Anti-Climacus

QUOTE: Gregg Easterbrook* has some bloggy goodness on the National Prayer Breakfast, presents a view of prayer that I haven't heard expressed before, and I'm sort of interested in hearing what other people think about this, since I tend to agree with what he says, but in that not-quite-certain way.

"What shakes my faith about the National Prayer Breakfast is not so much the posing, preening, superficial solemnity, and false good will the event stands for. (One hour after theatrically joining hands in prayer, House and Senate members will resume stabbing each other in the back.) What shakes my faith about the National Prayer Breakfast is not so much the inane presidential comments. In 1999, Bill Clinton declared, "I ask you to pray for all of us, including yourself." Last year George W. Bush said, "The comment I hear the most from our fellow citizens, regardless of their political party or philosophy, is, Mr. President, I pray for you and your family, and so does my family." Mr. President, that's not necessarily a good sign. It's hard to imagine how any president could take the stage at an event as superficial as the National Prayer Breakfast and not end up sounding inane. Clinton once tried to address a substantive issue, whether prayers are answered, and quickly shifted gears when he sensed that what the audience wanted was not substance but blandishments...

No, what shakes my faith about the National Prayer Breakfast is that Jesus forbid public prayer. Christ repeatedly said that people should pray in private, and followed his own advice, leaving his disciples when he wished to address God. ("Then he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, knelt down, and prayed.") One reason the Lord's Prayer exists is that the apostles, frustrated by never having heard their Redeemer pray, asked him how they should pray, and Christ replied: "When you pray, say--""

*who I think begins the post with his credentials, which lend some credibility in my mind to what follows.