I have little use for interfaith, ecumenical prayers. Yesterday’s invocation given by U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., who pastors St. James United Methodist Church in Kansas City, to open the 117th Congress on Sunday could have been different.
Most of the prayer I could pray in agreement.
“Eternal God. Noiselessly, we bow before your throne of grace as we leave behind the politically and socially clamorous year of 2020. We gather now in this consequential chamber to inaugurate another chapter in our roller coaster representative government. The members of this august body acknowledge your sacred supremacy and therefore confess that without your favor and forbearance, we enter this New Year relying dangerously on our own fallible nature,” Cleaver prayed.
“God, at a moment when many believe that the bright light of democracy is beginning to dim, empower us with an extra dose of commitment to its principles,” he continued.
Cleaver prayed that the 117th Congress would “refuel the lamp of liberty so brimful that generations unborn will witness its undying flame.”
“And may we model community healing, control our tribal tendencies, and quicken our spirit that we may feel thy priestly presence even in moments of heightened disagreement? May we so feel your presence that our service here may not be soiled by any utterances of acts unworthy of this high office,” he prayed. “Insert in our spirit, a light so bright, that we can see ourselves and our politics as we really are: soiled by selfishness, perverted by prejudice, and inveigled by ideology.
He then ended with a blessing:
“Now, may the God who created the world and everything in it, bless us and keep us. May the Lord make his face to shine upon us and be gracious unto us. May the Lord lift up the light of His countenance upon us and give us peace, peace in our families, peace across this land and there are so Lord, peace even in this chamber,” he prayed.
So far, so good, but then.
“Now and evermore, we ask it in the name of the monotheistic God, Brahma, and God known by many names by many different faiths,” Cleaver added.
Nothing like ending a prayer that was biblically sound with heresy. Hindu’s Creator God and Allah are not the God of the Bible. And as a Christian pastor, he should know that we are to pray in Jesus’ name and no other.
He wasn’t done.
“Amen and Awomen,” Clever concluded.
Amen and Awomen?
Amen, a Hebrew word, is an expression of agreement. It’s like saying, “yes this is true” or “yes, I agree.”
It can be translated as “so be it” or “true.”
It has nothing to do with gender, absolutely nothing to do with gender.
Cleaver, as a pastor, should know this.
“Awomen” is a meaningless word created to cater to special interest groups who are too ignorant to know “Amen” has nothing to do with “men.”
Considering Speaker Nancy Pelosi already eliminated gendered terms like “father, mother, son, and daughter” in the House rules, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised to see the nonsense continue.
