Norma Furness – 9/17/08

This page was last updated on September 25, 2008.

Political use of prayer backfires; Norma Furness; Beaver County Times; September 17, 2008.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“On July 30, Stuart Shepard of the right-wing Focus on the Family called for Christians to pray for ‘abundant torrential’ rain during Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at Invesco Field.

“If I remember correctly, it was a beautiful night.

“Moving forward to the Republican convention, I remember that it was disrupted due to, guess what, abundant torrential rain and a destructive hurricane.”

[RWC] Did Ms. Furness notice the “abundant torrential rain and a destructive hurricane” took place primarily in southern Louisiana, a predominantly Democrat area?

“I really do think that people should be more careful in choosing the things that are called for by prayer. It just might backfire on you.”

[RWC] Backfired? Ms. Furness failed to mention the Republican convention got the highest ratings in convention history and was seen by more people than any previous convention.

Ms. Furness also failed to mention the Democrats (Former DNC chairman Don Fowler was one; Michael Moore was another.) who declared Hurricane Gustav showed God was on the Democrat side. Apparently, a minor disruption to the Republican convention was “worth” what happened to the millions of citizens in the path of Gustav.

The above notwithstanding, I was always taught you don’t pray for bad things to happen.