‘And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Matthew 6:5-6
This week, the Supreme Court is tackling issues of prayer in public, government settings. The case being brought is from the town council of Greece, New York, in which every monthly meeting for about 15 years has begun with public prayer. And of those 130 instances of public prayer, 126 of them have been from Christian clergy. I have a couple of things I'd like to say about this, but I'd like to start with a thought exercise:
Imagine for a moment, that you're a Christian in the first century. Let's say you live in Ephesus, a predominantly Greek port town in Asia Minor, which is modern-day Turkey. Here's a story from Acts about your congregation.
The patron deity of Ephesus is Artemis, (or Diana, to the Romans), goddess of the hunt. Not only is she a center for religious piety--she's got a big humongous temple in the middle of town--but she also drives the economy. A good chunk of your friends and neighbors are in the silver trade, selling various idols, trinkets and other pieces of Artemis fan-art.
Life is somewhat complicated for you as a new Christian believer. Even something as simple as buying meat in the marketplace is a whole ordeal, because you don't feel comfortable buying meat sacrificed to idols, which is most of the meat for sale. You can't teach in the public schools, because doing so would force you to teach Greek and Roman creation myths as factual accounts to students. Additionally, you and your fellow believers (and also Jews, for that matter) are often falsely accused of atheism, because you have flatly refused to sacrifice to any of the many idols in town, preferring to worship a God whom nobody can see. This hurts your reputation, your ability to do business in town, and in some cases may even subject you to criminal charges.
So, let's say you're a civic-minded individual, and you start attending town council meetings. Of course they start with prayer. Why not? All these pious Greek folks, in a fairly free and open society, it seems like the right thing to do. But when the priest invites all to stand, and opens his mouth...sure enough...a prayer to Artemis. What do you do? Sit back down? Walk out? Just stand there and not make yourself a target of persecution? Well, you decide that just this once, you'll stand there. You pray silently for God's forgiveness, and for the chance to be a witness for Christ by what you say and do. OK. Crisis averted. Until next month.
Well, sure enough, next month they've got another priest. You're hopeful. The prayer begins...Artemis again. Hmmm...well, how many Artemis priests can there be? Imagine this went on for 15 years. Maybe you screwed up your courage and asked to share a Christian prayer, maybe you didn't. But still, month after month, Artemis, Artemis, Artemis. And with each prayer, the message is driven further and further home: "You are a foreigner. You are other. You are not one of us. You are not welcome here."
Okay. So Christianity has traveled a long and convoluted path since then, and you may agree or disagree with me about how closely the position of Christians then matches the position of religious (and secular) minorities today. But my point is, it's been a very long time since Christians have been in any such position, and before we start mouthing off about our own religious persecution, we do well to reflect on what Christian believers of ancient times (and even our brothers and sisters in Christ in other parts of the world) have dealt with. And without wading into constitutional law, the true intent of the First Amendment, and the nuances of this particular case, none of which I feel qualified to address, let me just say this as a Christian and clergy person, who has accepted multiple invitations to pray in public settings:
1. Prayer is not the time for preaching or Christian witness. Jesus covered this. You don't pray in order to be praised by others. You pray in solidarity with others, for your mutual need. This is important to remember even in an all-Christian environment: if you have something to say to a brother or sister, say it. Don't say it to God and hope they'll eavesdrop. That's not the model of communication Christ lifted up.
2. Nobody can stop you from praying whenever, however, and as often as you want. I think Christians should show up to town council and county council meetings. I think Christians should show up to legislative sessions, and PTA meetings, and School Board meetings, and they should show up praying. It is not the job of a local clergy person, or public school teacher, or civic leader to do all the praying on our behalf. Praying is our job. Period. If we Christians spent half as much time praying for our government as we do worrying about the government taking away our right to pray, there'd be a major revival in our country. And think of this: neither Peter, nor Paul, nor any of the apostles through whom the Spirit built this global Jesus movement, had the legal "right" to pray in Jesus' name. But they did it anyway. And with some success, I might add.
3. I'd rather pray silently than be censored by a governing body when praying aloud. In terms of religious liberty, what concerns me more than whether public prayer happens out loud, is what kind of prayer is allowed: namely, will some governmental body, either at the local or national level, be put in charge of which prayers are "sectarian" and which aren't? And what will be the standards? Is government-sponsored public prayer so important that we'll give up our freedom to pray as our conscience dictates in order to keep it going? If so, then maybe it's time to let it be a private, voluntary activity before the official business gets going.
4. Christians can disagree about what public prayer is appropriate. But God still shows up where we least expect. A statement that makes me want to tear my (remaining) hair out is the one that's been going around for ten years or so, where a public school kid asks why God doesn't stop violence in public schools, and God says, "I'm not allowed in public schools." Baloney. Complete and absolute, dangerous, heretical baloney. If God paid any attention at all to where God was "allowed" to go, the Israelites would still be in slavery. the people would never have heard the challenging message of the prophets. There would be no story to tell about God becoming flesh and dwelling among us, bearing our sin to the cross. We didn't invite God to do any of that. According to our human system of laws, none of that is "allowed." But God did it anyway, and will keep doing it. To say that God can only show up where audibly invoked by human beings under sanction of the federal, state, or local governments is nothing short of idolatry, and I want no part of it. God shows up anyway. And thank God for it.
I've already written more than I meant to, so I'll leave off there. But I do encourage you to pray about this. Pray for our Supreme Court Justices, in this sticky and complicated question. Pray for believers of all faiths, that they can feel supported and affirmed to reach out to God however they know how. Pray for those of no faith, that God's wisdom might find them on whatever level they are prepared to receive it. And pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ--some of whom are facing actual persecution that would curl your toes: for strength, faith and perseverance to finish this race.
