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So Rev Jenkins gets together with some of his congregants once a month to talk about misfortune and pray on it. He’s aware that it’s of little or no use, but that doesn’t matter, because whatever happens, God will sort it out in the end.
No, you don’t actually have to be successful at making the world a better place, you just have to make yourself feel better by deluding yourself into the belief that positive thinking might persuade God to make the world a better place for you. That’s the staying power of prayer. You can stay in church and needn’t even peel your arse off the pew.
There seem to be two separate kinds of activity being discussed here. Doing something tangible to help people in need, to protect people in danger; that’s all well and good. Praying that God will protect them; well that just makes those doing the praying feel better.
He said it himself: “it’s not as grim as it might sound. The prayer ensures that”. For whom is it not as grim as it might sound? For the people doing the suffering? Of course not. He means the people sat in a quaint little church thinking happy thoughts to ensure they don’t feel too bad about themselves. Grim.
Leaving the outcome to God will not make the world a better place. It just makes you a more useless person who feels a little bit better about themselves.