The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #118245   Message #2561292
Posted By: Nickhere
08-Feb-09 - 07:44 PM
Thread Name: BS: Nurse Suspended for praying ????
Subject: RE: BS: Nurse Suspended for praying ????
Glad you're feeling better Micca! I have a close relative in hospital at the moment as well, and it's tough seeing someone so sick, you want to do all you can to help them.

Just one tiny thing though, speaking for myself anyway - you mentioned "My God is better than your Goddess and therefore, because I have a hot line to the On High, I can save you/ease your pain/ help/ where you are powerless"

Speaking for myself, that wouldn't be my motive in offering to pray for someone's physical recovery if I made such an offer. As for being powerless, I am just as powerless as the next person, regardless of who or what my 'god' is. I don't think any real Christian thinks of themselves as being any better than anyone else; I and quite a few that I know in fact seem to think the opposite, are sharply aware of how we don't measure up to the ideal we would like to.

I humbly suggest that as you said "This MAY not be what is meant but is how I perceive the offer "to pray for me"
In other words, it IS a perception rather than necessarily a fact. Earlier on I mentioned my reaction should a Wiccan offer to chant (is 'pray' the correct word? I forget - I did dabble many years ago, right up to setting up my own coven). In short the intention is important. If a Wiccan came in 'in good faith' so to speak, to do me a good turn by saying whatever incantation they thought beneficial, I would politely decline but thank them for their kind thoughts. I don't subscribe to their beliefs anymore but would be able to appreciate the kindness anyway.

On the other hand, should a Wiccan come in to chant over me for the primary purpose of 'showing off' or imposing on me (for want of a better way of explaining it) I think I would be able to detect the tone and would be less than pleased. Not so much with the Wiccan but with the manner in which things were being done. I would be just as unhappy if any Christian came in and prayed over my head in such a manner. I would just have to hope that God could make the best of a bad case in that latter situation!!

All I'm suggesting is to apply the same kind of discernment to whatever offers of help / prayer / chant are made to you, whatever the belief they spring from is. If you don't feel that someone is out to impose on you, a polite 'no thank you' goes a long way. If it falls on deaf ears, you can be more sure you're dealing with the 'pompous' kind!