MortiBlog

Have a read of this post from NHS Blog Doctor. He links to this story in which a nurse offered to pray for a patient and got suspended.

Forgive the cliche but what is the world coming to? Apparently it’s because the nurse was “failing to show a commitment to equality and diversity” in doing this. I kind of see what they’re getting at but has our culture become so insensitive that an offer to pray is somehow offensive?

I can understand people not believing in God because they’ve not encountered Him. After all, how could you? But I’ve had this response a couple of times as well, where people have specifically asked me not to pray for them. This is one I have trouble getting my head around. The closest example I can think of is that as a Christian I don’t believe in luck, when people wish me “good luck” I tend to think “I don’t need luck, I have Jesus” but rather than saying that out loud I tend to thank them because I see the good intentions behind what they’re saying. “Good luck”, even though luck doesn’t exist, is still a nice friendly thing to hear.

Is someone not a Christian responding to an offer of prayer the same as me with luck? Whether or not it is I still see no reason for getting someone suspended. Not praying with someone (laying on hands and all that) is fair enough, in our culture such a thing could be rather awkward. So here is the question.

If you don’t believe in God, what’s the harm if someone does go away and pray for you?

The only thing I can think of is that the person refusing prayer is angry at God, Christianity or the Church. Some slight with a Christian in their past perhaps or just feel (like many do) as though Christianity has been rammed down their throats in more offensive ways in the past so that a simple offer to pray comes under that mental heading of “annoying Christians being annoying” to just the same extent.

I’ve said it before and in fact still say quite often that Christians evangelise out of love but some of us (myself included) have trouble doing so sensitively. The reason is often due to the Christian’s own insensitivity (the case with me for many years) but it is also because the gospel is offensive by nature. It’s a scandalous story that sounds ridiculous and demands a complete change in somebody’s lifestyle. It says that everyone is a sinner and everyone requires saving. What’s not offensive about that? Of course it’s offensive. Offering to pray for someone, however, that’s not offensive. That’s a kind Christian person trying to show love to someone in the best way they know how. As Christians we believe that the prayer that follows the offer will be heard by God and He may intervene and change the situation.

In church yesterday we were encouraged to offer to pray for people and not to shy away from it because we might be ridiculed or whatever. If this is the sort of thing that can happen when Christians offer prayer then that makes it all the more challenging. However we must still not shy away and I hope that Caroline Petrie won’t shy away from offering prayers in the future either.

And to those who aren’t Christians, if somebody offers to pray for you and you would prefer them not to then by all means say so but don’t kick up a fuss. Once the offer’s made they’ll probably pray for you anyway because they care about you and believe it will help you.

I think this is another case where in fearing the necessity of the ideas of “equality and diversity” an element of freedom has been lost. It’s like the government would want us all to be quiet little robots getting on with our jobs and keeping our core beliefs and opinions to ourselves. What’s the point in that kind of life? God gave us the free will to turn to Him or turn away from Him and face the consequences ourselves, He does not try to control us, despite what you might think. The Alpha Course is, I think, a fine example of God’s way of doing things. Ask any question you like, discuss anything you like, as long as you’re searching for an answer it will be beneficial and, once you are genuinely searching for answers and open to receive them, the answers will be given to you.

Us Christians do not go out of our way to anger people or to make them uncomfortable. Our goal in our workplaces is to glorify God by what we do and to share the love that God gives us with those around us. We’re not saying we’re better than anyone else or trying to force our beliefs on you, all we want to do is show you something of the glory and the love of God because He’s been so good to us.

If the Christians can be suspended for offering prayer then the atheists can be suspended for saying “good luck”. And that, my friends, is madness.