The Stumbling Block

As guest chaplain of the Florida State Senate, Pastor Clayton Cloer was asked to open the session in prayer. Cloer felt he followed the guidelines given to him for prayer. He didn't realize this meant there were certain words he couldn't say...

Pastor Cloer made the "mistake" of mentioning Jesus name in his prayer, not once, but twice. He mentioned it first in the context of being thankful that people had the religious freedom to believe in Jesus Christ and then the second time, he closed the prayer in Jesus name.

At the conclusion of his prayer a Senator stood to object to the prayer but the President of the Senate instead prevented her from speaking and apologized, "To those of you who were offended or feel hurt, I personally apologize."

The guidelines offered for opening the daily session are for prayer that:

-- seeks the highest common denominator without compromise of conscience;
-- calls upon God on behalf of the group as a whole and avoids individual petitions;
-- uses forms and vocabulary that allow persons of different faiths to give assent to what is said;
-- uses universal, inclusive terms for the deity rather than proper names for divine manifestations. Some opening ascriptions are "Mighty God," "Our Maker," "Source of All Being," or "Creator and Sustainer." Possible closing words include "Hear Our Prayer," "In Thy Name" or simply "Amen"; and
-- remains faithful to the purposes of acknowledging divine presence and seeking blessing; not preaching, arguing or testifying.

In other words, it's supposed to be a generic prayer.

Apparently, some felt offended by the use of Jesus' name. But what about those whose beliefs are offended by leaving out Jesus' name? Aren't their beliefs just as valid? If a Unitarian Minister stepped up front and offered a prayer to "The God that is within us", wouldn't a lot of people be offended?

If the person praying felt their prayers needed to be made in a certain way in order to be heard or valid shouldn't they pray in that way?

The very same day that Pastor Cloer prayed to open the session of the Senate, author Rick Warren prayed to open the session of the Florida House. He ended his prayer with, "In His Name, Amen". There were no complaints. Is there something about the J-Word that offends people or is it something else?

I don't believe it is possible to have a "level playing field" for all religions without offending people or diluting the beliefs of the religion beyond something that is meaningful to it's adherents. The choices seem to be; either we risk being offensive to some or eliminate religion altogether from public life.

Both the text of Rick Warren's prayer and Pastor Cloer's prayer can be read at www.FloridaBaptistWitness.com

The source for this story was Baptist Press News