Seriously. I really, really do not
understand these things. What is supposed to be accomplished by this? Oh, sure,
the organizer of the event in the link says what they are hoping for. It’s
this: “…we're going to totally focus on Justice Kennedy, we
believe he is the swing vote, and we're just going to ask the Lord to forgive
us of our sins and turn the heart of Justice Kennedy that he might see the
error of his ways and protect marriage." But what does that really mean?
I’ll
tell you what it sounds like to me. It sounds like Coach Dave believes that if
Christians ask really, really hard, then God will mind-control Justice Kennedy
to decide the way they want.
To which
I can only say… “huh?”
Doesn’t
Christianity believe in free will? Many, in fact, argue that the entire reason
evil exists in the world at all is that God will not interfere with free will
under any circumstances. Of course, that’s clearly contradicted by the Bible itself, but Christians claim it anyway. Or, as per the usual caveat, some versions of Christianity claim it.
And if it’s the case that God won’t interfere with free will, what possible
good could it do to hold rallies asking him to do just that?
It’s
also part of common Christian rhetoric that God’s will cannot be altered by us
piddling human beings. That would suggest that, no matter what Justice Kennedy
decides, whether God intervenes in that decision or not, it’s exactly according
to the plan that God always had and was always going to have. Praying about it
is… superfluous at best, isn’t it? Either God was going to allow Kennedy to
decide for himself, or he wasn’t. Either God intends for marriage equality to
happen, or he doesn’t. The prayer can’t move him to change his mind, so why
bother?
But
let’s suppose these people have some reason to believe that God will actually
change Justice Kennedy’s mind, but only if they pray for it. I suppose there’s
room in the many variations of Christian belief for that particular theology.
But then… isn’t that, well, really unethical? They’re essentially claiming to
believe they have access to the power to control other people’s minds, and are
willing to use it to achieve their political aims. That’s comic book
super-villain territory. If they actually had that ability, it would be scary
as hell. And yet ordinary, seemingly decent people not only don’t bat an eye at
these public calls for magical mind-control, they actually feel virtuous about
participating in them!
If such
a power existed, I’m sure it would be pretty tempting to use it. I’m sure there
are uses to which many people could justify putting it. And it doesn’t say much
about the people who believe they wield this power that this is the use to
which they believe it ought to be put: preventing gay people from getting
married. They’re not focusing their mind-control thought rays on preventing
ISIS from beheading and raping people, or asking God to “change the hearts” of
child molesters, or seeking to violate the free will of corporate CEOs for the
purpose of getting them to pay their employees a living wage. Or, hell, if
they’re really that convinced that being gay is so bad, and they’re already
convinced that the solution is to ask God to violate the sovereignty of
people’s minds, why aren’t they just asking him to make people stop feeling
attracted to others of the same sex? At least then, they’d be using this power
to alleviate suffering. But no, they
pray to mind-control folks into perpetuating a situation where large numbers of
people are in love and restricted from fully expressing it. They really, really
think they have the power to alter people’s minds, and the use they choose to
put it to is perpetuating misery? While at the same time crowing about their
own virtue? That is really kind of messed up.
Now, it
may seem like I’m getting a bit worked up here. And maybe I am, a little. But
there are limits to how upset I can really get. After all, as contemptible as I
may think it is that people calling for these sorts of prayer rallies think
they have the power to violate the minds of the Justices and choose to use it
in this way, the fact is that I don’t believe they have it. These rallies are
nothing more than religiously themed protests. And as such, the “power of
prayer” the organizers go on about focusing on our government’s decision-makers
is nothing more than the same power any protestor has in our democracy: the
power to have their voices heard by the government.
And I
think we should all be very glad that we don’t appear to live in a world where
there’s any more to it than that.
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