Prayer service set May 6

On Jan. 31, 1996, Pastor Joe Wright of the Wichita Central Christian Church was asked to give the invocation for the Kansas State Legislature. According to radio commentator Paul Harvey, this is what Pastor Wright prayed:

“Heavenly Father, we have come before You today to ask Your forgiveness and to seek Your direction and guidance. We know that Your Word says, ‘Woe be to those who call evil as good,’ and that’s exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium, and we’ve inverted our values. We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word in the name of moral pluralism. We have worshiped other gods and called it multi-culturalism, and we’ve endorsed perversion and called it alternative lifestyle. We have exploited the poor and called it a lottery. We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.

“Father, in the name of choice, we’ve killed our unborn, and then in the name of right-to-life we’ve executed the abortionist. 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 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, O God. Know our hearts today. Try us, and show us any wickedness in us. And then 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.”

What took place after this eloquent, biblically-based prayer was an outburst of indignation. Many of the Kansas legislators stormed out, while others angrily condemned the prayer as blasphemous, ignorant, overbearing, and an attempt at political subversion.

The governor of Kansas mounted the podium and apologized for the pastor’s inappropriate use of prayer to make political statements.

This incident is a clear illustration of how far our American culture has wandered from its moral moorings.

There was a time when pastors and churches were sought out for moral guidance and critique by leaders at the community, state and national level.

But today the Christian frame of reference is all too often either ridiculed, criticized, rejected outright, or simply ignored in the public square. God has been dismissed because His church has been dismissed in the public square — except for a harmless invocation, of course.

So those in power dismiss God, and then they try every which way to address the problems that are destroying us. The same is true of people on the personal level. People don’t understand that if they don’t get to the root, they will never fix the problem. When people refuse to deal with the root of society’s problems, which are spiritual, all they have left to deal with are the symptoms of the problem. We have come to the understanding that American is ripe for judgment by God, because we have left Him out. Even as ancient Israel did in 2 Chronicles 15-5-6, where it says: “that God troubled them with every kind of distress.”

This was because they did not serve the true God, and God’s law was missing.

So we of the Jay County Ministerial Association want to invite our community to come and pray for our nation and community on the National Day of Prayer. We will be meeting at the Trinity United Methodist Church, 323 S. Meridian St., Portland, on Thursday, May 6 at 6:30 p.m.

For more information, please call (260) 726-6247 or Trinity at (260) 726-8391.

Pastor Terry Bye,

Jay County

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