Dark Bilious Vapors

Roger Ebert about a year or so ago wrote an op-ed piece for the Chicago Sun-Times about the public school prayer debate. A few pertinent extracts from this piece:

This is really an argument between two kinds of prayer--vertical and horizontal. I don't have the slightest problem with vertical prayer. It is horizontal prayer that frightens me. Vertical prayer is private, directed upward toward heaven. It need not be spoken aloud, because God is a spirit and has no ears. Horizontal prayer must always be audible, because its purpose is not to be heard by God, but to be heard by fellow men standing within earshot.

...

Our attorney general, John Ashcroft, is theoretically responsible for enforcing the separation of church and state. He violates his oath of office daily by getting down on his knees in his government office every morning and welcoming federal employees to join him in "voluntary" prayer on carpets paid for by the taxpayers.

...

Because our enemies are for the most part more enthusiastic about horizontal prayer than we are, and see absolutely no difference between church and state--indeed, want to make them the same--it is alarming to reflect that they may be having more success bringing us around to their point of view than we are at sticking to our own traditional American beliefs about freedom of religion. When Ashcroft and his enemies both begin their days with displays of their godliness, do we feel safer after they rise from their devotions?
--Roger Ebert

He's our God and we won't share him with any stinking Mormons or Catholics

It's National Prayer Day, but you won't find any Mormons, Catholics, or Unitarians participating in any of the activities organized by the National Day of Prayer Task Force. Jews, Muslims and Buddhists won't be participating either. Taskforce spokesman Mark Fried said that it's against the organizations rules to involve non-Christian cults like Mormonism.

I agree. Prayer is just too damned sacred to be shared with just anyone. You don't know what could happen if you let the Mormons participate. That's especially true since this is an election year. As Fried says, we asking that "God's hand will be on the election." How an we expect Him to get involved if we insult him by letting just anyone participate?

Len on 05.06.04 @ 07:13 AM CST