STORY OF THE WEEK: The Prayer I Just Can’t Pray Anymore
Saying no to my former self… and my Evangelical friends
Despite no longer considering myself an evangelical, I still have many friends who do. So, I try to walk the line between respecting their beliefs and saying a firm “no” to the aspects of evangelicalism that I believe are harmful.
This has created a few awkward moments.
For example, when an evangelical friend gave me a prayer request the other day, I politely refused to pray for what he asked. “I’m sorry, I cannot pray for that,” I said.
It was the kind of prayer request that wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow in the evangelical church world, but I just can’t pray it anymore. In fact, even if I did pray it, I’m not sure God would answer it, anyway.
You see, my friend is running a Christian youth camp. The goal of this youth camp is to convince young people to become Christians. The method of getting these young people to become Christians is to convince them that they are wicked and sinful and in need of the mercy of God, who has poured out the punishment for our wicked sinfulness on his own son, Jesus Christ… apparently.
Evangelicals call this message the “Gospel,” which, ironically, means the “Good News.”
It doesn’t sound like good news to me.
However, to my friend, this is THE good news. And so, he sent through a prayer request that said this:
“Please pray that the Spirit would convict the young people of their sinfulness and their part in the sin of this world.”
But I ain’t praying it.
No way.
Here’s why.
The choice that isn’t a choice
When Evangelicals present their version of the “gospel,” it usually goes something like this: “You were born sinful from birth, and the punishment for your sinfulness is eternal conscious torment in a place called Hell. However, God sent his Son, Jesus, to take the punishment for your sins so that if you choose to believe in him, you won’t go to Hell.”
Step one in converting someone to “Christianity” by this method is convincing a person that they are so wicked that they are destined for Hell without intervention from God. That intervention comes to us in the form of Jesus Christ: Choose Jesus and live. They call this “the good news,” and they present it as a free choice every human has to make.
But, let me ask you a question. Does this really seem like much of a free choice to you? I mean, I can get people to do a lot of things if I threaten them with death. If I point a gun at a person and say, “You have a choice to do what I ask, or I’ll kill you,” does that really constitute a choice? After all, if I threaten to torture a person, I could get them to say whatever I want ninety-nine times out of a hundred. Heck, I might even get them to profess that they believe me to be God.
And if I pin a person face-down on the ground, hold their arms behind their back, and dig my knees into their kidneys, I could probably force them to say they loved me if I promised to get off their back. But would they actually love me?
No.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Backyard Church to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.