11.06.08
Posted in articles at 12:17 am by MPJ
Now that the election is over I can say it without anyone accusing me of trying to influence the election! About a year ago, while reading “the Audacity of Hope,” I got the notion that Barack Obama may be at the Mystic level of spiritual development - that is at the fourth of four stages we have enough data to address.* That of course was not reason enough to vote for him as president and I really did not think too much about it after that. It was only today, while I was recalling some aspects of some of his speeches, that it hit me: I am pretty sure: Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
10.22.08
Posted in articles at 4:22 pm by MPJ
Here is a news item about a pharmacy that just opening in my county where the plan is that they refuse to sell birth control, candy and sodas. http://wwrn.org/article.php?idd=29388 I don’t know, but do pharmacies sell cigarettes anymore? I wonder if this place will similarly refuse to sell those? Surely cigarettes are a larger vice than candy, soda and - dare I say it? - SEX! I have a brother who once owned probably the only convenience store in the world where there were no cigarettes for sale. That was his belief - that the use of cigarettes places an undue burden on society and thus is immoral. At tremendous cost to Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
10.15.08
Posted in articles at 8:57 am by MPJ
Intercessory Prayer is when you pray to God that something you want will happen or that something you don’t want will not happen. In these cases, you are asking God to “intercede” on your behalf. It has been a part of most religions for ages and ages. But, does it work?
Well, a few years ago a study ( Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) in cardiac bypass patients: a multicenter randomized trial of uncertainty and certainty of receiving intercessory prayer. Am Heart J.2006 Apr;151(4):934-42) was completed by a group of researchers (Benson H, Dusek JA, Sherwood JB, Lam P, Bethea CF, Carpenter W, Levitsky S, Hill PC, Clem DW JR, Jain MK, Drumel D, Kopecky SL, Mueller PS, Marek D, Rollins S, Hibberd PL.) The study tested the effect of prayer on the rate of complications following coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery.
Three groups of patients were included in the study: those who were told they would definitely receive intercessory prayer Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
10.13.08
Posted in articles at 10:05 pm by MPJ
Sorry I have not posted any articles here in a few weeks. Excuses include the fact that at first I was working mostly on my upcoming book. Then I could not access the blog for a few days while I was having it upgraded to a newer Wordpress version. Then my husband returned from spending a year in Alaska. Shortly thereafter, I had Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink