Another National Day of Prayer has Passed

For those not up-to-date on the world of euche, today was the National Day of Prayer.  Read about this day in previous entries here, here and here.  Joining the commemoration this year was our own Governor Jerry Brown, who issued this:

PROCLAMATION

BY THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

I ask all Californians to seek out the moving words of our President who has proclaimed May 5, 2011 as a “National Day of Prayer.” President Obama invites “all citizens of our Nation, as their own faith or conscience directs them, to join in giving thanks for the many blessings we enjoy.”

A National Day of Prayer is an occasion for each of us to reflect more deeply on the eternal verities and those matters which transcend our everyday routines. Through prayer, one opens the heart and stills the mind so that the Divine Presence may be directly encountered. 

I encourage Californians to participate in this day in the manner that is most appropriate to their own religious or spiritual beliefs and experience.

NOW THEREFORE I, EDMUND G. BROWN JR., Governor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim May 5, 2011, as a “Day of Prayer” in California.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 5th day of May 2011.

Drive-up church opens near LA

A small group of people have put up a sign in a clearing near the road in rural Loma Linda offering a prayer group.  While numerous media accounts are calling this "drive-through prayer", this is really drive-up prayer:

"People can stop by and unload what they have and it keeps them from having to go to church," he said. "It's 20 minutes and you go away. There's no long-term commitment."

If the 20 minute commitment is really all that the partakers sacrifice, then this could be a constructive use of religion.  The user gets a psychological boost and then gets on with life.  The accounts present the prayer sessions as positive and devoid of the usual religious baggage (the exclusivity, the judgmentalism, the political cross-over).  If it remains like this then they could be providing a useful service that can benefit some people.

Two competing stories

For your consideration:  first we turn our attention to South Carolina, where a baby is born with a partially-functioning liver and heart:

"We brought him to the alter and my pastors prayed for him. They anointed him on his stomach and on his heart," said Healon.
That same week they took Ethan to the doctor.
"The doctors took him back for an MRI and the doctors came back completely astonished because they could not believe the liver was completely healed and the heart was completely healed," said Healon.

That was when the baby was eight months old.  Now at 23 months, the boy is still doing well, but also still undergoing surgeries.  A victory for prayer?
Next we look to Oregon, where a grand jury is indicting a couple for withholding medical treatment for their seven-month old daughter, who is now facing preventable blindness in at least one eye.  But that is the way of their church:

The Followers of Christ church cemetery is filled with dead children who died from treatable medical conditions. The Oregon state medical examiner's office reported that during the past 30 years more than 20 children of church members had died of preventable or curable illnesses.

 The track record of this church in this matter makes one wonder when the members will question their faith:

Last February Jeffrey and Marci Beagley were found guilty for the criminally negligent homicide of their 16-year-old son, Neil. Instead of seeking medical attention for an easily treatable condition, the Beagley's chose prayer, with tragic and fatal consequence for their son.

Four months prior to Neil's death, his young cousin also died at home because her parents, Carl and Raylene Worthington, following the teachings of the church, refused to get her medical attention.

 Note, however, that the parents of the first story allowed medical procedures, including surgery.  The prayer was a side-issue, and perhaps it served the purpose of providing psychological encouragement.  But the parents of the second story demonstrate how difficult it is to keep religion in its proper place.

National Day of Prayer is here

Congress decreed the National Day of Prayer in 1952, partly to solidify various calls to prayer by previous Presidents, and to differentiate the USA from the USSR.  The day's significance has varied over the years, with Reagan and Bush (I) hosting formal events only once during their successive presidencies, while Bush (II) had a ceremony every year.  President Obama has offered his support:

Last Friday, President Barack Obama issued a proclamation. “Prayer has been a sustaining way for many Americans of diverse faiths to express their most cherished beliefs, and thus we have long deemed it fitting and proper to publicly recognize the important of prayer on this day across the Nation.”

While this proclamation is soft and general, the Obama administration has also taken the concrete step of appealing a judge's ruling to declare the official holiday unconstitutional.  This is good politics, since the evangelical movement has firmly latched onto the symbolism of this day:

"America was birthed in prayer and founded on the God of the Bible, on his biblical principles and on his moral values," Day of Prayer organizer Shirley Dobson said.

Another emerging pillar of the evangelical movement is that it is an oppressed minority.  The military dis-invited Franklin Graham from a Pentagon ceremony (probably due to his anti-Islam statements), and so he was forced to pray on the sidewalk. 
And there is a San Diego connection.  This email was sent to all county employees:

From: FGG, CountyAll
Sent: Thursday, May 06, 2010 8:26 AM
Subject: A message from Supervisor Bill Horn

Dear fellow County employee,

This year, as in past years, the Board of Supervisors has recognized the National Day of Prayer with a proclamation. In 1952, Congress established an annual day of prayer, and in 1988 that law was amended, designating the National Day of Prayer as the first Thursday in May.

Today, May 6, I once again invite you to commemorate the National Day of Prayer at the CAC flagpole at 12:30 PM. The theme for the 59^th annual National Day of Prayer is “Prayer: For Such a Time as This”.

We are thankful for the freedom to gather, the freedom to worship and the freedom to pray. This commemoration is a personal, not a government, function; and so, for those of you who choose to participate during your own personal time, I hope you will join me at the flagpole today at 12:30 P.M.

Bill Horn

Supervisor, Fifth District

The humanist position on prayer is clear and consistent:  talking to the air has no constructive, external benefit to the world.  There are internal (psychological) effects, some good and some bad.  For example, some people derive emotional strength through prayer, while others learn magical thinking.  In summary, the government is over-reaching by endorsing prayer.  See the Secular Coalition's take on the holiday and on possible humanist responses here.

The (lack of) power of prayer

Today's light reading:  Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) in cardiac bypass patients:  a multicenter randomized trial of uncertainty and certainty of receiving intercessory prayer
From the American Heart Journal (Vol. 151, No. 4, April 2006):

Patients at 6 US hospitals were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups: 604 received intercessory prayer after being informed that they may or may not receive prayer; 597 did not receive intercessory prayer also after being informed that they may or may not receive prayer; and 601 received intercessory prayer after being informed they would receive prayer.

Was there any doubt what the result would be?

In the 2 groups uncertain about receiving intercessory prayer, complications occurred in 52% (315/604) of patients who received intercessory prayer versus 51% (304/597) of those who did not (relative risk 1.02, 95% CI 0.92-1.15). Complications occurred in 59% (352/601) of patients certain of receiving intercessory prayer compared with the 52% (315/604) of those uncertain of receiving intercessory prayer (relative risk 1.14, 95% CI 1.02-1.28). Major events and 30-day mortality were similar across the 3 groups.

 So the patients who were certain of receiving prayer actually had a higher rate of complication (59% vs 52%), although the difference is probably a statistical blip given chance and the number of data points.  The numbers were pretty much all the same and a large enough data set would probably see all the numbers converge to one common value.
The humanist position:  to help people, do things that matter here and now;  don't say a bunch of words into the empty air and then kid yourself into thinking you've done anything constructive.

A Prayer for Peace after the San Diego Earthquake

On the Easter earthquake:

God, we pray for all those who experienced fear and panic this morning as a result of the California and Mexico earthquakes. We thank you that it was not worse than it was. But we also ask that you comfort those who felt a spike of panic as a result. Recover their emotions. Guard them now against further fear. Bring peace where there was trauma. In Jesus...

Full Text

At least this prayer makes no pretension to ask supernatural powers not to create earthquakes. But it does assume that sitting in a room somewhere speaking into the air makes some sort of difference to anyone not in that room.