There’s a particular flavor of Christianity where the people who pray on a routine basis refer to themselves as “prayer warriors” because they are “fighting the good fight” through prayer, or sometimes, prayer is how they engage in war against Satan. It’s something you tend to see more of in the charismatic churches.
Unfortunately, this is accompanied with a lot of self-righteousness (not always) and you kind of get the sense that they think their prayers were what accomplished whatever, instead of God. (“Well, God wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t asked him!”)
Precisely. They literally believe that God can do nothing on earth unless we either give Him permission or speak out His words, hence releasing His power. Which of course places more power on US than on GOD.
Yeah…I have some dear friends who fall into this category. They’ll deny it, of course, but they totally do. That’s the problem with a lot of charismatic theology. It encourages faith in the act of prayer rather than in God. I admit I get annoyed when people talk about the “power of prayer.” I think it’s more to do with the power of God, you know, but that’s just me.
But this is a site about lousy book covers, after all, not a theological debate forum. I should probably shut my trap before I get myself into trouble.
I’m not convinced the whole “prayer warrior” practice is something Jesus had in mind in his teachings, but that’s another conversation.
It’s a terrible photograph that could be improved (but not by much) if the left and right margins were cropped out at least an inch so that what viewers see is mostly the body with outstretched hands.
Kris
9 years ago
The photo says, “NO! DON’T!! STOP IT!!!”
I doubt that’s the message the author meant to portray…
Not so much; it’s more of a “feel the POWAH!” pose. If you’ve ever seen one of those old tent meetings like the one at which this picture was obviously taken, you know one of the things they often do is have people “struck with the Holy Spirit” (supposedly) and tumbling to the ground as part of their alleged supernatural healing. When the subject gets back up, that’s when he discards his crutches or gives some other visible demonstration of his healing. Fraudulent faith healers will often have a shill go first to plant the idea in his other subjects’ minds that this is how they’ll react to being healed so that they’ll follow suit.
What I’m wondering is why the author felt the need to posterize what was already a picture obviously taken from uncomfortably close quarters in poor lighting. I strongly doubt it was the possibility of personally identifying anyone in the photo who might want royalties for the use of his likeness on this cover; and even if it was, they couldn’t have just darkened that face a little and left the rest alone?
Yes, I agree about darkening the face. I wrote above that cropping the photo would have helped. Maybe combining that with darkening the face would be a better solution. Or maybe just scrap this awful cover altogether.
![cover[1]](https://lousybookcovers.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/cover129-500x755.jpg)
LMAO.
LMFO
I am now 😀
Because Jesus and his disciples handed out manuals for how to heal, right?
Oh, no wait…
Prayer. Warrior. I don’t know what those words mean together.
There’s a particular flavor of Christianity where the people who pray on a routine basis refer to themselves as “prayer warriors” because they are “fighting the good fight” through prayer, or sometimes, prayer is how they engage in war against Satan. It’s something you tend to see more of in the charismatic churches.
Unfortunately, this is accompanied with a lot of self-righteousness (not always) and you kind of get the sense that they think their prayers were what accomplished whatever, instead of God. (“Well, God wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t asked him!”)
Precisely. They literally believe that God can do nothing on earth unless we either give Him permission or speak out His words, hence releasing His power. Which of course places more power on US than on GOD.
Yeah…I have some dear friends who fall into this category. They’ll deny it, of course, but they totally do. That’s the problem with a lot of charismatic theology. It encourages faith in the act of prayer rather than in God. I admit I get annoyed when people talk about the “power of prayer.” I think it’s more to do with the power of God, you know, but that’s just me.
But this is a site about lousy book covers, after all, not a theological debate forum. I should probably shut my trap before I get myself into trouble.
I’m not convinced the whole “prayer warrior” practice is something Jesus had in mind in his teachings, but that’s another conversation.
It’s a terrible photograph that could be improved (but not by much) if the left and right margins were cropped out at least an inch so that what viewers see is mostly the body with outstretched hands.
The photo says, “NO! DON’T!! STOP IT!!!”
I doubt that’s the message the author meant to portray…
Not so much; it’s more of a “feel the POWAH!” pose. If you’ve ever seen one of those old tent meetings like the one at which this picture was obviously taken, you know one of the things they often do is have people “struck with the Holy Spirit” (supposedly) and tumbling to the ground as part of their alleged supernatural healing. When the subject gets back up, that’s when he discards his crutches or gives some other visible demonstration of his healing. Fraudulent faith healers will often have a shill go first to plant the idea in his other subjects’ minds that this is how they’ll react to being healed so that they’ll follow suit.
What I’m wondering is why the author felt the need to posterize what was already a picture obviously taken from uncomfortably close quarters in poor lighting. I strongly doubt it was the possibility of personally identifying anyone in the photo who might want royalties for the use of his likeness on this cover; and even if it was, they couldn’t have just darkened that face a little and left the rest alone?
Yes, I agree about darkening the face. I wrote above that cropping the photo would have helped. Maybe combining that with darkening the face would be a better solution. Or maybe just scrap this awful cover altogether.
I’d scrap the whole book. There is no reason to confuse the believers.