I mostly agree with Jeffrey Weiss about prayer. I think St. Paul would too.
Season after Pentecost | 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
Job 23:1-9, 16-17; Psalm 22:1-15; (Amos 5:6-7, 10-15; Psalm 90:12-17;) Hebrews 4:12-16; Mark 10:17-31
God’s response to Job is cold comfort when you have terminal cancer.
The prayers of the people call us. When we answer, we invite the possibility that it is we who will be poor, hungry, sick, and in prison.
It's 2016 and the problem of evil is still unsolved. It's found a megaphone in Stephen Fry, who offers more rhetorical power than originality.
The decline of mainline Protestantism is clear. What's less clear is what the church should do about it.