Last night a South Carolina pastor named Mark Burns (pictured above) offered a prayer at the Republican Convention. I must say I found the prayer appalling. It defied everything I have ever been taught about praying in a public gathering. It defied all sense of graciousness that ought to reflect the generousity God's grace.
Even more appalling were the pastor’s opening remarks. In those remarks pastor Burns refers to both Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party as the “enemy.” Perhaps "opponents" would have been a wiser choice of words given his profession.
Needless to say I was embarrassed for my profession. I am also embarrassed to be associated with anyone who has the arrogant audacity to know which political party is on God’s side and which one is not.
Well, I must confess that I have been in the place Pastor Burns is now walking. Let me tell you a brief story about that:
The year was 1983 and I was attending the Navy’s Chaplain Corps basic course in Newport, Rhode Island. I was an ordained minister of the Southern Baptist Church and ecclesiastically endorsed by the same.
Well did I ever get a baptism by fire right out of the box. I was assigned a Rabbi as my roommate. My primary instructor was also a Rabbi. My tight little Baptist world seemed to be collapsing.
“Was God mad at me for joining the Navy” I thought?
I mean I had been taught that God didn't even hear the prayers of Jews (a belief I later abandoned).
One of the very first things we were taught was how to pray at public events such as changes of command or retirement ceremonies.
So on the first day of class our instructor Rabbi Jim Apple (a wonderful man whom I came to admire) said:
“Ladies and gentlemen, when you pray in public events use inclusive language.”
That meant that we Christian chaplains were not to end our prayers with the words: "In Jesus’s name.” To do so we were told would exclude any and all who were not of the Christian tradition.
Needless to say I was flabbergasted. You mean I had to give up praying in “Jesus’s name” so as not to offend anyone? Yes!
So I later met with Rabbi Apple and shared with him my angst over this new revelation of how to pray. He graciously allowed me to vent, to give him all the reasons why I couldn’t pray without saying “In Jesus’s Name” at the end of my prayers.
He rocked back in his desk chair, putting his hands behind his head and asked me:
“Chaplain Hulsey, do you believe in the sovereignty of God?”
I said that I did and he then said to me:
“Then don’t you think God knows in whose name you are praying without having to say it!”
In later conversations with the good Rabbi he taught me the importance of our prayers reflecting the inclusiveness of God’s grace and love, especially in public settings in which more than one faith tradition was present. It was an eye-opening and mind-opening experience for me to say the least.
So I began the long journey of growing beyond my own particular faith tradition, a personal quest to understand God beyond the narrow parochial ways of my inherited tradition.
I tell you this story because I believe such a narrow-minded parochial prayer as one offered last night is both inappropriate and disappointing. I do not question the legitimacy of the pastor’s faith.
Yet I am not convinced that he possesses any sense of common grace that ought to characterize our relationship with God, especially as clergy. I am not convinced that he has ever grasped the idea that God does not favor one political party or candidate over another.
My hope is that this South Carolina pastor will realize this morning that he could have prayed better. I hope he will learn from this experience. I hope we all learn from it.
Perhaps he got caught up in the largeness of the moment. Maybe his remarks were off the cuff. Maybe (one can only hope) that he fully intended just to pray. Who knows? Only he and God do.
Wisdom does not come easy nor is it bottled for easy consumptive use. Wisdom may only come through humility, the humility of not knowing for certain the things we think we know . . . the wisdom of knowing how to speak on God’s behalf.
I find such wisdom in the prayer of Francis of Assisi, one of my heroes. I would kindly suggest that a prayer such as this is what is needed at all political conventions. May we all aspire to be so humble . . . and so wise:
“Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.”
Amen!
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