It's me, Lord, Cornelius

Hi Lord,

It's me, Cornelius. They're at it again, those liberal heathens. We keep beating back their attacks on public prayer, but they keep coming. We desire to publicly proclaim our righteousness, and they continue to try squelching us. It seems they do not understand Your manner of speaking with tongue in cheek. For example, one of them suggested to me that You had spoken against public prayer when You said in Matthew 6 (I guess I don't really need to note Your words to You),

5"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him."

They seem to think that this is to speak against public proclamation of your glory and our righteousness. The heathens think You are actually suggesting that we pray privately. They do not understand that this is Your way of telling Your loyal followers not to be like the ... I mean, they don't understand that You're really commanding us to foist our prayers on others by ... umm, that You're reminding us that we're all Your children and that no place is public where God fearing people gather - yes, that's it. No place is really public in this Christian nation and that the heathens who have sneaked into one of our gatherings have no one to blame but themselves. That's what You're really saying. Isn't it? I may be confused here. Could you be a bit more clear in what you mean by this passage? Perhaps it's a mangled translation of Your holy words, is that it?

Awaiting Your more clear guidance,

Cornelius

Luke 10:25-37 (for Congress)

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

²⁵On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

²⁶"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"

²⁷He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

²⁸"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."

²⁹But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

³⁰In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. ³¹A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. ³²So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. ³⁴He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'

³⁶"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"

^37aThe expert in the law, a republican, replied, "Had there truly been a neighbor, he would have prayed for the man. He would have wrung his hands. Then the Samaritan would have told the man that had he been responsible, he would have purchased insurance for himself. He would have explained to the that it was too expensive to help him."

^37bAnother expert in the law, a democrat, not to be outdone, said, "Teacher, we know that we should help the man, but we can't explain to our colleagues how it won't actually cost us any more money to help the man. As a compromise, we've determined that we will love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength and with all our mind.' The second part we will take up when the economy is more like it was in the 90's. We would have taken care of the man then, but we were cutting our wasteful ways, and besides, the mean guys on the other side wouldn't let us."

^37bThe first expert jumped back in. "Teacher, we know that God would not desire us to behave in such a socialistic manner. Could we hear the story where we love our neighbor by going to the local store, buying a bunch of guns, and hunting down the robbers and killing them? Something more like an Old Testament story?"

Jesus threw up his hands and said, "Would it be easier if we just made the neighbor the priest or the Levite? Do not trouble yourselves with such complications as raised by the Samaritan, go and be as the priest or the Levite. I am sure God will be just as happy."

The National Anthem

So when did the National Anthem become a performance piece? Growing up everyone sang at every event, some poorly, some well, some quietly, some full blast, many while trying to figure out what to do with their hands, but virtually everyone sang. I actually first noticed when my wife would nudge me, hush me, or just move away during the singing. That irritated me as I like singing, but I did notice that she was correct that almost no one was singing. I began asking people and got these responses among others:

• As performers began putting their own imprint on the song, no one knew how it was going to go and there you were completely out of step with the music.
• After 911
• Hasn't it always been that way?
• There is less and less group singing in our culture and this is the natural result.

The NA is indeed a tough song to sing and always has been, but it is the song of Americans, we own it. Now, I like my patriotism much the way I like my faith: quiet, honored, engaged in, and not shouted from the rooftops. That said, I worry that if we aren't comfortable coming together and participating in the national anthem, we aren't coming together and participating in our democracy. This is a bad, bad thing because ours is a participatory democracy and not a performance piece.