Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

[Go Biz]

If you deal in intangibles, you may sometimes find it difficult to prove to customers that you’re delivering a solid return on their investment. For instance, if you’re a consultant overseeing a sales team, it can be challenging to know — at least right away — if your advice is actually working. Or if you sell an energy-saving device, nobody’s going to know how it’s working until the utility bills start coming. But think how hard it is to prove a return on investment when you own a prayer business.

Joel Gross, 25, doesn’t seem daunted by that — nor by the fact that he is an agnostic. He now has a tiny stake in the $4.6 billion spent every year on Christian products and services, as reported by ChristianRetailing.com. Last August, he hung up his shingle on the Internet and created Prayer Helpers. The product Gross’s company sells: prayers. If you’re down and out and want someone to pray for you, you just send $9.99, and Prayer Helpers will pray for you.

It’s not as crass as it sounds. Gross recognizes that his business isn’t for all religious people. He says he sees this as a service for people who have private issues and don’t feel comfortable asking friends and family to pray for them. It should also be quickly noted that Gross, who says he was religious growing up, is also not the one doing the praying. He has a silent partner, a longtime friend from his youth, who studied religion in school and is a Christian, handling the customer service side of the business, which includes interacting with the people who email and doing the actual praying.

Read more here.

[From me]

I’ll undercut their deal everyday. If you want prayer from a follower of Jesus, who has an actual relationship with Him, I will pray for you for free. Somehow I don’t think Jesus intended prayers for cash.

What do you think?

[HT] Quinn Hooks

[The author of this article is definitely not a believer--these are his words not mine!]

[Beyond Chron]

When times get tough, as they are now, people turn to all sorts of things for comfort, drugs and alcohol among them. According to a recent report in the New York Times, they also traditionally find comfort in that great opiate of the masses: religion. Especially of the evangelical kind. Evangelical churches are reportedly booming because of the fear and uncertainty that people feel at a time when unemployment is at a record high and more people in this country are hungry, homeless and without healthcare than ever before.

Catholic and Protestant congregations are experiencing a windfall as well, but not to the extent of the fire and brimstone religions that make their preachers into media stars, not to mention very wealthy men. It’s a good time to be in the business of that old-time religion. As one evangelist preacher told the Times, “We have the greatest product on earth.” The world’s oldest profession might dispute that.

Upsurges in evangelicalism during difficult times are nothing new. In 1857, during the great financial panic that started with a bank failure (sound familiar?) and a sunken shipload of gold and led to railroads collapsing, a prayer revival meeting in Manhattan eventually prompted the conversion of tens of thousands and the creation of the Salvation Army.

As one businessman (a former Catholic) described it, by joining a fundamentalist church he’s found a sense of “God’s authority over everything — I feel him walking with me.” That’s all well and good, but will God pay the mortgage to keep the bank from foreclosing on the house? Religion is big business. And business takes advantages of people’s weaknesses. Nowhere is this more evident than the teen market. Teens are manipulated into buying all sorts of crap they don’t need, but if they don’t keep up with the kids in their class, they suffer from major self image problems. Not to mention lack of popularity or dates or both.

Adults do the same thing. They walk around with all sorts of must-have gadgets attached to their bodies — everything from cellphones and ipods to beepers and headphones. In the 60s, it was called “keeping up with the Joneses.” Now it’s just plain old crass consumerism.

Religion is just another crass thing we consume when we feel helpless and alone.

Read more here.

[From me]

Crass? I don’t know about that.  But I think God wants us to feel helpless because without Him we can’t do squat! Now a person doesn’t have to believe in God.  That is their choice.  But why make fun of us who do? Why not just ignore those of us who find hope in our faith?  

I’ve seen God do amazing things in my life. My new ministry has seen a huge upswing in people placing their faith in Christ.  But I’ll answer the author’s question. Is God going to pay for my house?  I’m trying to sell my house and we haven’t even had a person look at it.  Does that mean God isn’t real?  No, we live in a fallen world. There are lot more important things in the world than selling my home.  I’m praying God sells my house soon but as Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego said, “EVEN IF HE DOES NOT” I’m still going to praise God.  I can’t imagine living live without my faith.  If you chose not too–I respect you and won’t make fun of you but why do non-believers feel the need to dis my beliefs?

What do you think?

[Wall Street Journal]

Late next month, atheists, humanists, freethinkers, secularists — in short, nonbelievers of every description — will gather in dozens of cities to mark the holiday they call HumanLight.

Whether by singing from a Humanist Hymnal, decorating a winter wreath or lighting candles dedicated to personal heroes, they’ll celebrate what has been an exhilarating ride for the faithless — a surge in recognition that has many convinced they’re on the brink of making a mark on mainstream America.

During the past three years, membership has grown in local and national associations of nonbelievers. Books attacking faith as a delusion shot up best-seller lists. For the first time, the faithless even raised enough funds to hire a congressional lobbyist.

Building on that momentum, nonbelievers have begun a very public campaign to win broad acceptance. On billboards and bus ads, radio commercials and the Internet, atheists are coming forward to declare, quite simply: We’re here. And we’re just like you.

“We’ve had an undercurrent of emotional and academic support, but we’ve been waiting to make a movement happen,” said Joe Zamecki, an Austin landscaper who recently organized Texas’ first statewide convention of nonbelievers. “It’s a very new age.”

Not so fast, religious leaders respond. They point out that the vast majority of Americans believe in God. A poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life earlier this year found 71% of American adults are absolutely certain God — or some sort of universal spirit — exists, and a further 17% said they were fairly certain. Only 5% said flatly that they don’t believe.

Atheists “are talking to a very small slice of the population,” said Mathew Staver, a leading Christian conservative and law-school dean. “In some ways, they’re really just talking to themselves.”

Read more here.

[From me]

I still don’t understand the need to have a holiday for every group. Pretty soon we will have a holiday every day of the year. If Atheists don’t believe in God then they sure are obsessed with convincing everyone else He doesn’t exist.  Now why have a holiday for Atheists? An Atheist Hymnal?  I love that one.  What would be some of the Hymns?

• Have “Mine” own way “Me,” Have “Mine” own way. (Have Thine Own Way Lord)
• I love me (Jesus loves me)
• Just a closer walk with me (Just a closer walk with Thee)
• Not so Amazing Grace (Amazing Grace)
• I love me, me (I love you Lord)
• I exalt me (I exalt Thee)
• This is my own world (This is my Father’s World)

[Tennessean]

Atheists and other non-Christians can get a discount at Sunday’s God & Country Day at the Wilson County Fair, thanks to the efforts of local atheists.

Until this week, fair officials were offering a church bulletin discount only to Christian groups attending during the annual God & Country Day. But after local atheists complained, fair officials extended the discount to believers of all faiths and nonbelievers alike.

Blair Scott, national alliance outreach director for American Atheists, plans on attending God & Country Day. Several Alabama atheist groups plan to join Nashville atheists at the fair.

Scott is pleased that atheists will get the same discount as churchgoers, but he thinks the fair’s mix of patriotism and faith is misguided.

“We think they should get rid of the God & Country name — it lends credence to the perception of discrimination,” Scott said. “Whether they are trying to discriminate or not, perception is everything.”

Read about it here.

[From me]

I have no problem with the atheists getting a discount. I want to know why the church goers are not observing the Sabbath? Shouldn’t they be resting?

What do you think?