Why God Doesn’t Listen To Your Prayers

[unhappycamper]

Why God Doesn’t Listen To Your Prayers
Posted by Tikkun Daily at 12:49 pm
June 23, 2010

God does not answer prayer.

There, I’ve said it. I know for some my assertion is scandalous, while for others it is mere common sense. But before you summon the inquisitor to prepare the rack or brand me a heretic or rush to my defense, hear me out.

I used to believe that God answered prayer. Being raised a Christian I was taught that I had an invisible, magical and wish-granting friend named Jesus who cared about all of my problems, however big or small. All I had to do was pray in his name. And if I didn’t get what I asked for there was a good chance it was because I wasn’t praying hard enough. This idea was so central to the Christian faith I was taught that never was I allowed to question the presupposition that God played favorites via a divine competition for “his” attention.

It took many years before I began wondering about the implications of God intervening in the world to answer prayer. I must admit, however, that in my youth I never had made an earnest effort to understand the logic behind prayer. Like many Christians I had a superficial understanding of my religion. I never read the Bible or studied the history of my tradition. And in high school I was too busy skipping Sunday school and getting high behind the Church to care about theology. One of the few times I did attend I remember listening to former WWF wrestler Jake the Snake Roberts with boa constrictor in hand give his testimony about how Jesus saved him. With an old spandex clad wrestler as a primary source of my understanding about the Christian faith I definitely had some learning to do.

As a result of my superficial upbringing as a Christian I was ignorant, Biblically illiterate and theologically naive. Rather than thinking for myself I simply accepted what I was told; God answers my prayers, Jesus saves and that all of those non-Christians are damned (among many other doctrines). This ignorance and obedience to Church leaders (most always men) is commonplace in conservative Christianity. Less than 10% of Christians have read the entire Bible and a large amount have never read any of it. Many still believe that Moses wrote the Pentateuch (despite his description of his own death) and that we descended from Adam and Eve. Most have no idea that for much of Christian history common people never read the Bible. In fact the Church authorities either killed or persecuted those who first translated the Bible into vernacular. But looking back I now realize that maintaining this ignorance was all part of the agenda. Most conservative Christians despise theology and refuse to teach it to their members. Questions are dangerous. History is suppressed and lies are told about other religions. The hypocrisy here is glaring as the leaders of any given Church have probably gone through seminary and have read theology, studied some philosophy and know the complex history of Christianity. But the same process of investigating and doubting is readily denied to lay people by conservative Christians. Worse yet it is often framed as the work of the devil. Much can be said about the ignorance of Christians and need for more thorough education but this essay is about prayer so I digress.