The abuse of heavenly prayer for earth-bound politics
Last week, as the Texas Board of Education prepared to finalize controversial new textbook standards, board member Cynthia Dunbar was asked to offer the opening prayer.
Here’s what she said:
“Most gracious heavenly Father. We come before you today, and ask that you grant to us the ability not to be anxious for the future, wisdom and understanding for the day, and hearts of gratitude for our past. As we look to our past to guide us, let us reflect on the convictions of those who have gone before us. I believe that nobody can look to the history of our country without realizing that the Good Book and the spirit of the Savior have from the beginning been our guiding geniuses. Whether we look to the first charter of Virginia, or the charter of New England or the Charter of Massachusetts Bay, or the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, the same objective is present: a Christian land governed by Christian principles.”
I believe the entire Bill of Rights came into being because of the knowledge our forefathers had of the Bible and their belief in it. Freedom of belief, of expression, of assembly, of petition, the dignity of the individual, the sanctity of the home, equal justice under the law, and the reservation of powers to the people. I like to believe we are living today in the spirit of the Christian religion. I like also to believe that as long as we do so, no great harm can come to our country. All this I pray in the name of my lord and savior, Jesus Christ.”
When I came to Georgia 20 years ago, I found the practice of opening almost every governmental meeting with prayer a little startling. I had worked as a journalist in every other section of the country, and had never seen it done so often. Even subcommittee meetings at the state Legislature are often begun with an invitation to pray.
Most of the time, the prayers amount to pleas for wisdom and guidance in decision-making, and only the eager-to-be-offended could find much to criticize. Occasionally, prayer leaders become much more specific and fervent, for example pledging all in attendance to obey the teachings of Jesus Christ in how they vote. That’s more troubling.
You are, after all, speaking to an audience of diverse beliefs, not to a congregation of the same-minded. A citizen should not be compelled to take part in religious activities contrary to his or her beliefs as a price for participating in government. All are supposed to stand on level ground in that setting.
And once in a while, you’ll get somebody who really abuses the privilege and uses the prayer to make explicitly political statements, as Dunbar did last week.
Let’s side aside the political and historical content of Dunbar’s prayer, which is of course highly debatable in its own right. What I find more outrageous is her decision to smuggle that content into the form of a prayer that others in attendance were required to listen to silently, heads bowed, as if in agreement, with no dissent allowed.
She was not using the prayer to talk to God, which ought to be its purpose; she was using it to tell others what God would say to them if He was there.
Personally, I find it highly offensive to watch people place their own political viewpoints into the mouth of God, in effect turning God into their personal sock puppet. Whatever your concept of a Supreme Being, you cheapen it by drafting Him as a megaphone for your own political views, and to do so in that kind of setting.
Government and religion are each very powerful in its own realm, and if allowed to join in mutual purpose they constitute an overpowering force that inevitably, always tries to sweep away all dissenting views. Dunbar speaks fervently about the lessons of the past; the lessons of the past in that regard are distressingly clear, as our Founding Fathers knew from direct and recent experience.
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832 comments Add your comment
One Voice
May 24th, 2010
5:44 pm
@@,
You’re smarter than that. At least I thought you were. So you think a blog based on a scattershot of public opinion and with no official credibility or direct link to policy is equal to a state board of education that actually creates official public policy? Sounds like the irrational thinking of the American Taliban.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
May 24th, 2010
5:45 pm
801 comments?
WTF?
Are we throwing spitballs today or what?
@@
May 24th, 2010
5:47 pm
josef:
There’s a documentary coming out next month…”The Lottery”. Thought you might be interested in watching. There’s a trailer, but I saw it discussed on JER. Interesting exchange.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbp0ID-rljo
Saul Good
May 24th, 2010
5:47 pm
number of posts? Pretty much ANYTHING to do with religion posted in a Red State like GA is going to create a lot of posts….yet NOBODY ever has their mind changed…even if it reaches 800,000 posts… I’m not “converted” yet (or should I say:brainwashed)… anyone switch teams yet?
josef nix
May 24th, 2010
5:48 pm
AmVet
I have my problems with the PBS series, not so much as what it says as to what it does not, it has a decided northern bias and the visuals are, in and of themselves, quite the propaganda effort! This is not to demean Burns’ artistry–he is undoubtedly a genius–but then, so was Leni Riefenstahl!
Saul Good
May 24th, 2010
5:49 pm
I meant to say the lots of posts go up in Red State Gawga when the “talibangelical” religion is being scrutinized.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
May 24th, 2010
5:50 pm
Saul- How true, the Cons have their religion that we are commanded to convert unbelievers to, Christianity, and the libs have theirs, debauchery and perversion.
Just sayin…
Let the games resume!
@@
May 24th, 2010
5:51 pm
One Voice:
I don’t live in TX.
jay doesn’t live in TX.
What’s the point?
Pogo
May 24th, 2010
5:53 pm
807 and all’s swelled.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
May 24th, 2010
5:53 pm
In 800 some posts I’m sure that one of the cons called you dummycrats a bunch of Godless heathens, but just in case….
You know what I’m sayin…
Saul Good
May 24th, 2010
5:54 pm
Personally….if I was to convert… I think I’d go with the cult that promises me 14 virgins when I die… much better description of heaven (as opposed to being stuck at an eternal Sunday morning service for eternity)… never going to win me over with that offer. Of course the Talibangelicals can always raise their offer…
Rightwing Troll
May 24th, 2010
5:56 pm
I don’t fear prayer in the public square, I fear when the public will be made to pray and the folks who want it to be so…
Rightwing Troll
May 24th, 2010
5:56 pm
Yes Andy, and there were F-bombs too…
@@
May 24th, 2010
5:58 pm
jay’s leftist have spent over eight hours of their day discussing something in which they have no interest.
I find that odd.
@@
May 24th, 2010
5:59 pm
RWT:
Did you ever find out who it was that submitted that post on superintendents’ pay ’cause it wasn’t me?
AmVet
May 24th, 2010
6:01 pm
Being a “free state” Jayhawker, I’m sure I didn’t notice, jnix!
Lots of fear and confusion cards popping up suddenly!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r78e8KrA9t8
josef nix
May 24th, 2010
6:08 pm
@@
Thanks for the link and I will be waiting to see the documentary. Our site stays “under the gun” in check of our registration papers for “residence in the district.” Our rep*tation in the Latino community as a place where their children can and do learn is such that the extremes they will go to have a spot here are the stuff of a challenge to all the preconceived notions. Though our student population comes from every segment of society, from those old, established Buckhead families rich enough to buy G-d to those across the border last night with only the shirts on their backs, our population is heavily Latino, they, too, coming from all sectors of the socio-economic. Our success rests on one factor, this is “their” school, too. The same high expectations are put on their children as those of the majority culture and their parents are as welcome and can be assured of having their concerns listened to. While our high school graduation rate is nowhere near what we would want, it is still higher than the state and national averages and is improving.
But…we are the exception to the rule…
theyeshaveit
May 24th, 2010
6:11 pm
Saul, I think that you are short changing yourself. I believe it’s 72 virgins. But what do female martyrs get – 72 eunuchs?
Curious Observer
May 24th, 2010
6:15 pm
there was only one film and one only that ever got to me – The Exorcist.
Ditto for me, josef. And even before the film came out, I had to read the novel outside, where there were people. It was too creepy to read it inside while I was alone. Of course, I grew up in a spirt-believing area, and I suppose I was especially vulnerable. If you get a chance, Google The Greenbrier Ghost. My grandfather attended the trial for that one, and the saga has been the subject of three different books.
Saul Good
May 24th, 2010
6:21 pm
14, 72… I mean even offering me ONE would sway me more towards their cult… but ya…the female members of their cult do get the short end of the stick… same can be said of the Talibangelical cult as well.
josef nix
May 24th, 2010
6:22 pm
AmVer…
You will note there is no mention of Judah P. Benjamin, Senator David Levy Yulee, Eugenia Yates Levy Phillips, the chaplain’s controversy, Rabbi Michelbacher’s invitation to deliver the invocation of the Confederate Congress,and I could go on and on…the warping and twisting is hilarious in places…note what the comment on Jewish chaplains is versus what you learn from the Chaplains’s controversy, the take into consideration that the Confederate Chaplaincy was organized with the rights of non Christians to serve…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUV_HvF6PdA
josef nix
May 24th, 2010
6:24 pm
curious observer–
Not me on “The Exorcist…” I didn’t much care for the book or the movie…
josef nix
May 24th, 2010
6:28 pm
AmVet
BTW, my mother’s family were affected by General Order # 11 and the mere mention of Grant’s name in our household was, and still is, not mentioned without a call on the Alm-ghty for judgment…
josef nix
May 24th, 2010
6:36 pm
upstairs now
Left wing management
May 24th, 2010
7:23 pm
Jay: “Personally, I find it highly offensive to watch people place their own political viewpoints into the mouth of God, in effect turning God into their personal sock puppet. Whatever your concept of a Supreme Being, you cheapen it by drafting Him as a megaphone for your own political views, and to do so in that kind of setting.”
I disagree, Jay. After all, one of the slogans of the year of ‘68 uprisings in France was “God is a left-wing intellectual.”
Maddog
May 24th, 2010
8:10 pm
Just to set the record straight, George Washington’s Inaugural Prayer did NOT take place at his swearing in, but afterward at a service at St. Paul’s Chapel in New York City. And I challenge anyone to quote the chapters and verses of the Bible that mandate “Freedom of belief, of expression, of assembly, of petition, the dignity of the individual, the sanctity of the home, equal justice under the law, and the reservation of powers to the people.” Put up or shut up.
Scout
May 24th, 2010
8:24 pm
AmVet:
I respectfully disagree. Even claiming to be a “schmo” makes Him either a “charleton/liar” or a “little bit off”. He can’t even be just a great prophet or even the best person who ever lived because He would have lied and cost thousand their lives then and hundreds of thousands throughout history.
No ………. it’s Liar, Lunatic or Lord. One of those three.
josef nix
May 24th, 2010
8:34 pm
Scout
I go for lunatic and I mean that with the greatest of awe and respect…
Scout
May 24th, 2010
8:50 pm
josef:
I hear you ……….. but if you are wrong !
Greg
May 25th, 2010
8:07 pm
When the lady said,
“Whether we look to the first charter of Virginia, or the charter of New England or the Charter of Massachusetts Bay, or the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, the same objective is present: a Christian land governed by Christian principles.”
I was astounded that someone who knows so much history did not reflect on the Treaty Of Tripoli which states,
“As the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Musselmen; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.”
Ryan
May 27th, 2010
8:13 pm
For those of you who haven’t done any research on this here’s a site you can visit that should shed a little more light on this topic. Maybe our former LIBERAL Chief Justice Earl Warren was doing the same thing you’re accusing Mrs. Dunbar of doing, since after all these were HIS words from a Feb. 1954 Prayer. Here’s the site: https://www.liberty.edu/index.cfm?PID=18495&MID=19174. Please actually read the article. Just because its conservative in nature should not keep you from reading it. Try to be open minded
maddog
May 29th, 2010
9:08 am
Ryan, Since a liberal, Warren, and a conservative, Dunbar, both agree with the substance of this prayer, it should be very easy to take up my challenge and show me chapter and verse where the Bible mandates “Freedom of belief, of expression, of assembly, of petition, the dignity of the individual, the sanctity of the home, equal justice under the law, and the reservation of powers to the people.”
If that proves impossible for you, why don’t you instead reflect on the fact that the charters of Virginia, New England, Massachusetts Bay, and Connecticut were for governing British colonies, not the establishment of a government and constitution for the United States of America.
And that the Treaty of Tripoli referenced above was unanimously approved by the first US Senate, that is, by the men who we now refer to as the Founding Fathers. Whether you like it or not, the Founding Fathers unanimously declared that “the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”