob doesn’t know this, I don’t think that does anything. In fact, studies have shown the positive effects of prayer in the first two cases. But never in the latter case. (If you’d like to argue this point, I’ll be posting a thread on my blog at www.ebayatheist.blogspot.com about it. Go there.)

Why do I bring all this up? Because most of tonight was focused on praying for people who don’t know they are being prayed for. Which, as I said, has never been shown to have an effect. And the other objects of peoples’ prayers were just irrelevent. Let me give you examples of prayer requests from tonight’s program:

Please pray for:

– “Success for 4th Annual Easter Egg Hunt on April 15th”
– “Purchase of Lower North building from [Chicago Housing Authority]”
– “Jonathon’s friends who are having marital problems”
– “Cheryl’s husband Mark who is spiritually apathetic”
– “Wisdom for Tom”
– “John [last name omitted] who is dying and does not know the Lord…”
– “Anonymous believer with an unspoken request” (?!?!?!?!?!?!)
– (My personal favorite) “Anonymous who is ill and cannot sleep due to neighbor playing loud music, wants a home of her own and a Christian mate”

Lovely. I will go home and pray for… anonymous. These were all serious prayer requests. Many were well-intentioned and I could understand the reason for wanting the well-wishes. But so many requests seemed to be made by people who really believe an “Urgent health need” is Judy, who has a pulled hamstring.C’mon! There are people who could *really* use help, even if it’s only spiritual. When I read these things, I just felt like no one wanted to do anything or take any responsibility for themselves. Everything must be taken care of by God. (Which seems paradoxical, because if God will take care of everything, there would be no reason to pray…) I also kept picturing the shocked look on their faces that must appear every time they meet an Atheist who doesn’t believe that prayer does anything. I doubt they consider that point of view.

The group of people that were there (~50 of them, of all races and ages) were genuinely good people, who felt they were doing all they could to spread the Gospel of Jesus. I say this because many of them spoke about their ministries and missionary trips and you could tell how passionate they were.

The downside of this was that there was a *lot* of talk about missionary trips to Africa and nearby locales, where there are significant numbers of Muslim people. I’ve never heard such hateful talk about Islam. One woman said how only Jesus could “break the bondage over [the Muslims'] minds.” Another woman said how she has Muslim friends whom she sends Christmas and Easter cards to annually to bring Christ into their lives. Someone mentioned how the Muslim people are “eager to learn English and learn about the word of God” (which, by my last check, did not refer to Jesus). In fact, we even said a prayer for Islamic countries in general. Look, I understand that there some difference of opinion between Christians and Muslims. But outside the few extremists who ruin the name of both faiths, why do missionaries have to convert anyone who believes in something different? Forget what the Bible may say about spreading the word of God– these people are not hurting you or stopping you. Stop interfering with their lives! (If you want the Atheist perspective, it makes no sense to convert people who believe in a different invisible man than you do… ) And yet, the people speaking tonight felt it was their duty to “save” these people who were *obviously* mistaken. It just upset me. If Muslim people came to your city and tried to convert you, there would be an uproar. I’m not trying to knock down missionaries who improve a village in ruins, bring medicine, and really help some people who could use it. But if you want to help them, do those things. Send food. Send water. Send medicine. But from what I gathered tonight, these missionaries were simply going abroad to “fix” people whom I don’t believe were broken in the first place. And this was all topped off by a prayer request to God: “Muslims are people. They need Your love.” *sigh* How is this type of fundamental thinking any different from the people they are trying to save for being so blinded by their own beliefs?

For the record, it wasn’t just Islamic countries that needed saving. A missionary to Bulgaria asked for us to pray for the country to “overcome any Satanic obstacle.” Bulgaria is 85% Christian Orthodox (http://www.bcci.bg/bulgaria.htm). I think even by the missionary’s standards, there’s no problem there…

The pastor did try to answer the main question in my mind (How do you know the prayers are answered?), because he told the congregation how he knew the prayers were working– He may not have been able to see them working… but he believed in them. So there. I don’t know if they consider the idea that the “prayers are working” might just be in their heads. I’d be curious to know if the thought ever comes to mind.

For what it’s worth, while I don’t take much stock in the prayer requests, I was surprised to see a lot of people taking notes. I glanced over at the notebook of the girl sitting next to me and she was actually writing down the prayer requests. I assume she will actually look over this list at home and pray for these people. Which did make me feel a little better, since I thought at first no one would remember all these requests. I wondered who prays for “anonymous.” Clearly, many people do, because she wasn’t the only person writing down the requests.

In a nutshell, this type of service drew me away from any type of belief. Because it just seemed like everyone was praying for the wrong reasons. And by the same token, the praises were also misplaced. In the program we’re supposed to say “Thanks Be to God… that Andre’s [Last name omitted] tumor has shrunk significantly.” Thanks be to God? Doesn’t the medicine he took have *anything* to do with it?! It just makes no sense to me to say that God does *everything* and we must thank Him for anything that happens to anyone ever.

Case in point: The pastor told a story about a friend whose business was struggling. To make his friend feel better, the pastor said to him: What if God wanted it to be this way? The friend immediately felt better. Again, maybe his business is struggling for a variety of reasons. I don’t know why. But attributing all things good and bad to God is not helping anyone learn anything. I think it’s just taking away the notion of being responsible for your own actions.

I would much rather see the people praying less and doing more. I’m not trying to be insensitive. I know there’s only so much science can currently do to cure a sick patient. But some of the things that we prayed for tonight were not useful at all.

I never thought I’d say this, but I look forward to going back to a regular church service.