Why and How I Believe in the Power of Prayer Despite Everything

I grew up in a household led by an Episcopal altar cowboy turned socialist agnostic professor and a Methodist southern belle turned "I'd like to go to church someday, if only I could get out of the house on Sundays."  My father's mother believed in dreams and synchronicity.  

We never prayed.  We marched.  We carried signs.  We protested. We canvassed.  We voted.  We called our representatives.  But we never prayed.

I went to law school.  I became a member of Ralph Nader's cadre of lawyers in Washington DC working for consumer rights, including single payer health care (enhanced medicare for all).  I wrote reports.  I held press conferences. I called people sell-out pigs. I went on talk shows.  I buttonholed congressmen.  I never prayed.

Then we moved to California with our 2 small children.  I worked in and out of California legislature.  I analyzed legislation.  I raised money.  I wrote letters.  I never prayed.

Then one of our closest family members spent several years in a living hell of the body.  And I learned to pray.  I couldn't decide whether it worked or it didn't.  It took that family member a long time to get well, but I felt better fast.  

Simultaneously, I saw almost no fruit from hard work in Congress and the California legislature.  Where was the single payer (Medicare for all) that we had worked for?  Where was campaign finance reform?  Where was the carbon tax?  Where was a living wage?  Where were real protections for consumers and workers?  If hard work as an activist in the real world is SO darn productive, where the heck were the results?

For over a century, Religious Science (now called Centers for Spiritual Living) has taught people how and why prayer works.  Lately the actual hard science has caught up with the early teachings.  We know that at the level of the quantum field below and including all things human consciousness directed purposefully "collapses" potential (waves) into material form (particles).  

And now, after over a decade of study and practice, I'm an ordained minister in the Centers for Spiritual Living.  I no longer am engaged in the business of politics or legislation.  What do I do for a living? I pray.  

I teach people how to use the power of prayer to bolster whatever it is they want to accomplish or change in the world be it heal their bodies, heal the planet, or heal the body politic.

Washington Examiner: Don't Mock Marianne Williamson's Emphasis on the Power of Prayer

When we mock Marianne Williamson for suggesting that we pray to effect the hurricane, we are rejecting our own spiritual power and authority.  We are forgetting a huge amount of what we can do to change the world.  We are not just human beings.  We are spiritual beings having a human experience.  The 21st century is a time where we are going to be learning more and more about the power of who we are.    Unfortunately, part of the president's success is he knows how to mobilize his spiritual power for what he wants and we don't.  See Donald Trump and the power of the word. 

Folks are working hard to create and bring forth a world that works for everyone.  Many of those fighting to change seek to stand side by side with indigenous peoples, and learn from their ways which are in harmony with the earth.  All indigenous peoples pray.  The original meaning of the word "protest" on the other hand was a bit patriarchal, it was to swear witness on one's testicles.  

I truly want health care, economic opportunity, clean air, clean water, safety and security and quality education for all people.  The current Congress and political establishment cannot achieve those goals without a sea change.  That requires phone calls and money and voting and, yes, it requires prayer.

The energy of Spirit is not a man in the sky with a beard directing events.  It is a responsive powerful field of love.  I have learned that Spirit always says yes and it is infinitely patient.  It says yes when we say we will fight and fight and lose because we believe there's a conspiracy against us.  It says yes when we say say that we hate and distrust half the country.  And it says yes when we say, Great Spirit, of ourselves we are not enough, we are tired of losing.  We are sick and tired of being sick and tired.  We need your help.  We know that there is more than enough shelter, clothing, love, clean air and clean water for everyone.  But we don't know how to distribute it.  We need the power that moves the tides to change the tides.  We do not know how, by ourselves, to keep our children safe from hurricanes or from violence.  We do not know how, by ourselves, to work together to create a green economy.  We do not know how, by ourselves, to create the political will to provide affordable cradle to grave health care for every single man woman and child in the country.  We do not know how, by ourselves, to live together in love and harmony and truly respect every person.  And so we need your help.  We are asking for your help.  Thank you, thank you, thank you, God, thank you, Great Spirit, thank you, Jesus, for your help, your power, your guidance and your love.