I Pray For The End of The National Prayer Breakfast:

[andyjackson1828]

I believe God actually exists, loves us and watches us. I believe that Jesus died to redeem the world from sin, and that three days after his death, when Mary Magdalene and two friends went to the tomb to anoint the body, they were greeted by angels who said, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen." I believe other things alone these lines. And I'll tell you what shakes my belief. Not natural selection; not the evil and injustice of the world; not the televangelist hucksters with their flashing 800 numbers; not the constant use of religion to create prejudice and hatred rather than brotherhood. No, what really shakes my faith is the National Prayer Breakfast.

In 1953, Dwight Eisenhower was the first chief executive to preside over what was then called the Presidential Prayer Breakfast; it was originally an informal, ecumenical event at which the president got the leaders of Congress together to pray for bipartisan cooperation. (It's not clear even God has the power to cause that.) The National Prayer Breakfast remains ecumenical--perhaps its sole attractive aspect--but over the years the annual event has grown large, ritualized and preposterous. Now it's common for hundreds of congressional figures to attend, along with cabinet members, generals, foreign dignitaries, business people and occasionally even visiting heads of state. Huge hotel ballrooms are now required. This morning's 2004 National Prayer Breakfast was at the Washington Hilton, which has the largest ballroom in the city; the huge ballrooms are required because the whole event has become about being seen, not about prayer.

What shakes my faith about the National Prayer Breakfast is not so much the posing, preening, superficial solemnity, and false good will the event stands for. (One hour after theatrically joining hands in prayer, House and Senate members will resume stabbing each other in the back.) What shakes my faith about the National Prayer Breakfast is not so much the inane presidential comments. In 1999, Bill Clinton declared, "I ask you to pray for all of us, including yourself." Last year George W. Bush said, "The comment I hear the most from our fellow citizens, regardless of their political party or philosophy, is, Mr. President, I pray for you and your family, and so does my family." Mr. President, that's not necessarily a good sign. It's hard to imagine how any president could take the stage at an event as superficial as the National Prayer Breakfast and not end up sounding inane. Clinton once tried to address a substantive issue, whether prayers are answered, and quickly shifted gears when he sensed that what the audience wanted was not substance but blandishments.

And what shakes my faith about the National Prayer Breakfast is not so much that hundreds of dignitaries and big-shots get together to proclaim their deep prayerful concern for the downtrodden while being served by impoverished Salvadorans and Mexicans and, after leaving the National Prayer Breakfast, won't lift to finger to increase the minimum wage or extend health care benefits to the downtrodden they'd just been inches away from. And what shakes my faith about the National Prayer Breakfast is not so much that countless among those present to adulate prayer don't pray themselves, or even consider prayer an irrational superstition. Prayer is good for you, regardless of your faith, so if the National Prayer Breakfast results in those who attend praying more after they depart, that's a plus.



The rest at...

http://tnr.com/easterbrook.mhtml?pid=1293

[mac2]

1. Prayer for who?

Seems to me to be a political slight of hand. The thugs in our government are honest God fearing men/women. We know that not to be true when they vote to kill innocent women, children, and old people in a country that did not attack us...to get one man..or two (if you consider Afghanistan). Now that they found out the MWD was a lie just to go to war...they do not punish the wrong doers..."No one is above the law even the President." Seems this President has broken the law before he became President (AWOL, drugs, stadium deal, lying on tax forms,etc.). He is the only felon ever to be President.

They take money from the people to give to the rich and powerful (who don't need it). They lie...and manipulate for their own good. God would not approve of that. I guess, they should be praying for forgiveness OR that we won't find out and put them all in jail.

I believe in "free will". God is not determining their direction...they do that. They are way of off the ethical and godly path from what I can see (if I should so judge).

I loved the WATOTOO group (African children's group)that sang in the beginning. I then turned it off when the President spoke.