CHURCH:
INEFFECTIVENESS; PRAYER: UNANSWERED; HYPOCRISY

Unquestionably there is not another institution in the world that talks as much and does as little as the church. Any factory that required as much raw material for so small a finished product would go bankrupt in six months. I have often thought that if one-tenth of one per cent of the prayers made in the churches of any ordinary American village on one Sunday were answered the country would be transformed overnight.

But that is just our trouble. We pour out millions of words and never notice that the prayers are not answered.…

We settle for words in religion because deeds are too costly. It is easier to pray, “Lord, help me to carry my cross daily” than to pick up the cross and carry it; but since the mere request for help to do something we do not actually intend to do has a certain degree of religious comfort, we are content with repetition of the words.

Luke 9:23–25; James 1:22–25; 1 John 3:17–19

Born After Midnight, 34.