A few weeks ago, I read with great interest Robert Dilday’s article in the Religious Herald regarding prayer at official government meetings in Rowan County, N.C. By happenstance, the very next week I was to give the invocation before the town council of Ahoskie, N.C. While I am honored the council invites me to do this a couple of times a year, I must admit that doing so remains a struggle for me. As a Baptist pastor in the southern United States, I’m sure my struggle with this practice is in no way unique.
Daniel Glaze
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I have the privilege of serving on the board of directors of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty in Washington. Because of my personal convictions and my service to this great Baptist organization, I believe in and strive to promote the principles of liberty for persons of all faiths and of those with no faith. As such, to invite only Christian ministers to pray seems to me to be a slight against other faiths. I would feel better if clergy representing other faith backgrounds in addition to Christian pastors were invited to pray before my local governing body, but I live in a town with a population a shade under 5,000. When a mosque or synagogue comes to town, I’ll let you know.
I realize that courts have ruled that while prayer is permissible before official governmental meetings, such prayer must be non-sectarian in nature. Now that sounds like a reasonable compromise, but as a person of faith, my prayers are necessarily sectarian. As a follower of Jesus, I pray in Christ’s name. To pray otherwise seems inauthentic at best. Furthermore, how would I even begin a non-sectarian prayer? “Dear You ….”? I imagine God asking, “Wait … are you talking to me?”
Call me difficult, but this “compromise” only intensifies my inner struggle. On the one hand, I resent the government dictating how I must pray, yet I feel uncomfortable praying in an explicitly Christian manner around those who may not share the faith I do.
I once heard a minister state that while he struggled with praying in a non-sectarian manner before the legislature in his state, he took seriously his role in offering prayer in order to “solemnize” the legislative proceedings. That seems like a worthy goal, but wouldn’t that give prayer — communion with God — an ulterior motive? Like non-sectarian prayer, utilitarian prayer seems cheap as well.
So with all these objections, why do I continue to participate in such public, government prayer? My off-handed answer is that if I give up my slot on the rotation, I fear I will be replaced by someone who has no misgivings whatsoever with making the public prayer time an all-out evangelistic rally.
But the deeper reason is that I value my role as a leader in my community. Pastors in small towns in the South often play visible civic (in addition to ecclesiastical) roles. I want to be known as a faith leader who is truly a part of the community, and not in superficial ways. I want folks to know that I care about the education, health and well-being of all members of my community, not simply those who are my church members. I suppose that is why I continue to offer prayers on their behalf before our elected officials — prayers for justice, mercy, and the common good.
Daniel E. Glaze ([email protected]) is pastor of First Baptist Church in Ahoskie, N.C.