The sheer audacity of someone disrespecting their neighbor…
As I awoke on Friday this past week I saw a headline on social media that jumped off the page at me. In short it was the summation of this sentiment penned to the New York Times Magazine discussing this letter:
“I have an 85-year-old neighbor who is a sweet friend and caring person. My issue is that she is very religious and I’m not at all. She prays for me and says it in person, texts and emails for even the most minor of situations. I’ve told her my view of religion and that she doesn’t need to pray for me. She said she has to, otherwise she’s not following the Bible. I’m trying to ignore this but it’s really bothering me that she can’t respect my wishes.”
There are quite a few signals that have indicated red flags for our culture in recent years but this one to me seems to cut deep.
Faith in general seems to be something the left is more at war with than nearly any other entity. I wrote in my first book years ago that the single biggest difference between modern progressive leftism and common sense centrist and center right folks is the acknowledgement of God. That He has an intention and purpose for humanity and that our lives are best lived when we acknowledge Him and that plan.
The left believes that God does not exist, or that if He does, he is relatively unburdened by our plight and is unbothered to intervene.
The difference in this cornerstone of one’s worldview is exactly how we arrive to a day where one political party believes it’s fine for boys to be in your daughter’s locker room, and the rest of the nation believes it’s dangerous. Or that killing an unborn child is murder. Or that taking all of one’s earnings through taxes is theft. Our morality is not created in a vacuum. And though we may dislike the idea that God exists, it has precious little to do with whether or not He does.
But the writer’s question above takes this issue several steps further. First the person writing acknowledges the kindness and good nature of her praying neighbor. She acknowledges that their interactions tend to be positive. She acknowledges that her neighbor cares about her.
So of course—she’s offended.
She claims the care and kindness that leads her neighbor to pray for her is actually intended to disrespect and offend. That she is literally purposefully attempting harm by continuing to pray.
In other words she doesn’t want the neighbor to love her if the mere evidence of that love and care involves the belief that God might some way be in control.
I doubt the writer has given any thought as to whether the neighbor is more kind, sweet, and caring because God and her faith might be involved. And in all probability that is exactly the case. People who pray for their neighbors tend to be a great deal more grateful for the good and kind things they’ve received in this life. And they tend to credit God in receiving them, and that gratitude tends to lead to greater humility, kindness and caring towards their neighbors, friends, and loved ones.
As a believer in God, I will tell you that I have known many who are not. They are on some level agnostic or atheist about God’s existence. When one has been going through difficulty I’ve prayed for them. Sometimes I’ve even asked about the situation later and they may show surprise that I even remembered. In praying for them I’ve kept their circumstance as a concern and in praying I’ve done what I could to help—even if they nor I could see what’s happened.
I’ve also never had a single person ever tell me that my prayers were unwelcomed or worse even offensive to them. Most are grateful.
And I’m not even that much of a praying person.
Praying is something that occurs because people who pray do so as an act of love towards the people they pray for and as an act of obedience to the God they pray to.
If you believe God doesn’t exist then you lose nothing in a praying person praying for you.
So why be offended?
Might it be that the person who was is beginning to doubt their own “beliefs” about God?
As a nation we need more people praying, for our leaders, for one another, and for our families.
We need the posture of humility that prayer forces us to acknowledge, and we need to admit that God is real and is engaged in our affairs.
In doing so we will be able to love our neighbors better and isn’t being the kind, sweet and caring neighbor the ideal for society?
Isn’t loving our neighbor the most loving thing our society can strive for?
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