Category: Theological Rant
National Day of Prayer
I must confess that I’ve never been a participant in the National Day of Prayer nor the primarily evangelical driven, See You At the Pole. These events just don’t sit well with me because I’m not sure non-Christians would be actually welcome to lead the prayers as “equally” relevant to the ears of the divine. Mostly, this feels like another form of theocratic government and helps support the misguided or intentional misinformation that the United States was founded as a “Christian” nation. The founders, many of them, were at best deists fleeing a government that believed in and practiced “manifest destiny.” Odd how our country has become like the “Lords and surfs” of that continent of so long ago.
Please don’t misunderstand, I’m all for prayer and praying for our nation and our leaders is an important thing to do, but the National Day of Prayer is one example of how Christianity is “privileged” in our nation rather than under attack. A friend and peer of mine does a much better job of giving voice to my concerns in his latest post on “Along the Way.”
National Day of Prayer Misunderstands both Nation and Prayer
by Rev. David CobbI’m proud of the God and Country award I earned as a Boy Scout. I’m also passionate about preserving the freedom of those whose religion is different from mine as well as of those who profess no religion at all.
We Christians don’t need a National Day of Prayer to work together for the people Jesus called us to serve: the poor, the hungry, the sick, the disabled, and the oppressed. We need a government that protects religion without promoting it, ensuring all of us the freedom to pray or not as we please.
National Day of Prayer misunderstands who we are as a nation. It also misunderstands the source and power of genuine uncoerced prayer.
MLK Jr: Letter from a Birmingham Jail
This letter reminds me how much dialogue is “out there” and within my own denomination between the clergy as much as needs to happen between the laity as well as between laity and clergy. I also read this wondering where MLK Jr would be on marriage equality. Having stood at the MLK Jr Memorial last month these words echo as MLK, like Lincoln, looks back towards the Capitol building keeping an eye on the work of each new legislature as if to say, “You made a down payment years back, but still have insufficient funds for the obligation of freedom and self determination of all America’s citizens.” Click the title to read the entire letter.
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]”
16 April 1963My Dear Fellow Clergymen:
While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities “unwise and untimely.” Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.