Quote:
Originally Posted by rayliotta
ZNP: "Nothing in that booklet showed me that pray-reading was to be done in a mindless way"
Except for the pesky little fact of how pray reading is actually practiced in "the Recovery", so much of the time.
|
Right. Chopping up sentences into words and phrases and chanting them with an extremely limited repertoire of accompanying words ("Oh Lord", "Amen", "Hallelujah") is probably not most people's definition of prayer. It's probably not the definition of prayer of the authors quoted in RG's "Lord, Thou Saidst".
Which doesn't definitively disqualify LC practice as "prayer". But to use those authors to prop up your practice of "pray-reading" is probably too much of a stretch.
1. George Washington wore a blue coat.
2. I have a blue coat, which I also occasionally wear.
3. Thus, I am also qualified to be president.
Um, no, sorry. Fallen human logic at work here.
Also, regarding the "mindless" part: I was definitely told by several people
not to use my mind. Just to say "Oh Lord", "Amen", and "Hallelujah". If I really wanted to stretch the envelope, I could say "Lord Jesus" or "Praise the Lord". But to actually compose sentences containing original thoughts was not encouraged.
"Get out of your mind", "Exercise your spirit", etc is what I remember in my "pray-reading" instructions. Ray Graver probably didn't write to pray in a mindless way: surely he knew it would look bad (this book was at least partly to put a "public face" on LC doctrines and practices). So it was behind closed doors that we were clearly instructed not to use our fallen human minds as we pray-read the Bible.
But it was ok for RG to use his fallen human mind to compile a book of quotes on praying God's word. Because, you know, he was under "the deputy authority", so even when he was wrong he was right.