3 out of 4 stars
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Prayer is Good: A Path from Grief to Peace by Brette Petway is a book that seeks to bring healing through prayer to those who are emotionally hurting from familiar causes – losing someone loved, divorce, abandonment, prolonged illnesses, abuse and so on. As a young college student, the author was smitten by grief and foreboding when she became aware that Mandi, her younger sister had been diagnosed with cancer. Sorrow entered her life after that. Things became more painful and intense when Mandi passed away years later. As she didn’t share her feelings with anyone, these bitter emotions remained “stuck” inside, freezing her emotionally, until she couldn’t bear living in that way anymore. To find relief from her repressed emotions, that she felt were “lodged” somewhere inside her body, she tried to share them on a human body she drew on paper and journaled around. “Whatever I was feeling in my body, I’d share on the body that I sketched: Love, sadness, confusion, loneliness, faith, loss, anger, etc.” (“Introduction”, p.5). It was a means of giving vent to her feelings and at some point, she believes she opened up a communication channel with God because she experienced inner healing when she continued the exercise. In this book, it is this healing path that she discovered that she offers hurting readers as a way out from grief to peace.
I had a couple of problems with this book. The most important one is with the author’s use of “stones” (or healing crystals) in prayers e.g. Celestite Crystal (p.16), Carnelian Crystal(p.26), Rhodochrosite Crystal (p.42) and so on. In all my years as a Christian, I’ve never come across the use of crystals in worship. Generally, anything other than the Bible, counseling, scripture quotes, scientifically proven treatment, medicines, fasting, meditation, and prayer are treated as suspicious/ dangerous for cure of any kind. Whatever is logically valid and open to reason is also accepted, provided it does not conflict with the Bible. Moreover, there would have been scores of Christians today all over the world, using crystals, if they were safe. Hence, crystals definitely strike the wrong note. After studying the Internet about views of Christians worldwide on this topic, I found that most treat the use of crystals as evil. The Bible seems to condemn it. From a scientific angle, according to research published on the Internet by Dr. Christopher French, a professor of psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London, “there is no evidence that crystal healing works over and above a placebo effect …”. Wikipedia agrees. The author traces her Christian origins to the Episcopal church. As best as I know, connecting to God with the help of crystals is completely unacceptable to Episcopalians too. On the other hand, crystals are used in worship in religions other than Christianity. And most disturbingly, the use of crystals is common in occult worship. If the author claims to be a Christian, she needs to provide adequate and reasonable Biblical justification about her use of crystals in prayers/ worship before the book can be accepted by Christians as safe.
The second problem I had is with the Message (MSG) version of the Bible the author has used as her source of scripture. Even if one takes a generous and broad-minded view, I believe that many Christians itself will find it difficult to accept the quotes from MSG as correctly representing Biblical truth. Let me explain, using the quote from Psalm 17:1-2 found on p.15. It is:
“Listen while I build my case, God,
the most honest prayer you’ll ever hear.
Show the world I’m innocent—in your heart you know I am.”
From KJV, Psalm 17:1-2 is:
Hear the right O Lord, attend unto my cry,
give ear unto my prayer,
that goeth not out of feigned lips.
Let my sentence come forth from thy presence;
let thine eyes behold the things that are equal.”
I checked on the Internet and found that the most popular Bible used in the United States is possibly the NIV (New International Version). According to NIV, Psalm 17:1-2 is:
Hear me, Lord, my plea is just;
listen to my cry.
Hear my prayer—
it does not rise from deceitful lips.
Let my vindication come from you;
may your eyes see what is right.
When I compared the three, I found the line “the most honest prayer you’ll ever hear.” is a bit exaggerated in meaning. There is difficulty also with the last line “Show the world I’m innocent—in your heart you know I am.” All that I would say is that I experienced a difference in meaning. I believe many other Christian readers will also have difficulty with the MSG quotes. However, since there is no wish to quarrel, I leave my comment at that. I also respect the author’s right to her own views and would, therefore, say no more. However, if she is receptive, I would recommend that she switch to NIV or ESV as that will win her the confidence of a larger audience of Christian readers who will be in full agreement in the matter of scripture.
The book is otherwise honest and uncomplicated. It is devoid of humor and the author does not attempt to stretch or enhance meaning to make it attractive.
In my opinion, this book deserves a 3 out of 4 stars rating. There aren’t many errors and a big size font has been used, making it very easy to read. It is tastefully embellished with backgrounds and illustrations that give it an appealing appearance. Hurting Christians are the primary audience for this book. However, as noted above, the author needs to clear up her stand on the unacceptable/ objectionable use of healing crystals in prayer, before it can be safely recommended to Christians. As it is, Christians need to be warned that it is DANGEROUS and MUST AVOID IT. The book is recommended only to emotionally hurting non-Christians who are already using healing crystals in their religions/ worship. In general, anyone can read this book, but with an open warning about the potential dangers of using healing crystals because of the known connection with the world of spirits.
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Prayer is Good: A Path from Grief to Peace
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