Are people allowed to pray for others in the UK? 1
30th Mar 2009
Hello lovely people
As you are reading this, I can hear three different answers to my question. Some people are thinking yes, why not? Others are thinking rather not, I do not want to get involved in praying for people. And a third group is saying: why is the question relevant?
Let me answer the last question first: why is the question relevant?
There have been two recent incidents in the UK where people prayed for others and got into serious enough trouble to potentially lose their jobs.
In one incident, a five-year-old child apparently talked to another child about heaven and God. The child probably simply repeated what she had heard at home, but she repeated the information to another child that received a different view of religion at home. The other child got upset about hearing a different version, and the teacher told off the five-year-old for discussing God at school.
Of course the girl was upset enough to tell her mother, a receptionist at school, about the incident. The mother then emailed a group of Christian friends and asked for their prayers on this incident. A few days later the receptionist was told that she was being investigated for professional misconduct because of the private email to friends.
We all know that there are two sides to every incident, and that the press like to blow up the more controversial side. The intention here is not to provide a factual record of the incident, but simply to highlight the incident as a whole.
Another incident that happened at more or less the same time related to a nurse that offered to say a prayer for an elderly patient. The patient declined the prayer and the nurse did not insist. The patient then complained to the care providers and now the nurse is being investigated.
The issues that I want to highlight are the different understanding about what prayer is, and the lack of tolerance on all sides.
Let us first look at the different understanding. Is prayer a series of words that are uttered in a particular tone of voice while standing on your knees with your hands pressed together? In my view, no. As far as I am concerned, prayer is every thought that ever enters our heads, every word that ever comes from our mouths and every action that we ever take.
If you say that swearing at a driver that cuts into your lane is not prayer, I am afraid it is – maybe not a very nice one, but it is. And those thoughts you preferred not to express last time you got really angry were also a form of prayer.
The church taught us that prayer must have a particular format and that there is a time and a place for formal prayers. The church also told us to use particular language when we pray (language that I often think even confuses God because of its obsequies, superfluous repetitive wording). As with everything else religious, the church dictated and people followed without thinking.
To be continued.
Please leave a comment if you feel inspired.
Love and Light
Elsabe
