Sermon Illustrations
Ted Turner's Thoughts on Prayer
In an interview with Fortune, Ted Turner, the media mogul and founder of CNN, was asked, "I know you were religious up to the point of seeing your sister suffer for five years and die at 17. You've gone back and forth about whether you're agnostic. Has your lack of belief that God will save humanity motivated you to fell a level of responsibility that others don't feel?"
Turner replied, "If God's going to save us, it's time for him to show up. We're not showing evidence that we're ready to save ourselves. That's what bothers me."
But when asked if he considered himself "agnostic today," Tuner said, "Yeah" but then he also offered some surprisingly thoughts on prayer: "I still say prayers for my friends who are ill. Little short prayers. Mini-prayers. It can't hurt anything." (Remember this is from a man who once said that Christianity is a "religion for losers.")
Possible Preaching Angles: This could be a positive example of a hardened agnostic who is slowly opening up to God's power—like the man who prayed, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief." Or it could be a negative example of someone who says he prays but lacks the kind of faith that truly moves mountains.