Praying To God . . . Dot Com – The Modern Online Version

The answer to the existential question of “why did God invent the Internet” has now been answered. It is, of course, to pray online.

Phoenix First Assembly Online has created a website for the modern human. According to their website:

The Phoenix First Assembly of God – On-line Prayer Center Connects Your Online Prayer Request with the Prayer Warriors from our Circle of Love and from all over the world! Every Single Time They Pray for your need – You will get a tiny little email that tells you “Somebody just Prayed for You!” Submit Prayer Requests by clicking the Link below.

Praying for complete strangers is nice and dandy, especially if you do it online. But I propose a different approach. We should ask God to open a twitter account. We can all then follow him and just send him tweets. My first tweet is going to be:

OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG

Oops, I exceeded my 140 character limit!

I think I’ll wait for the iPhone app!

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Enjoy a couple of actual entries from the website:

HI – sorry to bother you, but my household is under huge attack right now. i am preparing a video clip with family photos for a 50th anniversary party for my mom & dad, & all hell seems to be breaking out against me. i know there’s a huge spirit of rejection in my family, & it appears to be trying to kill the project

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Pray for the big fat backslidden church playing hypocrite & self proclaim Chief Apostle Beverly Armstead. The demons make her believe that she is some kind of Apostle when she is nothing, but the devil. Pray that God will expose this wolf in sheep clothing and she get her deliverance from demons. thank you,

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Well, isn’t that special?!

Euthanasia or Prayer – The Robert Latimer Story

After serving seven years of a life sentence, Robert Latimer has been granted day parole.

The story of Robert and his daughter Tracy is both unbelievably heart-wrenching and philosophically challenging. I have a philosophical and religious take on this issue that I will explain later in this post, but I must provide a bit of history first. If you’re familiar with this case, skip to Argument section below.

History

Tracy Latimer was born on November 23, 1980, with severe cerebral palsy due to critical oxygen deprivation at birth. By four months of age, she was enduring half a dozen seizures daily (even with the help of drugs), leading to severe muscle atrophy. Her Scoliosis (abnormal curvature of spine) was up to 75% off perpendicular by the age of 12.

Although three separate surgeries were administered to address it, her Scoliosis was so severe that it resulted in complete dislocation of her right hip. Her only form of pain medication: Regular strength Tylenol (due to risk of undesirable drug interaction).

On October 24, 1993, while his wife and other children went to church, Robert placed Tracy in his truck, ran a hose from the exhaust pipe into the cab, and killed her (carbon monoxide poisoning). At the time of her death, this quadriplegic 13-year old had the mental capacity of a 4-month old, weighed 38 pounds, suffered multiple daily seizures, had to be hand-fed, and was in constant pain.

At first, Robert did not admit to killing his daughter, but the truth soon became clear. Also, there are questions about whether a stomach tube (the idea was rejected by her family) could have helped Tracy receive stronger pain medication.

Argument

 

If you are not bound by any religious considerations, you most likely view suffering of children as needless – especially if that suffering involves chronic pain, disease or hunger. There can be no discernible justification for this kind of anguish directed at helpless, young humans. It negates – perhaps even disproves – the existence of a fair and loving supreme deity.

On the other hand, if you are a religious individual, your faith guides you through your journey of life. You may very well be at a loss to explain cruel suffering of helpless children; however, you have no need to do so. Human suffering and pain, at any level including in children, is the will of God. None of us could possibly comprehend his master-plan blue print, nor are we in a position to question his wisdom. It’s refreshingly simple, really.

So, the question for someone who is not guided by God is: what can be done for this suffering child? Medical treatment? Certainly. Pain management? Obviously. At what point and after how much suffering by the child and anguish by the family can you say enough: it should stop here because no end to the suffering and the pain appears to be in sight. This 13 year-old child has the mental capacity of a 4 month old, screams in pain every day, and no foreseeable future treatment is likely to alter her misery-filled and unrewarding life. No good can accompany prolonging her existence, and she lacks the mental capacity to decide for herself. You may very well conclude that an end to her life is precisely the humane, passionate, and proper closure to her unfortunate circumstances.

If you are in fact guided by God, your struggle with this situation may be less complicated, albeit just as difficult. Unless your religion forbids it, you would surely pursue medical treatment and pain management options just as non-believers would. Although you would not be required to make the unimaginable decision of euthanasia (because there is purpose to everything including to the suffering of this child), you are clearly left to deal with the overwhelming conditions of the situation. The topic of ending a life is off-limits to you. Instead, you may find solace in prayer.

However, I argue that prayer is precisely the wrong thing to do. Consider the following thesis. Embedded deep in the ideology of religion is the conviction that God knows everything – past, present, and future. No event transpires in the entire cosmos without the unconditional knowledge, anticipation and, perhaps more significantly, determination of God. Praying (or any other seemingly unselfish and noble deed such as fasting) for someone who is stricken by disease is of no benefit or consequence. The illness was bestowed upon the human by God in the first place. The reason is obvious only to God, and he’s under no obligation to share it with us. Prayer by any of us mortals is a feeble and an uninvited attempt at altering God’s plan.

Further, if you believe God expects us to pray to him (for ourselves and others), your assumption is false. We can all agree that God, as the most supreme entity, is not in need of our prayers. Whether we ask for forgiveness in our own lives or pray for someone like Tracy will be of no consequence to him. There is no logical or believable reason to think that God may help someone like Tracy if others pray for her. Once again, we are blindly interfering – as feeble as the attempt may be – with a master plan that we cannot possibly untangle.

Robert Latimer’s decision was unimaginably difficult and bitter-sweet. That ending his daughter’s life had to be the most difficult decision of his life is indisputable irrespective of your views on life and religion and whether you agree with his action.