Sunday, this prayer appeared on the back of our program. I thought it was very thought provoking. I wanted to post it and see what you thought about it.
When Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard:
Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know your word says, "Woe to those who call evil good," but that is exactly what we have done.
We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem.
We have abused power and called it politics.
We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us, oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.
Amen.
The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest. In 6 short weeks, Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively. The church is receiving international requests for copies of this prayer from India, Africa and Korea.
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6 comments:
Hey! Isn't it great that this is a Michelle contribution!
What a great prayer. I totally agree with everything he said. He was brave to do that and I am so glad that he did. I am amazed at how many people in this world just want to take the easy way out. I can't count how many newlyweds we met whose parents bought them a brand new house, paying for their cars, school, etc. I am glad that even though hard, we have never had to turn to our parents or the church to help us out. We try to figure everything out by ourselves that we can. I feel that it is just so sad that there are so many who are totally fine with everyone else "solving our problems". Shouldn't we be more proactive and try to help ourselves first before we expect the government or anybody else to do it?
I just have to say, I really don't like controversy. I really hope I don't offend anyone with what I'm going to say, but I think that is inevitable and unavoidable. So, I apologize if many of you don't agree with me, and I'm open to hear what others have to say. I don't know quite what to say about the prayer. I feel that it makes a very good point in every statement. However, it kind of concerns me that it was in a church program. It seems a little political to be placed in a sacrament meeting setting. I guess it is a prayer, but still, something just doesn't seem right about it. And I also feel that it is focusing on all of the negative. Granted there is a lot of negative going on in the world right now, but as witnessed by the response, it shows that there is a lot of good still in the world that people are grasping for. About the welfare and government thing, I rather agree with my husband for the most part. I think that it can do a lot of good that we don't give it credit for. We only focus on the people that abuse the system, which I do believe is very wrong to do. But who can be upset that medicaid helps people who really cannot afford it, to have a healthy child. From what I understand it has an extreme focus on the health of the baby. Is that a bad thing? And how many college students feel that pell grants are fundamentally wrong? For us, it's been money to help us make more money in the future. There are so many other government programs however that I haven't mentioned andd I'm not very knowledgable about them all. And I'm not denying that there are many glitches in the system. But I can't completely agree with a blanket statement. Again, I do feel that the prayer makes a lot of good points and makes you reflect on everything that's going on. And we certainly need our Heavenly Father's help in turning our lives and this world around. But I have a feeling things are probably going to get worse before they get better. But the Lord is ALWAYS in charge. He can see things that we can't. He can help where we can't. He can use us as more than we would otherwise be capable of. We definitely need Him as much now as ever. I just hope we can find more of the positive to focus on in that process of coming closer to the Lord.
Sorry for the novel!
I agree with everything Melissa said. A lot of what this guy said was right absolutely, but it was very pessimistic, very negative. We have accomplished a lot of good as Americans and I think one of our biggest accomplishments has been to promote a feeling of acceptance and love among different cultures and races. Granted there has been some bad on the side but I'd rather look at the world as half-full, not half-empty. We can't control other people's agency but we can control our own and be an example of what is good.
I don't mind paying taxes for welfare and other programs when I know that they are being used by people who really need them. The thing that bothers me is when people abuse the system. And don't kid yourself, it is happening a lot more than you think. Even strong LDS people think it is okay to cheat the system by taking out all of their money from their checking account, having their parents hold it for them, and then applying for financial aid help so that it looks like they don't have any money. That is not okay! I don't know why they even thought to do it or why their parents went along with it. I am not okay with helping people who are cheating the system. If people would just be more independent and try to help themselves first before turning to these programs (even the church welfare system is taken advantage of) then I feel that the use of these programs would go down (not to mention our taxes) and the benefit for those who really do need the help would go up.
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