Holy Outsourcing

Now, Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from the St. Louis Post Dispatch, July 6, 2004, with the headline: “Farming Out Prayer—First it was millworkers’ jobs that were being sent overseas. Then it was blue collar and back office jobs, then banking, and even corporate headquarters went offshore.

“What’s next? Prayer. The New York Times reports that with Catholic priests in short supply, churches in the United States, Canada, and Europe, have been sending prayer requests to Catholic clergy in India. Most of India’s 1,000,000,000 people are Hindu, but 20,000,000 are Catholic—many concentrated in the southwestern state of Kerala. There, priests earn about $45 a month and are glad to get the $5-$10 that usually comes with the prayer request. Especially since the local price is about $.90.

“In Western Churches, the faithful purchase Mass cards, entitling them to have a special intention included in prayers said during a Mass. In some dioceses the demand for prayer outstrips the supply of Masses, so the work is shipped overseas, often by email.

“The Reverend Paul Thelakkat, a spokesman for the India’s Syro-Malabar Church told the Times, “The prayer is heartfelt, and every prayer is treated the same, whether it is paid for in dollars, euros, or in rupees.”

Tom: (Snickering) Dave, this is a tough one: “The prayer is heartfelt, and every prayer is treated the same, whether it is paid for in dollars, euros, or in rupees.”

You know, I grew up Roman Catholic, and I can remember the Mass card, people filling them out, sending money to the priests. I can remember widows trying to get their husbands out of purgatory and paying the priest for Masses to be said for this and that. And the priest not ever able to tell the person whether how much, how many Masses, how much money was needed and so on. This is not God’s way.

Dave: That’s how they built St. Peter’s in Rome, by the way. Charging for getting people out of purgatory. You remember the little jingle “as soon as a coin in a coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs.” That was Tetzel, the Dominican priest. And that was one of the things that upset Martin Luther.

But the Lutherans and the Catholics have now signed a document, as you know, the Declaration on Justification by Faith, and saying, Oh we’re all in agreement now. And that hasn’t changed one iota in the Catholic Church, has it? They still have Mass cards, they still wear scapulars that say, “If you die wearing this scapular, you will not suffer the flames of eternal fire,” on and on it goes.

And how, Tom, how it can be heartfelt when you don’t even know this person? This is by rote; this is like mechanics. The Bible says, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much,” but it doesn’t promise that every prayer will be answered. But this is like a coin-operated machine, you know? It’s contrary to everything we said about God in our first segment.

God is not some coin-operated machine, and you put the coin in and out comes an answer to a prayer. On the other hand, Tom, it’s a tragedy, because there are people who believe this. They’re in bondage to this system, and they feed this monster. It goes on and on and on.

Tom: Dave, this is a story out of the St. Louis Post Dispatch and I think it’s kind of (snickering), well, actually, I think it began with the New York Times. I thought it was kind of unique that they recognized what we’re doing in the clothing business—that is, sending our materials overseas to have them done very cheaply, sometimes in sweatshops, and this is a religious analogy or a spiritual analogy. Dave, it’s just bad. On the one hand.

On the other hand, we can’t just lay this on the Catholics. They may be doing…farming it out to India, but within the evangelical church, whether they be programs on TV, televangelists, and so on, the Protestants are just as guilty in many ways of this, aren’t they?

Dave: Well, Tom, prayer involves an intimacy with God. I must know Him. I’m going to pray, “Not my will, but thine be done.” I must be willing to submit my will to God. This is a very personal matter.

I remember the pastor about three centuries ago, who said, “I have come to appreciate the value of souls by appearing so often in the presence of God on their behalf.”

We are told to pray. We had a little exhortation in our small fellowship yesterday here in Bend, that we have a number of young men, for example, from our fellowship. One of them is in Ukraine. Another one is in Syria, in Damascus, various ones—how often do we even pray for them? Do we even think about them? And it’s not for selfish reasons. We want them to be in God’s will, and we want God’s will to be done.

But prayer is not a mechanical thing. You know you go to Tibet—they put prayers in a prayer wheel. You write them out and put them in a prayer wheel, and then you spin, keep spinning this prayer wheel. Jesus said, “Use not vain repetitions as the heathen. They think they shall be heard for their much speaking.” So even the so-called Lord’s Prayer, which is the disciple’s prayer, you don’t just pray it by rote, over and over and over. This is a pattern. Jesus said, “After this manner, pray ye.” Not “Repeat this mechanically, over and over and the more times you repeat it then the more blessings you get,” and so forth.

So, this is a tragedy Tom, because God wants to bring us into a personal relationship with himself. He wants to mold us to His will. He wants us—well Christ said that we must give up life as we would live it. And Paul says, “I am crucified with Christ. It’s not I anymore.” And that’s the relationship God wants us to have: faith in Christ, the one who died for our sins, paid the penalty so that we could be forgiven and it’s out of love then that we want to worship Him and serve Him and then we want to help others as his servants. Not this mechanical stuff, paying money and shipping prayers overseas. Tom, it is a tragedy, and yet millions and millions, hundreds of millions of people believe this.