Expressions of Faith
Prayer is more than personal

By Clark Morphew

Does anyone agree that America has reached a new low in public prayer and that we just don't know how to talk with God anymore?

First, it's obvious that we don't feel comfortable praying while other people are standing near us with heads bowed and hands folded. Some people flinch; others look around as if bad people are stalking them. Many merely fidget.

This is not something we do every day, but when Americans gather in large bunches, we feel a prayer would be holy and would kick off the event with heavenly power. So the planning committee of the gathering will telephone a well-known clergy person in town and arrange for a prayer. Now, these sanctified men and women who agree to public prayer actually believe their words will be cherished and taken to heart. So why the long, boring prayers?

The other day I saw a prominent pastor on television offering a prayer. I decided to halt my channel surfing and watch the performance. Well, watching a public prayer spoken to an assembly is not exciting television.

He delivered the prayer as if it were a sermon. A statement, an exhortation, a demand. Something like, "The Lord God wants this and you better conform — 'cause I say so."

It turns out that "the exhortation" is the favorite kind of prayer by clergy who want to assert their authority.

Another popular public prayer is "the boasting" — a rundown of all the tremendous things the religious people in that setting have done over the past month:

"Lord, we are just so grateful that you have allowed us to minister to the children in our Sunday school and the summer Bible school which was held this past week for 37 children and for three who could not pay the registration fee. God Almighty, give us the strength to complete the flower garden on the side of the church over by the duck pond. What with the cost of peat moss, Lord Jesus Christ, in regard to the offering today, strike these people with a spirit of generosity so your creation may be beatified."

The third kind of public prayer is "the desperation," in which the prayer, usually a clergy person, admonishes the congregation to start giving their fair share of money:

"O God of power and incredible strength, give us a sense of righteousness and duty, as we contemplate our offering this morning. Help us see, in fear and trembling, that the fuel bills have to be paid and the roof drippings have to be plugged up with tar as we enter into this summer season."

Prayer is a human experience. That perhaps is why it gets messed up. If the human spirit must decrease and the divine spirit must increase in true prayer, most human concerns — flower gardens, overalls and roof leaks — may not be the best focus for prayer.

Rather we ought to be praying for the things that God commands: justice, mercy, faith, love and salvation.

Perhaps the best public prayer is one of silence, a time in which each individual can privately communicate with the ineffable, the force that cannot be uttered.

Clark Morphew is a clergyman and religion writer for the Saint Paul Pioneer Press.