This was an interesting find today. Kevin Drum, over at his blog on Mother Jones, offers us this graph, adapted from a post on a website called Secular Right, showing the frequency of prayer plotted against strength of partisanship:

Drum comments:

The data is from the General Social Survey. Apparently, strong political partisans also tend to pray a lot. Weak partisans and independents, not so much. The effect is roughly the same if you confine the analysis to whites only.

Why? Is it just a reflection that some people are strong believers and others aren’t, and this temperamental cast applies to everything they believe in? Or is it something else? Speculate away!

Its not directly related to this point, but its been frequently reported that there is a strong correlation between “weekly church goers” and republican affiliation, but I’ve long suspected (and have seen some evidence for the notion that) if one looked at “not-quite-weekly church goers” the numbers even out much more. The data that form the basis of this graph seem to bear out the notion that its not right to correlate faith with a particular partisan affiliation. But what does it mean that those with comparitively weaker partisan affiliation seem to report praying less?

I’m not sure…

Ms. Kairos rarely approaches me with sermon topics, but she said I should think about preaching someday on all of this.

The day after I watched the PBS broadcast of The New Medicine a study on the effects on prayer for others (or intercessory prayer) is out, showing, at least with this sample, little medical benefit:

The largest study yet on the therapeutic power of prayer by strangers has found that it provided no benefit to the recovery of patients who had undergone cardiac bypass surgery.

In an unexpected twist, patients who knew prayers were being said for them had more complications after surgery than those who did not know, researchers reported Thursday.

The complications were minor, and doctors surmised that they could have been caused by the increased stress on patients worried that their conditions were so bad they needed prayers.

…

Dr. Herbert Benson, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and one of the study’s lead researchers, added: “Nothing this study has produced should interfere with people praying for each other.”

Interesting, for sure. But then again, what do we think prayer is all about (which is the fundamental question, I gather). Do we think that prayer must yield what we are praying for to be effective, or worthwhile, or heard by God? No. On the other hand, should we assume that God doesn’t have the ability to answer our prayers in this way? No.

Prayer is attention to and communication with God. We bring others to God in prayer out of our love and concern for both God and for them, in our hopes and beliefs that God will tend to their needs, and ours. The
assurance is that God will do so. Not always by better medical outcomes. Maybe not often by better medical outcomes. But God will so tend to our needs. And by praying we pay attention to God who is already at work in that situation, making all things new…

Watching a wonderful PBS series “The New Medicine” on the scientific evidence behind the benefit of meditation (and prayer) on stress and therefore health and medicine.

Now, I think this series is a bit strong in calling this “new.” I remember reading and discussing studies about these things during my CPE rotation. But its good to see some of this gaining ground.

Stolen, word for word, from a plax over at fear and trembling:

Worth Reading Aloud
…are the following words in the form of a prayer by Saint Augustine.

Most high, utterly good, utterly powerful, most omnipotent, most merciful and most just, deeply hidden yet most intimately present, perfection of both beauty and strength, stable and incomprehensible, immutable and yet changing all things, never new, never old, making everything new and leading the proud to be old without their knowledge; always active, always in repose, gathering to yourself but not in need, supporting and filling and protecting, creating and nurturing and bringing to maturity, searching even though to you nothing is lacking: you love without burning, you are jealous in a way that is free of anxiety, you repent without the pain of regret, you are wrathful and remain tranquil. You will a change without any change in your design. You recover what you find, yet have never lost. Never in any need, you rejoice in your gains; you are never avaricious, yet you require interest. We pay you more than you require so as to make you our debtor, yet who has anything which does not belong to you? You pay off
debts, though owing nothing to anyone; you cancel debts and incur no loss. (Confessions I.iv)

Go ahead.  Make them yours….