There is an email going around asking us to all pray at the same time each day for our endangered country. My friend sends them to me, mainly because she knows I'll send a rebuttal. Her addition was the comment
I would ask that we change “the Bible” to be “the ten commandments”
My answer, and the email, after we genuflect at the kneel-o-kos.
Here is the message of the email
> PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO EVERYONE IN YOUR LIST. IF WE ARE NOT CONCERNED ENOUGH NOW TO DO THIS, THEN DO NOT COMPLAIN AFTER THE ELECTION!!
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> Subject: Fw: One Minute each night
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> This is such a seemingly simple thing but it could have a tremendous impact on our country.
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> ONE MINUTE EACH NIGHT
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> This is the scariest election we as Christians have ever faced, and from the looks of the polls, the Christians aren't voting Christian values. We all need to be on our knees.
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> Do you believe we can take God at His word? Call upon His name, then stand back and watch His wonders unfold. This scripture gives us, as Christians, ownership of this land and the ability to call upon God to heal it. I challenge you to do that. We have never been more desperate than now for God to heal our land.
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> This election is the scariest I remember in my lifetime. 2 Chronicles 7:14. 'If my people, which are called by my name shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.'
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> During WWII, there was an advisor to Churchill, who organized a group of people who dropped what they were doing every night at a prescribed hour for one minute, to collectively pray for the safety of England , its people and peace. This had an amazing effect, as bombing stopped.
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> There is now a group of people organizing the same thing here in America .
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> The United States of America , and our citizens, need prayer more than ever!!! If you would like to participate, each evening at 9:00 P.M. Eastern Time (8 PM Central, 7 PM Mountain, 6 PM Pacific), stop whatever you're doing, and spend one minute praying for the safety of the United States, our troops, our citizens, for peace in the world, the upcoming election, and that the Ten Commandments and what they mean will be followed more here and everywhere.
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> If you know anyone who would like to participate, please pass this along. Someone said if people really understood the full extent of the power we have available through prayer, we might be speechless. Our prayers are the most powerful asset we have. Thank you.
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> Please pass this on to anyone who you think will want to join us.
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> God Bless You!!!
So I said:
No, dear, changes are not allowed. They are only interested in prayer from the "right" kind of Bible. The person who originated this email isn't looking out for the freedom of all Americans to live according to their own religion, they want the "freedom" to make everyone follow the religion they think is the "right" one. Is it OK if I say one of the prayers to Buddah? or this Wiccan prayer? I know this one from the Koran will be well received! No? Which one of the thousands of different Christian churches in the US is the correct one to get the prayer from? Did you know that many people don't consider Catholics to be Christians at all? Quite an eye-opener when I lived in the south. What about the many citizens of our country that are agnostic or atheist? Should they just be ignored cause, you know, only christians count? These people are the same ones that will scream and shout about Sharia laws, yet they are the ones trying to enforce religion through the government. Same thing from where I am sitting.
As to the claim that the US is a Christian nation, here are some word from founder Thomas Jefferson:
I am for freedom of religion, & against all maneuvres to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another. --Letter to Elbridge Gerry (1799)
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between church and State. --Letter to Danbury Baptist Association, CT. (1 January 1802)
Christianity neither is, nor ever was, a part of the common law. --letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, from Monticello, February 10, 1814.
I do agree that this is a scary time. My prayer is that every one of these misogynist religious ideologues is voted out of office; that their religion is kept out of our government and away from our reproductive systems.
My friend, who is not Christian, is very well meaning, but she hates politics. That is why I encourage her to send me these things. I am happy to rebut them for her, as well as anyone else she sent it to.