I meditate and pray everyday. I was raised in liberal Judaism, but have discarded anything patriarchal or homophobic. I still consider myself a Jew and get alot of inspiration from tarot and kabbalah.

I was raised catholic and then became a born-again christian back in 1988, but left the church after realizing that Jesus had no intention of changing my sexual orientation! For years while I was a "practicing" christian , I prayed all the time but after I grew tired of organized religion, I slowly stopped praying, mostly because I associated Jesus with the religious nuts and thus wanted no parts of christianity. Afer realizing that the religous right had no right to hijack Jesus, I am slowly beginning to pray again but to be honest, I really don't know what to "call" my higher power. Still searching in that area....

Yes.

Yes.

Rob

i'm not sure you'd call it prayer, per se, but i have ever been known to get on me knees and, uh, worship.... wink

Absolutely

Yes

Yes, every day.

yes.

I don't...but there aren't a ton of people my age who do...

It's kinda sad but I don't anymore.

I don't believe in a God per se but I do believe in meditation and finding the higher power inside of yourself.

I associate praying with Christianity and asking a higher power to grant things beyond your control while meditation is searching for the strength within yourself.

I believe Jesus was a real guy who had some great ideas about loving his fellow man and one amazing PR group.

My philosphy has changed throughout my life and to some it might be flawed but this is where I stand at 40.

[ November 09, 2005, 02:09 PM: Message edited by: Maddog ]

Yes, perhaps not in an organized religious way, but yes I do.

in a way

No, but this is more based off of how I feel God exists in our world. I feel that God stands back and lets us live our lives without any interference, unless it is absolutely necessary. I came to feel this way through a personal experience where I feel like God stopped me from doing something really stupid.
So, I think praying really doesn't get you anywhere, you have to do things for yourself and the best way to thank God is to take care of this world and be kind to one another.

No. Never. Ever.

Beauty. One of my favorite Bowie lines: "The Church of Man Love is such a holy place to be." :cool:

Just so we get this straight from the outset, yes I do pray most nights before going to bed except those nights where I pass out drunk wink (joke) (good old London Missionary Society and Church of England here). I also pray particularly when my partner's travelling and I want him back home safely.

But all that aside, the thread title instantly made me think of Steel Magnolias and the following unforgettable laugh out loud lines:

My favourite:

I'm'a jus laffin out loud right now.

[ November 09, 2005, 10:04 PM: Message edited by: Mixie ]

Another classic:

Laugh. I tells ya!!

Edited to add:

I love you Dolly Parton and Sally Field and Dolly Parton and Shirley Maclean and Dolly Parton (I'm not gay, am I? I just love track lighting). Let's open a store together and serve tea and oranges and with people we don't like, we'll drink champagne and talk about them behind their back.

[ November 09, 2005, 10:02 PM: Message edited by: Mixie ]

Yes.

There is a naked, hottie woman in my bed (who is not a drunken Carolina Panther cheerleader)

I am prayin that bidness is open tonight.

I pray several times a day, usually when I see the works of God, such as a beautiful sunrise over Lake Michigan while travelling home on southbound Lake Shore Drive. I find a great deal of power and strength in the act of prayer. It also helps to calm me down and keep things in perspective. Gator Jamie, I'm really prayin' for you right now! God says you go girl!

I wouldn't call it "prayer." More like sending out good wishes, along the lines of "I hope so-and-so feels better."

Joe, a rose by any other name smells just as sweet!

Absolutely. I pray every day for guidance.

One of the things I pray for most is the ability to give up my notions of the way things should be and allow God to direct my life.

As it says "Thy will be done..."

There is a metaphysical group called Silent Unity. They operate a 24 hour line where they will pray for a person. I believe in prayer, but that group never refers depressed people for counselling or any form of medical treatment. They act like their affirmative prayer is magical antidote. And that is wrong.

No, never...I'm too much of a control freak to relinquish that much power.

However, last month when my sister gave birth to her 2nd child and started having severe complications, my mother got on the phone and started a "prayer chain"...amazingly, my sister started getting better within 30 mins after the prayer chain commenced. I heard phrases like "this was a miracle" and "God has his hand in this". And I just assumed that the doctor was the one in control, that he already knew prior to the surgery everything he did to save my sister. I didn't realize that God decided my sister should stop hemorrhaging and live to raise my new nephew. I'm sure glad he had a hand in it and helped that doctor do his job right.

So, am I to believe that if my mom had not started the prayer chain, my sister would be dead right now?

Yes, always while falling asleep, but often while working out and, like MB, when seeing some nice natural phenomenon or feeling especially good about myself. I do the "Our Father, Hail Mary, and Act of Contrition," and polish it off with a "Glory Be," all good Catholic standards. The "Apostles Creed" is too long and is reserved for more formal, less "near," occasions, like in church.

I do the same thing.

I don't really pray. Actually, I do internalize things to myself using "inner voice" which I guess could be considered prayer, but since I grew up Buddhist, I think of it as my way of meditation.

From the Friends of Western Buddhist, "Buddhism is a path of practice and spiritual development leading to Insight into the true nature of life. Buddhist practices such as meditation are means of changing oneself in order to develop the qualities of awareness, kindness, and wisdom."

Even though I was raised Buddhist, my family really wasn't practicing Buddhists.

We did have a bible on our bookshelf for some reason & I read through some of it, but I didn't really learn about Western Religions until I went to an Episcopalian High School.

Do you prey? Indoctrination can be a beautiful thing.

[ November 10, 2005, 06:36 PM: Message edited by: Erik G ]

yes; every day.

I still pray Erik G. will ask me to marry him, but so far, that prayer hasn't been answered. Maybe I should try praying while on crystal meth.

I pray all the time, and I attend a Catholic Church every Sunday.

i do not pray.

I was raised catholic but we never went to church. I have since then taken myself out of that religion (officially, for reasons of principle) and i am not a part of any organized religion anymore.

I have my own beliefs, but they are not even remotely close to being with a heaven, hell and a god that's up there and meddles in people's businesses. lol

Yes..every day...sometimes a few times a day..
I was raised in the Baptist church...I don't attend regularly any more, but would be leaning to Episcopal if I had to label myself....

No.

I was raised Catholic until my parents pulled their children out of church over dealing with our church per se(I was about 12). They never took us to another one since they had three kids who whined and hated church more than anything else in life and they realized that going back wasn't worth the hassle.

As time went on, I backed away from the Christian ideals and realized that no one religion Christian or otherwise has the whole truth about God(s), the afterlife, things that can't be explained so I saw no place for praying in my life.

I see no reason to pray as long as I see no absolute proof that there is someone to pray to.

Yeah baby, once you give up the hope dope and git hooked on the real thing, my heavens will open up to you eek! Thy shall rideth with me in green pastures through the valley of meth. For Erik gave his only bike to you. So that you may be free from spin class. Or something like that

Too funny. Play loud.

Yep...I do...though I don't do it in the "formal" sorta way.....hands clasped, eyes closed...that sorta thing....no.

I've always thought of "God" as "in my head"....kinda like he/she/it lives in my brain and helps me make choices...sort of like that part of my brain that guides me along...

Not sure if that makes any sense at all....but thats what I consider "prayer".

NJ

Since "God" is a creation of man's/woman's imagination, it makes perfect sense that he exist inside your head. God is omnipotent, omnipresent. So it makes sense that you could "pray" for your 96' Roadmaster without assuming the position.

Personally, I think the Chevy Caprice wagon is a sexier vehicle with nicer lines. You can fit sub's and a bike in the back. Unless you have a mattress back there, um I mean prayer quilt wink

[ November 11, 2005, 08:40 PM: Message edited by: Erik G ]

Yes, I do pray, but not for material things or events that I want to happen (like the Dodgers winning the fall classic). I focus on concepts like gratitude, guidance, patience, keeping an emotional center, not being the perfect person, but trying to be the best person I can be for that day.

YES!

and for those of you interested there's GayChristian.Com.

I made my comments about prayer in this earlier thread, which terminates with a post by the infamous and much-berated bluebird.

I recently saw an interesting movie by orthodox Jews called Ushpizin in which the fervor of the protagonist reminded me of African-American evangelicals. Hypocritical prayer is not pretty.

no. not recently but i would have no problem praying right after posting this

It certainly doesn't seem to do any good.

This reminds me of a survey I had to do for religion class last year. Part of it was asking people how they viewed God. In class, we had to say how each one of us viewed God.

My teacher was a nun, and I swear she wanted to shoot me when I answered, after a string of nice Catholic answers, that god is "the collective mentality and energy of mankind, something that we can all tap into." She was not happy and she asked me "You can't believe in Jesus then!" I wanted to say, "I'll believe in whatever the hell I want to, bitch." But I controlled myself enough to just kindly say, "I don't know, I don't like talking about god because it's so complex and abstract."

I hate hate hate Catholic school...6 months left....

won't you be surprised if in 10 years you'll be wishing you were right back there! wink

You should have added penguin before the bitch Metro

LOL!

Actually, that reminds me of another story. I got homophobic remarks thrown at me on Friday (long story, I could explain if you want), and I was talking to the assistant principal, another nun. She was like, "Yeah I deal with that. People are like 'Sister, you devote your life to God! That's just weird. You're so weird.'" So I said, "Well, not to ignore your pain, but you did choose to enter the convent. I did not choose to be gay." She like totally didn't grasp that idea...

Ahh...eddiecat, in 10 years, I will be looking back and wanting to go back to high school, just because it's so freaking funny.

I was thinking of saying something like, "It is not just black and white penquin bitch".

Yeah people always try to relate to something they cannot understand with a personal anecdote. Rather than just trying to understand. Well she sure feels your pain. You should have asked her if she gets tired of masturbating with the hand of God.

I pray a lot more since this Administration took office.