Despite the FBC Jax website's claim that "crime fell by 40% in the 2nd half of 2006" because of the Day of Faith prayer rally, crime actually rose in Jacksonville in the 2nd half of 2006, it did not fall. I'm not trying to steal any credit away from God or diminish the power of prayer, just wanting to tell the facts - and wonder why someone within the church feels the need to not give the whole picture...is it to persuade those who don't think the Day of Faith is a good idea? What message does this give to the non-believers who look at the website and realize the church is playing games with numbers to convince people that "prayer really works"...prayer DOES work, but when a person decides they need to help God out and lie about the numbers to deceive people into thinking that prayer changed something that it did not change, more harm is done than good.
Here's the facts...
The overall crime index in Duval County for the first half of 2006 was 25,930 which rose to 27,542 in the 2nd half of 2006 which is a 6% rise. Yes, murders did fall from 71 to 44 in the 2nd half of 2006 (a 38% decrease - this must be where their 40% number comes from)...but 44 murders is no accomplishment given the numbers from previous years and given the high murder rate again this year. All other crime categories other than murder rose in the 2nd half of 2006: forcible rape (30% increase), robbery (24% increase), aggravated assault (rose by 4%), burglary (rose by 16%), larceny (rose by 4%)....oh, and praise the Lord we did see motor vehicle thefts fall by 7% - thank God for that, especially for those preachers and their wives driving such expensive cars. If God and prayer gets the credit for these stats, do we conclude that God cares only about murders and cars and not about rapes and aggravated assaults?
Sure, have the Day of Faith rally and let the Christians, Jews and Muslims all pray to their Gods (gods) this Saturday at FBC Jax that God will indeed lower the crime rate...but please let the stats, and God, speak for themselves.
Source: http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/FSAC/UCR/index.asp
4 comments:
Watchdog - didn't Mac Daddy say only Christians would be present. What about his blurb from a T-U online article:
"Wiggins said invitations will be sent to 1,400 houses of worship - including Jewish and Muslim groups - inviting them to attend the prayer rally."
I guess all religions are basically the same. Just like Vines and Lindsay use to say.
Hello Noah, I don't think Mac Brunson said only Christians would be present. He said that this would be a "Christian-led" event. He also said to his congregation that he doesn't mind inviting the other faiths to come and pray, because "we're the ones that have the direct line to God"...that is a very close paraphrase to what he told his congregation at the conclusion of a service recently.
So as I understand it, if Mac Brunson keeps his word, this will be a Christian prayer service, and the other religious leaders will NOT be on the platform to pray to their gods, or to promote their faiths. We shall see. Knowing what I know about Mac Brunson over the past year and a half, I would not be surprised if the other faiths WILL be on the platform given a chance to pray - but Mac will still say it was "Christian-led".
I will be present to pray for our city, although I believe God is not waiting for us to pray in order for crime to decrease, he's waiting for us to get off our rear ends and do something about it: like evangelize the city, protect citizens with adequate police protection (which we do have but can be improved - we have a great JSO sherrif who is committed to protecting the city), for people to stop protecting criminals through their silence (God bless our editorial cartoonist Ed Gamble who had it exactly right), and for citizens (men) to arm themselves to protect their families. These things will help lower crime, but definitely these things don't depend on prayer. I'm afraid too many people in attendance will be their to pray and feel good about themselves, but are blinded to what really needs to be done to lower crime. Maybe we can have a gun buy-back program at the prayer meeting this Saturday!!
I am amazed at the crazy stuff written in these blogs...pure filth!
Anon 10:24 - thanks for stopping by and giving us your expert opinion and analysis. You sound quite intelligent using words like "crazy stuff" and "filth".
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