08
The Power of Prayer
(6 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)
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Yeah yeah, I’m on about religion again. Sorry! It just happens to be a pet peeve of mine. Over the past couple of days my favorite local radio personality, Charles, has been ranting about this woman, whose story has probably been naturally embraced, who was jogging under the bridge in Minnesota moments before it collapsed. And her first instinct wasn’t to turn and run back to the aid of others, but to run to a park and call out to the people around her that she wanted to… pray. And effectively distracted about fifteen people from actually taking action and doing something that would actually help save lives. But I’m sure displaying their faith and worship made them all feel all squishy inside.
Charles was making points, and I can only say they’re his claims as I’m having trouble finding news on this, that while this woman and her prayer group sat around praying a school bus driver helped all the children in his care to safety out the emergency exit as the bus was pinned against a barrier. A skateboarder was going around helping people climb to safety. And meanwhile all she and anyone who joined her did was sit around and mumble to themselves, as the bridge collapsed, cars plunged into the river, and people died, just yards away, and she’s considered a hero for it because prayer was involved, and it’s her story that’s told, I think, because it can be skewed into a sugary anecdote of faith. Hearing this, I had to look it up for myself.
I hate when this sort of thing happens. People who did nothing venerated because of a loose association of their actions to religion. And of course, it’s always the heroic Christian, the martyred Christian, you never hear about a courageous Jew or a brave Muslim whose faith aided them in a time of crisis, despite the fact they worship the same God. But if a Christian prays anywhere close to the vicinity of a disaster in this country it’s all over the news. The same thing happened with Columbine, a story of a girl being asked if she believed in God and being shot dead when she replied "yes" spread everywhere, embraced by Christians eager to lap up the story of a heroic martyr of their faith. The only problem is the story never actually happened and the girl of whom the question was actually asked survived. But that doesn’t make for a good faith anecdote, does it? So the twisted version remains a popular notion.
No doubt this story will as well, despite the fact even the stories putting a positive spin on this woman’s actions seem a rather disquieting:
Lori Peterson, jogging on the path on West River Parkway, was about 200 feet past the Interstate 35W bridge Wednesday when she heard an awful noise over the loud music on her iPod
She was already clear of the bridge. She was already safe, unlike anyone else on or under the bridge. So let’s get one thing straight first: This isn’t a survivor story.
Leaving the river, Peterson stopped atop the hill at Gold Medal Park. "Does anyone want to pray?" she asked. People looked at her like she was nuts. She asked three more times; a girl raised her hand and walked over. More joined. About 15 people circled for a short prayer.
She left! SHE LEFT! She left the scene! She walked up to a park and asked three times, probably looking like an crazy person yes, if people would like to pray. How she even mustered fifteen people is beyond me, unless it’s one of those phenomenon that usually lead to mob mentalities. I hope what I’m imagining in my mind’s eye is accurate: that while she and these people knelt on the ground in the park, their heads bowed, other people ran around them, toward the river, to at least try to do something to help. How is she a hero if she left the scene of the disaster? Why is her story plastered all over?
As people on cell phones told loved ones that they were OK, Peterson ran toward her condo at the Rock Island Lofts. She saw her husband biking toward her. She broke down in tears, and they held each other in the street.
Aww what a touching ending. Right? What the hell man, not only did she flee the scene to the safety of a park while people were still stuck on the bridge and in the water, she then just ran on home. She was in the clear, she missed the collapse, unlike the people who were actually on top of it when it plunged down into the Mississippi river. Why is this being promoted as the story of a survivor? Why is her little prayer group seen as positive when it didn’t help a damn thing? No shaft of light burst from the clouds and fixed the bridge, or plucked people out of the water. People still died.
And this, from another source:
"I don’t think they were my words. I think it was God’s intent for me to be on that hill and pray," [Lori Peterson] said.
Why do people always say things like this? It always flabbergasts me that people like this honestly think they don’t have any thoughts of their own, and every bright idea they get is given to them by God.
Peterson had sent out an e-mail to about 100 people detailing her account of the collapse. That e-mail was forwarded across the country and she has since received about 500 responses.
Oh. I get it now. This is how it got all over the news: She’s an attention whore.
-Le sigh-
Attention whores…
Why such a story even deserved to be on the news is beyond me, so I’m right along side you on that. It is bull.
I’m sorry. I’d normally comment on it more, but that angers me to such a degree that thinking of a well thought-out, coherent thought is only being taken over by the desire to strangle someone and cuss.
In Germany or any European country this person would have been put in jail for not helping and even fleeing the scene.
I don’t know whether or not to say what she did was right or wrong, but I do think you’re underestimating the power of prayer. (Besides, one should never criticize decisions made in the midst of a battle from an armchair)
There was some research done by Duke University Medical Center in which patients undergoing serious cardiovascular stuff (like coronary bypasses, etc) were split at random into groups. One group of patients were prayed for, and the others weren’t. According to the people in charge of this research, the group that was being prayed for, fared better after the operations than those patients who weren’t. (you can find the whole story here: http://www.dukemednews.duke.edu/news/article.php?id=5056 )
On top of this, a few years ago, my grandmother was nearly killed in her vacuum store when two guys tried to burglarize it. She was in the back room when they attacked, and after being hit in the back of the head multiple times, and injected with liquid drain-o and lighter fluid, she fell to the floor as they made off with some minor items. She drifted in and out of consciousness quite a few times, but when she was awake she was praying. And somehow, she wound up in the front of the store and had called 911. Nobody was in there to help, and she remembers every single thing about the entire ordeal (including telling the paramedics what the family phone numbers are so they could call, and where the store keys were so they could lock up on the way out), but she doesn’t remember the trip from the back room to the front desk phone. And it’s not a post-traumatic stress thing, because that would’ve made her forget the more violent aspect, rather than how she covered the distance from point A to point B.
Either way though, the story you’re actually ranting about has been over-done. However, whether she did the right thing or not is debatable.
@Kumori “Besides, one should never criticize decisions made in the midst of a battle from an armchair”
I think it’s very valid criticism to say that she ran away from the scene of a diaster to sit down and talk to herself rather than actually helping the people in danger. If prayer works, why did people still die?
“here was some research done by Duke University Medical Center in which patients undergoing serious cardiovascular stuff (like coronary bypasses, etc) were split at random into groups. One group of patients were prayed for, and the others weren’t. According to the people in charge of this research, the group that was being prayed for, fared better after the operations than those patients who weren’t.”
It’s already well-known that “mind over matter” and the power of suggestion can actually bring about change in conditions and diseases. People have been hypnotized into willing away boils and the effects of certain skin conditions before. Cancer patients have seen improved health by staying positive and keeping themselves happy. It’s the simple power of suggestion. Those being prayed for suggested to themselves that the prayer would actually work and they were better off, of course they fared better than someone without any sort of psychological reassurance.
It’s no different than carrying a rabbit’s foot for luck to a job interview or into a dangerous situation and deciding it really did give you luck when things turned out okay. But really it was the power of suggestion putting you in a better, more confident state.
“She was in the back room when they attacked, and after being hit in the back of the head multiple times, and injected with liquid drain-o and lighter fluid, she fell to the floor as they made off with some minor items. She drifted in and out of consciousness quite a few times, but when she was awake she was praying. And somehow, she wound up in the front of the store and had called 911.”
My brother once badly electrocuted himself with a water vaccum in the basement when it had flooded and managed to run through the room and up a flight of stairs into the kitchen with no recollection of it. Adrenaline can do some seriously amazing things to a person in a crisis.
I think it is debatable. Is it impossible to pray at the same time you run back toward the scene of a diaster to help those in trouble?
I always thought the idea was that God doesn’t involve himself in this kind of stuff anyway, since it’s our fault for getting chucked out of Eden or whatever and all that free will and shit. So how the hell would praying help, I’m confused. Still, I don’t claim to know about this stuff.
Besides, I wonder if someone she could have helped died, because she wasn’t trying to help. And what, does she think she gave the rescuers strength or something to help? I doubt any of them noticed anything like that, hmm… Pfft.
That woman is a complete moron quite frankly. And like you said it’s ALWAYS the Chritians praying that you hear about.
Wow. I mean, what would she want people to do if she were on that bridge. I’m guessing she’d be pretty pissed if she saw a jogger who said. “Hey, I’m gonna go help you by praying!” I know if I had survived something like that, I’d beat the living snot out of this woman. That’s just wrong. She could’ve at least tried to seem like she cared about the people around her.
OO…………………..this is all I have to say XD she should be put in jail because she didn’t help at all!! The prayer didn’t even worked! People are still dead!
If this woman lived in perhaps, Pennsylvania or Louisiana, then maybe I might giver her some credit for going to a park and asking complete strangers to pray.(Though hardly news worthy.)
But if she was only a walk away from a complete disaster?
It’s…just disgusting. And the biggest problem is that when people tell a story like this in such a positive light, one can only think good things about it. You’re average person who hears about this on the news will never realize what actually happened, that this woman walked away from a complete catastrophe to sit with 15 other individuals and talk to themselves.
And as she sits there praying, God is in heaven saying to him self “Well, shit, lady. I already sent you the paramedics, rescue team and about a 1000 hero-citizens, what else do you want from me?!â€
I found this video on YouTube a couple of weeks ago. http://youtube.com/watch?v=jk6ILZAaAMI&mode=related&search=
It just seems eerily appropriate for this topic. It really more like a college lecture than a video, but it wraps up the “Power of Prayer†oh so very neatly.
@KEM Considering she sent out an e-mail spam afterwards about her harrowing experience, I think it’s safe to say that it’s all about her.
@Jay Haha, that was pretty good.
I agree 100% with you. It angers me she acted like a coward and an attention whore than actually HELP people. I would have been more angry if any of my family members died because of her. I’d want her head on a silver platter then. >_
Spiney :// I’m not sure how exactly it applies, but I’d think she would be at least frowned upon by general public and dragged through mud by the media.
She pretty much ran away from the scene and even distracted 15 more people from actually, say…HELPING
And she even had the guts to brag all over the internetz. I’d have a response to her, and it wouldn’t be a pretty one
…which makes me wonder what those 500 responses said
I can so imagine God sitting on top of his little cloud screaming at her to go help, but instead she’s sitting around prayer. So he gives up and invokes the aid of a skateboarder.
People like this make me kind of embarrassed to say that yes, I believe in God and yes, I am a Christian. If there was something she could have done to help, she should have helped. I believe prayer works, but I won’t start praying unless I know there is nothing else I can do. It’s sad that this woman is being claimed as a hero and a survivor, she deserves neither of those titles. I think coward would be a more fitting title.
Back to Sai:
the people in the prayer study I talked about weren’t told they would receive prayer.
And electricity is a lot different than physical blows. Besides, even in water, the human body is pretty resistant against an electrical current, so at the most, your brother would’ve had a little trouble breathing, and that’s only if the current went through his chest area. I guess it’s possible that he could’ve had some twinges and a little bit of problems with muscle control for a few hours afterward. So really, mobility is no issue with electricity unless it’s being struck by lightning.
And the paramedics determined that she was unconscious long enough (from the large pool of blood in the carpet and from people living in the area that saw the two guys run off, thus the time they left) that the adrenaline from the attack would have almost completely subsided by the time she got to the phone. Besides, the only spots in the entire store with blood on them were the back room where the attack took place, and by the phone near the cash register. There wasn’t any in-between those two points.
@Kumori Please remember he was standing in ankle-high water at the time. A big electric shock can definitely knock the wind out of you, and even make you pass out. One of my best friends was electrocuted some years before I met her and she barely has any feeling in the hand that touched the wire now. When you’re touching an object you literally get stuck to it as the current surges through you until someone pulls you off or you get knocked away by the sheer force of it.
My brother still got from point A to point B with no awareness of it, under pressure and addled from a big electric shock. It’s because he was addled that he doesn’t remember moving or how he got out to where he knew instinctively to go to get help.
If your grandmother in your story was going in and out of conciousness of course she’d have no recollection when she managed to hoist herself up and get to the phone. I was really drunk once and was barely aware of how I got across my kitchen to the garbage can when I felt like I was going to puke (and I did.) I’ve also had numerous what I call “ninja moments” where I blank out with no idea how I got from point A to point B. This most notably happened the time my youngest cousin on my dad’s side was a baby and was pulling on the string of a camera, nearly pulling it down on her head. I was suddenly off the couch and across the room with my hand clamped on the camera seconds before it was going to fall. I did the same thing at one of my old jobs, catching a large glass table with one hand when I saw it falling off a display area. Now THAT is adrenaline.
Unless you can prove these anamolies aren’t a matter of family legend, I dunno. Was she even bleeding enough to leave a trail? Maybe the blood had dried by the time she got up.
@Hiroshine “And she even had the guts to brag all over the internetz. I’d have a response to her, and it wouldn’t be a pretty one
…which makes me wonder what those 500 responses said”
Unfortunately most of them probably said “You are so brave! You are an inspiration to my faith and a strong Christian! omg love love love”.
Couldn’t she have just made a small prayer and then helped or do you need maximum prayer power? I’m sure many people were praying…
People stuck in debris, people actually helping, people watching TV, an insane multiple of 15 at least…
Do you need to do a precise ritual for prayer to work?
Maybe we should build prayer squads in every town to find trouble and react to it quickly…
@ Sai:
I wouldn’t argue too much about electricity with an engineering major. I know what it is and how it works. While your brother no doubt had a bad shock from the incident, it’s not the same type of injury as a blow from a metal pipe. And a power outlet only gives 120V. which is nothing compared to some places. It’s enough to hurt, and damage your nerve endings (thus your sense of touch) but it rarely does lasting damage to the point that it inhibits your ability to function normally. Unlike being beaten with a metal pole and having liquid drain-o and lighter fluid injected into your neck, (which alone should have killed her instantly), electricity is pretty easy to recover from if it’s from an outlet. (Don’t argue lightning either, that’s several times more powerful than a 120V outlet, and the heat from them alone can sometimes kill)
And I admit, adrenaline can be a very powerful thing. But it wouldn’t make sense for my grandmother to be able to recall each and every time she was awake and not be able to remember the one that got her to the phone. The odds of that are astronomically small. But like I said before, the adrenaline from the attack had worn off by the time she was at the phone, so it wouldn’t be a very powerful force in getting her there.
And of course she was still bleeding enough to have left a trail. But there wasn’t one left. There was only a pool of blood at point A and point B - none in between. The paramedics made some headway with the cut on the back of her head, but the nurses were still trying to stop the bleeding when I got to the hospital after school.
So while I can’t prove that your scenarios aren’t family legend (although I don’t doubt them at all), nobody, even those on the scene, were able to explain the lack of blood between the back room and the phone.
@Kumori But how, exactly, if she was beaten and injected with a concoction that “should have killed her instantly” was she in any condition to remember every instance she slipped back into conciousness. Was she glancing at a clock each and every time? She can’t really know that she was fully aware each time she was awake.
I’m not saying electric shock is the same as being beaten with a pipe, but I am saying that a person who senses they’re in danger or with a sense of urgency whose awareness/thought process has been addled could very easily make their way across a distance without any recollection of it.
Again, telling me, no offense “and all the paramedics couldn’t find a blood trail” sounds like something you’d hear in an urban legend. Memory isn’t flawless and people have a tendancy to exaggerate already incredible stories.
To be devil’s advocate, not everyone is able to help in a disaster.
Think of how many people you know that see something bad happen and COMPLETELY freak out and are incapable of doing ANYTHING.
So you could, considering that, think of what she did and view what she did as helping the onlookers, who did not have the presence of mind and the bravery to help, cope, because we all know from the 9/11 tragedy, that witnesses often suffer from later mental trauma that is often as debilating as people who were there, but unhurt.
Yeah, sometimes people can’t cope with certain situations and praying might be a good way to help keep yourself together. But, helping people up on a hill with prayer that most of them didn’t even consider is a bit odd. Usually in disaster situations the mental state of onlookers isn’t a top priority.
… I wish I had some pumpkins.
@Sarah Even if it was because it was the only thing she could think to do and the only way she could cope, the fact she said she thinks it was GOD’S PLAN for her to go up on that hill and get a group of people the pray, is drinking up interviews, and the fact she sent out a spam email about her actions is pretty telling.
They were praying for the non-believers to risk their lives so that Christians could be safe. ‘Nuff said. :/
so stupid. Why didn’t she make the move to help… I probably would have first taken out my cell phone and called the police. duh. I mean you know she had one, for gods sakes. Stupid bitch
As with the others who have commented, I am incredibly aggravated by her running from the scene (and thus, possibly leading directly to at least one person’s death), the others who instead of running to help decided also it was the only thing to do, and her intentionally pushing her ’story’ for nothing other then attention. There was actually a surgeon who worked in the nearby hospital, that during certain emergencies (such as emergency C-sections) where he would stop in the middle, and go in a corner to pray instead of acting like the doctor he is and helping.
Sai, you do realize that most people in such a situation would be frozen stiff in shock or running away from the scene panicking? I am not saying what she did was right, and I don’t think deserves this attention, but half the people posting here would either panic or go into shock in such a situation. Don’t knock people unless you know what you would do in that situation yourself.
That’s not the point. If you agree she doesn’t deserve the attention for her actions then you kinda… shouldn’t have a problem with anything I just said.