When has prayer ever even seemed to work? For every prayer that has ‘worked’, there are a billion more that get ignored, so anyone thinking of sharing an account of how a prayer has worked for them can think again unless they can also share an answer as to why they don’t work for everyone. And by ‘work’, I don’t just mean made someone feel better or more positive about whatever their problem was or made something happen that can easily be attributed to causes other than prayer. I’m talking about intercessory prayer: prayers that saved a dying child’s life, for example.

This isn’t a trick question. I don’t mind admitting that no anecdotal evidence will convince me that prayer has saved the life of a single creature in the history of the universe, however miraculous a recovery was made and however much the recovery may have mystified doctors. My point is that stories of such recoveries are extremely rare, if they happen at all. It’s not as if the media are full of them, nor is it the case that most religious people shun orthodox medicine in favour of prayer — mais non! they see it as supplement, surely? A complementary therapy, so to speak. So where on Earth did the Neumanns get the idea that it might work for their child?

Dale Neumann describes himself as someone who partied hard and drank until he found Jesus. Was it finding Jesus, then, that lead him to kill his daughter? It seems so.

If I in a moment of crisis and in a moment of time, I went to anyone else but the Lord, it would not have been favorable to God,” Dale Neumann said. “It would have been idolatry and sin because it is disobedience.”

I use the word ‘kill’ deliberately because both the Neumanns have been convicted of second degree reckless homicide and, as it happens, I think this conviction is justified simply because they didn’t plead insanity and, in spite of reportedly once burning library books “because the Holy Spirit told him to” and calling a prayer meeting instead of an ambulance for his daughter, Dale Neumann had not been sectioned (or whatever the US equivalent is). The Neumanns reportedly gave the appearance of being a normal American Christian family and Dale has reportedly said that he wouldn’t do anything differently should another of his kids get sick. Note the word ‘reportedly’ — I’m having trouble believing everything I read about this couple and I am open to correction. But if it is all true and if their delusions are not deemed to be symptomatic of mental illness, then they are guilty as charged.

For pity’s sake — they didn’t grow up in some isolated primitive tribe so if they are not insane then what excuse have they got?

That said, growing up in the most powerful industrialised nation in the world, they will undoubtedly have encountered some pretty primitive and outlandish ideas about a dysfunctional paternalistic creator god who sent his only begotten son (who was really himself, you understand) on a suicide mission to this planet because we earthlings turned out to be no better than he made us in the first place. If you are going to indoctrinate people from birth to believe in bizarre myths and a load of other stuff about an omniscient, omnipotent and altogether improbable god, then it’s perhaps not surprising that someone somewhere takes it seriously.

Gloria Thomas and Kara Neumann both died because their parents disregarded reason and evidence in favour of superstition.

There’s a moral there somewhere.

I once happened to be in Glasgow at this time of year and was curious about the annual big orange walk through the city so decided to go and watch it. As I emerged from Central Station, I heard the sound of drumming in the distance and it sounded pretty good so I followed the direction of the sound, expecting at any moment to turn a corner and see the bigots marching in all their glory.

What I found instead was a little African guy sitting on the pavement playing a pair of bongo drums. It turned out the marchers had already been and gone. I later consoled myself by watching some of the videos of the march on youtube and leaving facetious comments about not realising Glasgow celebrated Gay Pride so enthusiastically.

That was great sport so this year I decided to go to youtube again and do the same thing. I’ve had one response so far from a ‘MrJimthejock’ :

skepticat1, i bet you take part in gay pride marches..in fact i bet you are the gay pride queen!!!

Naturally, I am devastated by MrJimthejock’s incisive wit  and I’m wondering how I’ll ever recover.

Talking of Gay Pride and Glasgow, I recall a great brouhaha a few years ago, when a bunch of small-minded firefighters were told to attend the Glasgow Pride and distribute fire safety literature. Yes, that’s all they were told to do: attend a public event where there would be thousands of people and give out a few leaflets. They were disciplined for refusing, snivelling like a bunch of little girls that they were afraid they’d be sexually harassed or some such nonsense but they were treated like heroes by a cross-section of the Glasgow public, who left their sanctimonious and obnoxious comments on the website of the Herald newspaper and elsewhere.

At the time, Scotland was welcoming visitors with an advertising campaign modestly proclaiming itself to be ‘the best small country in the world’.

Funnily enough, they never mentioned the dinosaurs.

Bigots

These guys on the right gave a great performance. They’d obviously been rehearsing a long time and — it may be a cliché — but they lived the part.

I was at the Pride by accident. I’d forgotten it was on but I emerged from Charing Cross station into Trafalgar Square and found myself in the middle of it. I didn’t stay long because I wanted to catch the last few hours of the nearby summer science exhibition, which was fab, by the way.

I was sorry I missed the parade through Central London an hour earlier but was delighted to catch this piece of street theatre by a small group of players, mainly old men and a few women wearing strange hats.

They had set up stall a short distance from the thonged throngs and were obviously determined to bring the Lord’s Word to as many sinners as possible.

I never thought I’d find myself saying I’d been to the Pride and seen a freak show but that’s exactly what this was. It was like they were just begging people to taunt them and jeer at them and people were happy to oblige. But whatever people did, the Christians, who were heavily protected by grinning police officers, bravely stood their ground and continued to rant endlessly about what Jesus said, as if anyone cared.

Even this inconsiderate couple, who went and stood in front of them and started snogging passionately to huge cheers from everyone else, failed to intimidate the valiant Christian soldiers, though a few of them may have got disconcerting erections.

Only when the dude in the blue frock and stilletoes (see pic below) went over and started wagging a finger at them did the steely masks crack and cold fear flash across the faces of the ranters, even though she was only giving them some much-needed style advice.

The Pride rocks!