ATHEIST Paul Blanchard, a Labour councillor in Yorkshire, is in hot water after observing that prayer alone will not help find missing chef Claudia Lawrence, 35, who disappeared in March.
Missing chef Claudia Lawrence
Blanchard, a secular activist, has now apologised for dismissing prayers for the missing woman as “a waste of time”. He is now under investigation by York’s Labour party over the remarks left on his private page on the social networking site Facebook.
According to the Yorkshire Post, fellow Heworth councillors have reacted with fury.
Cllr Tina Funnell said:
I totally and utterly distance myself from his comments and actually believe the polar opposite.
And Cllr Ruth Potter said:
I’m very concerned it will have caused upset to her family, friends and other people in the ward and I’m ashamed that this has happened. He brings us all into disrepute by saying things like that as we all get tarred by the same brush.
Heworth vicar Michael Woodmansey also said the comments were insensitive, adding:
Our prayers are supporting and strengthening her family at an inexpressible time of anxiety and stress. We will continue to offer prayers and in no way does that reduce the effectiveness of the search for Claudia.
Blanchard said:
I wholeheartedly and un-reservedly apologise to the Lawrence family if this matter causes them further upset.
That was certainly not my intention. I too want her to be found safe and well as quickly as possible. My posting reaffirmed this, and indeed raised further awareness of her disappearance.
I am an atheist and secular activist, and, regretfully, in my comments on the post I did point out that I did not believe praying would achieve anything per se.
Sunday school teacher Melissa Huckaby
Prayer, as it happens, also did nothing to ensure the safe return of an eight-year-old Californian girl, Sandra Cantu, who went missing from her home in the town of Tracy on March 27.
The girl’s body was subsequently found in a suitcase belonging to a local Sunday school teacher, who had joined the second of several vigils for the missing child.
According to this report, Melissa Huckaby, 28, the granddaughter of the pastor at Clover Road Baptist Church, is due to be arraigned today on charges of murder and abduction.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
April 14th, 2009 at 10:02 am
So what will the reactions of cllrs Potter and Funnell be when—as seems painfully likely—they find the body of this poor young woman? That it was god’s will? Or did they just not have enough faith?
April 14th, 2009 at 10:07 am
Whatever happened to standing up for what you believe in?
Fucking coward…
You notice religious people never have to apologize for their comments – no matter how offensive they are and indeed, they are not expected to. Mainly because they would refuse – but this asshole caves in – and now religious people know, all they have to do is to complain and we’ll go away. At least he should have the balls to resign.
April 14th, 2009 at 10:10 am
Typical politician, he apologises when he gets it right!
April 14th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Sorry Bob – must have missed that one – “Bible is the truth.”
Righto – made a note of it – thanks.
April 14th, 2009 at 10:52 am
Why should Peter Blanchard apologize for his remark? No evidence yet of the power of prayer. A couple of days ago a German bishop blamed the atrocities of the Nazis and Communists on their atheism and even claimed Christians in Nazi Germany were prosecuted!!
April 14th, 2009 at 11:25 am
Ryan, just in case you were unaware of the fact, Bob is a retarded evangelical troll who has been plaguing this this blog for months. We manage to block most of his inane gibberings, but some occasionally slip through. These are routinely deleted. If a comment from this sad little fuckwit does appear briefly, please don’t respond to it!
April 14th, 2009 at 11:37 am
He should not have apologised for giving his views based on his beliefs, as has already been said the ridiculous notion of prayer being a solution is permitted to go unchallenged, despite all evidence being to the contrary.
April 14th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Thanks – yeah I am aware of Bob’s sordid history but I must confess – I have a soft spot for trolls. Self destructive, yes I know…
But point taken – don’t feed him!
April 14th, 2009 at 11:51 am
Funnily enough I thought I was living in England in the 21st century not England in the Dark Ages.
Of course, we must never point out that nothing fails quite like prayer. How dare we? I mean obviously it works as all those prayers for world peace are testament to because we live in a world at peace don’t we?
April 14th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
If only local politicians had the balls to criticise bandwagon-jumpers like John Sentamu for milking misery every time there’s a tragedy. Incidentally – and I hope it really is this innocent rather than something ugly – am I the only one since learning of the missing woman’s dad’s ‘deep Christian faith’ to wonder if her going missing has a simpler explanation, such as wanting to make a clean break from biblebashing relatives?
April 14th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
I too think he shouldn’t have apologised. While prayer might help make the family feel better, it won’t help find the missing.
April 14th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Pete needs to play them my, quite recently created, George Harrison parody video; it’s all about prayer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m6qC6FCiY0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m6qC6FCiY0
Stay on groovin’ safrar,
Tor
April 14th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Prayer is useless. In fact it is beyond useless. If you want me to apologize for offending your “deeply held religious beliefs” pray and wait for it to happen.
April 14th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Paul (not Peter) is dead right of course, and most of the responses to a similar article in the York Evening Press agree with him. Sentamu usually tries to drum up support by comments on things he has absolutely no control over – he’s still dog collarless after his anti Mugabe stunt. He misjudged the nations mood when he criticised Premiership football matches on Oestre Sunday though.
April 14th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
Prayer. The best way to do nothing at all, except make yourself feel like you’re really helping!
April 14th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Ok the guy is absolutely correct to say that praying is a complete waste of time but I think it was insensitive and tactless to have chosen these precise circumstances to point this out. If I had said it I think that I would have apologised, not out of political expediency but because I was out of order. I might have been tempted to point out that bad timing doesn’t make the statement any less true though.
April 14th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
If there was any offence caused, it was by the scumbag that chose to befriend Blanchard on Facebook, and then make private discussions public. If the family has been offended, they have only this pea-brained & cowardly person to blame. They should be ashamed of themselves for bringing additional anguish to this family already in a terrible situation. This is a classic case of the media exploiting the most vilnerable.
Prayre ‘is’ a waste of time, study after pointless scientific study proves it absolutely. A complete and utter waste of time. In any case, an ‘opinion’ can’t be wrong, it is just an opinion. If you don’t like my opinion, I don’t care. My big statement has already been used by Wurble though… And I agree totally.
Let’s hope she turns up.
April 14th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
The Earth is not flat. It orbits the Sun.
Oh, I’m sorry? Is that insensitive?
I apologise.
April 14th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
“He is now under investigation by York’s Labour party over the remarks left on his private page on the social networking site Facebook.”
Under investigation? Last time I checked, voicing an opinion wasn’t a crime.
The really sad thing here is that this guy is enforcing the delusion by backing down and allowing them to condemn him for talking sense.
April 14th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
I do think people should apologise when things are said that offend or hurt other people. I don’t think him doing so makes him a coward OR any less true to his convictions.
And he’s not apologising for being an atheist, he’s apologising for making people feel bad. Should they feel bad? Who cares, they did.
BUT – on the flipside of that coin… I think atheists as a group are due a WHOLE ton of apologies as we are inundated with offencive comments on an hourly basis.
April 14th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
In the event that this poor girl turns up dead, Mr. Blanchard could get a double strike in, by pointing out that she is not going to heaven, that’ll really piss ‘em off; triple hit by pointing out that if god was in a helpful mood he could have stepped in by making sure she wasn’t taken in the first place – so either he’s not real or just didn’t give a shit about this blokes daughter.
You could always telephone interview the bloke for the Freethinker and ask him about the above points: cat & pigeons spring to mind.
Ok, That probably would be insensitive – It might not be such a hot idea for an elected official to comment on current events in this way, maybe it’s better to talk about then in the abstract.
April 15th, 2009 at 12:44 am
I think the really important part is the fact that this was on a private page in his facebook profile. So it’s not a case of him being insensitive at all, he has nothing to apologise for and as already said he is empowering these “religious police” types by backing down.
If he had a backbone he’d be directing attention to whoever it was decided to spread the information from his private pages with the intent of causing distress to others.
April 15th, 2009 at 6:45 am
In his book, Snake Oil Science, R. Barker Bausell describes a double-blind experiment in which hospital patients with similar ailments were divided into an experimental group that was prayed for but did not know which group they were in, a control group that was correctly informed that they were being prayed for, and a placebo group that was not prayed for but thought that they were. He reports (pp. 273-274), “There was no difference in complication rate between the experimental and placebo group. Surprisingly, however, the group that knew they were being prayed for did significantly worse than the other two groups.” Every similar experiment conducted under controlled conditions has produced the same result.
Apologizing for stating the proven fact that prayer has no effect other than making the person praying feel better, is indeed analogous to apologizing for stating that the earth is round. If stating a fact makes the ignorant feel bad — tough shit!
April 15th, 2009 at 7:27 am
I understand why they were upset with his comments, but he has a point; ‘nothing fails like prayer’. What’s the point in asking a god who didn’t bother to stop her going missing in the first place, to bring her back again? What a bastard.
April 15th, 2009 at 8:40 am
On the subject of prayer studies, there was an Interesting caller on the Atheist Experience, who obviously knew a bit about statistics. He stated something along the lines that in any double-blind experiment, you could expect to get a significant result about one time in 20. He then went on to make a prediction “that the Templeton foundation will continue to perform these prayer studies until they get the result they want.”
And then we’ll never hear the fucking end of it.