Praying with Jesus
James M. Kushiner on Jabez & the Lord’s Prayer
A few months ago I saw a tabloid headlinein the drug store: “Better than the Prayer of Jabez: Prayer to the Virgin of Guadalupe: How those who pray this prayer will never have to worry about finances again!” While most Catholics know who the Virgin of Guadalupe is, do most tabloid readers know about a little book from a small religious publisher?
Probably. Among several of the Harry Potter books and two John Grisham novels in USA Today’s list of last year’s best-selling books, The Prayer of Jabez placed third. It was a very high rank for an explicitly religious book, but I do not think its rank good news for Christians. Its success—the book has sold over eight million copies so far—may tell us much about the great spiritual need of religious Americans, but the book gives them the wrong answer.
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James M. Kushiner is the Director of Publications for The Fellowship of St. James and the former Executive Editor of Touchstone.
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