Prayer doesn't do anything but it will make you feel better

John Shelby Spong is a former Episcopal Bishop who has written such books as "Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism" and he was on the Bill O'Reilly show on Fox News on April 13.

Spong is basically a pantheist. He says he believes in a God who is the "power of the life...the power of love...the ground of being."

I encourage you to read the whole interview here. Spong is one of the authors and thinkers that people like Gene Robinson, the homosexual Episcopal Bishop in New Hampshire, are going to turn to in their effort to "take back those Scriptures."

And Robinson is in bed with groups like Planned Parenthood and sex education groups that have their ideological roots in the philosophy of Alfred Kinsey, who researched the orgasmic capabilities of infants, among other things.

But the most interesting part of the Spong's interview was when O'Reilly asked him why he would pray if he doesn't believe that God is imminent and active in the world.

SPONG: Bill, I pray probably two hours every day of my life. But to me it's to get in tune with the God presence in this world so that I can be a part of that God presence.

O'REILLY: Do you pray for anything specifically?

SPONG: Well, it depends. I've had a daughter in Iraq for the last seven months, and I pray daily for her safety.

O'REILLY: For her safety.

SPONG: Do I think that God will put down a shield and stop bullets that happen to be headed in her direction? No.

O'REILLY: Well, then why pray for her safety if you don't believe that the deity would keep her safe?

SPONG: Well, I do that because I have to do that. That's what love does for somebody, and I don't know that it doesn't work. I just don't want to count on it.

O'REILLY: OK. Because you don't want to count on it.

SPONG: I don't have to...

O'REILLY: Because most people watching me right now pray to a higher power in whatever religion they operate and even if you don't have a religion, you know, for certain things, world peace...

SPONG: I think that expresses your feelings.

O'REILLY: Is that a healthy thing to do?

SPONG: Well, yes, it's not unhealthy. I think one of the things we've got to look out for is human beings claiming that they know how God operates.

O'REILLY: I understand.

SPONG: To me that's like a horse claiming that they would know what a human being is doing...

Reading Spong's reasoning, the word vacuous comes to mind.