I ran across something a few days ago that rather took me aback. I have no way now of retracing the steps that got me there, but in the course of following a political discussion I ended up at some left-wing blog that was also, as is too frequently the case, fairly scornful of Christianity. Nothing new in that, of course, but here’s what struck me: the writer asserted something to the effect that “I’ll pray for you” is among the most frequently told lies. (The only other one I remember from his list was that old standby “The check is in the mail.”)

The immediate question, of course, is how he would know. More significantly, though, I wonder what made him say it. The only thing I can suppose is that he has received or otherwise encountered hate mail from Christians of the sort we’ve probably all seen somewhere, the sort that usually goes something like this:

You are a despicable creature. My belief in a just God leads directly to the expectation that you will spend eternity in torment rivalled in intensity only by the pleasure I anticipate in contemplating it. I will pray for you, you filthy swine.

But setting aside the case of a person who’s obviously lost his temper, I’m pretty sure the blogger is quite wrong. When I say I’ll pray for someone it has almost the character of a vow. It’s a sacred duty, and only forgetfulness will keep me from doing it—for that reason I try to offer at least a quick mental prayer at the moment I make the promise. I doubt very much that I’m any more sincere or conscientious than the average Christian. And I imagine most Christians would, at a minimum, sincerely intend to do it when they say they will, and would probably carry out the promise. To lie about it—to say it with the knowledge that you had no intention of doing it—would seem to be a pretty serious sin.

I wonder if the blogger’s view indicates that he thinks we don’t really believe this stuff. Curious.