One last item on the subject of praying for Christopher Hitchens, which I discussed here and a few days later here. The idea enraged some of our atheist readers and baffled even a few Christians. I bring it up again to pass on something sent me by our frequent contributor Father Edward Oakes. It’s an except from an interview with Hitchens from the Hugh Hewitt show. (The entire interview is enjoyable.)
HH: The number of people I’m sure who are praying for you, including people who come up to me and ask me to tell you that, people like Joseph Timothy Cook, how are you responding to them, given your famous atheism?
CH: Well look, I mean, I think that prayer and holy water, and things like that are all fine. They don’t do any good, but they don’t necessarily do any harm. It’s touching to be thought of in that way. It makes up for those who tell me that I’ve got my just desserts. It’s, I’m afraid to say it’s almost as well-founded an idea. I mean, I don’t, they don’t know whether prayer will work, and they don’t know whether I’ve come by this because I’m a sinner.
HH: Oh, I . . . has anyone actually said that to you?
CH: Yeah, oh yes.
HH: Oh, my gosh. Forgive them. Well . . .
CH: Well, I mean, I don’t mind. It doesn’t hurt me. But for the same reason, I wish it was more consoling. But I have to say there’s some extremely nice people, including people known to you, have said that I’m in their prayers, and I can only say that I’m touched by the thought.
Among the comments on the first two posts, by the way, were some from Christians that criticized praying for Hitchens as an expression of “the celebrity culture,” and a kind of public pious showing off. This is a point to be considered, and one that’s bothered me in the past. It does seem both worldly and unjust to choose the famous for one’s prayers when so many others with whom you have a closer relation, like the old man at the other end of the pew on Sunday, need your prayers as well.
But beyond the obvious point that you can also pray for more people than you do, I think there are two reasons to pray for the Hitchens of the world, the first general, the second personal.
The first is that we are supposed to pray for the rulers of this world, and the liturgies of most churches include such prayers in the prayers of the people. These prayers speak solely of elected officials, but the principle can be extended to those who are rulers of a different sort: gifted writers who affect the culture for good and ill, for example.
The second — and as a personal reason it certainly doesn’t apply to everyone — is that we ought to pray for those for whose work or life we’re grateful because we have received something from them. It has nothing to do with their possible celebrity. Prayer is a natural expression of gratitude. I’ve been reading Hitchens’ work for years and benefited from it in several ways, ways that are distinct and more affecting than the effect of other writers I’ve read. Not to pray for him when he’s ill would be ungrateful.
July 20th, 2010 | 3:00 pm
If only Christians would stop their intrusion into our lives with their silly prayers. But they never do. Before long, they’re trying to teach my kids that evolution, condoms, and homosexuality are evil. This is why I meet them at the door and remind them that I reject their intrusion even at the point of prayer. Keep your religion to yourself.
July 20th, 2010 | 3:27 pm
Um, Ed, then why are you even reading any of this?
July 20th, 2010 | 4:22 pm
Agreed with Ed. Prayer don’t work of course, they don’t stop praying in Haiti but they still live amongst rubble.
July 20th, 2010 | 4:33 pm
RESPONSIBLE religious leaders will breathe a sigh of relief at the news that so-called intercessory prayer is medically ineffective. In a large and much touted scientific study, one group of patients was told that strangers would pray for them, a second group was told strangers might or might not pray for them, and a third group was not prayed for at all. The $2.4 million study found that the strangers’ prayers did not help patients’ recovery.
The results of the study, led by Dr. Herbert Benson, a cardiologist and director of the Mind/Body Medical Institute near Boston, came as welcome news. That may sound odd coming from an ordained minister. But if it could ever be persuasively demonstrated that such prayer “works,” our religious institutions and meeting places would be degraded to a kind of commercial enterprise, like Burger King, where one expects to get what one pays for.
By RAYMOND J. LAWRENCE
Published: April 11, 2006
Faith-Based Medicine
July 20th, 2010 | 4:35 pm
I am not surprised by Hitch’s good manners and would have expected no less from a man like him. I feel you are reading too much into this riposte however; he is not validating the efficacy of prayer obviously, he is just expressing gratitude for the sentiments from the Christian groups who are not sending him the vile and vengeful cruelty of sentiment that so many have from this religious section of society. By the way, you have repeated the mistake : it is ‘just deserts’ and not desserts; however sweet they maybe! Reread Hitch’s remarks and appreciate the subtlety of his expression and ability to rebuff without, clearly judging from your response, offending those that are part of a group who have belied the usual claims of the religious in terms of charity and loving thine enemy. It has been a pathetic onslaught from so many of you, and he deserves better as a man of immense courage, honesty and intelligence who totally disgrees with you on the subject of the supernatural. Like so many of us do.
July 20th, 2010 | 5:13 pm
I don’t mind having the unbelievers pop in. But it sure seems odd for them to come by just to talk about how terrible the religious folk are. I mean, what’s the point?
July 20th, 2010 | 5:34 pm
it sure seems odd for them to come by just to talk about how terrible the religious folk are.
And to call them terrible for offering a normal human kindness that Hitchens himself appreciated.
July 20th, 2010 | 6:29 pm
I will pray for you.
July 20th, 2010 | 6:38 pm
I cannot imagine a bigger waste of time than lurking on religion-themed boards waiting for an opportunity to declare that prayer is a waste of time.
Since atheists believe this life is all there is, you would think they would be out using the short time allotted to them in more productive ways.
July 20th, 2010 | 6:38 pm
“In a large and much touted scientific study, one group of patients was told that strangers would pray for them, a second group was told strangers might or might not pray for them, and a third group was not prayed for at all.”
My goodness. Putting God to the test, and assuming that He will be too dumb to notice.
July 20th, 2010 | 7:59 pm
Sorry to hear that Hitchens is suffering from cancer of the esophagus. My father died from this last Sept. 8th. Illness and suffering, I think, is less often a punishment for sin than it is a gift by which we draw closer to God. May he come to know how very much he is loved by God, in time to accept that love and allow it to heal his soul.
July 20th, 2010 | 9:28 pm
I believe that it’s ridiculous to believe that diseases, accidents, being a victim of crime, etc., is a result of God “punishing” people. We simply don’t know why these things happen, the universe is too complex. But I do know that a loving God, who transcends us in every category, does not “punish” people.
Hitchens is an extraordinary individual. I’ve admired his courage, and his talents.
Nancy Marie: I’m very sorry to hear about your father. I think you’re right. It’s not about punishments.
July 20th, 2010 | 9:42 pm
As a former Catholic, want to be priest, current Hospice social worker and agnostic/atheist, I say this: Love Christopher despite his beliefs on the wars. He keeps thoughts, disagreement alive and thoughtful. I know enough to know that no one has the answers. I do not believe in any current religious paradigms but know well enough that there is much we do not understand and am humble enough to know that I can, and often do, be proven wrong over and over again. I wish you well Christopher as I do for all of us as we struggle with this journey. Take care all.
July 20th, 2010 | 10:28 pm
Hitch has always reserved his vitriol for organized religion with its hierarchy of priests as well as religious beliefs that lead people to defend the indefensible or do the unthinkable.
If religious people want to spend a few moments to keep him in their thoughts and pray for his recovery, I think he’s being honest that he really doesn’t mind. It tends to fall more in the realm of private reflection and belief — something that really is not anyone else’s concern to begin with. The fact that it reflects a sense of solidarity and appreciation of him even among the devout is certainly touching.
I will add that it is very sad to see Hitchens afflicted with such a nasty illness at what might be the peak of his influence.
July 21st, 2010 | 3:08 am
I think prayer needs to become sophisticated, in that, one prays to be self aware of the connectivity to others in this world. This awareness would lead people to know that they must take action in their own life to make a difference in other people’s lives in a physical manner. Like volunteering at their local cancer center or a home for the elderly who are dying to spend time with them. This is what prayer should become. A wake up call that we can’t ask for things, but must be thankful for what we already have and to make changes when possible rather than asking for passivity to accept things you can’t change. People, put your foot down. Chris is a man, just a man, but he is also a reflection of you and you him, regardless of beliefs. You see him and you take care of yourself and others whom you can reach, physically.
July 21st, 2010 | 6:03 am
In the Anaphora of St. Basil the Great, dating to the fourth century and still used seven times a year by the Churches of the Byzantine-Constantinopolitan rite, a Summa Theologica in miniature, we implore God to remember
“those who stand before tribunals, and those in exile and in all kinds of tribulations and accidents, and all those who have need of your great mercy: those who love us, and those who hate us, and those who have begged us, unworthy though we may be, to remember them in our prayers”.
And there it is, in a nutshell–we pray to God for those who need our prayers, regardless of whether they are believers, regardless of whether they want our prayers, and regardless of our own personal worthiness and sanctity. We do this because in our baptism we have put on Christ and entered the path of theosis, whereby we will become partakers of the divine nature. That means we shall become by grace and adoption what Christ is by nature–sons of God–and to do that, we must do as Christ did, forgiving those who have trespassed against us, and praying for the forgiveness and healing of the whole world.
July 21st, 2010 | 7:05 am
Regardless of faith, or lack of it, anyone who sends a message of gloating or meanness to a seriously ill person is a jerk. Gandhi was right when he stated that so many so-called Christians are so unlike their Christ!
July 21st, 2010 | 7:13 pm
“If only Christians would stop their intrusion into our lives with their silly prayers. But they never do.”
If only this were true to the extent that we should be doing. But what a good testimony, anyway.
July 21st, 2010 | 7:15 pm
“Regardless of faith, or lack of it, anyone who sends a message of gloating or meanness to a seriously ill person is a jerk. Gandhi was right when he stated that so many so-called Christians are so unlike their Christ!”
When a prominent Christian becomes ill, all those messages of comfort and encouragement from atheists are appreciated, I’m sure.
July 21st, 2010 | 7:17 pm
(Actually, I do agree with vix’s first sentence. It’s Gandhi’s condescending remark that always irks me.)
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