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 anti-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.
I came across this sometime ago and I want to share this with my readers of all faiths and inclinations, also recalling to mind what someone said:
“If you don’t stand for something,
you will fall for everything.”
i have also came across this before some time ago but had completely forgotten about it. thanks for sharing it here to remind me. i feel it is a very good prayer which i ought to share so i will share it at my blog or facebook.
ReplyDeletewhy did most of the legislators walked out? guess the truth hurts to them.
Uncle Bernard
ReplyDeleteSuch prayer is timely now in view of the mess Barang Naik regime has created.
In malay term it's called INSAF.
However, time and time these crooks still not able to repent and do Good.
Sad isn't it ?
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 are doing. We are destroying the eco system, which sustains life on our planet and we are mass murdering thousands of women and children in wars based on lies, waged only for power and profit. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.
ReplyDeleteWe have increased corporate welfare by 1000% while reducing welfare to families and mothers with children, who we now label as, ‘lazy’.
We have allowed corporations like ENRON and World Com to loot the American people, destroy our economy, and in general enslave the American people, and we call this, ‘the free market’.
We want to protect the unborn from abortion, but our right wing government shows little concern for children after they are born, and has slashed virtually every social service and program that was provided for families, redirecting the money into the military industrial complex and a, “never ending war”.
We have seen acts of Christian terrorism in the U.S. such as the bombing of abortion clinics and the murders of doctors, but we don’t call the Christian extremists who commit these acts “terrorists”, we use other words like, "anti-abortion activists," and "fundamental Christian activists". Christians are activists and Muslims are terrorists.
We have a saying, “spare the rod and spoil the child”, and we exorcise this tradition with such brutally that 90% of all murderers and violent offenders in the American prison system have a history of being beaten and abused as children.
We have a president who was placed in power by less than 50% of the American people, using a sealed paperless republican owned software program, and they call this, “a mandate”.
We have killed over 100,000 Iraqi men women and children and wounded over 500,000. We have eradiated their country with 200 tons of deadly uranium 238 dust, and we are steeling their oil, and we call this, “freedom and democracy”.
We have polluted the air with mercury and lead and removed every environmental protection established over the past thirty years. It is no longer safe to eat fish caught in any American lake and our president calls this his, “Clear skies plan”
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of caring about the poor and the middle class while glorifying wealth and power. Over 12 million Americans have lost their jobs due to greed driven corporate down sizing and outsourcing to other countries. While America is awash in broken familys and broken American dreams the republicans in the White House call this, “creating their own reality”.
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Credit to:
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2005/08/29/gutsy_pastor_minister_joe_wright
Note: To be honest, the reason why I don't support Muslim fundamentalism is because of what I saw in Christian fundamentalism when they are majority and holding guns in their hands.
Muslims and Christians do have many similarities, just like RPK said. Whenever they are minority and weak, the call out for liberalism, freedom and human rights. Whenever they are majority and strong, suddenly liberalism, freedom and human rights becomes anti Christ, Godless, heretic and everything that represent bad things in this world.
The American constitution calls for separation between the state and the church.To recite prayers in the Senate was inappropriate.
ReplyDeletei dont stand for anything yet i dont fall for everything.....something is wrong with your sweeping statements zorro
ReplyDeleteAnon402pm....there is always what we call exception to the rule. So fuck off from here.
ReplyDeleteZorro
ReplyDeleteYou can recite all those stuff at the Parlimen but I betcha the only time the Malaysian lawmakers will walked out is to take a leak or go call their mistress or make a backdoor deal or make a press statement challenging the other side. Most of them probably have no fucking clue what the prayer is all about, nor do they care. They have no bloody moral anyway. And they are not at the Parlimen to discuss matters of importance to the country but to collect their attendance allowance.
That goes for lawmakers from both sides ... people like Azmin Ali, Tian Chua included.
It is the exception that proves the rule.Your exception allows a government to sponsor religion which if it goes unchallenged may lead to a theocracy.Now,as you have so politely requested,I will go away.
ReplyDeleteZorrow!
ReplyDeleteA good reminder ! The trouble with the ruling class they lost their sense of direction when that mahadev fellow started his own values..It was okay to be corrupt or corrupted for the whole country...Today its a free for all ! You need skins thick as an armour shield to withstand the shame of corruption...Look at that umno queen given 200 mill. for bloody cow business. Those parasites never did asked themselves the moral issues here.
Yes! its time for a change ....
We have accepted chinese chauvinistic governance and called it Pakatan Rakyat. Bless .
ReplyDeleteWe have accepted aliens into malaysia and call it muhibah
ReplyDeleteAnon402pm, just concentrate on the message and you will see the forest through the trees.
ReplyDeleteI may not agree in all that is being said by Minister Joe Wright, but we just have to look around us to see the moral decay across society around the world, not just in Malaysia.
I'm not going into detail or why but somehow our society,as a whole, has become too materialistic and self-centered. Nor am I saying the society during our parents' era is an exemplaire.
In short, just listen to the message and it rings some truth.
Joe Wright did not make a speech.He prayed.
ReplyDeleteNIZAM MAHMUD IS MORE CORRECT IN WHAT HE POSTED.
ReplyDeleteWhat is so great about this "prayer"?
The is a typical Right wing redneck Yankee type of prayer the sort f logic used by so gunslinging governments since the days after Abraham Lincoln.
These are the crooked Bunch who go out and bomb other people's countries and call it legitimate war but scream "terrorism" when they get their own medicine as in 911! (Not saying 911 was justified- but they were asking for it)
May be all we smart educated middleclass folks should examine the "prayer" closely and look at Nizam's alternative.
I remain an atheist.
Zorro,
ReplyDeleteYou speak of exceptions to anon402pm and yet you admonishes him to 'fuck off', you sure say much about yourself.
Anon243pm....exactly my point...exceptions! He will not understand my point and as such I admonished. Probably, "fuck off" is too abrasive. For that I apologize.
ReplyDeleteI understand your point but I also hope others understand the reason why some of the legislators walk out in protest.
ReplyDelete