Over at Uncommen dot org, a Fake Christian named TJ Todd writes the following nonsense…
I’m not going to link to the article directly, because I’m currently trying to troll the author into talking to me. Will this cuck take the bait? It’s a waiting game…
There is a discussion on this article over at Dalrock. Join in (here)
Something I didn’t see at Dalrock but would like feedback on is my reading of the part of the verse that says, “so your prayers won’t be hindered.” I’ve always taken that to mean that is natural and easy to get frustrated with women, therefore it is important to practice the first part of the verse. Otherwise, when we pray, it will be filled with anger over her rebellion, which is a much different take than Todd’s. What do you think of my take?
Dear Swanny River:
With the caveat that I’m not any sort of biblical scholar, your take on the verse in question seems far more reasonable than TJ Todd’s. Briefly, I’ll tell you why I think so.
Mr. Todd seems to be enamored with the idea of prayer as a telephone call to a benefactor. For such people, the telos of prayer is always centered on some reward or “blessing”. I don’t think that even a mature true-believing theist would argue that God is some sort of Santa Claus figure, who exists merely to do tricks and grant wishes on command.
Thus Mr. Todd’s reading depends on this very narcissistic and childish view of what prayer is. If it is, as he seems to believe, a way to get physical needs met, then he has a point that we need to be very careful in how we pray. If, as he contends, we are supposed to pray through the medium of a wife, then we should indeed be walking on tiptoe, hoping not to upset her.
To me, prayer is more like a meditative practice. I don’t pray very often, but when I do find the time, I find I’m generally more agreeable and more productive in the hours that follow. Your interpretation makes more sense to me just for its instrumentality. If the telos of prayer is removing distractions, then its reasonable to think that your prayers will be more effective if you do some pre-prayer purging of bad feelings and negative emotions toward people you have to deal with.
In any event, I hope this makes sense. I find people like TJ Todd funny, but not usually in a good way. Their idiocy tends to hurt people who can least afford it.
Boxer