44 thoughts on “NASCAR prayer”

  1. I wonder what the going rate is for product placement in a car race benediction? And…perhaps we could scrape up enough dough for one of those “you can be good without gods” ads? Wouldn’t that cause some heads to asplode!

    Cheers,

    b&

    1. Hilarious and prophetic.

      Will Ferrell thanks God for his 22.1 million dollars. 22+1=23

      This NASCAR prayer occurred on the 23rd of this month.

      Farrell’s plan is evident in all things.

  5. Lordie 😮

    1. Who needs to make fun of religion, they do such a good job themselves.
    2. Either God was deaf
    OR
    3. She certainly is now.

  7. Hallelujah!

    On marine snails – Prof, is winkle expert David Reid of the Natural History Museum there at the meeting? I have just been reading about him (& his molecular colleague S.T.Williams) in Richard Fortey’s excellent “Dry Store Room No.1”. He says winkles are a really good creature to study evolution as they have such a variety & even vary within species. Good book anyway.

  8. Let me begin by thanking you for using fulsomely correctly. But on the subject at hand:

    Rednecks and Jesus – I don’t remember that as the endpoint of teleology in the Phenomenology of Man. De Chardin must have missed that development.

  9. LOL I caught this yesterday via PZ’s link and had a great laugh. It seriously looks like it could be a deleted scence from talladega nights.

    Funny thing was, they drivers and crew were starting to think the prayer was funny and were smiling and chuckling even before the pastor caught on that he was throwing up a ridiculous parody and thanked dog for his smoking hot wife.

    We need more “prayers” like this one to show the kids of the younger generation that even “official” prayers are a joke.

  11. I think that actually cost me IQ points. Boogity boogity boogity indeed. Clearly this is part of Coyne’s research into some of the deeper and more subtle mysteries offered by sophisticated theology.

  12. Just confirms my conviction that prayers are either nothing but begging or advertising …

  13. Dare I say it. Perhaps this shows that religious folk have a greater sense of humor than uptight atheists who tend to get their panties in a bunch if someone offers up a prayer at a public event incapable of seeing the ‘offensive prayer’ even as a cultural way for someone to wish another human being good luck. Perhaps the pastor’s ‘message’ was for all of us religious or non religious to lighten up, be a little less uptight and not take ourselves too seriously.

    1. Or, more likely, the pastor thought his prayer would be specific and appropriate to the event and didnt realize how comical it was until he was 3/4 of the way through it.

    2. The problem is that it’s no joking matter.

      Sure, there can be moments of comedy now and again. But some of the blackface routines were funny, too…right up until about five seconds after the joke when you realize the kind of mocking being done and the environment that permits it to flourish.

      Never mind the atheists. Never mind even the non-Christian religious. Public prayer is even used to beat up on Christians of other denominations. Can you imagine the uproar at that race if the local parish priest had tried to lead the crowd in a Hail Mary? If a Mormon had read from Doctrine & Covenants? If it were Rev. Mary Glasspool, Episcopal Bishop, and a lesbian, giving the benediction?

      The truth is that religion is — and must ever be by its very nature — one of the great dividers of our culture. It has no place in the public sphere, where the goal is unity, not division.

      Cheers,

      b&

      1. Your response illustrates exactly what I’m alluding to. The prayer was appropriate for the situation. He was not praying for salvation for those people who did not believe as he does or damning anyone to hell for not believing the things that he believes. He prayed for a great show from the participants and for a safe race. I see it as akin to wishing someone good luck. The context and content is important and I suspect that for
        most enlightened folk if he had offered up the same prayer to Allah or Mary instead of Jesus they would not be offended. I find the mock outrage to all public prayer anal rententive. I mean do people get a raise too when they play the national anthem at sporting events? It is really not that serious – people need to take a chill pill and choose their battles.

        1. If I failed to laugh at jokes about southern blacks eating watermelon and fried chicken, would you tell me to take a chill pill? If I failed to laugh at a send-up of gays as lisping, limp-wristed pansies with a mincing gait, would I still need a chill pill? If I failed to crack a smile at a joke about an Irishman getting into a drunken brawl, would it be time for another chill pill?

          I’m not black, gay, or Irish. But, if I were, would that mean more or fewer chill pills?

          The fact remains that no prayer, no matter how comedic, is appropriate for any public situation. If this pastor had given this prayer in his church, fantastic. I’d probably be laughing a bit more.

          But I don’t give a flying fuck if he’s Groucho Marx reincarnated, public prayers are highly inappropriate.

          Now, don’t get me started on the Congressional Chaplain….

          b&

          1. So this was prayer was the equivalent of a blackface routine? And if so who exactly was being mocked? Show me the injured and traumatized parties. LOL! Do people on here know how to laugh and have a good time? Fundamentalist atheists are almost as humorless and joyless as religious fundies.

          2. Reading comprehension much?

            The problem isn’t humor.

            Humor is irrelevant.

            There is nothing about humor related to the problem.

            How many other ways can it be put?

            The problem is public prayer.

            As to injured and traumatized parties…well, first off, the prayer makes that a pretty exclusive club for true-believin’ Christians. Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Mormons, atheists, Wiccans, Catholics, Zoroastrians, and Unitarians all have a choice between watching the race and being proselytized at.

            Sure, the message is delivered with a smile and a joke, but the message nonetheless remains: drop to your knees and join in the Sinner’s Prayer or you’re an unperson who’ll be tortured for all eternity while the real people crack jokes over your burning flesh.

            Oogity boogity boo.

            Cheers,

            b&

          3. “Fundamentalist atheists”?
            What are those?
            Is that even possible?
            Define “Fundamentalist atheists” for me, please. Pretty please.

            TheMuse, you are pretty clueless. You don’t (won’t? can’t?) understand our objections because you are willfully blind.

            Ben, great job tearing apart his vacuous musings.

          4. Christian white privilege is like all privilege, it is invisible to those who profit by it. These christians truly cannot see the problem with their dominance in society. So they – the in group – can wink at each other and continue to kick the outsiders, all as some sort of prank.

        2. Thanks Muse, but I will pick what I decide to criticize however indelicate you may think me for doing so. By all means let this moron boogity boogity boogity all the live long day. And let those a NASCAR give him a platform from which he may boogity his great and mighty god that gave the world ‘them powerful machines.’ By all means.

          I will go ahead and mock and criticize and ridicule said actions if I feel the urge.

    3. Yeah, the muslims prayed before ramming jets into buildings – that was extra funny, huh? Those christians prayed before invading Iraq, that was really hilarious right?

      They have been doing that shit for at least thousands of years, the humor of it is getting a bit thin.

    4. I’ve got to agree with you on this one, Muse. I’m an atheist and I despise religion, but this is something that should be laughed at. Because…well, it’s funny! Sometimes we atheists need to grab a sense of humor and lighten up. There are serious issues with public prayer but this isn’t one of them. I think this shows that Christians can take themselves and their religion lightly from time to time; we ought to do the same.

      1. Again, it’s not the humor that’s the problem.

        Let’s try an analogy.

        Handel’s Messiah is one of the great masterworks of the Western musical tradition. I’ve performed it more times than I can count, both as a musician and a singer, and the few times I’ve not enjoyed doing so had everything to do with the ass at the front waving a stick.

        I’ve even performed it as part of an official public function of Arizona State University, a government action if ever there were one.

        All of that is fine and dandy, no problems from me whatsoever.

        What would be a problem would be the stick-waving ass sermonizing by way of “explaining” the religious meanings of the text. “Join with us in singing this beautiful Baroque oratorio!” = good. “Come join us in singing Jesus’s praises to High Heaven. Glory hallelujah, He is risen indeed!” = bad, even if you offer it as a direct quotation.

        If you can’t understand why, imagine somebody using Wagner to extoll the virtues of a glorious death on the battlefield to secure passage with Brünnhilde to Valhalla. Or any of the several operas about Orpheus to recruit membership into a revival of an Orphic mystery cult.

        NASCAR is a private enterprise, so they’re free to make asses of themselves by being obnoxious pricks who wave their Jesuses in people’s faces. But painting a smiley face on the tip of your Jesus doesn’t make it any less rude or offensive when you start waving it in my face.

        Cheers,

        b&

    5. Since this “prayer” was nearly straight out of Talladega Nights, I haven’t quite figured out the pastor’s intent. I thought that most Xians would be offended at such mockery, but a quick poll showed that over 50% of Xian folks approved of the prayer.

  14. We thank thee, Lord, for making Goodyear tires available wherever these fine products are sold. And thank you, Lord, for weekend sales. Bad credit, no credit, no problem. It’s a Sunday Blowout!!

    Oops, sorry Lord.

      2. You know, 95% of the time I’m a huge fan of Sam Harris and I think he has well described Hedges as sanctimonious. It therefore pains me to say that I don’t think Hedges has distorted the meaning of Harris’s words nearly so much as Harris leaves us to conclude. Now, perhaps Sam didn’t intend for his words to come across the way they do (that would be a rare for Sam), but there is one sentence that comes right after the passage Hedges quoted that really turns my stomach. “How would such an unconscionable act of self-defense be perceived by the rest of the Muslim world?” (He refers to a first strike by “us” on the (so far) hypothetical Islamist state armed with long-range nuclear weapons.) First strikes are self-defense in the world of the Bush doctrine, but that doesn’t make it so, unless perhaps one has strong, direct evidence of an immediately impending attack.

    2. I hope someone is keeping the knifes and guns away from Chris Hedges, his writing seems a little warped and incoherent.

  19. If they had sacrificed a goat at least you could have enjoyed a decent roti*.

    * My local roti shop sells goat roti in traditional Caribbean style complete with the bones which is a bit too crunchy for me and a boneless style to cater to the local taste.

    1. I doubt they sacrificed any goats, but I’m sure they sacrificed many cattle and pigs, and at least a small flock of chickens.

      They even would have made a pleasing scent of the burning flesh that wafted towards the heavens.

      Does that count?

      Cheers,

      b&

  21. Better than the original — Damn near choked on my breakfast as I LOLed!

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