Well, it seems that ‘Dumb’ just got ‘Dumber’. I’m talking about political correctness of course … although one wonders out loud whether Congressman, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat from Missouri, should be included as a possible candidate for the adjective given his prayer ending words:
"We ask it in the name of the monotheistic god, Brahma, and god known
by many names by many different faiths. Amen and a woman."
Now I am not in the habit of calling someone a name or three, though I have come perilously close many times — and joyfully failed a few times. This might just be one of those ‘few times’ moments for me, because what person attends the opening of a new session of the U.S. Congress where the nation’s political brain trust has gathered and leads this august group in a mind-numbing ending prayer that inanely mixes monotheism, polytheism and gender identity?
Yes, House guest chaplain, Mr. Cleaver, surely knows that ‘Amen’ is a non-gendered word and has nothing to do with ‘a man’. Yes, this is Mr. Cleaver’s 9th term in office, so he hardly needs educating about the stately opening of the 117th Congress. And ‘Yes’ as a former United Method ‘clergy person’ he surely has some Christian clue about praying to the God of scripture.
Saying an ‘Around-the-World in 80 Seconds’ prayer
to small ‘g’ deities will satisfy PC terrorists, but does
nothing to draw God’s attention.
For the record, ‘Yes’ I am aware that between 1990 and 2010 Senate Chaplains took on more religiously neutral prayer language, while House chaplains did not, but what kind of prayer beseeches a monotheistic god [which one, we are not told], and folds into the mix Brahma, one of three in the Hindu triumvirate? There can only be one answer: political correctness gone squirrely … run amok! Seriously, does Mr. Cleaver even know himself whom he was speaking to when he was giving his clever ‘rainbow’ prayer? I have my doubts!
Listen to the rich, moving prayers of former Senate chaplains, folks like Peter Marshall, Richard C. Halverson and Lloyd John Ogilvie, and you are struck with the clarity, the honestly and the boldness of their prayers. With no inclination to assuage the message, when they beseeched God, they did so in the tradition of old-time prophets by standing in the breach. Scoring political points or winning gender friends was not their focus.
Chaplain Halverson once said at the opening of a session:
"Dear God, surprise even Senators by leading them through
a productive legislative session."
Todays ‘religious’ words are ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’. I get it! The scriptures remind us of our inherent value, one originating from the dawn of creation when humankind was created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:17). To this end therefore, believers have a special obligation to demonstrate the reality of Christ's culture-transforming love by promoting any virtue consistent with biblical truth.
Still, talk of diversity and inclusion must also be about understanding not just the identities of others – but our identities as well. While competing worldviews are no doubt influencing Christians more and more [Barna, May 9, 2017], what Christians do … cannot be separated from who they are! There can be no space between them. This is what makes the prayer that Cleaver, the ‘Christian’ … ‘Methodist’ … ‘former preacher’ offered so egregious — it masqueraded as a ‘Christian’ prayer, but was frankly a nod to nothing more than that mythical flying spaghetti ‘god’ in the sky. Why would we expect divine intervention?
Collective prayers to eagerly awaiting alphabet deities is simply the religious version of Whack-a-Mole – where striking wildly at every ‘god’ will hopefully bring coverage and success. Even the gods are not that stupid!
Mr. Cleaver, a ‘person-of-the-cloth’ … turned politician from Missouri, while knowing his way around the seat of power, lost his way around the seat of Truth. He forgot scripture: forgot the caution of Romans about the ‘world’ (spirit of the age) bullying believers into surrendering; forgot the declaration of Colossians that we have been lifted from our shocking state of eternal slavery and shadows; forgot the example of John the Apostle who flinched not to attract people to Jesus, the Christ.
“With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to Him and acceptable by Him. Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all His demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.” (Romans 12:1-2, J.B. Phillips)
“We have been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son.” (Colossians 1:13, ESV)
“John testified concerning Him. He cried out, saying, “This is the One I spoke about …”
(John 1:15)
When all eyes were on him in the chamber, instead of allowing his light to shine, Mr. Cleaver the Christian hid it under a bushel (Matthew 5:15). After he baked his Congressional prayer cake with a mixture of monotheistic gods and Hindu deity, he sprinkled it with the icing of gender identity and pronounced it a good pun — all in the interests of political correctness. A … a … a …mazing!
“What is possibly the best Woke joke we’re going to meet in all its remaining days has fallen into the headlines.”
Rex Murphy, Canadian Commentator responding to Cleaver’s Congressional prayer.
Some years ago, while working as a Chaplain at the University Health Network (UHN) in Toronto, a tertiary of three hospitals, Toronto General, Toronto East General and Princess Margaret, I was invited to a gathering and asked to pray. It was my joy to do so — but as a Christian chaplain. My task was to represent the God of the Bible … not the gods of Hinduism, Islam, Taoism, Buddhism, Sikhism or the goddess of political expediency. As a chaplain I had the tools to facilitate any request for someone of a different religious persuasion and would have been happy to do so. Still, when I approached the podium, I came as a Christian, stood as a Christian and prayed as a Christian … even risking with a concluding “in the strong name Jesus Christ.”
Jesus said of God the Father,
“Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, who You have sent.” (John 17:3)
Mr. Cleaver the Christian cheated his congressional listeners with his rainbow prayer. After all, which monotheistic god was being addressed and invoked? Were his thoughts on HaShem, Allah or the Christian God … or all three? I am confident his audience did not know. And why pick out Brahma for special attention? And why does Jesus Christ not even rate a cameo appearance from the protestant Methodist minister’s lips? John Wesley would not have been impressed, surely!
Mr. Cleaver the Christian likewise misrepresented the nature of God. In the Book of Isaiah (42:8) God states, “I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another.” Nor will God allow His works to be attributed to a false god, which is ‘nothing at all in the world’. (1 Corinthians 8:4) Scriptures unambiguous decree that God will not share His glory should therefore caution all Christians against invoking God’s name and intertwining it with a ‘little-of-this’ and a ‘dab-of-that’ syncretistic blather.
I am aware that ‘truth without grace’ (political incorrectness) or ‘grace without truth’ (political correctness), can be problematic, but there is no reason to see truth and grace as adversarial opponents, as John 1:14 so delightfully reminds us. Speaking of Jesus, John writes: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
On the day Mr. Cleaver decided to join Team Woke, he added to a polarized landscape. The CATO Free Speech and Tolerance poll of 2017 concluded that 71% of Americans
(Canadian stats unavailable], believe political correctness has silenced discussions we need to have. Likewise, 58% indicated they had political views but were afraid to share them. In Cleaver’s prayer we see that even in the church of the Woke, there are sinners.
Imagine! A single, unthinking, unguarded word choice can
result in serious social sanctions — and a public flogging on
FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, et al.
Since that famous January 3, 2021 Sunday on Capital Hill, Mr. Cleaver has said he is “deeply disappointed that my prayer has been misinterpreted and misconstrued by some to fit a narrative that stokes resentment and greater division among portions of our population.” Consider it feigned disappointment, because if he was truly concerned about ‘greater division’, then he would not have chosen the path he did – trying to be religiously cosmopolitan, witty, ‘pun’-ny and PC at the same time — all in a prayer to some ‘god’ out there.
Despite the pressures of ‘cancel culture groupies’ with their noisy ‘lets-take-them-out’ rhetoric who think they are doing God’s work, it is quite OK to have the courage to resist having our Christian world views assimilated (Melting Pot) while at the same time freely respecting societal differences (Mosaic) that exist around us. Christians are going to have to ‘get-over’ avoiding counter-culture firestorms just so we can protect ourselves from life’s socially awkward events.
As trendy as it is to offer religiously ‘neutral’ prayers, such prayers are like the Statue of Liberty — hollow on the inside. It might be sophisticated thinking . . . but its lousy, reductionist praying.
I fully expect my friends of the Jewish, Muslim and Hindu faith to pray in the manner of their faith tradition. This would be expected, respectful and honouring. There is not a single reason for them to become something they are not.
Christians are the light of the world. We are cities on a hill. I would therefore suggest we expose ourselves to the clarity of Matthew 5:13-16 when we are tempted to pray something we are inherently not. “Only Saying ...”
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