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An atheist looks at 'prayers for a price'

Once upon a time, actually it was probably October 31, 1517, a monk named Martin Luther nailed a broadsheet to the door of a church in Wittenburg, Germany. It contained 95 theses that, in large part, were complaints about the practice of selling salvation for money. This act marked the beginning of the Protestant Reformation and a lot of bloody religious wars.
Salvation is still being sold and wars over it are still being fought -though these days, more often than not, they tend to be price wars. Prayers by proxy, that is to say, having someone else do your praying for you, are a popular commodity and a bargain-hunter with a computer can literally choose from among thousands of services from hundreds of denominations until they find the product that best suits their needs.

The rest of the article can be found here.

It's posted by Hugh Kramer on Examiner.com

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Medusa on August 3, 2009 at 8:32pm

I never did like Martin Luther (I was raised in a Lutheran Church, so I learned a lot about him). but in the case of selling "salvation," he was right.

Permalink Reply by Hugh Kramer on August 3, 2009 at 8:49pm

You might be interested to know that the Vatican still provides those "Plenary Indulgences" that raised Luther's ire and are still willing to accept "donations made in gratitude" for them.
(wink, wink, nod, nod)

Permalink Reply by Medusa on August 4, 2009 at 6:03pm

Luther was also an antisemite.

Permalink Reply by Hugh Kramer on August 4, 2009 at 7:08pm

Martin Luther was also constipated and composed his 95 theses while sitting on the crapper. Last year, archaeologists working in the garden of Luther's home discovered the site of the holy outhouse and toilet. S'true.

Permalink Reply by Daniel W on August 5, 2009 at 2:02am

I spent years as a child beleiving this was his 95 feces. Now I know why.

Really, it's probably because I grew up Baptist, and they taught that the only thing worse than a Catholic was a Lutheran. Well, then there were the commies. And methodists. And hippies.... this is before we heard of unitarians.

Permalink Reply by Louis Davout on August 4, 2009 at 12:47am