A Real Test of Faith

This Decade's Jane Fonda

Having the benefit of more than a few years of life and the ability to be occasionally introspective, I cannot ascribe everything that's happened to me to dumb luck. I've been incredibly fortunate in so many aspects of my life that "luck" just won't cover it. Karma? Maybe. Divine Guidance? That's what I've been taught to believe, and I guess I do to a certain extent...though I remain just a touch cynical about anything not concrete. That's why some of the religious teachings I've been exposed to strike me as a bit, well, too hard for me. Like this one:
According to religious texts, we are supposed to turn the other cheek and pray for those who do harm to us. Somehow, those things just seem to stick in my craw (as my dad would have said). While not an open hater of much of anything (cooked vegetables being a notable exception) or anyone, adopting a terrorist as a prayer subject is reaching.
That's right, there is a site on the internet: atfp.org that has listed, complete with photos, bios, and just how to go about praying for your particular "adopted" terrorist. The premise , of course, comes straight from the Bible, according to its founder (the site, not the Bible)Thomas Bruce, who noted, " The site is trying to teach people how to pray for enemies in order to spiritually reform the terrorists."
Launched in 2008, the site added the interactive adoption function last year and currently has 165 high-profile security threats on its site, all of whom have been adopted for prayer by at least two people among the 603 people who have agreed to pray for a specific terrorist.
In case you are curious, Osama bin Laden leads the way with 13 people praying for him. Other notable figures:
"Jihad Jamie" (pictured above) who recently pleaded guilty to fomenting terrorism has 10 adoptive prayer buddies.
The guy who tried to light his underwear as a bomb has 8 people on the prayer beads for him.
They Ft. Hood shooter Nidal Hasan has 7 people praying for his conversion.
Afghan leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's biography notes 6 people praying for his change of heart and mind.
Richard Reid, the shoe bomber guy has been adopted by 4 people.
Most of the rest have at least two people, leaving me disappointed. I was looking for the most wanted person that nobody wanted because he was not a big enough fish or didn't get a prom date or had skin problems. No such person...while there were many who might have qualified, all had people praying for them already.
I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I get the idea that prayer can be mountain-moving, but still...there are some things just so hard to overlook...like killing folks in the name of a deity (forget The Crusades for the time being!)
Besides, I have a whole host of people on my prayer list already...many of them politicians.
THAT will take a lot of faith, I think.