Faith is not about just a single prayer

Today's column is by no means intended to be your Sunday morning sermon. Those who know me recognize that being "preachy" is not my long suit.

I'm reading a biography on Charles Manson, the notorious crazy, sadistic mastermind of a string of famous murders in the 1960s.

When those murders occurred - the Sharon Tate murders, etc. - I was a college student and became fascinated by the headlines. I later scooped up the book "Helter Skelter," written by the Manson prosecutor and found it morbidly interesting.

I have found equal fascination with the new Manson biography.

One story in the book involves one of the Manson family's girls who was involved in the murders.

The young woman - her name is unimportant - was told to murder one of the female victims by Manson. With little reluctance, she followed orders.

But in one critical scene in the saga, the young woman paused just before she murdered her victim and prayed that God would stop her.

That's her story and I have obviously no way of verifying its accuracy.

She says that despite her plea to God to stop her from her ghastly crime, she was either crazy or too afraid of Manson.

The details of what she did next are not family fare.

But many years later in a jailhouse interview, the woman said that because God did not stop her that fateful night, she lost all faith in God and any belief she had previously held.

That passage troubled me when I first read it and it troubles me today.

Granted, and thank God, most of us will never find ourselves in her position.

But to blame an unanswered "prayer" for her complete lack of faith is so patently wrong I don't know where to begin.

Everyone of us has some unanswered prayer.

But to abandon our faith as a result, displays little or no faith in the first place.

This woman - still in prison where she will likely forever remain - remains in denial about her faith and her actions.

Given ample time to reflect on our actions, it seems to me that a sane person would eventually accept their responsibility and cease pushing the blame elsewhere.

But that does not apply to everyone. It obviously does not apply to this murderer.

Maybe I'm putting too much thought into one single story in one single book.

But it strikes me as sad that a person can blame a loss of faith on one unanswered prayer when the answer to that prayer should have been abundantly obvious in the first place.

This woman did not lose her faith because God did not intercede. She cannot be honest because she lacked faith all along.

That concludes today's sermon. Drive carefully.

Amen.