Friday, March 26, 2010

Dogmatic Prayers

For individuals of faith, the efficacy of prayer is real.  For individuals on the last rung preceding perfect faith, prayer may be considered as a learned exercise in foolish futility.  So be it.

I think at the worse, a praying individual may receive only mental comfort from expressing their fears, hopes, or what have you when appealing to God (I used the word God here for simplicity of understanding - for good or bad*) for guidance.  At the best, the praying individual may receive what they believe is actual guidance from above.

Those thoughts occurred to me when I read, this morning, that The Church of England has published a book of prayers for voters.

The Church of England has published prayers to help confused and cynical voters ahead of Britain’s upcoming election.

Some snippets of the prayers.

“(The prayers) ask that the concerns of all may be heard and seek protection from despair and cynicism,”...

...“Thank you for caring about how our country is run, and that we have the right to vote for our politicians and government.” But it goes on to say: “Sometimes I wonder whether there’s any point in voting, whether anyone cares what I think.”...

...“Help me not to be cynical about politics and politicians, help me to remember that my vote can make a difference.”...

...“truth may prevail over distortion, wisdom triumph over recklessness.”

The Church of England would have better served its parishoners by publishing a book of prayers which petitioned God* to protect the people of the world from government, to raise them up as self interested and self reliant individuals coveting no man’s productivity due to their perceived want, for freedom from the violence of voting, so that “truth may prevail over distortion, wisdom triumph over recklessness.”

Church issues prayers for confused UK voters

Posted by John Venlet on 03/26 at 08:34 AM
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