Thanks for all of your comments. Most have been supportive, except 6of9, of course... LOL! What would I do without him? I intentionally dropped the letter and then ran away so as to avoid having to deal with the response, but it seemed to be very nice overall.
The only response I can make to issues like the prayers of an abused child is this: First, that's a hypothetical example and assumes no response - ergo it proves nothing about prayer.
Sorry, but I think if prayers were answered in the way your examples portray....then what would be the logic or fairness ? Someone else used the example of the prayers of powerless abused children ... also we have the prayers of a murderer's victim, a rapist's subject, those who live in wartorn countries whose families are decimated...all the suffering people on earth.
People are free to be cruel to each other. However, it is my experience and belief that those who pray will be given what they really need, as opposed to what they think they want. That's why I used the example of the JC meeting - I was powerless, and humiliated, but by praying that I would get the best out of it, I am now a stronger, kinder individual than I was before. Much less dogmatic on nonessentials, for instance.
Not that my experience rivals being abused - but prayer can help turn even that extremely negative circumstance into something that will help you make a better world. Try it, bisous. It's not a thing I can really explain, but if you asked God for help in dealing with your past and turning it into something that can help you become a better person, I know you will get an answer.
As for your complaint about fair, well, how much of that is God's fault? Most of the inequities in the world are the result of human greed, not human incompetence or natural disaster. Over half the population of the world is dependent on an economic equivalent of one dollar a day - is that fair, or God's fault? No, it seems to be the result of the international monetary system that exchanges currencies at rates that tend to flow the dollars back to Britain and America.
But if somehow I were among those 3 billion people, I know that my prayers would be answered in some fashion - whether food for that day, or the strength to endure hunger, or the power to revolt against my government... or even the ability to die - sometimes that's the way out, and when you believe in life after death, it doesn't seem so bad.
God is a person, I believe, precisely because he is so unpredictable. You can't pray for something and guarantee that you'll get it, nor could you ask your dad for something and get it all the time.
For those who don't believe in a Creator, that's not my problem and I'm not going to lose sleep over it. We all have choices. If people believe only in themselves, so be it. Back to work with my tools.
No, no real responsibility on my part to prove anything, but I have no desire to just walk away either. So, I laid my soul bare.
CZAR
