American Atheists Tell Super Bowl Fans 'Prayer Doesn't Work'

© 2013 The Wired Word

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Super Bowl 48 is behind us, but the subject of praying during the game lingers, thanks to an anti-prayer billboard ad launched by American Atheists to run near MetLife Stadium before and during the game.
The 14- by 48-foot billboard shows a priest holding a football and declaring, "A 'Hail Mary' only works in football. Enjoy the game!" The electronic billboard displayed that ad six times per hour.
In football, a "Hail Mary" refers to a long pass thrown in desperation, especially near the end of the first half or of the game, when a team is too far from the end zone to score by means of more conventional plays.
Historically, such a play is preceded by prayer for its success. Thus, the point of the billboard ad was that prayer does not work in life. And the American Atheists organization hammered that point in a press release announcing the billboard.
"Prayer is superstition, plain and simple," the press release said. "It trivializes the dedication of the players and takes away from their achievements. A third of football fans pray in hopes of helping their team. These are adults we're talking about -- people with children, people with careers, people who vote."
The statement that "A third of football fans pray in hopes of helping their team" may be based on a recent survey by the Public Religion Research Institute which found that more than half of American fans believe some aspect of supernatural forces is at work in sports, "meaning they either pray to God to help their team, have thought their team was cursed at some point in time, or believe that God plays a role in determining the outcome of sporting events," the survey concluded.
The survey found that roughly 20 percent of all those surveyed felt that praying to God to help their team made a difference in the game's outcome, but among white evangelical Protestant sports fans, the figure is 38 percent, with white mainline Protestant sports fans coming in at 33 percent and minority Protestant sports fans at 29 percent. Catholics were at 21 percent and the religiously unaffiliated at 15 percent.
The American Atheists' press release continued: "It's 2014; it's time to stop believing that prayer works. Give credit where credit is due and celebrate what this is really about -- coming together to cheer on hard-working athletes doing what they do best."
Wikipedia explains the link between the Hail Mary pass and prayer: "The former Notre Dame halfback Jim Crowley often told the story of an October 28, 1922, game between Notre Dame and Georgia Tech in which the Fighting Irish players said Hail Mary prayers together before scoring each of the touchdowns, winning the game 13 to 3. According to Crowley, it was one of the team's linemen, Noble Kizer (a Presbyterian), who suggested praying before the first touchdown, which occurred on a fourth and goal play at the Tech 6-yard line during the second quarter. Quarterback Harry Stuhldreher, another of the Horsemen, threw a quick pass over the middle to Paul Castner for the score. The ritual was repeated before a third and goal play, again at Tech's six, in the fourth quarter. This time Stuhldreher ran for a touchdown, which sealed the win for Notre Dame. After the game, Kizer exclaimed to Crowley, 'Say, that Hail Mary is the best play we've got.'"
In the Roman Catholic Church, a "Hail Mary" (also called "Ave Maria") is a prayer to the Virgin Mary, based on the salutations of the angel Gabriel (Luke 1:28) and Elizabeth (Luke 1:42) to her.
The billboard ad also displayed the web address of the American Atheists' national convention, which is scheduled for Easter weekend in Salt Lake City.

More on this story can be found at these links:
Atheists Launch Anti-Prayer Super Bowl Billboard Near MetLife Stadium. Mail Online
Hail Mary Never Works: Column. USA Today
Survey: Half of American Fans See Supernatural Forces at Play in Sports. Public Religion Research Institute
Press Release: Atheists Take Playful Jab at Prayer in Super Bowl Billboard. American Atheists
The Big Questions
1. How often does prayer change an outcome? Explain your answer. If an outcome seems to change after praying for such, does that mean that prayer can make God change his mind?
2. When prayer does not change an outcome, what does it change?
3. Specifically, does praying for a sports team you favor make any difference in the game outcome? Why would God care about who wins a ball game? What happens if equal numbers of people are praying for both teams? Does your own level of interest and/or participation in sports affect how you answer these questions?
4. Are there any matters too trivial to take to God in prayer? If so, give examples. If not, why not?
5. What is the primary purpose(s) of prayer?
Confronting the News With Scripture and Hope
Here are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:
Matthew 7:7-8
Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. (For context, read 7:7-11.)
These are words of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount, but taken out of context, they sound like the wording of a guarantee: Follow these instructions faithfully and you will get the desired results. The words seem to promise that we can receive anything we pray for if we pray with enough intensity and persistence.
Yet in context, that is not the intent of Jesus' words. In the Sermon on the Mount thus far, Jesus had already asked his hearers to live righteously, to forgo anger, to shun retaliation, to avoid lust, to love their enemies, to forgive those who injured them and to not be anxious about the future. We can imagine that some in the audience that day were thinking, "How am I going to do all those things? Those are too hard!"
Jesus, however, anticipates that thinking, and so makes his comments about prayer. He tells his audience to just ask God for the ability to live righteously, to love their neighbors, to forgive those who hurt them, and so on. Those are qualities that praying affects. In other words, Jesus tells them that the answer to prayer for themselves most often comes in the form of spiritual graces in their lives.
Questions: What spiritual changes have you experienced because of praying? Are spiritual changes more important than the requests you made through prayer? Has there been an occasion when you have prayed for something and received a totally unexpected answer or result?
John 17:20-21
I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. (For context, read 17:13-24.)
This is from Jesus' prayer on the night before he was crucified. Here, he prays to the Father that not only his immediate disciples, but also all who would come to believe in him, "may all be one." In fact, not just one in a sort of "we're all in this together" way, but one in the way Jesus and the Father are one. And the purpose of this oneness is not for camaraderie, but that the rest of the world may know that Jesus was sent by God and may come to believe as well.
From what we know of the subsequent history of the original apostles, aside from Judas, they all spent the rest of their lives spreading the Gospel, and it is likely that they came as close to oneness as any Christians since. But given the multiplicity of denominations and disunited congregations the church has broken into since then, it is clear that what Jesus prayed for the night before he was crucified has not come to pass across the whole body of Christian believers.
That leads us to wonder whether Jesus expected his prayer to be fulfilled. He had a divine perspective, but even as a human being, Jesus had an acute understanding of what makes people tick and was spot on in his diagnosis of the human condition. Thus, it is hard to imagine that he thought the church would march on smoothly as one unbroken line of unity after his ascension. Yet here in these verses he prays to the Father that "they may be one, as we are one" (v. 22).
Questions: Should we pray for what seems unlikely to happen? Why or why not? What criteria would you use to judge whether a prayer was answered, as, for instance, in this prayer by Jesus that we might all be one?
2 Corinthians 12:7-9
Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." (For context, read 12:1-10.)
This is the apostle Paul's comment about some unspecified but persistent physical ailment he had. He prayed three times to be relieved of it, but God did not remove it. The outcome Paul desired did not occur. Instead, Paul wrote that the answer to his prayer is "My grace is sufficient for you, for [my] power is made perfect in weakness." Even though his request was not granted, Paul found in that response no reason to stop praying.
It's possible that praying for the unlikely stretches us and puts before us the things that we should work on as people of faith.
Questions: How long do you think Paul waited before he understood that the answer to his prayer was "My grace is sufficient for you, for [my] power is made perfect in weakness"? When have you perceived a prayer of yours to have been answered in some way other than in the way you requested? How hard has it been for you to accept that despite your wait, a situation is not going to change, and that you are going to continue with your own thorn in the flesh? How would you feel if your prayer to be relieved of a thorn was not answered, but another's was? Or vice versa?
James 5:13-16
Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. (For context, read 5:13-18.)
James is saying that we should set no limits on the power of prayer, for it is far more powerful than people commonly think. He is saying to his readers: Are you suffering? Pray for help! Are you sick? Pray for healing! Are you a sinner? Pray for forgiveness! After all, he says, look what Elijah was able to accomplish with the weather through prayer (see vv. 17-18). James says we should pray about all the things that concern us, whether that's our health, our soul, our kids or our crops.
We don't know how much God alters the weather -- or the outcome of football games -- due to our prayers, but the testimony of the Bible again and again is that prayer is one way in which we connect with God and that prayer has more impact than our natural skepticism leads us to expect. James wants us to take seriously the power of prayer.
Questions: What is your most compelling or astonishing experience with prayer? Did the outcome prayed for occur?
Matthew 14:23
And after [Jesus] had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. (For context, read 14:22-25.)
This is one of several verses in the gospels that tell of Jesus going off by himself to pray. Here in Matthew 14, he is doing so after spending the day teaching and feeding the 5,000 (see vv. 13-21). In most of the cases of Jesus going off to pray, we don't know what he prayed about. In fact, that's the point. Most of the time for Jesus, prayer was a private encounter with God. And maybe the lesson from that is that our prayers too, are not primarily to change outcomes but are for finding our way to God on a deeply personal level.
Questions: In what ways has prayer deepened your life? Does prayer have to be about something, or to achieve something? Can prayer be a means of maintaining relationship and conversation? What prayer disciplines do you practice? When do you create a mountain-style space to pray?
For Further Discussion
1. Regarding praying for outcomes of sports contests, comment on this: Several years ago, boxer Floyd Patterson credited the Lord for helping him flatten Archie Moore to win the heavyweight championship. "I could see his eyes go glassy as he fell back," Patterson said, "and I knew if he got up again, it wouldn't do him any good. I just hit him and the Lord did the rest."
2. Respond to this, from the Fox News column "Is It OK to Pray for Your Team to Win Super Bowl 2012?": On November 28, 2010, Steven Johnson lined up as a wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills. On November 28, the Bills were playing the Pittsburgh Steelers and they ultimately lost the game because Johnson dropped a pass late in the game, in the end zone. After the game, Johnson tweeted, "I praise you 24/7!!! And this is how you do me!!! You expect me to learn from this??? How??? I’ll never forget this!! Ever!!" Johnson praised God 24/7, but what kind of God was he praising? What was his prayer expectation? What would you advise him?
3. Respond to this: One biblical commentator points out that in Matthew's gospel, faith "is always not a quality of the one praying, but a relationship of practical trust with the one to whom the prayer is offered."
4. In the 1500s, John Knox, the founder of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, had to stand against Mary, Queen of Scots, who was determined to re-establish Catholicism as the state religion. At one point during the struggle, Mary commented about Knox, "I fear his prayers more than I do the armies of my enemies." Why do you suppose she said that?
5. A woman named Mimi Rumpp used to pray for a winning lottery ticket, but finally abandoned that as an unworthy prayer. But then she found she needed a kidney transplant, and she did pray fervently about that. Within a year, a bank teller to whom Mimi had mentioned her need was so moved that she had herself tested, found she was a perfect match and donated a kidney to Mimi. Do you think God paid more heed to Mimi's prayer for a kidney than for a winning lottery ticket? Why or why not?
Responding to the News
This lesson is not intended to suggest that we shouldn't pray for things that may be unimportant in the larger scheme of things. "Pray without ceasing," Paul said (1 Thessalonians 5:17), and we think he's right. We think we're better to pray more than pray less, but also to ask God to let our prayers deepen our relationship with him.
In one of his books, C.S. Lewis makes the point that it is a mystery that God asks us to pray for what we want. He then adds that it would be just as mysterious if God did not ask us to pray.
Closing Prayer

O Lord, teach us how to pray, and for what. Thank you, because you hear even our inadequate prayers. Let our prayers enable us to draw close to you. In Jesus' name. Amen.