Texas Governor Rick Perry is a strong evangelical Christian, and a firm believer in the power of prayer. To kick off the unofficial start of his presidential campaign, he organized "A Day of Prayer and Fasting.to Halt America's National Decline", attracting 30,000 followers to the Houston Reliant coliseum. In April, he proclaimed a three-day “Days of Prayer for Rain In The State of Texas”, an actual legislative act to address drought and water-shortages in Texas. For Gov. Perry, prayer is not just a personal act of faith, but also a tool of government. Me, not so much: I am not a member of an organized religion, and have no regular practice of prayer. I am however, open-minded, and willing to be persuaded. Gov. Perry has suggested that everyone's lives can be improved by prayer, and I am not so proud that I refuse to give it a go. I am willing to try Gov. Perry's suggestion about the power and utility of prayer.
Join with me now, won't you? Let us bow our heads.
“Lord, please accept my humble expression of gratitude for all the blessings You have bestowed on me and my neighbors. You have granted us a land favored in soil and climate, rich in natural resources, large and bounteous, stretching from sea to shining sea. You have endowed us with great wealth, largely free of famine and want, and long lives uninterrupted by the many diseases that that for so long have been mankind's fate. You have seen fit to bestow on us a government dedicated to the proposition that all your children are created equal.”
“Thank You for these many blessing, Lord. And now I must ask You to grant me and my neighbors strength and fortitude, for a great scourge is apon us. A pestilence of ignorance and bigotry has settled over our land, encouraging our citizens forget their ties to each other and instead fight amongst ourselves for material riches. Help us see the truth. Give us the strength to turn out those charlatans who seek to divide us for their own gain. We ask you to shine the light of true wisdom in our eyes, so that we can see those who use Your name, not to give thanks or rise up their communities, but to further enrich themselves. Give strength and power to our voices so that we can loudly speak up and defend the weak, the powerless, the infirmed, and the homeless refuges, as You have call on us to do, against the tide of abuse and denigration that seems to flow ceaselessly from so many glowing TV screens.”
“As we now remember this week the great works of your humble servant Martin Luther King, Jr., help us recognize the vast gulf between those efforts made on Your behalf, and the work of Gov. Rick Perry to further enrich himself and his circle of wealthy enablers. Give us the strength of mind to remember Your injunction to us to protect and care for Your planetary creation, and the many wondrous living beings on it, and to resist the calls by Gov. Perry to ignore the needs of the planet in favor of the wants of the wealthy few. Grant us today the wisdom, as You had granted previously on our founding fathers, to reject the efforts of Rick Perry to mix and mingle government and religion. Grant us the strength dear Lord, to put down the newspaper, turn off the TV or computer, when the lies and vile preachings of Rick Perry are cascading over us, and give our legs and arms strength to march to the voting booth and pull down that lever to remove him from our public life.”
“Lord, we are but children, easily frightened and led astray. We humbly ask you to give us the strength to follow Your guidance to love and serve one another in all things, and to ignore the Rick Perrys of the world who seek to cast us down. We humbly ThankYou for all your blessings.”
Yes, I believe I feel better already. Maybe there is something to this prayer business.