Prayer

There is more than one definition, or type, of prayer. One website lists seven different categories, but for the purpose of this blog post I will narrow it down to two: (1) Prayer thanking, worshipping or praising a god or (2) Asking for something, either for yourself or on behalf of others. I'm going to  address #2 exclusively in this blog post.

People ask God for things all the time. Sometimes it's fairly petty, like finding a parking spot, or praying that the new recipe for Chicken Bonfiglio came out all right. Other times the stakes are bigger, like petitioning God for that promotion at work or that you submitted a successful bid for that house you so wanted. And then there's the really big items: that the line of tornadoes miraculously misses your town, or at least, your house, or begging God for that pesky cancer to go away. But does all this praying do any good? By "any good" I mean does the thing that is prayed for actually come to pass? 

I think that the honest answer is a resounding "NO".

Sure, you can find people who will tell you that they prayed for a specific outcome that subsequently came to pass. I have no doubt that they're right. After all, tornadoes don't hit every town, or every house in a town that they hit. Cancer often does go into remission, never to return. (And we sometimes get the parking spot, the Chicken Bonfiglio is a success, and we get the promotion). But the ugly truth is that there are myriad examples where houses are destroyed by tornadoes and cancer patient die painful, drawn-out deaths. It stretches the bounds of credulity to suppose that none of those who suffered various catastrophes prayed, that they were all atheists, or God-deniers of one type or another. And I'm sure that we can all think of examples of God-believing, religious people, who led exemplary lives, whose prayers were for naught. 

Believers address this in different ways. For those who have avoided the more horrible of circumstances, they can smugly assert that their continued health, safety and prosperity is due to their godliness and the frequent utilization of prayer. The more realistically-minded (including theologians) devise explanations to explain why prayer obviously doesn't "work" 100% of the time. One explanation I'll broadly call the "mysterious ways" or the inshalla explanation. This umbrella category includes the belief that God, no matter what the situation looks like, has a plan, and that the disaster that you are experiencing is part of a greater plan that you just don't understand - you not being God after all. A subset of this belief is the theory that there is a benefit to suffering, and that you will be a better person in some undefined way by enduring. A different theology holds that it's not God's decision at all. Since it says in the Bible that "whatever you ask in prayer, believing you will receive", then it's the fault of the individual, not God, when bad things happen. This theory insists that there are numerous "promises" in the Bible that are guaranteed as long as you believe them, and when you don't receive these promises, then obviously you didn't believe. Points to you if you recognized the circular reasoning of the latter theology. 

If you don't recognize the frustration inherent in both of these theologies, then you have a high tolerance for frustration indeed. If you accept the "God has a plan" view, you're going to be praying for things, with no assurance that God is going to comply. In fact, the God being described here is capricious and arbitrary. You have no way of knowing what actions are going to keep you healthy and safe, because God ain't gonna tell you! Why bother praying? If God is going to do whatever his mysterious plan entails, prayer has no affect! The other way isn't any better. God, at least, isn't described as the black hole that the former theory describes him, but it's a blame the victim theology. And, just like "God has a plan", there's no way determine what works and what doesn't. I was part of a group that subscribed to the "law of believing". Many times we thought we were believing God's promises but were convinced that some tiny sliver of doubt had crept in...it must have, or else we would have received, right?

Something I told a family member some years ago was "Maybe God isn't who (or what) you think he is". This was in response to her telling me about prayer fervently in a situation and the polar opposite coming to pass. Evaluating why you think prayer works, or why God is obliged to do what you think he should do, is as something I recommend that believers do. Despite there being a books written that allegedly describe God's attributes, most people create God in their own image, ignoring inconvenient parts of their holy books. Why do you believe God is an entity who is required to answer your prayers, rather than the God of the Deists who created the world, but then headed off to a warm, sunny beach with a good book and a cocktail with an umbrella in it. 

The other thing that I heartily recommend to anyone who is convinced that God answers prayers (in the affirmative) and believes that their prayers are answered without exception, or at least consistently) is to keep a log. Write down everything that they pray for, in detail no matter how insignificant or petty. Then, log the results. Honestly. Without editorializing on why it didn't come to pass or rationalizing why a non-result could be actually be a positive result, or how you got what you needed rather than what you asked for. I predict that the statistics will be disappointing. 

However, if anyone can honestly document a year of 90% or greater positive prayer results, I just may change my mind about the efficacy of prayer.

So, You Want to Join a Cult - Part XXXII - The Man of God for Our Time

So, we had our meeting with Gary & Mary, the Limb (state) Coordinators for The Way of Nebraska. Back in the seventies, pretty much anyone who was interested could show up unannounced to a Way meeting, and unless you were disruptive or overly  argumentative you could keep coming back for as long as you liked, although you weren't really considered "in" until you took the PFAL class. Things were different in 1990. Part XXX - From the Frying Pan outlined what was going on in The Way during our absence, the splintering of the organization that accompanied a rebellion among top leaders. Trust wasn't as easy to come by as it had been. While from our point of view the meeting was simply to touch base with the Way leaders and find out where fellowships were being held and when a PFAL class was going to run. That meeting looked a lot different from the other side. Gary and Mary were checking us out to make sure we weren't trying to infiltrate The Way from one of the splinter groups - to make sure that we, in short, would be good little cult members and not rock the boat. 

The first thing that we were asked to do after we were invited to be part of The Way was to attend a weekend presentation of what was euphemistically called "The Leadership Tapes". As I referred to in Part XXX - From the Frying Pan, Way President Martindale at some point decided that he was going to assert his de jure authority and demand that Way Corps leaders at all levels decide whether they would stand with him, the one anointed by Founder Wierwille, or what he referred to as the rebellious ones in the ranks. This resulted in an exodus of roughly 80% of Way leaders and membership. In order to regain control of the narrative he taught a series of seminars, first to the remaining leaders and later to non-leaders, explaining his understanding of what had happened to The Way and to him during what he began to refer to as "The Fog Years". These seminars were taped and were initially called "The Galatians Tapes", after Galatians 3:1 - "Oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?", but later were renamed "The Leadership Tapes". A group of us gathered at the home of Gary and Mary outside Syracuse (a small town a half hour east of our home in Lincoln) and spent the whole weekend listening to Martindale's rationale for allowing the organization he was entrusted with to explode.

Martindale's long and rambling explanation was predicated on the belief that 

1. The Way was more than just an organization it was literally all that was left of God's "household"
2. V.P. Wierwille was ordained by God to lead this "remnant"
3. L. Craig Martindale was anointed by Wierwille to be his successor

This put anyone who opposed him in the position of opposing God. 

While the belief in Wierwille and The Way being on a special mission to reestablish First Century truths was widely accepted and taken for granted, in the past it had been viewed as Wierwille accepting a divine commission to study and teach, rather than some pseudo-infallibility. Sure, there was an expectation that Wierwille's word was law and his interpretation of The Bible was not to be gainsaid, but it was more due to his skill at Biblical research rather than an intrinsic inability to be wrong. Now we were being encouraged to believe that there was some kind of magical-spiritual something that was conferred by God on Wierwille and passed on to Martindale that made any argument an argument against God.

Game changer.

The tapes broke down in minute detail, according to Martindale's point of view, the steps that his main antagonist, Wierwille's former bodyguard Chris Geer, took to undermine his authority and plunge The Way into chaos. Geer was portrayed not merely as power hungry, or a trouble maker, but almost wizardly in his abilities and demonic in his inspiration. Throughout the seminar, Martindale identified what he said were specific "devil spirits" (some Christians refer to these simply as "demons") operating within, not only Geer, but virtually every other person who opposed Martindale. This was not something being discussed as theoretical, or behind closed doors, or as a fringe idea; this was now the out-in-the-open, officially sanctioned policy and position of The Way. Martindale is "The Man of God for Our Time" (later jokingly turned into the acrostic MOGFOT) and anyone who opposes him, in any way, is possessed by devil spirits. 

Why didn't we run away as fast as we could after this? Mainly because we still harbored the thinking that the teaching found in The Way was as close to truth and Biblical accuracy as you could get, and we had missed the years of internal conflict, therefore missing out on hearing the other side's version of the conflict. At any rate, we were in the thick of it now.

Start at the beginning:

https://aesduir.blogspot.com/2019/10/so-you-want-to-join-cult-part-i.html

Part XXXIII

https://aesduir.blogspot.com/2022/10/so-you-want-to-join-cult-part-xxxiii.html

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power - Newbie Primer

This month The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power debuted on Prime TV. Here's a short primer on Middle Earth for the uninitiated -

The Beginning

God creates a bunch of gods and goddesses. They in turn create the world & everything in it. One of them, Morgoth, is an asshole, and tries to break everything. The rest of the gods and goddesses (known collectively as The Valar) defeat him and lock him up for a while. The Valar create a paradise to live in. There is no sun or moon, so one of the Valar creates two magical trees that give light to paradise.

The Elves

After a while the immortal Elves "wake up". One of the Valar finds them and they (The Valar) decide that for their own protection the Elves should be invited to come live in paradise. Some go, some don't. Elf culture thrives in paradise until the gods decide to let asshole Morgoth out of captivity. An Elf named Fëanor creates three jewels (The Silmarils) that glow with light from the Two magic trees. Morgoth steals the Silmarils, kills Fëanor's dad, destroys the light-giving trees and escapes out of paradise and sets himself up as a "Dark Lord" in Middle Earth. 

The First Age

Fëanor leads a large group of Elves out of paradise into Middle Earth to recover the Silmarils. One of the leaders is the family of Galadriel (who we meet in the movies and the series) On the way out he steals some ships from another group of Elves and kills a bunch of them. Then he burns the ships, stranding a rival group of Elves. Fëanor is also an asshole, but he is killed almost immediately. A 500 year war ensues. 

Once in Middle Earth, the Elf refugees discover Elves who never migrated to paradise, Dwarves, and Men, some of whom ally with the Elves in the war against Morgoth and his Orcs (who are Orcs? Long story) and evil Men. Lots of people die. Eventually Eärendil, who is descended from both Elves and Men with the help of one of the Silmarils that had been taken from Morgoth (long story), sails his ship to paradise to ask the gods for help. They give it, and an army led by the gods defeats asshole Morgoth. Surviving Elves are invited to come back to paradise. Some go, some don't. One prominent, high ranking Elf who stays is Galadriel. Oh, and a big chunk of the continent of Middle-Earth is submerged under the sea. 

Second Age

This is the time period in which The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power takes place. A remnant of the Elves set up a kingdom ruled by King Gil-Galad in the northwest of Middle Earth. There are other Elf kingdoms or cities scattered around. The Men who were loyal to the Elves (the Edain) are given the island of Numenor, halfway between Middle Earth and Paradise (which we will start calling the Undying Lands). Their first king is Elros, the son of the previously mentioned Eärendil. The twin brother of Elros is Elrond, who we are going to see a lot of. (Elrond and Elros, being half Elf and half Man were given the choice of living their lives as either - Elros chose to be mortal, Elrond chose Elven immortality.)

Sauron

During the Second Age Sauron, the right-hand man of Morgoth during the First Age, works toward accumulating power himself. In the books, he disguises himself as Annatar (Lord of Gifts) and works with Celebrimbor, an Elven smith, to create magical rings of power. The Elves think that these rings will be used to preserve what is good in the world, hold off the ravages of time and change, and enhance the natural magical powers of those who use them. Sauron wants to use them via one master ring  to dominate Elves, Men and Dwarves. The Elves figure it out and centuries of war ensue. 

Numenor

While all that is going on, Numenor starts out as the perfect place for Mortal Men. Eventually though, its kings and people begin to be jealous of the Elves and their immortality and the island kingdom starts to morph into a dictatorship and breaks off contact with the Elves. The last king of Numenor, Ar-Pharazôn, declares war against Sauron and defeats him, bringing him to Numenor as a hostage. Sauron weasels his way into the king's confidence and convinces the king to invade the Undying Lands. In response, God (the original, head God that we haven't heard from since creation) sinks Numenor (think Atlantis). Numenorean survivors escape to establish kingdoms in exile in Middle Earth. They defeat Sauron's army, seemingly kill Sauron and take the One Master Ring and almost immediately lose it. 

Third Age

The exile kingdoms thrive for a while, but eventually diminish. At the end of around 3000 years Sauron is back (he's basically a fallen angel, really hard to kill), and it looks like he's going to win until the One master Ring is thrown in the volcano. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings tell the story of the last years of the Third Age. 

What's Different in "Rings of Power"

There's a lot of room for non-canon storytelling in the Second Age. Galadriel is not portrayed in the books as a military leader, inspired by the death of her brother. In fact, all her brothers and male cousins, as well as her uncle and other assorted kin are killed in the 500 year war in the First Age. It's certainly possible for her to have been a military commander, but it's nowhere stated. There's around 6000 years between the beginnings of the Second Age and her appearance as a wise and magically powerful queen of the forest in The Lord of the Rings, plenty of time for her to change. One thing is certain, there is no evidence that passage to the Undying Lands was given as a reward for service, and especially wasn't forced on anyone. Galadriel specifically decided against returning there and founded Lothlorien with her husband Celeborn. In an unpublished manuscript she, as virtually the only survivor of those who led the exodus from paradise, is banned from returning to the Undying Lands. 

There's no mention in any published or unpublished sources of hobbits or of their precursors, the Harfoots. Tolkien spent very little time discussing the origins of hobbits. He does mention that they first came to anyone else's notice in the Third Age and that they descended from three different "tribes", the Fallohides, the Stoors, and the Harfoots. Gollum/Sméagol is said to belong to a group that were "...akin to the fathers of the fathers of the Stoors", which lived around 500 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings. So the Harfoots could have been around in the Second Age, it's just not stated anywhere. 

Nobody magically arrives by meteor in any of the books. 

The timeline is very compressed. As I stated earlier, the Second Age last around 3000 years. One review stated that the writers did not want to keep killing off the main human characters, so everything seems to be happening in one generation. The rise and fall of Numenor, for example stretches over the entire age. The forging of the rings by Celebrimbor takes place about halfway through the age, yet he is alive at the same time as Elendil and Pharazôn, who both were around at the end of the Second Age. 

The only really ridiculous things I have seen so far are:

1. Meteor Man - who arrives via a meteor. We have no idea who he is or if he is someone who appears in Tolkien's published works
2. Mithril - in Tolkien's books mithril is a metal that looks like silver and is stronger than steel. It is the strongest and most beautiful metal known. Bilbo's mail shirt is made of this metal. In the series, mithril has magical properties that come from it's supposed connection to a "lost Silmaril". The Elves need mithril (in the show) to avoid either returning to paradise across the sea or "fading". 

I'm sure more ridiculous things will present themselves. 

More to come as I watch more episodes.