Interesting article..
Where Would Jesus Pray?
by Howard Thompson, reprinted from the Texas Atheist. Used by permission.
Greetings to Christians,
"Jesus prayed in public," the angry Santa Fe, Texas football fan told me. I was surprised, for I could not recall any gospel verses where Jesus prayed in public. It made me realize I had forgotten about the importance of Jesus in public prayer controversies. Jesus is Christianity's ultimate moral example. Before they act, Christians are supposed to ask themselves "What Would Jesus Do?" Christians should do whatever Jesus would do. Christians should not do what Jesus would not do.
Many Christians want government to sponsor public prayers, especially in schools. An example is the Texas controversy over football game prayers. Christians concerned about public prayers should be asking "Where Would Jesus Pray?"
Christians regard the four gospels as their best source of information about Jesus. Christians who want to live as Jesus lived use the gospels as their guide. So, wherever gospel verses describe Jesus as praying is where Christians should pray. If gospel verses describe Jesus teaching against praying somewhere, or Jesus not praying there, then Christians should not pray there.
RESULTS OF "WHERE JESUS WOULD PRAY?" RESEARCH
I examined gospel verses to discover "Where Would Jesus Pray?" All gospel verses that talked about prayer were examined. The detailed results are in a separate paper following this one.
Some verses described Jesus praying. Some described Jesus' teachings on prayer. Other verses had non-applicable usages of the word "pray," or its variations. These other verses tell Christians nothing about what Jesus taught on prayer or how hr prayed. Only the verses where Jesus prayed or taught about praying were analyzed.
There were eighteen gospel verses that described Jesus praying or probably praying. Depending on the information of the verse and its surrounding context, each verse was assignable to one of seven categories. The counts for each kind of prayer by Jesus were:
COUNT KIND OF PRAYER
0 Public/voluntary. Jesus chose to pray in a public setting.
1 Public/involuntary. Jesus had no choice but to pray in public if he wished to pray.
12 Alone. Jesus separated himself from others to pray alone.
1 Healing prayer. Jesus spoke, or may have spoken, a healing prayer.
1 At religious ritual. Jesus prayed as part of a religious ritual.
1 With disciples. Jesus prayed with, or in the presence of, his disciples.
2 Indeterminate. There was not enough information to make a determination
WHAT DID JESUS TEACH ABOUT WHERE TO PRAY?
Most significant are Jesus' teachings in Matthew 6:5-6. This teaching contains:
* A statement against public prayer. When Jesus says it is hypocrisy to "pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets," we can be sure that "corners of the streets" are in public.
* A command to pray in private. When Jesus says, "when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou has shut thy door ...," we can be sure that Jesus is saying that prayers are private talking to god and not to be heard by others.
* A description of prayer as "secret." When Jesus says, "pray to thy father which is in secret," we can be sure that Jesus is emphasizing the private, non-public nature of prayer.
"WHERE WOULD JESUS PRAY?"
The count of gospel verses that describe Jesus praying answer the question "Where Would Jesus Pray?" Unless Jesus had no choice but to pray in public or was praying in a special sense (healing, religious ritual, with disciples), he went off alone to pray.
There is no gospel evidence that Jesus prayed in public in anything like the way prayers are conducted at government events, such as school graduation ceremonies, legislative sessions, swearing in of public officials, or football games.
There was a Roman Coliseum for sports just outside Jerusalem. So, Jesus had an opportunity to teach about prayers at sports events. There is no gospel evidence that Jesus prayed before sports events. There is no gospel evidence that Jesus said there should be prayers before sports events.
The best evidence Christians have about "Where Jesus Would Pray?" clearly tells Christians that they should pray in private where no one can hear them. That evidence also tells Christians that they should not pray in public.
IS PUBLIC PRAYER THE WORK OF SATAN?
Christians who believe Satan is real should be asking why some Christians want government to conduct public prayers. Who would be for public prayers in disobedience to Jesus?
The logical answer for Christians who believe in Satan is that Satan opposes what Jesus taught and did. That makes Satan a likely cause of the Christian campaign for public prayers.
Why would Satan want public prayers by government? Since Satan's purpose is advanced when Christians disobey Jesus, Satan would want Christians to disobey Jesus' teachings and the examples of his life.
Satan would use the government prayer controversy to tempt Christians with anger, pride, righteous vanity and arrogance. Satan would tempt Christians into perverting God's spiritual kingdom into an earthly kingdom of powerful Christians who want the personal triumph of creating their human idea of God's kingdom on earth.
Christians who believe Satan exists can marvel at how Satan seduces Christian enthusiasm for Jesus. Satan tempts Christians into perverting Jesus' teachings and actions on prayer into an earthly instead of spiritual activity. The "diabolical" cleverness is that Satan tricks Christians into disobeying Jesus by exploiting Christian eagerness to glorify Jesus and demonstrate their faith.
