The opening to the Kansas legislative session

[tallahassee blues fan]

I guess I should have considered the source when I got the post before posting it here. Had I done so, I would have probably guessed that the story was eight years old. Thanks for the update.

[hansolo]

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/wright.htm

[tallahassee blues fan]

Somebody in our office circulated this story today about the prayer offered at the beginning of the Kansas legislative session. I don't know the source of this story, and hadn't heard anything about it, and thought maybe some of you who are in the Midwest may have heard about it:

Kansas at the opening session of their Senate. It seems prayer still
upsets some people.

When Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas
Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what
they heard:

"Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and
to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to
those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We
have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We confess
that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and call it
Pluralism.

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.

We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.

We have killed our unborn and called it choice.

We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self
esteem.

We have abused power and called it politics.

We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.

We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it
freedom of _expression.

We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called
it enlightenment.

Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin
and set us free.

Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent to direct us to
the center of Your will and to openly ask these things in the name of
Your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ.

Amen!"

The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during
the prayer in protest..

In 6 short weeks, Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor,
logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls
responding negatively.

The church is now receiving international requests for copies of this
prayer from India, Africa and Korea.

Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program, "The
Rest of the Story," and received a larger response to this program than
any other he has ever aired.