Quote Originally Posted by LDAHL View Post
I suspect your ancestors would chide you for misreading that particular text.

Matthew was referring to prayer, not the complete practice of the faith. Actions informed by faith should probably be the most important and visible aspect. Saint Francis said (or at least is said to have said) something like we should preach the gospel, using words where necessary.
That is one of my peeves with religious text - on the one hand you have people thumping it and "this is what it says and it was handed down from a divine source so we have to follow it as written!". And then when someone else points out something it says, they are told "oh - but that's not really what it means so we have to do something different from what it says".