It’s called “laying on hands” among Christians. As in, “let us lay on hands and pray for them.” In theory it should be a way of showing support that someone is not alone. Usually, I’d attribute it more to religious people doing a silent ‘look at me, I have a direct line to God for this person!’ [Like you said, they’re so in the moment they pull out their phone; yeah, that screams holy moment.] Which is funny because Protestants think everyone has a personal relationship with God, so what’s the extra prayer for? In case God wasn’t listening to the requestor, but they might listen to Ultra Religious person? Doesn’t sound very personal to me.
It’s called “laying on hands” among Christians. As in, “let us lay on hands and pray for them.” In theory it should be a way of showing support that someone is not alone. Usually, I’d attribute it more to religious people doing a silent ‘look at me, I have a direct line to God for this person!’ [Like you said, they’re so in the moment they pull out their phone; yeah, that screams holy moment.] Which is funny because Protestants think everyone has a personal relationship with God, so what’s the extra prayer for? In case God wasn’t listening to the requestor, but they might listen to Ultra Religious person? Doesn’t sound very personal to me.