Let’s Leave the Pope and Prayer Out of It
I am in Denver this weekend, soaking up the love of my niece and nephew and catching up on all things newsworthy.
What’s up with the Pope? Your favorite cross-dresser and mine was in Africa recently telling the AIDS-ravaged continent that condoms won’t really help prevent AIDS.
Great. I expect such ramblings from the crazy nun down at the local church, but a world leader? If you listen closely, you can hear frustrated grumbles the world over from doctors and scientists who know better.
Hey, Benedict, why not encourage people to smoke, forgo exercise, and stop washing their hands too?
Ya douche.
I love how religious leaders apply the same logic and reason they used to come to the conclusion that there is an all-powerful boogeyman in the sky who knows what we do with our naughty bits every night to also conclude that educated physicians don’t know shit.
In related news, the Brady Center, whose work I admire and support, wants March 30th to be a National Day of Prayer to End Gun Violence.
For the love of Christ. Or Pete. Whichever you’d prefer.
I’m not against prayer. Like meditation, it feels good sometimes to focus our intentions and visualize the reality we want or need for ourselves and others. But a National Day of Prayer isn’t going to help people to support common sense gun laws. That’s going to take action and determination. Who’s got a day to waste?
I don’t. And neither do you.
Leave praying to the Pope. The rest of us? Let’s get off our knees and actually do something.
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Catherine Durkin Robinson
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Well, that’s just it, Kate. Is a day of prayer going to magically convince the Jolly God Giant to reach down his suspiciously white hand and pluck the guns out of the mitts of only those who don’t deserve them? Of course not. The same can also be said for every march, parade, vigil, charity dinner, etc for whatever cause you please.
What these things do serve as, though, are visible rallying points to illustrate to the community that there are groups who stand together in confronting society’s ills. They lend visibility that may not have previously been there. A few years ago, as the evangelical Christian movement broke into the environmental arena, there were prayer meetings and vigils and whatnot. Clearly, this didn’t change environmental policy all by itself, but it did server to draw attention to the fact that many evangelical groups were dissatisfied not only with the way they were seen in the media and their close identification with causes célèbres like homosexual marriage and abortion rights, but with the fact that their own community was losing focus on things that directly affect everyone, such as the environment. Individually, these prayers perhaps did nothing (not going to get into a debate about the metaphysical effects of prayer), but collectively they brought those issues once again to the light from an unexpected quarter and caused society as a whole to once again deal with them, in some fashion.
When people are being squeezed, they cry out. Indeed, it’s true for pretty much all things that exist in nature, from rocks to stars. It’s natural, it’s healthy and it doesn’t preclude further action to effect the change they desire. But the crying out has to happen as a signal to those around them that they’re in distress. It’s better to cry out with others because it both let’s you know you’re not alone and also because it gives you an idea who’s on your side. Who knows what sort of action networks might come out of a day of prayer, of people realizing, “Hey, this person who has this skill set agrees with me, perhaps together we can accomplish real change.” It’s also better to cry out to someone rather than just cry out. I would even hazard the argument that crying out to someone or something is a hallmark of an advanced consciousness, demonstrating an awareness of concepts like justice, fairness and even hope. I’m not saying that whatever is being cried out to actually is there to help, but to cry out to them demonstrates the notion that something should be there and this, at the very least, establishes a baseline to work from.
Oh, and the Pope thing is just annoying and stupid, but it’s the Pope so whadda ya gonna do?
I mean, when 95-year-old Uncle Jerry pulls out his bait and tackle at Thanksgiving dinner and plunges his tallywacker into the mashed potatoes screaming something about bayoneting Japs at Iwo Jima, you certainly can scold him, but it’s not like it’s going to do any good.
I’ma notta sure iffa dats da Pope or notta, but that sure is Bob Wallace standing next to him.