Nolte: Disgraced Rolling Stone Smears Evangelicals with Fake Definition of Prayer

Rolling Stone Founder Jann Wenner and Spotify Founder and CEO Daniel Ek attendsSpotify kno
Charles Eshelman/Getty Images for Spotify

The disgraced Rolling Stone magazine, a far-left propaganda outlet that publishes lies, is now smearing Christian prayer as something no one with half a brain would ever define as prayer.

These idiots think they’ve uncovered some big scandal about some unnamed Supreme Court Justices praying with anti-abortion activists…

Headline: “SCOTUS Justices ‘Prayed With’ Her — Then Cited Her Bosses to End Roe.”

Is that supposed to be English?

Sub-headline: “A right-wing evangelical activist was caught on tape bragging that she prayed with Supreme Court justices. The court’s majority cited a legal brief that her group filed while overturning Roe v. Wade.”

The stink of desperation is palpable.

Actually, it smells like winning to me.

Oh, noes, some unnamed Supreme Court justices might have met with people who have opinions on things! When will this madness end?

Regardless, the evangelical organization denies what this woman said is true:

Liberty Counsel’s founder, Mat Staver, strenuously denied that the in-person ministering to justices that Nienaber bragged about exists. “It’s entirely untrue,” Staver tells Rolling Stone. “There is just no way that has happened.” He adds: “She has prayer meetings for them, not with them.” Asked if he had an explanation for Nienaber’s direct comments to the contrary, Staver says, “I don’t.”

Anyway, the real story here is Rolling Stone‘s definition of “evangelical” prayer.

This is a jaw-dropper:

Prayer is a powerful communication tool in the evangelical tradition: The speaker assumes the mantle of the divine, and to disagree with an offered prayer is akin to sin.

“…The speaker assumes the mantle of the divine.”

“…to disagree with an offered prayer is akin to sin.”

What butt did Rolling Stone pull that beauty out of?

By this logic, if someone prayed for abortion to remain legal, it would be a sin to overturn Roe v. Wade, no?

Prayer is the opposite of assuming the mantle of the divine. Just for starters, the divine do not get on their knees.

Prayer is about humbling yourself before God, which is the exact opposite of assuming the “mantle of the divine” — and assuming the “mantle of the divine” sounds an awful lot like the (real) sin of blasphemy.

Prayer is simply a personal and humble communion with God. Sometimes you give thanks. Sometimes you ask for a blessing. Sometimes you offer up a petition for yourself or someone else. Sometimes you pray for wisdom and receive that wisdom and realize your earlier prayer wasn’t appropriate, so now you disagree with your earlier prayer—which according to Rolling Stone, is a sin.

Nowhere, even by way of the godless Google machine, did I find the Rolling Stone lunatic definition of prayer.

However.

In less than a second, I did find this:

What is prayer? Simply put, prayer is conversing with God. Not just talking to the Lord but listening. The latter is easy (being quiet before God). The former is easy as well (saying what’s on your heart). Merriam-Webster defines prayer as “an address (such as a petition) to God in word or thought.

And this:

1.  to make a request in a humble manner

2.  to address God or a god with adoration, confession, supplication, or thanksgiving

And this:

1. a devout petition to God or an object of worship.

2. a spiritual communion with God or an object of worship, as in supplication, thanksgiving, adoration, or confession.

Hey, how about going to actual evangelicals for their definition of prayer? Wild idea, right? Granted, there are many different statements available about what evangelicals believe, but it’s not unreasonable to say that the Shorter Catechism, which is derived from the Westminster Confession of 1646 and the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689, is a reasonable place to look. This is from a modern interpretation readily available online:

Question 98: What is prayer? Answer: Prayer is offering our desires to God in the name of Christ for things that agree with his will, confessing our sins, and thankfully recognizing his mercies.

Q 99: How does God direct us to pray? A: The whole Word of God, but especially the Lord’s Prayer, which Christ taught his disciples, directs our prayers.

Q 100: What does the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer teach us? A: The beginning of the Lord’s Prayer (Our Father in heaven) teaches us to draw near to God with completely holy reverence and confidence, as children to a father who is able and ready to help us. It also teaches us that we should pray with and for others.

Q 101: What do we pray in the first request? A: In the first request (holy be your name) we pray that God would enable us and others to glorify him in everything he uses to make himself known and that he will work out everything to his own glory.

Yep, nothing in any of those definitions about the person praying suddenly becoming a divine being who cannot be defied other than through sin.

Want to know why I don’t write about brain surgery? Because I know nothing about brain surgery. For the same reason, I also don’t write about jazz or opera or Italian food or the GDP of Switzerland, or the mating habits of wombats.

But not knowing something has never stopped the corporate media from posing as an expert on something. The goal of the corporate media is never to get it right. The goal of the corporate media is to further the fascist cause of the left. So if you have to get it wrong to make evangelicals look scary and crazy, that’s a-okay.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.

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