Prayer Scrutinized

Mother Earth, we gather today in your redeeming and glorious presence, to invoke your eternal guidance in the universe, the original Creator of all things.

May the efforts of this council blend the righteousness of Allah with the all-knowing wisdom of Satan. May Zeus, the great God of justice, grant us strength tonight. Jesus might forgive our shortcomings while Buddha enlightens us through His divine affection. We praise you, Krishna, for the sanguine sacrifice that freed us all. After all, if Almighty Thor is with us, who can ever be against us?

And finally, for the bounty of logic, reason, and science, we simply thank the atheists, agnostics, Humanists, who now account for 1 in 5 Americans, and [are] growing rapidly. In closing, let us, above all, love one another, not to obtain mythical rewards for ourselves now, hereafter, or based on superstitious threats of eternal damnation, but rather, embrace secular-based principles of morality — and do good for goodness’ sake.

This was a Prayer at a A City Council meeting in Lake Worth, Florida opened up when an activist stood up to deliver this opening prayer. What was implied probably was less obvious than what was said. I personally do not know for certain if this happened, nor if there was any reaction to it, or even if it was said in jest. This of course is the problem with hearsay.

Having said this, let's examine it briefly. The so-called prayer was directed to Mother Earth, a figurative representation. It assumed that she had power of the universe as it creator. It went on to evoke the righteousness and wisdom of Satan along with the extolling the virtues of Zeus, Buddha, Kristna and Thor while eliciting Jesus to forgive their shortcomings.

This supposed invocation praised logic, reason and science that inspired atheists, agnostics and Humanists who are now responsible for 1 in 5 Americans. In closing, the prayer encouraged the Council members to love one another, not for any superstitious mythical rewards but to do good for goodness' sake.

Whoever gave this utterance was well aware of the opposition, the Christian faith, and did a pretty good job of bullying although it was probably somewhat oblivious to those present who might have been less perceptive.

While this probably was an isolated event, the implication is heavy because this kind of prayer (petition, supplication, entreaty) should seriously challenge believers in a society now beginning to take the liberty of distancing itself away from its spiritual roots more conspicuously and unfortunately, quite effectively.

It all boils down to this: we cannot serve two masters. Either we will embrace one or the other. Most likely, a passive (inactive, hands-off, resistless) Christian faith will suffer in the long run.