PRAYER IN DIFFICULT TIMES

These Words of Faith were inspired by a program at our April Desert Interfaith Council meeting, entitled “Turning Faith into Action: Our Many Opportunities” The presenter was Lauren Nile, author of Race: My Story and Humanity’s Bottom Line, a former attorney and retired organizational development consultant, who has been active in our Interfaith movement.  Lauren invoked our vision statement to describe not only the many traditional ways of turning faith into action, such as volunteering for worthy causes and contributing to them, but also recommending three ways we might not have considered previously. She identified these as 1) taking active participation in defending our threatened democracy, 2) expressing gratitude daily, and 3) becoming more self-aware and compassionate.

Prayer is a through-line among the different religions, faiths and spiritual seekers who make up our Interfaith membership.  There are myriad forms of prayer, and they often invoke praise or gratitude to a Divine Creator. Others may be an appeal for Divine intervention, offering a fervent belief that the prayer will be answered affirmatively by the Higher Power. Here, we are talking about action prayers that also involve our own agency either as an individual or a coalition of power. These prayers give us the spiritual strength for taking actions to solve often difficult problems.  Action has the capacity to suffuse prayer with life-affirming achievement, thus possibly changing the world in some way or at least a particular condition that touches our personal selves. Purpose must proceed action, and prayer is often the most effective way of organizing our thoughts by infusing succinct words with feeling and emotion. This creates a strong bond between the spiritual and the worldly. We tune into the universe by submitting ourselves to the larger forces that surround us. If we just stopped with prayer, however, we lose our own ability to make a difference, and prayer may easily succumb to a hollow, meaningless ritual, reducing “thoughts and prayers” to empty and sanctimonious talk.

The uniquely American pre-occupation with putting weapons of mass destruction into the hands of anyone over the age of 18 has created a death culture where millions of citizens routinely merely pray for a solution in the wake of yet another mass shooting. Such appeals strike many of the devout, including me, as a cop out and make a mockery of the sanctity of human life when prayer is unconnected to human intervention inspired by Providence. Christ, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr.  preached the gospel of love, peace, and non-violence but they also put their spell-binding teachings into action. We must join others and support leaders who are attempting to change our violent, gun-possessed country. This speaks to Lauren’s three declarations of a sacred duty to ourselves and to our society that we all should adopt in these difficult times.

John Marksbury

Secretary, Desert Interfaith Council

Member, First Congregational Parish of Truro