re: #85 Walter L. Newton

Er, this sort of praying is old school, and you can trace it back, in Christianity to the 1st century church, and in many cultures to many rituals.

This is human nature, not rabies. For a matter of fact, would you say the same thing about many of the current world religions that have aesthetic praying as part of their ceremonies?

Walter, like you, I’ve witnessed a very large range of devotional practices, both in out of the United States.

Personally, and this is just my subjective reaction of course, I would not dignify this particular manifestation as belonging to the same class of authentic, spontaneous manifestations of faith or religious fervor that you’re alluding to. To my ears, it rings hollow, contrived and at best, hysterical in the worst sense of the word. For me, there is nothing religious about it.