Post by Josh on Jan 29, 2007 15:45:33 GMT -8
Originally posted 1/8/07:
I've been teaching about the Donner Party in my history class lately. For those of you who don't know, they were a group of wagon-train emigrants to California who took an ill-fated 'shortcut' and ended up stranded in the Sierra Nevadas in 1846. Things became so desparate for the group of 87 pionners, stranded at Truckee Lake, that eventually some of them resorted to cannibalism. Almost half of them ended up dying horrifically.
For years I've shown the Donner Party documentary (directed by Ric Burns, as in Ken Burns' brother), which, personally, is one of my all-time favorite historical documentaries. It's superbly done, thoughtful, and haunting.
Anyway, at several key junctures, the documentary relates (through journal entries) the pioneers' petitions to God for mercy. Men, women, and children begging God for deliverance, making promises to Him if only He'd rescue them, etc..
These scenes elicited some responses from my students. The predominate ones were: "Can't these people see that their prayers are useless?" "Isn't it obvious that we are alone in the universe?"
This set off a bit of a conversation about the point of prayer, what it would mean for a prayer to be answered, etc.. One student remarked that kids don't always receive what they ask for from their parents, so why should they expect that of God. Interesting comment, not sure what to imply from that though.
Another student observed that humans are prone to think that God answered their prayers if things work out well for them, when, to him, it seemed more logical that some people are just lucky, not blessed. What about all those who cried out to God but did die in that horrible tragedy? Why would God 'answer' some of their prayers and not others?
We also noted that many of the survivors' religious devotion seems to have been strengthened (many of them made purposeful decisions to join various Churches and one or two even became ministers, etc..) We talked about how that might be interpreted from a variety of perspectives.
Anyway, these are the kind of questions we as believers must not become too insulated against. These are important questions. These are questions that cause us to dig for a more mature view of prayer.
Elsewhere under this topic, we have and will continue to explore what a more nuanced understanding of prayer might be (which will involve learning and thinking as well as embracing mystery). I just wanted to put this out there as a catalyst for thought and/or discussion, as it was for my student.
I've been teaching about the Donner Party in my history class lately. For those of you who don't know, they were a group of wagon-train emigrants to California who took an ill-fated 'shortcut' and ended up stranded in the Sierra Nevadas in 1846. Things became so desparate for the group of 87 pionners, stranded at Truckee Lake, that eventually some of them resorted to cannibalism. Almost half of them ended up dying horrifically.
For years I've shown the Donner Party documentary (directed by Ric Burns, as in Ken Burns' brother), which, personally, is one of my all-time favorite historical documentaries. It's superbly done, thoughtful, and haunting.
Anyway, at several key junctures, the documentary relates (through journal entries) the pioneers' petitions to God for mercy. Men, women, and children begging God for deliverance, making promises to Him if only He'd rescue them, etc..
These scenes elicited some responses from my students. The predominate ones were: "Can't these people see that their prayers are useless?" "Isn't it obvious that we are alone in the universe?"
This set off a bit of a conversation about the point of prayer, what it would mean for a prayer to be answered, etc.. One student remarked that kids don't always receive what they ask for from their parents, so why should they expect that of God. Interesting comment, not sure what to imply from that though.
Another student observed that humans are prone to think that God answered their prayers if things work out well for them, when, to him, it seemed more logical that some people are just lucky, not blessed. What about all those who cried out to God but did die in that horrible tragedy? Why would God 'answer' some of their prayers and not others?
We also noted that many of the survivors' religious devotion seems to have been strengthened (many of them made purposeful decisions to join various Churches and one or two even became ministers, etc..) We talked about how that might be interpreted from a variety of perspectives.
Anyway, these are the kind of questions we as believers must not become too insulated against. These are important questions. These are questions that cause us to dig for a more mature view of prayer.
Elsewhere under this topic, we have and will continue to explore what a more nuanced understanding of prayer might be (which will involve learning and thinking as well as embracing mystery). I just wanted to put this out there as a catalyst for thought and/or discussion, as it was for my student.
