Detriot one-ups Wall St intercessors, prays over SUV’s instead of bulls

We all know that times are bad, and the economic crunch has hit Detroit harder than a runaway SUV. But this is starting to get a little crazy. Praying for your daily bread is one thing. Praying to rescue failed companies that preyed on the greed and laziness of Americans is another. Turning said prayer into a paid advertisement for the Big 3's gas-guzzling road hogs is just beyond tasteless.

From this article :

With sport-utility vehicles at the altar and auto workers in the pews, one of Detroit's largest churches on Sunday offered up prayers for Congress to bail out the struggling auto industry.

"We have never seen as midnight an hour as we face this week," the Rev. Charles Ellis told several thousand congregants at a rousing service at Detroit's Greater Grace Temple. "This week, lives are hanging above an abyss of uncertainty as both houses of Congress decide whether to extend a helping hand."

Local car dealerships donated three hybrid SUVs to be displayed during the service, one from each of the Big Three. A Ford Escape, Chevy Tahoe from GM and a Chrysler Aspen were parked just in front of the choir and behind the pulpit.

Ellis said he and other Detroit ministers would pray and fast until Congress voted on a bailout for Detroit's embattled automakers. He urged his congregation to do the same.

 Pastor prays over SUVs on stage at church

Special thanks to Brian K for bringing this to my attention!
 
 

If You Post It, They Will Pray

I was reading though the New York Times today and found this article highlighting some pretty interesting websites.  Apparently there are a number of prayer sites including prayabout.com, ipraytoday.com, and ourprayer.org where people can anonymously post prayer request with the goal of having others pray for them. According to the article, the company that runs one of these sites gets almost 2 million prayer requests a year. Although I get the idea and think using the web for social networking and community building is a good thing, I'm still baffled at the number of "crazy" Christians that are out there. I don't get why so many people seek God like a candy giver. Praying for health, safety, and guidance is one thing, but asking God to help your husband listen to his psychiatrist or asking to get an A on an exam seems a bit out there to me.  Maybe I'm the only one, but I like to believe that God's got my life under His complete control and my praying should be focused on God's work in others lives more then my own.  Any thoughts?