Fill us with the desire to do our best,
Empower us to grow intellectually, ethically, spiritually, as well as materially,
Teach us to be kind and beneficial to the world to make it a better place for all of us,
Enable us to look honestly at ourselves while we regard others with tolerance,
To be just and fair and able to learn from our failures,
To be good friends as well as just enemies,
In such a way as to bring honor to this institution.
Be it so.
A prayer, a petition, which says essentially the same thing as a prayer which held a place of honor at Cranston High School West in Cranston, Rhode Island, a little burgh formerly known as Pawtuxit.
The wording of the disputed prayer:
Our Heavenly Father,
Grant us each day the desire to do our best,
To grow mentally and morally as well as physically,
To be kind and helpful to our classmates and teachers,
To be honest with ourselves as well as with others,
Help us to be good sports and smile when we lose as well as when we win,
Teach us the value of true friendship,
Help us always to conduct ourselves so as to bring credit to Cranston High School West.
Amen
Would the persons who hotly defend the "Our Heavenly Father" version also lend their support to "Heavenly Mother," as well as to words such as "intellectually," "ethically," or that hateful word "tolerance"? And that horrible thing, inclusiveness, as in "all of us"?
And, in reference to the original history of the region, what if the petition or prayer were directed at the various deities of the Narragansett tribes who originally populated that area, such as Wompanand - the Eastern God; Chekesuwand - the Western God; Wunnanameanit - the Northern God; Wowwand - the Southerne God; Wtuomanit - the House God; Squauanit - the Woman's God; Muckquachuckquand - the Children's God; Keesuckquand - the Sun God; Nanepaushat - the Moon God; Paumpagussit - the Sea; Yotaanit - the Fire God; Kautantowwit - the Southwest God, to whose House all souls go; as well as Wetucks, a being who performed great miracles, could walk upon water, something like the sons of gods venerated in the Middle East.
Cranston student Jessica Ahlquist, 16, has become the focal point of hate speech because of her argument that the prayer banner violates the U.S. Constitution and the Supreme Court's 1962 decision banning state-mandated prayer in school. As a result she has been called an "evil little thing" and a "pawn-star" "trained" by "evil people", as well as being subjected to floods of cyberbullying calling for her to be "stomped," "beaten," "punched" in the face in the best of Christian tradition.
One remembers sadly the teachings of one particular Son of God:
And when thou prayest,
thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are:
for they love to pray standing in the synagogues
and in the corners of the streets,
that they may be seen of men.
Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet,
and when thou hast shut thy door,
pray to thy Father which is in secret;
and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
But teachings of that sort are totally out of vogue these days. If this particular Son of God were to appear and say such things, undoubtedly He would be stomped, beaten, punched in the face, possibly even crucified.