I’ve mentioned this before. When I was ten we moved down to Augusta, Georgia. Bible Belt. I had never heard the words “Bible Belt”. It would have been unheard of to read scripture in class or pray in class where I came from (the Greater Hanford Area Radioactive Dump, which of course had its own problems). My father’s mother knew what I was headed into and she told me, “When in Rome, behave as the Romans do.” Of course, when she said this, I thought, “Like hell.”‘ I had been thus apprised that I was heading into culturally decadent backwaters (as far as I was concerned) and if someone said I needed to behave as the locals, to stay out of trouble, then that meant I should do as much as possible to separate myself from them so as not to become infected and to let them know that I had no intention of becoming one of them.
Prayer and scripture readings in school were illegal, had been illegal since 1962, but the Confederacy was of a mind that they weren’t included. Each morning was begun with a scripture reading, and prayer. The teacher said a prayer and then we all recited the Lord’s Prayer. I don’t recollect much about 5th grade but in 6th grade I well recollect my (continued) horror of it all. I had mentioned early to a teacher this hadn’t been done where I came from, that it was illegal, and she said they did things their own way. When I was in 6th grade there was a boy who I recollect saying he had his parents’ permission to not participate as it was illegal. (I immediately fell in love with him when I’d not paid him any notice beforehand.) He and his family were promptly denounced as atheists and he was ushered from class. This was not long before he left the school, as a matter of fact just a few days beforehand (he was moving out of the area) which may be why he finally made the announcement; he knew he wasn’t going to be around to suffer the heat afterwards. Which means my heart was broken. Love found and lost in a matter of only a few days.
For a while my rebellion consisted of simply reciting the “Lord’s Prayer” in its RC version, which was not to include the Protestant ending. I knew, for all intents and purposes, we were (my family) no longer RC. During the move to Augusta I’d gone for several months without attending church or confession, staying with my father’s parents, and they certainly weren’t going to take me to church and were staunchly against church unofficially, and did not attend. So by the time I got down to Augusta I’d been many months without being to confession, which wasn’t done. My parents did at first take us to the Roman Catholic church there, which I thought was a hideous affair, barren of nice decoration (I liked looking at the art, and as the church didn’t have art it didn’t qualify as a place to sit out your Sunday morning). This lasted one week with me as I was sent to CCD (catechism class) and there in catechism class, the monseigneur in his long black robe fatefully entered on that day, my very first day returning to the RC fold, and asked everyone to say when they had last been to confession.
I suspected it was best to lie. Everyone was saying one week. He liked that answer, I could tell. Then a boy said it had been one month. He was picked up by his ear, literally (he cried at the injury), profoundly scolded, and ushered out of class for a conference and a promised whipping.
Now, you’re talking about confession, where you go to divulge your sins. So when they got to me I lied and said it had been two weeks. For some reason I thought well, I won’t say one week, but I will say two, reasoning I would probably get a scolding but wouldn’t be whipped. And this was enough to get me a profound scolding, but I did escape being dragged out of my desk by my ear.
I determined it was wisest not to ever go back, because I was certainly not going to go to confession after that. Besides, I hated the place. I told my parents about the event. I don’t believe they were particularly attached to that church anyway. At least not my mother, who had been the one interested in Roman Catholicism. And I ended up not going back. We ceased attending the church.
So, I knew that I was for all intents and purposes not Roman Catholic (I did one of those online tests once that tells you what faith you follow most and I came up 4 percent Catholic and 100 percent neo-pagan, a catch all for heathens I guess as I’m not Wiccan). Still, because the South, at that time, had as much use for Roman Catholics as it did for Jews, and because really about as close to pagan as you could get was to be an idol-worshipping Roman Catholic who prayed to statues (it was believed Roman Catholics prayed to statues), in school I expressed myself as a pagan Roman Catholic by refusing to say the Protestant ending to the Lord’s prayer. In my mind this meant they understood me to be a heathen.
Then some time during the 6th grade I stopped saying the Lord’s Prayer altogether and ended up going to stand in the hall. (I’m able to fix this on 6th grade because I remember I used to have a 6th grade school picture in which was said Beloved Anti-prayer in Class Guy.) You were finally given the option, if you didn’t want to participate in the prayer, of going to stand in the hall. If you went to stand in the hall you knew that would make you a social outcast. I did it. Accompanying a Jewish friend of mine. I don’t recollect if this began before or after Beloved Anti-prayer In Class Guy left. Finally, at some point during that year I believe, they stopped with the devotionals and class prayer.
Yesterday was the National Day of Prayer. Shirley Dobson, wife of dog-beating enthusiast, Focus on the Family’s, James Dobson, is the National Day of Prayer Org. chairman. She’s also a member of the Board of Directors for Focus on the Family. Max Lucado, minister to Oak Hills Church of Christ in San Antonio, Texas, is the 2005 Honorary Chairman. Vice Chairman is Jim Weidmann, also a Focus on the Family Executive Cabinet member.
Just in case you thought “prayer” might be something covering a broad range of faiths, and just in case you thought it was just about prayer and didn’t have an agenda, the “National Day of Prayer Coordinators’ School Prayer Event Guide” begins with a prayer that says, in part,
Dearest Heavenly Father, We thank you for Your gift of Prayer…With this National Day of Prayer School Prayer Guide, we humbly ask you Lord to help us reclaim American Schools and all schools throughout the world for You…In your Glorious Name Jesus…we pray
Next comes the dedication made by Susan Turner a volunteer.
This School Prayer Guide is dedicated to all the children who in the Fall of 1962, returned to their classrooms, and were told that there would no longer be a time of prayer before classes began so that they would have more time in the day to do their classroom activities. I was one of those children…
In 1975 when I was in high school, in response to Christian students being permitted to hold prayer meetings before classes, I and some other students organized a pagan-heathen group to test if we would be afforded the same privilege. It was such a low-key, unspectacular thing that memory we’d even done it vanished quickly even though I was a key instigator. We had around five participants show up, if memory serves. We were pretty certain that we would only last one meeting and our goal was just to show that equality in use of classrooms, separate from school, by students for prayer/meeting purposes, was not equal and that this was just another way of honoring the Christian=American agenda. Though we assumed that we wouldn’t last, we also hoped that we would, that the school would show a different stripe than what we expected. Anyway, we held one meeting, and that was that, it was realized what we were up to and we were shown the door. The principal was actually sympathetic. Others were not. I was surprised that word on it got around as quickly as it did for I was told parents were calling to complain. We’d been fairly quiet about the whole thing, just testing school policy, and it threw me a bit off guard that parents were immediately phoning in their discontent. I asked who and they said they couldn’t say.
Section two of the National Day of Prayer School Event begins with, “Yes you can hold a National Day of Prayer School Event! The words ‘Separation of Church and State’ do not appear anywhere in the Constitution of the United States.” They say the misconception is in the 1st Amendment of the Constitution which states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
It goes on to educate that you can hold Prayer events before and after school, the only stipulation being that they must be student led and student initiated. They say the best way then is to organize a Bible Club or Fellowship of Christian Athletes Chapter. The Equal Access Act of 1984 governs the establishment and conduct of student religious groups on public secondary-school campuses and requires that public secondary schools permit student religious groups to meet on the same basis as other non-curricular student groups. They must not be sponsored by the school, must not have agents of the school present in any but in a nonparticipatory capacity, must not interfere with the school day, and non-school persons “May not direct, conduct, control or regularly attend activities of student groups”.
Education then continues on how you can locate students to start a Bible Club at the local school.
One is also educated on how to avoid special stipulations. The person recounts how a group she “supervised” invited a local pastor to speak about abortion from a “Christian perspective.” They were told they would need to present both sides of the issue.
…I confronted the assistant principal and told her that the group would gladly present both sides if other groups did the same. I wanted the homosexual group to feature those who’d gone straight, and the drug-and alcohol-abuse group to feature people who enjoyed their lifestyle. Faced with this obvious discrepancy, the assistant principal withdrew the requirement.
Huh? What discrepancy? Correct me if I’m wrong here. A homosexual group is for homosexuals and maybe friends and support people, not for people who want to be straight. A drug and alcohol abuse group is for people who are recovering. A christian group is for christians. There is no set “christian perspective” on abortion. Abortion is nowhere mentioned in the bible. Christian is being narrowed down here to mean anti-abortion and no doubt anti-homosexuality and thus, by and large, anti-politicians who don’t hold specific views, which is how Waynesville Baptist Church in North Carolina ended up excommunicating 9 members from their fellowship for not repenting for being Democrat. Hoffmania has a link to the news video documenting.
Whoo! Go get ’em Rev’d. Chan Chandler!
Geez.
(Update and clarification: The 9 members were voted out, but it seems have not yet been “disfellowshipped”. Through Dkos, at Dembloggers is a video of an interview with a pro-Bush member of the church who is against the happenings. By the way, the pastor, Chan Chandler, 31 years of age, is insisting that his actions were not politically motivated. Huh???)
Anyway, the “Historical Narrative” provided on the National Day of Prayer states that since the removal of prayer from the schools (how has it been removed if you can pray on school grounds?) the nation has experienced an erosion of love and devotion to the Heavenly Founding Father, and a decline in school academics and environment, and increases in family breakups and violent crime, etcetera, etcetera. It states that the nation has been in a “desert wasteland” for 40 years and now it is time to enter into the “Blessed Promised Land” with the growing movement to bring prayer back into the nation’s schools.
Just in case you thought there wasn’t an agenda and prayer was for people of different religions, not just Christianity, this is to let you know yo’re sooooooo wrong.
You must be a specific brand of Christian to participate. In 2004 the annual address by George W. Bush marking the National Day of Prayer prompted protest from several religious groups and the Americans United for Separation of Church and State “which suggested that the non-profit evangelical organization that sponsors the concert and related events was improperly advertising for Bush’s re-election. Some religious figures also accused the organizers of the broadcast and the White House of using prayer for political purposes.”
The National Day of Prayer Task Force “requires its event coordinators to subscribe to a Christian confession of faith that, among other things, affirms biblical inerrancy.”
I’m going to post here the entirety of Tom Delay’s 2005 “National Prayer Day” address Thursday at Washington DC. He was introduced by James Dobson. Other than the speech being confused in that it makes mention of the inclusion of people of all faiths, yet references the second creation story in Genesis as if it belongs to everyone and is a true account of the birth of humankind (though it’s allowed the garden may have been a parcel of land or the whole world), it is just plain schizophrenic. Above, it’s already been noted what the agenda of National Prayer Day is, a day endorced by the President and by state Governors, sponsored by an organization which admits only Christian volunteers who admit biblical inerrancy. The resolve is to not only “reclaim” American schools for this Christian god but to take this to schools “worldwide”. They are not simply interested in the ability to pray on school grounds because that is already secured. They may have bible/prayer meetings on school grounds the same as any other club. But what that means is that only those students who are interested show up for these meetings. That’s not enough. The group wants all students to be subject to Christian prayer.
It makes no sense at all that Tom Delay, in his National Prayer Day Speech, would say, “And I I just want to thank — Bright and and uh Shirley Dobson for a most successful National Day of Prayer. Uhm. This is so important to all of us and so important to our nation. Uh, You know, Looking around at so many friends and brothers and sisters, people of all religions in here, uhm, it got me to thinking that that this is probably the greatest aggregation of faith and grace, in this room, since my wife Christine was here alone uhm.” It makes no sense as the National Day of Prayer is not for people of all faiths. There’s no question about this.
Now, Tom Delay’s speech, in which he waxes on at length about humility and public service, which I transcribed from the C-Span video, and supply random paragraph breaks just for ease of reading:
Humility is what I’m going to talk about today so therefore don’t believe half of what he said. Uhm. And I I just want to thank [unintelligible] Bright and and uh Shirley Dobson for a most successful National Day of Prayer. Uhm. This is so important to all of us and so important to our nation. Uh, You know, Looking around at so many friends and brothers and sisters, people of all religions in here, uhm, it got me to thinking that that this is probably the greatest aggregation of faith and grace, in this room, since my wife Christine was here alone uhm.
I-I’ve been asked to speak to you for just a few minutes about the role of prayer in a political in in political life and to highlight the needs of those of us in the legislative branch, that our countrymen might pray for them on our behalf. But of but of course, the needs of a congressman are the same as the needs of a prince or a president or for that matter a doctor or a lawyer or a homemaker. We all need wisdom, we all need strength, we all need greater clarity to see god’s will for us and greater courage to live our lives according to that will. We all need both to be loved and to love. Uhm. We need to be more trusting, more trustworthy, more hopeful and less cynical. It sounds like a lot to ask for and in a theological sense I suppose it is. But in reality, the thing congress needs today is the same thing congress needed two hundred years ago. And the same thing it will need two hundred years from now. And that thing is humility. For it is on the virtue of humility that all other virtues are preconditioned.
No man or woman, or any faith, or of no faith, can truly love, truly serve, truly persevere, truly dare mighty deeds, truly hope for the future, or truly honor the past without a humble heart. We are lucky in the United States in that this notion, the notion that good is the fruit of humility is a sense written in our national identity. Into our national identity. The founding fathers, after all, built the new American Nation on the proposition that government derives its authority from the consent of the governed. That is, government should exist by, of and for the people. That political power is, by definition, public service. In Democracy therefore, as in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and all the world’s great faiths, strength is always born of humility. So it is humility then, that on behalf of the legislative branch, both houses, both parties, that I ask for your prayers today. Because the only way we can serve well is to serve humbly. As servants both to god and to our nation.
When considering the notion of both humility and service we would do well to remember the second story of Creation in the Book of Genesis, Chapter 2, Verse 15. Where it says “The lord god then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden to tend and to keep it.” The second verb there, “to keep”, is translated from the Hebrew word shamar, which means, to guard and to protect. Thus God’s plan for mankind, from the very first moment of our creation, was to protect the garden. Whether we read the garden as a special parcel of land Adam inhabited, the whole world, the whole world at the time, the point remains, uhm, that mankind’s mission is to protect God’s creation, the good, the beautiful and the true. It was this commandment, to keep the garden, that Adam defied when he stood silent with the serpe-serpent, when the serpent tempted his wife. Whatever the reason for his silence–cowardice, curiosity or sheer lust for the god-like powers the serpent promised, Adam ultimately failed by his pride. By his failure to subjugate himself to god and his neighbor. In this case his only neighbor was Eve.
And so, and so on, throughout human history, all evil, all sin, and indeed all suffering is ultimately a product of human pride. Of self-conceit. And at the same time all heroism, all virtue, all true progress, is ultimately a product of humility, of self-sacrifice. From the obedience of Abraham and Moses, to the courage of Jesus and the cross. To the perseverance of generations of Afghanis and Iraqis, now reaping the fruits of freedom.
For all the troubles in our world today, ladies and gentlemen, we can never forget that humanity has never before possessed a greater capacity for virtue than at this moment. With a, with a richer, healthier, more populace planet than at any time in history, mankind has never been blessed with a greater garden, nor with a greater means of protecting it. And while all these gifts carry with them unprecedented temptations toward pride, so do they carry unprecedented opportunities for humble service. Here in Congress, across America, and around the world in the hearts of people of all faiths. Here in Washington, in the seat of the most powerful nation in in the history of mankind, these days pose unique challenges and offer unique opportunities, for however dangerous these days that we live are they are the envy of all times and all men.
Think, just think of what we could accomplish if we checked our pride at the door. If collectively we spent less time taking credit and more time deserving it. If we spent less time ducking responsibility and more time welcoming it. If we spent less time on our soapboses and more time on our knees. For in god all things are possible, ladies and gentlemen, and even greatness from holy sinners like you and me. Especially me. It is only by god’s grace that mankind has come as far as it, as he has. And it only in humility that god’s grace is available to us.
That’s why on this National Day of Prayer, so proclaimed in this 5th of May in the year of our Lord 2005, and of the independence of the United States, the two hundred and twenty-ninth, I ask you all as your servant and your brother for your prayers for the virtue of humility. No matter what your faith, no matter what your political persuasion, your prayers for our increased humility for our ever humbler service to god and neighbor are needed and they’re desperately wanted. We need you. We need you. Too much depends on our success, iwar, in peace, at home and abroad, for us to go it alone. Spiritually, at least, as much as politically, ladies and gentlemen, we would be nowhere without you. So pray for us. Pray for us that we may be made worthy of the honor of our office, that we might all be blessed with the humble courage to keep the garden. God bless you and god continue to bless the United States, thank you very much.
I suppose that the Delay’s address was also a nod to the proponents of Intelligent Design, referencing Genesis and the Christian account of the creation of Adam and Eve.
Leave a Reply