Vain Repetition

At the time of writing this post, the US election is not quite over. The mainstream media (now including the Murdoch empire) are presenting the strong likelihood that the Biden-Harris ticket will turn out to have won, but President Trump and his loyal supporters appear optimistic of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, with the aid of legal arguments, aggressive protest outside the vote counting stations, and of course prayer.

In this post, I want to talk about a prayer session on the Thursday after the election led by Paula White-Cain, Trump's controversial spiritual advisor.

Presidential spiritual adviser Paula White is currently leading an impassioned prayer service in an effort to secure Trump's reelection. pic.twitter.com/hCSRh84d6g

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) November 5, 2020

A number of people have offered musical interpretations and mashups. @pjgrisar of @jdforward saw parallels with Steve Reich's 1965 composition It's Gonna Rain, which used a tape recording of an apocalyptic Pentecostal street preacher called Brother Walter.

Meanwhile, many people took to social media to remind Mrs White of something Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. (Matthew 6:7).

Regular readers of this blog may not be surprised to learn that this verse has been subject to many different translations and interpretations, going back at least as far as Martin Luther. (The Greek version features the curious word battalogein, but Jesus's original words were probably in Aramaic.)

Theologians sometimes argue that there is no problem with repetition as such, the problem is with the vanity of the repetition. Steven Winiarski argues that repetition becomes vain when it is used with bad motives. Bad motives for repetition include any attempt to use music and repetition to elicit a purely emotional response, to gain a personal audience, or to manipulate God.

So what exactly was the purpose and intended effect of Mrs White's incantation?

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P.J. Grisar, Paula White’s wild Trump sermon is begging for the Steve Reich treatment (Forward, 5 November 2020)

Tom McCarthy, Rupert Murdoch-owned US outlets turn on Trump, urging him to act with 'grace' (The Guardian, 7 November 2020)

Seren Morris, Paula White's Trump Prayers Go Viral on Twitter, Inspire Memes and Remixes (Newsweek, 5 November 2020)

Nicholas Till, Joy in Repetition: Critical genealogies of musical minimalism (Performance Research 20:5, 2015)

Steven Winiarski, Music, Culture, and Vain Repetition: Matthew 6 in its Context (Artistic Theologian 4, 5 April 2016)

Wikipedia: It's Gonna Rain, Language of Jesus, Matthew 6:7, Paula White

Related post: Worshipping the Golden Calf (October 2008)

Power of Prayer 2

In his Holiday Thoughts, Robin Wilton questions the point of intercession.

Many people talk about prayer as if it is some species of communication device - transmitting requests of various kinds to the Almighty. Some people apparently prefer to send these requests through an intermediary, such as a saint or other holy figure. The intermediary may perhaps perform various functions within a communication system, including filtering out inappropriate or insincere requests, and reinforcing appropriate and authentic ones. In other words, the intercession has some purpose within the design of some supernatural system of prayer.

Prayers may be said for oneself or others, including figures of authority. It is customary within some religious traditions to send prayers on behalf of temporal and spiritual leaders - including Presidents, Prime Ministers, Princes, and Popes. This seems to be another form of intercession - at least if we imagine that these people have the power to alter our (temporal and/or spiritual) world for the better.

In an earlier post, however, I stated an alternative view of the Power of Prayer. On this view, the purpose of prayer is not to influence the will of the Almighty, but to align ourselves to the will of the Almighty. We need to understand prayer in terms of its effect on the person praying. Prayer is not a technical instrument (Heidegger: Einrichtung), but a focal practice (Borgmann).

How does intercession fit into this view of Prayer? By invoking additional persons, the prayer extends the boundaries of the System - not just an isolated individual in a private relationship with the Almighty, but a human being in a shared and socially grounded relationship with a religious institution (such as a Church). Such prayers create bridges (above all, in the mind of the person praying) between the mundane world of politics and the spiritual world of saints and souls.

No doubt lots of Americans are praying for George Bush, and a rather smaller number of Brits praying for Tony Blair. Both men have made a public show of their own religious faith, and presumably spend some time praying themselves, so it's hard to imagine what effect such additional prayers might be supposed to have on the two men themselves. But if you include Bush and Blair in your prayers, this might help you focus your prayers (and your own energies) on the needs of the real world, rather than some vague Narnia.

 

Wikipedia: Device Paradigm

Power of Prayer

What is the purpose of prayer?

If you imagine that the primary purpose of prayer is to heal the sick, then your faith in prayer might be disturbed by a recent study that questions its effectiveness at achieving this particular outcome.

The study, published in the American Heart Journal, appears to show that prayers offered by strangers had no effect on the recovery of people who were undergoing heart surgery. [sources: Associated Press (via MSNBC, Kansas City Star) and New York Times (via Herald Tribune, InfoShop)]

Some defenders of prayer including Bob Barth (representing a Missouri-based prayer organization called Silent Unity) insist that "prayer works". Narc Twain finds this baffling, and concludes that "god isn't going to be the one to step in and save any of us. even those who pray".

In the film Bruce Almighty, prayer is shown from God's perspective as being like millions of incoming emails, all asking God to do something. What is the difference between asking God to allow a particular person to recover from a particular ailment and asking God for a new bike? Adam Shostack suggests that Vengeful God Hurts Those With Demands, and suggests that "if there is a god, he prefers those who help themselves".

The study on the effects of prayer sound like sending mass petitions to God. Hey God, here is a batch of similar prayers, could you possibly see your way to healing this guy? Does this sound like authentic prayer?

In a article called How Should Christians Respond?, Donald S Whitney (Center for Biblical Spirituality) argues that the studies are scientifically flawed and/or irrelevant. Whitney starts by attacking science and scientists. "The fatal flaw in this research is the assumption that prayer can be successfully evaluated by white-coated people with notepads using test tubes, Petri dishes, and algorithms." (As if notepads and algorithms are works of the Devil.) But he concludes with a more profound argument. For the devout, prayer isn't a means to an end; it is a practice commanded by God. If it has any effect at all, it is purely on the spiritual state of the person praying - an authentic relationship with God.

If religious people present prayer (or chanting or fasting or any other practice) as a mechanism for achieving worldly ends - including material, physical and emotional well-being - then they cannot complain when it is evaluated in these terms. Prayer becomes merely a routine, like jogging or cleaning your teeth. Or it becomes an emergency service, to be invoked only in desperation.

But for many deeply religious people, the correct prayer or chant is not "My Will Be Done" but "Thy Will Be Done". Inshallah/Mashallah. Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. Through prayer or chanting one learns how to fulfil God's will, or devotes oneself to the Mystic Law.

Now this discussion might not seem very important if you don't happen to think that prayer is important. But there is a more general point. Once we start to talk about prayer (or any other practice) as a mechanism with a set of predictable effects, it becomes akin to a technological device and subject to evaluation on these terms. And as soon as we trumpet the utilitarian benefits of something, we start to lose their deeper meaning and value. Is the purpose of strawberries merely to provide a good source of vitamin C? Is the purpose of Mozart merely to improve the intelligence of unborn children?

Are there some focal things and practices that shouldn't be subject to the vagaries of POSIWID?

 

See Power of Prayer 2 (December 2006)