There’s a happy cadre of Christians in Tampa who are patting themselves on the back for “praying Isaac away” from the Republican National Convention.  A lot of people have already noted that Isaac is going to pass Tampa by – Yeah! – only to barrel into the Gulf Coast – Oops!

Thank you, Tampa Christians.

Tell me about these prayers.  Did these good Christians pray just for their own benefit at the expense of anyone and everyone else?  Did they pray harder than the sinners up in New Orleans?  Assuming whatever they did had any effect at all; wouldn’t they have been better Christians to ask God to save everyone from harm?  And if they did, wouldn’t Isaac have veered away from land entirely?

I’m not a big Christian basher.  I was raised as one of those unspecified Christians.  My mom’s family was Catholic, so I went to mass sometimes.  Our neighbors were Baptists and I went to church with them for a while.  My dad was a sort-of Mormon who delighted in offering our missionaries a beer when they came to visit.  The truth is I don’t have a particular beef with any of the faiths except that the more I learn about them the less I can imagine buying their stories.

So again I have to ask, what were these people praying for?  Was it like the bombing scene in “Hope and Glory” when Dawn Rowan yells, “Not us!  Hit Mrs. Evans.  She’s a cow!”?  Was it just completely self-serving?  “Save us and everyone else is on his own.”  Did they pray for everyone and God decided to play with them?  Or did He ignore them entirely?  Or is there no God?  (Sorry, that’s a different – much longer – discussion.)

In any case, I’m not clear why these people are so happy and proud of their prayer skills – to protect a political convention, of all things..