The House Freedom Caucus has announced a prayer meeting to seek God’s help solving a problem they created themselves.
How ironic.
Today’s prayer meeting was called, in part, to ask for divine intervention on the government shutdown, now in its 30th day. Although Republicans — including the House Freedom Caucus — are trying hard to pin the blame for the shutdown on Democrats, the American public isn’t buying that sleight of hand.
Rodney Kennedy
New polling by Navigator shows more Americans blame President Donald Trump and Republicans rather than Democrats for the shutdown. Americans also believe Trump and Republicans have more power to end the shutdown.
But rather than use that power to create a political compromise that would end the shutdown, the House Freedom Caucus feigns an appeal to the Almighty.
This prayer meeting should be held at Mar-a-Lago because the carnivalesque rhetoric is a spectacle that merges entertainment with politics, fantasy with skepticism and rank hypocrisy with pious declarations.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson refuses “to lift a finger” to end the standoff. Johnson has said, “I don’t have anything to negotiate.”
“This prayer meeting should be held at Mar-a-Lago because the carnivalesque rhetoric is a spectacle.”
The god whose name will be invoked in the House prayer meeting will not be the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but the Christian nationalist god of raw power, hyper-patriotism, and authoritarianism. This god will not hear the cries of the oppressed and come to rescue the people.
That the Republicans would call such a prayer meeting as an excuse for inaction means they no longer know how to recognize idolatry. This will not be like the prayer of Solomon to make God’s house a place of prayer for foreigners (see 1 Kings 8:41–43).
It’s not that kind of prayer meeting. There will be no prayers for the people. Poor people, hungry people, widows down to their last meal, government employees down to their last dollar with rent to pay will not be the subjects of the prayers.
The conservative caucus’ prayer call will be co-led by the Family Research Council, an evangelical public policy group on the SPLC hate group list.
I don’t trust some Republicans at prayer. Following his reelection to Speaker of the House on Jan. 3, Mike Johnson recited a “Prayer for the Nation” he said was written by Thomas Jefferson. It was not.
These are vengeful, grudge-bearing leaders. They have residual resentment stretching from President Obama (“a Black man in our White House”) to FDR’s “New Deal.” This feels too much like “trampling” on the court of the Lord.
These Republicans are not gathering for spiritual concerns but to show off. They gather out of desperation.
I don’t believe they are in the mood for prayer. How will Speaker Johnson shift from calling “No King’s Day” protesters members of Hamas, Antifa and Marxists to declaring, “Have mercy on me, a sinner?”
Maybe someone should read aloud Matthew 6:5 — “And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.”
These elected officials have the power to end the government shutdown without divine intervention. If they would only do that, we, the people, will offer prayers of thanksgiving.
Rodney W. Kennedy is a pastor and writer in New York state. He is the author of 11 books, including his latest, Dancing with Metaphors in the Pulpit.