I don’t think I’ll ever be asked to pray at the minnesota senate because, 1) the first time someone attempts to tell me how I should pray they’ll get more than an ear full; and 2) because I think it absurd that clergy are expected to pray watered down, meaningless, empty ‘prayers’ to ‘every god’ there (if the discomfited Senator has her way).
A Jewish lawmaker is asking Minnesota Senate leaders to allow only nondenominational prayers to open sessions, after feeling “highly uncomfortable” when a Baptist pastor repeatedly mentioned Jesus Christ and Christianity in one of the invocations. Democratic Sen. Terri Bonoff says she wants Republican Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch to change the letter submitted to all visiting chaplains to say they are “required,” rather than “requested,” to make prayers nondenominational. ”I’m a very religious woman and believe deeply in God,” said Bonoff, of the Minneapolis suburb of Minnetonka. “We honor God in public and our political discourse, and that’s proper. But in doing a nondenominational prayer we are honoring him without violating the separation of church and state.”
There’s that side- but
Koch said Wednesday she wouldn’t support such a requirement. She said the Senate invites leaders from numerous Christian and non-Christian faith traditions to pray, and notifies them that senators come from a diverse background. “I’m not going to get into the process of sort of editing prayer,” Koch said.
So good for her. She seems smart. And at least she understands that trying to tell people what to pray is absurd and a gutting of the very notion of prayer.
Oh and there’s a third reason I won’t be praying at the Minnesota Senate: because if I were I’d make a point of interjecting Jesus into every sentence. I might even recite Scripture from the New Testament.
Related Articles
- Minn. legislator wants Jesus out of Senate prayers (thegreatone22.wordpress.com)
- Banning Jesus prayer misses point (1minionsopinion.wordpress.com)
“Forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors” wouldn’t go over very well.
Of course, “the poor you will always have” won’t be popular either, for that matter.