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In fact, such tests seem to violate the biblical prohibitions in both Old and New Testaments not to "put God to the test." Paul's admonition to "test all things" and God's command in Malachi to test his response to tithing, so often quoted by Word-Faith folks, can be the subject of a separate Weblog, but as Wright notes, these prayer studies are "like setting an exam for God to see if God will pass it or not." In other words, these kinds of studies may themselves be sinful.

But there's another biblical issue with these studies, too. Praying for strangers from a distance is hardly unbiblical, but James gives pretty specific instructions for how to pray for the sick:

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

That's a radically different methodology than Duke University's.

More articles

Supreme Court:

• Christian conservatives will take aim at Supreme Court in new telecast | Stepping up efforts to rally churchgoers for a Supreme Court confirmation battle, Christian conservatives are organizing a telecast to churches and religious broadcasters denouncing the Supreme Court as hostile to religion and families (The New York Times)
• Justice Gonzales? Conservatives see recusal problem | Activists object anew to a possible nomination, saying he wouldn't be able to hear key cases (Los Angeles Times)
• Falwell says he will not recommend any nominee to Supreme Court | While pro-choice and gay rights groups protest the Bush administration soliciting the Rev. Jerry Falwell's opinion on the pending Supreme Court nomination, Falwell said it just didn't happen (The News & Advance, Lynchburg, Va.)
• The wages of choosing an intolerant justice | Conservative Christians, who suffered as a religious minority themselves, should remember why we need an independent judiciary (Marci A. Hamilton, Beliefnet)
• Split decision | Justice O'Connor, guardian of private religious practice, leaves a disappointing record on religion in the public sphere (Roger T. Severino, Beliefnet)
• What's at stake with Justice O'Connor's replacement? | People of faith favor a new justice who honors the founders' original intent above personal ideas of right and wrong (Richard Land, Beliefnet)

Abortion:

• Abortions reach 30-year low | The number of abortions in Minnesota dropped to a 30-year low in the first full year after the state passed a 24-hour waiting period for women seeking abortions. (Associated Press)
• Social selection | Support for Roe v. Wade does not a moderate justice make (Jonathan Chait, The New Republic)
• Should Roe go? | If Roe goes, injustice will reappear, relabeled as local democracy (Katha Pollitt, The Nation)

Life ethics:

• Caution: Student cloner | In training on the frontier of reproductive science (Liza Mundy, Slate)
• You're having my baby | The forced marriage of stem-cell opponents (William Saletan, Slate)
• The dark side of stem cell politics | Lawmakers will soon have the chance to stand against a stem cell research policy that has already put the federal government behind several enterprising states (Editorial, The New York Times)
• Ethicists offer advice for testing human brain cells in primates | Putting human brain stem cells into monkeys or apes could raise awkward ethical dilemmas, like the possibility of generating a humanlike mind in a chimpanzee's body (The New York Times)

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July (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49