Re: Peace is Infuriating -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 19:16:38 04/13/08 Sun
Author: Erin Risch
Subject: Re: Peace is Infuriating
In reply to: Cara 's message, "Re: Peace is Infuriating" on 20:50:44 04/12/08 Sat

This reminds me a list I saw that was facetiously titled "Things Christian Like." One of the things on the list was called "Praying At Someone." I hadn't ever heard of this, but I guess I can conceive of it pretty easily. I guess to "pray at someone" you start praying out loud in the middle of an argument in the following manner: "God, I just pray that you would give my husband a better attitude about cleaning up around the house. I know that he would really love to have a serving heart, and he really struggles with that, so just please help him to realize that this is a good way to start. Amen."

It seems like the reason this is so infuriating is because it hides your strike in the language and guestures of self-sacrifice. Praying for someone is a kind guesture, something done most often for those we deeply care about. But in essence you are taking an act of love and turning it into an accusation.

But I'm wondering if even praying this way silently is akin to the Pharisees saying, "We wouldn't have killed the prophets if we had been there!" When you're praying for someone else to have a serving, submitting heart so that it will benefit you, you're failing to realize that perhaps forgiving them is your own act of self-sacrifice and something that you ought to be praying about as well.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]