ANSWERS: 10
  • Its a myth in my opinion. I know lots of families who are not religious at all and have been together for years, and also other families at the opposite end of the spectrum who have split. Praying does not make a family happy.
  • Even though I believe in prayer I don't believe that prayer alone will do it. Everyone in the family must try to live up to their "role" according to the Biblical standard.
  • As a general rule, I would say yes. Prayer builds a strong bond between family members...but it does depend on what they are praying for...
  • My parents have been married for 23 years. My Grandparents have been married for 52 years. My second youngest sister has been dating her boyfriend for 10 years. My sisters and I are all extremely close. No one in my family prays.
  • Unfortunately, human behavior is not so easily predicted. Just because a family prays together does not mean that they will stay close. I would say that when the members of a family share religious beliefs and practices that they are more likely to stay close. I would also say that when members of a family don't share the same values that they are more likely to drift apart. However, I have no empirical data to back up either of those assertions nor do I believe that either situation is guarantied to produce the mentioned outcome.
  • My family did a LOT of praying. My father was a Baptist preacher. In 1963, when I was 5, my mother had a nervous breakdown from (in part) the extreme stress of being married to him and producing her 6th child in 12 years. At one point, she thought the Communists were following her (this is something my father warned everyone about, of course... those were the days!). She was out walking, and got so frightened that she ran to a neighbor's house and literally ripped off the screen door in an effort to get inside to escape the Communists. She separated from him that year, and took all 6 of us off to live as a unit... despite her lack of job skills or income. She did figure out how to support us eventually. But in 1965 my father went away to prison -- he had decided to reunite the family via force, which turns out to be against the law. He wanted us to pray together. My mother prayed a lot, and taught us to pray. Then in 1973, my father (out of prison already!) reattempted to reunite the family by force so we could do some more family praying. Again it failed to work, and he went back to prison. But in the aftermath, four of my 6 siblings spent many years of their lives trying to sort out who they were with various forms of therapy and psychiatric treatment. Half of them prayed a lot, and half didn't. I can't really see any difference, all 4 are still fairly crazy. The two children who did not go nuts (myself and my elder sister) are split: she prays, I don't. Her family is wonderful, and they have stayed healthy and close. My family is also in good shape. Again, prayer seems not to be much of a factor. I've seen wonderful families who pray, and wonderful families who are committed atheists. I think what matters most is the level of love and overall psychological health in the family, not prayer. Of course, a properly controlled study would be needed to make any of these conclusions be more than speculation.
  • It could be taken as a tongue-in-cheek comment on the incest that occurs, or used to occur, widely in small, localised Christian denominations.
  • Not necessarily. www.barna.com/research/new-marriage-and-divorce-statistics-released/
  • i think its true
  • Providing they are being properly obedient to scripture... Question...graven [ carved/ formed ] images...the scriptures ban all of them...yet the RCC and others are built on them... (Exodus 20:4)

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