The prayer that shocked the world

reply to post by cody599


I'm happy for you that you are right with the Universe. I think the Universe is a sentient thing...it is aware and it knows.

I try t live my life on a simple principle...do no harm. I am a Freedom loving Libertarian, but I still refuse to hurt or harm others for my own gain..I just will NOT do it. I have had many opportunities over my life span to step on the neck of someone else for my own gain and have chosen not to do so. Does that make me naive? Does that make me stupid? No, I think it makes me at peace. I am now self employed because I refused to participate in the system as it has now become. I will not Sh!t on someone else for my own personal gain...call me what you will, but I sleep just fine at night.

Being self employed, I can choose to take the work I enjoy and reject the work I do not. I am not getting rich over here but I am satisfied...I do not kiss ass to stay busy and I do not make empty promises. If you ask me how long it is going to take to do what it is that I do, I will give you an honest answer that I will later try to surpass. I do not tell customers what they want to hear to secure work and then fail to deliver...ever.

I think the Universe knows exactly what we are doing and it knows our secret reasons for doing it. Those that deny the Universal mind only do so because at the core of their corrupt hearts...they fear that "it" knows what they have done....

Originally posted by AfterInfinity
reply to post by Joneselius

 

A prayer repeated is an incantation, incantations are prohibited when used as a prayer to God. They're lazy and un-inspiring. God wants you to talk TO him not AT him. Do you know how rude it is to talk 'at' something?

Do not repeat your prayers, or pray in public. Pray in private, and mean what you say. THAT is how you honour the Lord our God.

Oh, you mean the hymns and the mantras consistently repeated at every mass, every church service, every communion, and in every Sunday school across the nation?

Yeah, incantations are a regular part of Judaism. Remember the Hail Mary? Or the Lord's Prayer? Or any other of a number of prayers that Catholics and such were taught to repeat to themselves every time they sinned or were tempted to sin...

So much for your righteous instructions. Paganism is far too deeply embedded in Christianity to spare your swollen pride. Of course, you could just turn around and face the true origins of your faith.

edit on 21-2-2013 by AfterInfinity because: (no reason given)

Applause to Afterinfinity

reply to post by Jeremiah65


Completely with you Jeremiah
I work in a corporate situation now, with rules and regs and paperwork if you cut your finger with your chisels.
It's ridiculous so I and my workmates just ignore it and laugh it off. A quote to my boss today, "You can have it A right and sexy, or you can have it B fast and naff, if you choose B give it to someone else to make. When you want quality come to me, when you want to throw it out the door asap give it to an agency worker.
His reply ?
Sorry mate I know you put your heart and soul into your work and I know it will be bang on. Give me shout when it's ready and I'll go tell tptb that if they want the contract they'd better trust your judgement.

I agree with every word of that prayer. Mr Wright will long be remembered for that little piece of inspiration. It should be said at every political meeting, especially Congress. It should be said before every school day starts. It should be said before SCOTUS begins session. He nailed it.

Well, it's tough to argue that we wind up with the society and culture that we desire, which is, I think, the point of the discourse in the OP.

One thing that I'll add is that the actual instance cited dates back to 1996 (the reference to Paul Harvey being a bit of a clue to its age)... guess that it fell on deaf ears, eh?

This prayer burst into the public consciousness back in January of 1996, when the Rev. Joe Wright, senior pastor of the 2,500-member Central Christian Church in Wichita, was invited to deliver the opening prayer at a session of the Kansas House of Representatives. On that occasion he offered the following "Prayer of Repentance" (which was not entirely of his own crafting but rather was a version of a prayer written in 1995 by Bob Russell, who had offered it at the Kentucky Governor's Prayer Breakfast in Frankfort) (Source)

reply to post by adjensen


Regardless of the age
Some of the message still needs to be heard
It obviously fell on deaf ears

reply to post by cody599


Yeah the world is a mess. But who are they to enforce their idea of right and wrong on us all? They think in black and white terms, but it is never that simple.

Welfare is not rewarding laziness. Sure there are those who use it to avoid working, but not everyone who claims it is lazy. Its a dangerous and outright ignorant blanket statement which does no good for those who are genuinely in need of welfare. Welfare is actually a progressive policy, which shows how far we have gone since the days where those who fall on hard times starved and went homeless.

As for abortion, if you do not want to kill your own children then that is your choice. You have no rights whatsoever to judge anyone else for aborting their unborn children. You have no idea of the circumstances, you cannot apply a blanket judgment on everyone.

Shooting anti-abortionists is bad yes, they have the right to their opinions after all, regardless of how ill informed they are. Surely tho they should be educated rather than shot, and if they break any laws, then the appropriate penalty is applied to them.

There is a fine line between discipline and abuse, and in days gone by it was crossed without impunity. I agree though that anti-abuse laws can cause fear of reprisals when a child is disciplined. There needs to be some sort of balance, but surely it is better to err on the side of caution rather than beat the crap out of kids for trivial matters.

Who decided certain words are "bad" anyway? Why, for example, is feces perfectly acceptable while # is not? Its nothing more than people making up rules to control people.

As for the abuse of power and exploitation of the poor, I agree. But, thats the bit of unadulterated truth added in to make the message more appealing. Take this out and the message reveals its true colours.

"One nation under god". Something you have never ceased to be. Your nation was founded by an invasion force, slaughtering the natives in the process. Which is exactly the same way Israel came to be in the Old Testament. They ruled through fear and violence, just like the USA rules the world now. Your god will be proud of you, why would it want you to change a thing?

reply to post by Firefly_


Black and white would be perfect
fortunately grey also exists, and must do so. It's difficult but provokes thought
Never a bad thing

reply to post by cody599


This is clearly old because Paul Harvey has been dead for a while... regardless the point still remains and this is awesome.

Thanks for the thread. If the prayer made even just one person pause for a moment to think about how we rationalize our exploits, I believe it was a beneficial. As for me, it brought humility, reminding me that every day I have an obligation to seek good and see the wrongs for what they are.

I agree with this prayer in full, it was very thought provoking and likely that was what shocked the world. An honest offering. It is hard today to admit what one agrees with. S&F

reply to post by Unity_99

Originally posted by Unity_99
Dear God/Goodness, The Highest Level Of Peace and Love, please fill our hearts with peace and love and nudge us to progress and learn. May we be deprogrammed from all the ISMS in religion, in politics, in this world. May we truly care about everyone and no longer support any form of slavery, but be filled with inspiration and ideas to create creative ways for those who can contribute from their talents and joy, to the world and those in need, or caretaking others, to be fully on par equality with everyone. May this world grow up, and start to live as if they are already home, with complete empathy and goodness, gifts to others always. May we stop supporting fascism, slavery, money systems, propping up psychopathic leaders and institutions. May we offer our healing and forgiveness to them, but protect all in need and all who are vulnerable.

May we stop allowing freedoms to be taken, but truly understand, freedom and equality, the energies of Father and Mother, must go hand in hand.

Amen.

I like how positive your words are and I agree with you, but here is one thing to think about. If there is equality (fairness) then you don't have to worry about "freedom" because if everyone is equal no one is above any other.

reply to post by Turkenstein

Originally posted by Turkenstein

as a "one up" attempt, you failed!

Are you some kind of poetic judge making sure that the way people pray to their God(s) is "fancy" enough? How egotistical of you.

Sometimes the simplest things are what is needed.

Originally posted by Turkenstein
reply to post by Unity_99

 

as a "one up" attempt, you failed!

No, it didn't. For he wasn't praying to God/Goodness, Highest Love. I was. The smiting heartless, "god" in the old testament, is not Goodness, not a Higher Up, more like a renegade.

reply to post by cody599


Zachariah 4:6

'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty.

Fallen Angels - Rumi the Sufi

The thread I link here might give you better eyes to see.

You need look no further than the first page of this thread to realize why this prayer is meaningless and will have no effect.

Human beings are still much too prideful and set in their ways.
Unwilling and unable to humble themselves even though they may believe in a "higher power".

Never pausing to consider that...."Maybe "I" am totally wrong in everything I ever thought I knew".
Maybe "I" contributed to the state the world is in today.

Most people's "God" has nothing whatsoever to do with the creative intelligence which resides within themselves and is responsible for the creation of the entire universe.

Most people's "God" is their EGO yet, they have no clue that they even have an ego or what it is in the first place.

Believeing that, no matter what, their beliefs are "right" and everyone else's are wrong, unless of course you believe the exact same as they do.

Demanding rights that they are unwilling to allow others to have and willing to relinquish rights if they must, in order that no one else may have them either.

We want what we want and we will do unbelieveable things in order to fullfill or insatiable appetite for power and control over others.

It is never enough that we are happy and living the lives we want to live, doing what we want to do so long as it harms no one else in the process. We are willing to give up that sort of freedom because,

"who does that sonofabitch think he is smoking a joint out on his back deck in front of the whole neighborhood, doesn't he know that's illegal"????

"I'm calling the police honey"!!!!

"What kind of A-hole burns our flag!?!?!?!, I'd better NEVER see someone burning the flag I fought for, I'll kill 'em"!!!



"who do they think they are painting a portrait of Jesus with poop"????

" I want something done about this immediately"!!!

What people WANT is CONTROL!!!!
We want to control EVERYONE but ourselves!!!!
After all, someone else will do that for us right?

It's called the government, and WE LOVE IT!!!
The only thing we seem to love MORE than controlling others is BEING controlled BY the state.

I am fully and totally convinced at this point that the only hope for this planet is for something or someone to wipe us off of it or some outside intelligence to come down and show us a better way.

reply to post by cody599


I'm sorry but I wouldn't listen to anything that's spat out by religious morons and nor do I need one to tell me how to live my life.

Just to break it down here:

We have shot anti-abortionists and called it justifiable.

Once again, we have an issue of people spouting against things they have nothing to do with, abortion is a womans own business and I can only assume this guy is from a church who is against abortion.

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

If I want to watch porn and swear I'll do it without worrying what a religious idiot who believes in a big man in the sky has to babble about it.

I do agree with:

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

Yes, THEY certainly have:

We have abused power and called it politics.

The clincher though:

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

To me this should be about people waking up from all the religious bullcrap and yes, become enlightened, there's is no big man in the sky, there is only one true god and that exists in each and every one of us, it is our own inner god and religions have done nothing but stifle and keep your inner god repressed.

Religion should be dead and it has done nothing for the positive consciousness of society, wake up people, if your crutch is a belief in a fictional character, then you got problems.

reply to post by cody599


"Shocked the world?"

I'm guessing the 'The World' is more than a slight exaggeration.

reply to post by DestroyDestroyDestroy

I'd say snuffing a life(unborn baby)thats defenceless und unable to speak or beg for its life,IS THE ULTIMATE OPPRESSION AND TYRANNY.And no,im not religious either-but this should be obvious to a Neanderthal.The points he raised are very valid,whether spoken in prayer,or to his gholf buddy.

reply to post by Kody27


The problem with people who think like you is, you are on the wrong side of history. Anyone who does not resonate with that prayer is on the wrong side of God and that is a bad place to be. Search your heart and get back to biblical paths in raising children and social living. WE are living in the age when they call good evil and evil good. Good is still good and evil is still evil. God never changed. If you don't know the difference between good and evil you are in a lot of hurt with more on the way. God wins this and good as he sees it will prevail.
Not the way misguided politically correct progresives see it.

reply to post by cody599


Dear cody599,

I don't think it is much of a surprise to people that I am a Christian. I read your thread and all the comments, I think it was a good OP and you don't have to be a Christian to get it. I thought the comments proved his points and showed a lot of bigoted assumptions by many. An example would be, just because I am against abortion (I am against all killing and a pacifist) does not mean that I believe it should be illegal (I would not tell a woman she must have a baby; but, if she has it, I would prevent her from abusing it). There are many things I don't agree with; but, it doesn't mean I believe I have the right to regulate it.

In the end the bigger issue that the man hit was pretty simple, we reward bad behavior. Charlie Sheen is just one example, bonuses for CEOs that bankrupt their companies is another. The corruption within the political system is nearly complete and business is no better. Western culture is about what you can get; but, some still care and still give because their heart can do nothing else and this goes for believers and non-believers. I don't believe in the death penalty; but, I can still find rape and murder wrong. I don't have to believe in outlawing abortion; but, I don't think killing babies because someone was too lazy to use a condom is right. What we have truly lost is the ability to know right from wrong, we justify everything by how it personally effects us and that will and is our downfall.

I understand the concept of "do no harm"; but, I don't think it goes far enough. What about do the right thing for the right reason, I think that is a better approach. We succeed or fail as a society. When we stop caring about our society as a whole and only focus on ourselves, this is what we get. The fired LAPD officer who killed innocent people is a good example or our ruined beliefs. The man was an atheist who believed the only thing that mattered in the world was his reputation, in his words. Again, it was not about his being an atheist, it is about the fact that he didn't believe that anything mattered except him. F&S. Peace.