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!

The response was immediate. A number of

legislators walked out during the prayer in

protest. In 6 short weeks, Central Christian

Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than

5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls

responding negatively. The church is now receiving

international requests for copies of this prayer

from India , Africa and Korea .

Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on

his radio program, 'The Rest of the Story,’ and

received a larger response to this program than any

other he has ever aired.

With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep

over our nation and wholeheartedly become our

desire so that we again can be called 'one nation

under God.'

This is the text of the original prayer delivered January 23, 1996 by Pastor Joe Wright to the Kansas House of Representatives in Topeka.

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and seek your direction and guidance.

We know your Word says, "Woe to those who call evil good," but that's exactly what we've done.

We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values.

We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of your Word and called it moral pluralism.

We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism.

We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.

We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation.

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 esteem.

We have abused power and called it political savvy.

We have coveted our neighbors' 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 O God and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be some wicked way in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.

Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of Kansas, and who have been ordained by you, to govern this great state.

Grant them your wisdom to rule and may their decisions direct us to the center of your will. I ask it in the name of your son, the living savior, Jesus Christ.

AMEN

http://web.archive.org/web/20070407061139/http://www.centralcc.org/NewsNow/JoeArticles/JoeRepentancePrayer.html 

Sheesh, don't make me give this speech again or there's gonna be hell to pay.

take something mostly true, twist it a bit and viola great email chain material for like minded individuals to grab on to and rant and rave about for a decade or two.

it was 1996, the Kansas House of Representatives (not the Senate), and one democrat, not "a number of legislators" walked out.

but those are just details

there is actually a chain email seminar that uses this as an example.

and some folks eat this **** up

However, I am very certain that this particular denominational sectarian prayer should not be have been permitted before any American governmental, body as an official act of that body.

The confessions here are political/social and not content neutral. Not all American citizens believe in one single god, let alone that Jesus was even the Messiah.

I find it hard to believe that any legitimate, full-fledged religious clergy person here in the U.S. doesn't know that what was said was wrong. Nice prayer for those who believe in those things, but not appropriate under the particular circumstance.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/03/08/homosexuality.protest/index.html?iref=allsearch 

wheel,

I too would be surprised as this is NOT a First Amendment freedom of speech or religion issue- unless there is a governmental action regarding the matter.

I find it hard to believe that any religious organization would use an innocent family's worst grief and significant life-cycle event to garner attention for its cause.

I have no problem with the message because it is within the social boundaries of freedom of Speech that i believe in- whether or not I agree with the message. I think the issue will be whether the applicable law to be interpreted/applied will be "content neutral".

By "content neutral", I mean that the same rule would apply to any group doing the same thing in the same way with the same effect on the family, regardless of the nature of the message.

This will be a very interesting one no matter how it is decided, particularly if Scalia dissents and writes an opinion in support thereof!

If you let me know when the opinion is released I will read it and give a fair, but brief explanation of all the legal-speak...

(I love Scalia'a mind and thought process, but find his views to differ very widely from mine.)