Three Prayers

Three prayers spoken during President Barry Soetoro a/k/a Barack Hussein Obama’s inauguration festivities and captured on video give a clue of man’s relationship with the One True God of the Judeo-Christian Bible. We will look at the prayers of homosexual, church-splitting Vicky Gene Robinson, evangelical leader Rick Warren and civil rights leader Joseph Lowery. We will look at to whom their prayer was address and in what power they prayed those prayers.

I. INAUGURATION KICK-OFF PRAYER


The first prayer was mouthed by Vicky Gene Robinson, homosexual “bishop” of the appalling and apostate American Episcopalian denomination.

We get a clue of this man’s politically correct heart as he said these words, “Oh god of our many (mis)understandings . . . Bless this nation with anger at discrimination at home and abroad against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, (homosexuals), lesbians, bi-sexual and transgendered (all matter of perverse behavior) remembering that every religion’s god judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable . . . Amen.

Is this evil-doing cleric referring to the millions of babies murdered in their mother’s womb by the likes of taxpayer financed eugenic practicing Planned Parenthood? I doubt it.

II. THE INVOCATION


The second prayer was by far the most Biblical and God-honoring of the three prayers. It contained some allusions to caring for the earth, which is not at all on the heart of God to the degree that Rick Warren proclaims and practices.

However we at least get a sense of this man’s evangelical and Biblical roots in his prayer, “Almighty God, Our Father, everything we see and everything we can’t see, exists because of You alone. It all comes from You. It all belongs to You. It all exists for Your glory. History is Your story. . . I humbly ask this in the name of the One who changed my life . . . Jesus . . .”

III. THE BENEDICTORY PRAYER


The third prayer was provided by long-time civil rights activist the aged Joseph Lowery. Here is a man who valiantly struggled against injustice for many, many years. He preached a mostly social gospel. That is not the gospel of Jesus and salvation as I read it in the Bible. Lowery's intentions were admirable and good. However, if everyman gained full equality, or gained all the wealth of the world, but loses his soul, what has he accomplished?

His prayer was the pensive prayer of an old, tired man we get a glimpse of his heart in the words he said, “God of our weary years, silent tears . . . Amen.”

CONCLUSION

Of the three prayers pronounced over last few days, I believe only one might have honored God. That was the prayer of Warren. Though not perfect, in that you can hear some of Lowery’s social gospel and Robinson’s political correct “gospel” creeping into his prayer, of the three, nonetheless, it most conforms with Scripture. The beginning and end of the prayer were especially faithful to Scripture. God is neither the “god of many understandings” nor the “god of man’s creation or man's weakness.” God is indeed, as Warren prayed, Almighty, Father, Sustainer, and Creator. Robinson’s and Lowery’s god is small and man-made. Warren’s is the powerful, omnipresent, omniscient God of the Judeo-Christian Bible.

These three prayers are emblematic or representative of three major groups of people in our nation today – the true but imperfect believers in Jesus Christ (Warren), the politically correct atheists or unbelievers or scoffers (Robinson), and those who have a form of religion but deny its power (Lowery). In the end only Warren prayed in the name of Jesus, the other two prayed in their own impoverished, fallible names.

My assessment may appear judgmental and harsh, but it is time to speak the truth in love, even if that truth hurts or may offend.