The best prayer ever composed

Toshihiko Atsuyama found this excerpt below on an article written by the spiritual activist-cum-author Anand Krishna of an interesting prayer given in Kansas at the opening session of their senate. 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 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 neighbour’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-honoured values of our fathers 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. Within weeks, Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is the pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those responding negatively. The church is now receiving international requests for copies of this prayer from India, Africa and Korea.