Pod People: Prayer’s place in science, sports and submission

Where is Jahi McMath, and what is the latest installment of her story?

I’m glad you asked! Host Todd Wilken and I talked some about this and other subjects during this week’s installment of Crossroads.

(This is my third podcast, and I like to think I’m not embarrassing myself as badly with experience. This being interviewed business is tough when there’s not a delete key between you and your thoughts.)

As you’ll remember from my post last week, McMath is the brain-dead 13-year-old California girl whose parents won the legal battle to take possession of her still-ventilated body from Children’s Hospital Oakland and move it to an undisclosed location. Early reports indicated the family and their attorney had found a facility and physicians to “care for” the child and use restorative measures, presumably to bring her back to life. And prayer, lots of prayer. And they’ve raised tens of thousands of dollars via their gofundme page.

We don’t know where Jahi is, nor do we know whether her heart still beats, which previously had been because of electrical currents and IV medication. Nor do we know whether they are part of an organized group of believers. We do know, courtesy of the NBC Bay Area affiliate, that her classmates have hope, and that school administrators say they’re honoring the child’s family’s wishes in what they tell the children:

Though a death certificate has been issued for Jahi McMath, many of the 13-year-old Oakland girl’s classmates still believe the “quiet leader” who laughed at jokes that weren’t funny will one day return to school — if they just pray hard enough.

“The school told us that she’s not officially dead yet,” said Dymond Allen, one of Jahi’s friends at EC Reems Academy of Technology and Arts in East Oakland, a public charter school that serves mostly disadvantaged kids. “And we should keep her in our prayers. I still hope. And God has the last say-so.”

Wilken and I also talked a bit more in-depth about my Candace Cameron Bure post from last week that dealt with the biblical concept of wives submitting to their husbands. Media outlets continue to get it wrong, both in headline and story form, by confusing the Scriptural meaning that Bure discusses with the social/relational/professional one.

The comments from readers reflect that inaccuracy. Some cite instances of spousal abuse as a reason wives should not submit to their husbands. Others point to hard-won rights and the feminist movement as proof that women have evolved to a point where they can care for themselves and should be treated in equals.

No stories or comments I’ve seen tackle 1 Peter 3: 1-6 head-on and discuss the original source, that is Peter writing to exiles scattered throughout five provinces. Neither have I seen any outlet address the husband-oriented directive of men loving their wives as Christ loves the church. No writings on Bure’s paragraphs from her latest book where she prays for her marriage and her role in it and pointedly chooses to follow scriptural teachings on submission.

I suppose it’s too easy and much more fun to get riled up based on emotion and bias, rather than perspective and information. If only news outlets provided a few more facts …

Lastly, Todd and I talked about my take on The Huffington Post’s fumble regarding its Super Bowl-oriented story, prayer and how a lot of Americans think God listens and lights up the scoreboard accordingly.

Math was never my strong suit, but even I can see the numbers in the headline, story and cited poll don’t jibe. And then there’s the matter of prayer. Raise your hand if you think the average American football fan(atic), beverage in hand, is patterning his petition to the Almighty anything close to what we read about in Matthew 6 or Luke 11?

Let’s talk more in the comments.