Nothing Fails Like Prayer

I received this email Prayer Request from an unknown sender today that said (in red):

When you receive this, please stop for a moment and say a prayer for our troops around the world.

(Apparently, this person thinks mumbling words in your head for a minute or so will convince some supernatural entity that, for the moment, you are sincere about the troop’s well-being. But digging beneath the surface, what it implies is; “Fuck you, troops. I’m too busy talking to myself to do anything more constructive".)

There is nothing attached. Just send this to people in your address book. Do not let it stop with you. Of all the gifts you could give a Marine, Soldier, Sailor, Airman, & others deployed in harm's way, prayer is the very best one.

(This sanctimonious nonsense must have made the originator feel self-satisfied, safe in their own home, far away from any fighting where they don't need to be armed to the teeth to stay alive. Rather than have someone stop for a minute and think a few words about our military personnel, wouldn't those troops prefer to get the hell out of harm’s way, out of the combat zone, or at least have a fully functioning automatic weapon in their hands? If God is going to protect them, wouldn’t it be easier to eliminate the enemy, or eliminate the circumstances for the troops being deployed there? Why not ask for that if you really believe your praying is going to help?) 

Dear Lord, Hold our troops in your loving hands. Protect them as they protect us.  Bless them & their families for the selfless acts they perform for us in our time of need. In Jesus name, amen.
(So, if any of our soldiers, sailors, marines, or airmen get killed from this point on, can we sue God, Jesus, or the person who sent this email, for not honoring that plea? There’s nothing about stopping whatever it is they are there fighting, just begging for protection after our government started the war and sent them over there. And I have to wonder, is that blessing also extended to the soldiers, private contractors, or CIA who have committed crimes against the Afghani and Iraqi civilians?)

MAY GOD BLESS YOU FOR PASSING IT ON!!
(Of course, all capital letters means shouting so that God heard them say it. At least the writer is consistent...May nothing happen to you for forwarding this since you just did nothing for our troops, and now others can do nothing too.)


Believe                                                                 
(When a Muslim or a Hindu tells a Christian to 'believe' in their god, what is their reaction? Also, isn’t ‘believe’ what the people who’ve been abducted by aliens tell us we should do, just believe their story or believe in extraterrestrials?)

The irksome part of this gobbledy-gook is the people who send this junk email around actually believe they are doing God’s work. God isn't aware of this 'need' so they have to act as surrogates for this invisible, non-involved supernatural omniscient/omnipotent/omnipresent thing. This being never instructed them to pray for soldiers fighting in wars their government initiated in faraway places. Look through all the Bible verses you like…which one tells you to do anything close to what they ask in the email above? It’s simple…none. Jesus even supposedly said 'Love your neighbor', not slay your neighbor.

Here’s what ought to scare you if you believe in this God…what if he WANTS all those soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen and women where they are because he has plans to kill them all, or maybe it’s to allow the Taliban or al ’Qaida to win and show the people that Allah is the right God? 

Prayer…Jehovah already knows what you want, right?…So now he just want to hear you beg? That’s one hell of a god you believe in.