Posted on 08/09/2011 1:36:27 PM PDT by Do Not Make Fun Of His Ears
There are vertical prayers and horizontal prayers. Vertical prayers are directed heavenward. Horizontal prayers are directed sideways at others.
It fills me with misgivings when a possible Presidential candidate warms up by running a "prayer rally" in a Texas sports stadium.
A prayer "rally?" I can think of words like gathering and meeting that might more perfectly evoke the spirit. Prayer rallies make me think of pep rallies. Their purpose is to jack up the spirits of the home team and alarm the other side.
Of course the other side has its own pep rallies, presumably leaving it to God to choose sides. That is why team prayers before a game strike me as somewhere between silly and sacrilegious. No infinite being can possibly care if Illinois beats Michigan. No God worthy of the description intervenes in the drift of a field goal kick.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.suntimes.com ...
Interesting. Seems like a bunch of crackpots. What was Perry’s prayer, specifically?
It is alarming that Perry would ally himself with such weirdos, if reports are accurate.
Reports are never accurate
Enjoy Hell, Mr. Ebert.
OK..........................
I think we know all we need to know about his teenage experience ~ too many hormones, not enough couths and slick!
“And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”
- Matthew 6:5-6, KJV
Roger Ebert should probably stick to movie reviews but maybe he was also right about horizontal prayer.
As I understand that, it is in no way an admonition against public prayer.
Christ prayed publically. So did the disciples. Public prayer has been a vital part of Christianity from the beginning.
Christ said not to pray as the hypocrites do, in publically, with the only goal in mind to be seen of men.
He is talking about the Pharisees and the like.
It is possible to pray publically without such hypocritical motives.
That’s my understanding anyway.
And also I understand Ebert is a liberal scumbag, politicizing prayer for his own liberal motives. Truly disgusting.
Do I agree with every theological point of all of the ‘behind the scenes sponsors’? Probably not. Am I gonna stand with ‘the accuser of the brethren’? Deffinitely not.
“I also note that Ebert isn’t complaining about the iftar dinner being hosted at the White Hut for ramadan.”
Yeh what are few shout outs to Al Quada and Hamas among friends.
If Ebert hates it, I like it.
Did someone make a movie about Rick Perry?
The world won't stop spinning if you don't pass his little pensées on to a wider audience every time he farts out a new one.
Your interpretation of what you are reading requires counsel ~
“Not every one that says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 7:21
IHOP teaches that their intercessory missionaries can pray down judgement on unbelievers. In their end time teaching they also say they will be able to pray Christ into returning as well. What craziness! This is totally the opposite of true Christianity and what the Bible teaches.
“But I say to you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;” Matthew 5:44
Thanks for link to the article; I enjoyed reading it. Thoughtful and well-researched and written.
I would say, IMHO, that the behind-the-scenes sponsors (as you put it) are not what would be referred to as mainstream Christian theological orthodoxy, especially in regards to eschatology (but that’s a whole different can of worms).
Of course, Mr. Perry has the Constitutional right to pray with and to whoever he wants. Personally, I suspect a political motivation in this event as much as a spiritual dimension. What better way to align himself with the evangelical base prior to making an announcement that he’s going for the brass ring?
We shall see, but I strongly suspect that this New Apostolic Movement has some connection with Christian Reconstructionism.
The similarity between Christian Reconstructionists and IHOP is superficial. Christian Reconstructionists are postmillennialists, believing Christ will return after the millennium (or as they put it, Christianity is successful in history). But Reconstructionists are also a form of Calvinism and do not accept the charismatic belief that God speaks today apart from the Bible. This idea is the very heart of IHOP’s theology. A more appropriate movement to compare IHOP would be The Third Wave as advocated by C. Peter Wagner, one time professor of church growth at Fuller Theological Seminary.
Let's face it. A politician's main goal in mind is usually to be heard and seen of men. So it is not an unjustified suspicion to think that perhaps a politician praying in public is hypocritically trying to prove how devout he is. I don't come from Texas but nothing I have heard about Perry so far has inclined me to think that he is holier or less of a demagogue than other politicians.
Thanks.
No disagreement about Perry’s opportunism.
From what I've read, Perry committed to this event quite long ago, before he was even considerin entering the presidential race. Some of his advisors thought he should back out because of his potential run for the WH in 2012, but he refused.
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