A mighty controversy has erupted in my West Texas town over the following prayer offered at the City Council Meeting:
Dear God, almighty supreme power, the creator of all--Allah the merciful and forgiving--thank you for bringing together as sisters and brothers for this historic moment...Oh, Allah, please guide us to have better understanding of each other and help us to have more tolerance, acceptance and compassion for one another...Oh, Allah, your are our creator. You are our provider, You are our sustainer. We pray for this in your name only. Please forgive us for our mistakes and accept our prayers. Amen.
One of our City Councilmen felt obliged to add to this prayer and said:
I compliment your on your prayer. It was a beautiful prayer, and it was very well-worded. But as a Christian, I am taught and obligated to pray "in the name of Jesus" so for me, for my part of the prayer, I am going to add "in the name of Jesus." because I feel it's very important that we pray in His name, I don't mean to be controversial, but that is my belief.
When it was pointed out that he did not comment or add to the prayer when a prayer not ending in "In the name of Jesus" was given by a Methodist minister, nor to a Jewish prayer (it is the tradition of our City Council to have a representative of different religious groups offer a prayer at meetings) he admitted that he was being hypocritical but refused to withdraw his comments.
Luckily the Mayor handled the situation well by saying "I know that as a council we try to include many faith traditions, and I respect everyone, the way they pray. I think it is important to set the tone for the City. We all live together here, and that is the mission we are working on."
Ara Rahman was very gracious and said she was used to comments like this, and hoped to get to know the councilman better so that he would understand her views. She also explained that Allah is the Arabic word for God.
Ah Texas, we want so much to be a part of the world....but only if they look like us, talk like us and act like us!
2 comments:
Sharon, I love your "ravings." This is an excellent post! I would like to add you to my side bar and to my cyber family. Please let me know if you rather I not.
Kay, I would be honored...as you know I don't post often (nor do I check my posts often) but thank you for reading.
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