Jump to content
Goodbye Jesus

Prayer Requests on Community Forums


Stamps1962

Recommended Posts

We have a 'Next door' forum for folks in our subdivision; it is a great resource for community issues.

 

Recently I am noticing a lot of prayer requests being posted.If there is a tragedy affecting a family I can see people mentioning they will be praying for the affected parties, nothing wrong with that if that's what they believe. What I refer to are posts specifically asking for prayers for someone in their family who is sick, some relative who doesn't even live in our area who is 'going through a tough time; that sort of thing 

 

The demographic at work here tend to favor stuff like this. The forum has a lot of stay at home moms and home schoolers.  Maybe I need to ignore this but it's not a Christian thing, it's a damn community forum, lost dogs and cats, that sort of thing. . Not everybody is interested in Jesus. I have thought about reporting some of these as inappropriate. I worry about backlash. Ideas? 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Super Moderator

It's a community forum, but it's a predominately Christian community. I suppose posting an occasional beseeching of the FSM or Satanist Information Forum announcement might be fun.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Perhaps you could start threads about subjects other than prayer requests or religion on the "Next Door" forum.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

LOL!

 

Problem is the posts appear under my real name. Still it'd be a scream wouldn't it? Like a request for prayer to the great Horned God, ending with 'Hail Satan'. 

 

I am a frequent poster usually about issues with mail delivery, noisy neighbors that sort of thing. 

 

Maybe when we move that can be my closing post. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Stamps1962 said:

We have a 'Next door' forum for folks in our subdivision; it is a great resource for community issues.

 

Recently I am noticing a lot of prayer requests being posted.If there is a tragedy affecting a family I can see people mentioning they will be praying for the affected parties, nothing wrong with that if that's what they believe. What I refer to are posts specifically asking for prayers for someone in their family who is sick, some relative who doesn't even live in our area who is 'going through a tough time; that sort of thing 

 

The demographic at work here tend to favor stuff like this. The forum has a lot of stay at home moms and home schoolers.  Maybe I need to ignore this but it's not a Christian thing, it's a damn community forum, lost dogs and cats, that sort of thing. . Not everybody is interested in Jesus. I have thought about reporting some of these as inappropriate. I worry about backlash. Ideas? 

Start praying to allah or Krishna and they'll dial it back fast

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Personally I'd ignore it -  unless some such post is aimed directly at me.  It strikes me as a battle I do not need to fight and could not win.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just remember that the "average" white person in America is often some sort of superstitious casual "Christian" of sorts.

 

I know a woman who left her husband/parent of her daughter and is now actively involved in a lesbian relationship... still considers herself a good Catholic, but her Catholicism never seemed (from what she has described) to go much further than some New-Agey "light a candle to the Blessed Mother" and generic "praying" baloney.

 

Remember that good 'ol Murica teaches us that there are "no atheists in foxholes". They come up with whatever comforts and soothes them in times of distress.

 

I suggest taking the humanist route: when someone posts that a family member "needs prayer", offer to drop off food, or go give them a Starbucks gift card or something practical like that. That'll teach them how useless "prayers" really are and how nice, thoughtful and practically concrete a human-centered kindness can be.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's on a lot of forums. I belong to homesteding, farming, and livestock related forums... there are prayer requests for cows! I just pass them by if it's in the title. If it goes south (? North ?) once I'm involved in the thread, I try to ignore it... If it is about someone I honestly care about I just say 'thinking of you' or 'holding you in my heart' or something nice but not prayerful.

 

It does get annoying when a the homesteader forum seems to morph into the christian homesteader forum... but I can always hang out here until it dies down.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.