{"id":696,"date":"2011-03-01T20:30:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-01T20:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2011\/03\/theres-just-something-wrong-with-that.html"},"modified":"2014-08-22T15:50:12","modified_gmt":"2014-08-22T20:50:12","slug":"theres-just-something-wrong-with-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2011\/03\/theres-just-something-wrong-with-that.html","title":{"rendered":"There’s Just Something Wrong With That"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Our house has been on the market for the past 23 days.\u00a0 We\u2019ve only had one looker and the house down the street (same size similar condition) was listed today for $20,000 less than ours.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard not to begin worrying just a bit.<\/p>\n

Three different people have offered us their St Joseph statues to bury in our yards.\u00a0 They all tell me that if I bury him upside down facing the house and then pray <\/p>\n

\u201cOh, St. Joseph, guardian of household needs, we know you don\u2019t like to be upside down in the ground, but the sooner escrow closes, the sooner we will dig you up and put you in a place of honor in our new home. Please bring us an acceptable offer (or any offer!) and help sustain our faith in the real estate market.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0our house will sell.<\/p>\n

I have a problem with this.<\/p>\n

First of all this isn\u2019t religion, it\u2019s voodoo.\u00a0 It just has the feel of casting some sort of spell instead of trusting in God.\u00a0 Asking the real St Joseph for prayers \u2013 I have no problem with.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been asking for his help for a while now.\u00a0 Threatening a piece of plastic and putting our faith in it?\u00a0 There\u2019s just something about that that seems a bit off.<\/p>\n

They tell me, \u201cIt\u2019s not what you think.\u00a0 You\u2019re making a bigger thing of it that it really is.\u00a0 It\u2019s just a dumb thing that people do.\u201d\u00a0 (This really is what they\u2019ve all told me.)<\/p>\n

They\u2019re either threatening a piece of plastic which is stupid, or they\u2019re threatening a saint.\u00a0 (They\u2019re threatening and blackmailing the step-father of Christ!)\u00a0 That\u2019s about as dumb as it gets as far as I\u2019m concerned.\u00a0 Added to this is the fact that they aren\u2019t asking for his prayers to strengthen their faith in God, but in the real estate market.<\/p>\n

Y\u2019all, this is just all kinds of wrong.<\/p>\n

You can tell me all you like about how burying this dumb statue sold your house, but threatening a saint to get more money so that you can have more faith in the things of this world? How does that sound like a good idea?<\/p>\n

The only people who can profit from this nonsense are the people selling the stupid kits.<\/p>\n

Want some real help?\u00a0 How about asking God for guidance?\u00a0 How about asking St Joseph for prayers for the sale of your house?\u00a0 Because the thing is\u2026.. St Joseph doesn\u2019t have the power to sell our house.\u00a0 He just knows who to talk to about that.<\/p>\n

**Just so you know, the Church isn\u2019t in favor of this kind of superstitious nonsense.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
When asked about this practice, Archbishop Daniel E. Sheehan said<\/a> that while the Church encourages devotion to saints, it does mind \u201csuperstitions and sales gimmicks. \u2018If it\u2019s a pious practice, of just a way of some devotion to Joseph, then it\u2019s fine,\u2019 said Omaha Archbishop Daniel E. Sheehan.<\/div>\n
\u2018(But) if it\u2019s the kind of thing that is superstitious, that is, there\u2019s some kind of infallible result, then I think the church would frown on it. Because we don\u2019t look upon any kind of intercession with the saints or any kind of prayers as having those kind of infallible results.\u2019 \u201d\u00a0\u00a0 <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Bottom line: saints can help you with prayers for stuff.\u00a0 They can\u2019t get you the actual stuff.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our house has been on the market for the past 23 days.\u00a0 We\u2019ve only had one looker and the house down the street (same size similar condition) was listed today for $20,000 less than ours.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard not to begin worrying just a bit. Three different people have offered us their St Joseph statues to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1979,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThere's Just Something Wrong With That<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Our house has been on the market for the past 23 days.  We've only had one looker and the house down the street (same size similar condition) was\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rebeccafrech\/2011\/03\/theres-just-something-wrong-with-that.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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