Dear Editor,
For some time now our country has been struggling with a worsening crime crisis, especially in the west. In addition to the numerous talk shops that have been created to deal with this problem, our churches are now putting their hopes for a solution in a national day of prayer. For the likes of me, I still cannot see why we just can’t get it — prayers never work!
Now, don’t get me wrong; most of us will appreciate the thought that is behind the need our churches see in praying. After all, many of us are now simply at our wits’ end as to what to do about our crime crisis. Also, like so many others, I suppose our churches must, at least, appear to be doing something. However, I have never seen a situation where things in this country, or anywhere else, ever changed just because of prayer.
I always wonder about this praying business, though. I mean, if the Almighty that these churches pray to is supposed to know all and can see what is happening to our island, with all the mayhem and all, why should he wait until a bunch of people scream out their lungs to him and roll around on the ground before he acts? If he really was there, and cares, don’t our churches think that the deity would have been wise enough to have a little initiative and act by now?
However, I don’t want to appear to be taking this plan of our churches to pray for an end to the mayhem as an exercise in futility – even though it is really sort of funny, but I think the time has long passed when our churches need to do something real.
For instance, there is a credit union that our churches have a major stake in. Why don’t our churches think of more ways that that institution could help more people create their own jobs? Many of our schools are church-controlled, or at least, greatly influenced by them. Why don’t these churches invest some real intellectual power and find more relevant ways in which these schools could help to mould our children into becoming better citizens? Why not do more things for the “life today” and less for the “life to come”?
Come to think of it, I haven’t heard too many solutions coming out of our churches for our social problems – apart from prayer, and as we all have seen, that has proven to be of little help.
Going out on a very long limb and pretending that this deity was really there, who knows, maybe he has decided to take a back seat and has decided to do nothing in the hope that we will see the pointlessness in praying and the value of doing something to actively solve our own problems. Who knows, maybe that is his way of helping us.
Michael A Dingwall
michael_a_dingwall@hotmail.com
For some time now our country has been struggling with a worsening crime crisis, especially in the west. In addition to the numerous talk shops that have been created to deal with this problem, our churches are now putting their hopes for a solution in a national day of prayer. For the likes of me, I still cannot see why we just can’t get it — prayers never work!
Now, don’t get me wrong; most of us will appreciate the thought that is behind the need our churches see in praying. After all, many of us are now simply at our wits’ end as to what to do about our crime crisis. Also, like so many others, I suppose our churches must, at least, appear to be doing something. However, I have never seen a situation where things in this country, or anywhere else, ever changed just because of prayer.
I always wonder about this praying business, though. I mean, if the Almighty that these churches pray to is supposed to know all and can see what is happening to our island, with all the mayhem and all, why should he wait until a bunch of people scream out their lungs to him and roll around on the ground before he acts? If he really was there, and cares, don’t our churches think that the deity would have been wise enough to have a little initiative and act by now?
However, I don’t want to appear to be taking this plan of our churches to pray for an end to the mayhem as an exercise in futility – even though it is really sort of funny, but I think the time has long passed when our churches need to do something real.
For instance, there is a credit union that our churches have a major stake in. Why don’t our churches think of more ways that that institution could help more people create their own jobs? Many of our schools are church-controlled, or at least, greatly influenced by them. Why don’t these churches invest some real intellectual power and find more relevant ways in which these schools could help to mould our children into becoming better citizens? Why not do more things for the “life today” and less for the “life to come”?
Come to think of it, I haven’t heard too many solutions coming out of our churches for our social problems – apart from prayer, and as we all have seen, that has proven to be of little help.
Going out on a very long limb and pretending that this deity was really there, who knows, maybe he has decided to take a back seat and has decided to do nothing in the hope that we will see the pointlessness in praying and the value of doing something to actively solve our own problems. Who knows, maybe that is his way of helping us.
Michael A Dingwall
michael_a_dingwall@hotmail.com