FAITH
06
photo by Kristi Verde
Why do we pray? BY EMILY HENNING Prayer saved my life. Prayer saved my
I were part of would very likely be
husband’s life. Prayer brought us our
considered by most of the world to be a cult.
daughter’s life. This is the story of why I
They isolated us from people who were not
pray.
members of the denomination, scared us into attendance, and judged harshly those who
When we got married, I was full of arrogance
strayed from their teachings, including
and hypocrisy. My husband and I were part
forcing several young women into marriages
of a church that believed it was the only right
for which they were not ready. Yet, blind to
denomination, that anyone outside of that
those things at the time, and even defending
particular branch of Christianity was doomed
many of them, my husband and I proudly
to Hell, and I, like they, walked around
called ourselves members, despite the fact
secretly judging people based solely on
that by the time we got married we were
whether or not they attended a church in that
attending services sparsely and were living
denomination. Looking back now, truthfully,
rather secularly between Sundays. In our
the particular congregation my husband and
minds, however, we were living life the best
