A Prayer

Thought you might enjoy this interesting prayer given in Kansas at the opening session of their Senate. It seems prayer still upsets some people. 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 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!

(passed on by Weng S. through email)

This is basically true but a bit modified. The following is the prayer as read by Pastor Wright in January of 1996 on that Opening of Kansas Senate.

Heavenly Father we come before you to ask your forgiveness. We seek your direction and your guidance. We know your words says " Woe to those who call evil good." But that's what we've done.

We've lost our spiritual equilibrium. We have inverted our values. We have ridiculed the absolute truth of your word in the name of moral pluralism. We have worshiped other gods and called it multiculturalism.

We have endorsed perversion and called it alternative lifestyle.

We've exploited the poor and called it a lottery. We've neglected the needy and called it self preservation. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. In the name of choice, we have killed our unborn. In the name of right to life, we have killed abortionist.

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abuse power and called it political savvy. We have coveted our neighbor's possession and called it taxes. 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. Try us. Show any wickedness within us. Cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless this men and women who have been sent here by the people of the State of Kansas, and that they have been ordained by you to govern this great state.

Grant them your wisdom to rule. May their decisions direct us to the center of you will. and, as we continue our prayer, and as we come in out of the fog, give us clear minds to accomplish our goals as we begin this legislature. For we pray is Jesus' name, Amen.

Reverend Wright is not the original. It was a version of one written by Bob Rusell in 1995.

(from snopes.com)