Thursday, April 06, 2006

Praying is good for who?

Does Yaakov Menken read the news? If so, how can he explain slugging a Cross Currents article with the title Praying is Good for You a mere days after a study found that asking strangers to pray for heart-bypass patients had no effect on their recovery. And this wasn't a small study. It took three years, cost $2.4 million and included 1.7 million prayers, and patients at 6 hospitals.

More respectable members of the clergy are spinning the study (a nice summary of their excuses can be found here) but not Yaakov Menken. He just ignores it.

PS: Not a good week for the people of the Cross. Yesterday, we had YitzchakAlderstan's hissy fit over Avi Weiss's decision to meet with some cardinals. Then, newcomer Mark Bane, "tentativly compared tentatively compares lighting cardboard boxes in the streets of Boro Park to protests for Soviet Jewry" as one of my friends put it, before all but suggesting that the rioters had paused to ask permission from the local Hasidic Leadership before spilling out into the streets. ("The Rebbe says it's ok! We've got a heter for smashing police cars!")

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