sweet home Kansas-balama...

by tetrapod.sapien 16 Replies latest jw friends

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  tetrapod.sapien

  LOL

  a true story from snopes:

  http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/wright.htm

  When Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard:

  "Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask Your forgiveness and to seek Your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We confess that.

  We have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it Pluralism.

  We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism.

  We have endorsed perversion and called it alternative lifestyle.

  We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.

  We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.

  We have killed our unborn and called it choice.

  We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.

  We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.

  We have abused power and called it politics.

  We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.

  We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.

  We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

  Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent to direct us to the center of Your will, to open ask it in the name of Your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen"

  The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest. In 6 short weeks, Central Christian Church, where Rev.Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively. The church is now receiving international requests for copies of this prayer from India, Africa, and Korea.

  Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on "The Rest of the Story" on the radio and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired.

  With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called one nation under God.
• 

  kid-A

  Tetra,

  Are you sure this wasn't the closing prayer at the latest D.C.??
• 

  DanTheMan

  Living in Kansas must be like being surrounded by thousands of moralizing JW's.
• 

  tetrapod.sapien

  Are you sure this wasn't the closing prayer at the latest D.C.??

  perhaps, perhaps. LOL

  i am starting to think that maybe i don't even want evolution taught there...
• 

  chrissy

  Tetra,

  Oh my gaa...

  Would you believe that not only did I live in Wichita, KS. for three years and know exactly where Central Christian church is, but also, that my husband, a member there, drug me into the place and insisted I sit through hours of that same crap from probably that same jackass.

  Its true, that church is soooo huge. (2500+ members) ...its like a trip to an amusement park...freaking six flags or something. People are waving their hands in the air, saying things out loud from the audience, getting down on their knees next to you and praying on their seats..its some crazy stuff I never saw go down at the KH. I was thinking how nice it would be to be back at my old windowless monochramatic hell hole kh right about that time.

  Anyway, I don't know how he got away with it. Thank god at least one person got up and walked out during his prayer in the house of senate.
• 

  LuckyNun

  not in all parts of Kansas. Lawrence is a little oasis of drug-friendly citizens, hippies and art students. I'm proud to call it my chosen home.
• 

  tetrapod.sapien

  nice, lucky.

  i was hoping some good kansas folks would stop by.

  cheers,

  TS
• 

  Billygoat

  I used to live in Wichita Kansas and have been to this church as well. It was an Easter service many years ago, so it was quite the spectacle. I do remember feeling like a fish out of water. Having just been out of the WTS for around a year or so, I was still trying to overcome the feeling that I was doing something wrong by being in one of Christendom's churches. All the "amens" from the audience and hands waving in the air made me nervous. LOL

  But today, I'm a little more secure in MY faith and MY beliefs, so I don't get all up in arms when someone expresses their spirituality differently than I. It's just different. We're in America. Our country was born out of desperation to express their own beliefs in ways other than what was "acceptable" or "normal". It's not the way I worship or express my spirituality, but who am I to judge others???

  I'll probably rile a few of you up, but some of what he prayed is true IMO:

  We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.

  We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.

  We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.

  We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.

  We have abused power and called it politics.

  We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.

  We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

  Gasp and ridicule this pastor all you want, but we ALL have the freedom to speak our minds and hearts whenever and wherever we want. Will you have the same courage (AND GRACE) to do it if you are given the chance? Many of us wouldn't if we know we'd face people walking out in the middle of our speech or prayer or be ridiculed for it later. Even for me, it'd be a challenge.
• 

  Soledad

  well said Billygoat
• 

  tetrapod.sapien

  Gasp and ridicule this pastor all you want, but we ALL have the freedom to speak our minds and hearts whenever and wherever we want.

  uh, except for in the House of Representatives. you see billygoat, there's this little thing called separation of church and state, that the west is supposed to be well known and respected for. and then this dude throws hundreds of years of progress out the window just because he wants to exercise his "right" to pray in public.

  when the kansas state house of representatives allows some muslim to pray before session (AAALLAAAHHHHHH AAAAAKKBAARR!!!!!), or an atheist to intone the Argument from Evil or pray to the Invisible Pink Unicorn before session, then i suppose it wouldn't be a big deal to let this guy do his thang. but since that will never happen in kansas, nor should any of it happen anywhere in the states, it remains a rather pathetic display of religion and public office copulating.