Does John Edwards include Jews in his prayers? Or Muslims? Or Hindus? Or any other non-Christians?
He didn’t the other day. The other day, in order to commemorate those killed at Virginia Tech, Edwards led a prayer “in Christ’s name” at Ryman Auditorium, which bills itself as “Nashville’s Premier Performance Hall.”
Edwards has a perfect right to pray publicly or privately any way he wants to. But people who are not Christians often feel left out of prayers like his. ~Roger Simon
I have to agree with Yglesias: this Politico item reaches new depths of lameness. In fact, it has passed far beneath the mere crust of lameness and broken down into the core of absurdity, where it will fortunately be consumed by tons of satirical magma.
John Edwards is a Christian. It seems to me that the only way that he could pray without being tagged as a pandering, overly ecumenical buffoon would be to pray “in Christ’s name.” It has to be embarrassing for all involved to hear politicians rattle off the new trinity of inclusiveness: “The strength of America is in our churches, our synagogues and our mosques!” Presumably a Muslim candidate, were there ever to be such a one, would open his prayer with bismillah arrahman arrahim, or perhaps a translation of the same, because that’s part of how Muslims pray. Give me a candidate who will not reshape his prayers to fit a focus group any day (even if his decision to give a prayer was apparently done on the advice of a consultant). Spare me the treacly preaching of a Roger Simon when he asks:
Why not include all religions in your prayers?
Because that’s obviously fake and done for political purposes? Because virtually no one, in his regular prayers, “includes” all religions in this way? The reasons could go on.
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April 24th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
A.K.B. Cusack
Oh those poor people! “Feeling left out” and going to cry in the corner because the Big Bad Christian said a Christian prayer in a Christian country! I hope they remembered to fill the prescription of whatever emotion-reducing dehumanizing drug their shrink has put them on.
But more seriously, did anyone actually “feel left out”? I doubt it. A sensible non-Christian would say to himself “Well, fair enough, I’ll just leave that bit out from my own prayer”.
“Feeling left out” would, I think, demonstrate an overly-heightened emotional state or an oversensitivity which ought to be dealt with personally rather than coddled, appeased, and indeed fed by the larger community.
April 24th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
Grumpy Old Man
The Simon piece is very unclear. It’s not clear whether the objection is to the Christian form of the prayer, or to the prayer allegedly being offered only for the benefit of Christians.
If Simon objects to a Christian offering a Christian prayer, which appears to be the case, he’s got his head wedged.
Incidentally, if a believing Christian prays for the salvation of all mankind, he’s praying for their conversion, which is objectionable to some people. On the other hand, if a Jew prays ve al kol yisroel (”and for all the Jews”), he’s not, at that particular time, praying for non-Jews. Some might find this practice parochial and offensive.
Which only goes to show that in the eyes of militant secularists religious people can’t win, anyway.
On another note, judging by his picture, the Roger Simon offended by Sen. Edwards’s prayer is not this Roger Simon. A case of serendipitous Simoniac homonymy?
April 25th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
snark
Ending a prayer ‘In Chist’s [or Jesus’] name does not mean the prayer is intended for or represents only Christians. It’s a sort of Christian ‘Amen,’ and Simon’s offense at it is silly. At the same time, when the Lord’s Prayer is said at the end of some (though thankfully few) AA meetings in New York, I remain silent. I say it in church, and I have ended my share of prayers with ‘In Christ’s name,” but AA is not Christian and it bugs me no end when some fool says, “Who’s father?” and the sheep begin in unison, “Our Father!” Anyway, there’s a connection there somewhere. Ah, salami lakem.