Invocation or Intimidation

At 365gay.com there's an article about a pastor who used an invocation for an elected body of officials to make a political statement. A part of me thinks that he is right in standing up for his beliefs - even as I think he's got what God wants backward - and yet what he did bothers me.

What I say to people I meet at the motel where I work, that is for funerals and other occasions of grief, is something like "I'll pray for you and if you don't believe in prayer please accept my best thoughts for you in this time of grief." I don't deny my faith, but I try not to bludgeon people with it.

I certainly believe in letting my elected representatives, along with everyone else, know where I stand and where I believe God is calling me to stand on issues. But when invited to pray I try to fit the gathering. In church I'll pray using language from my religious tradition. In public arenas I'll use language that may be more open. In giving an invocation I'll ask for God's presence to guide and that the [insert appropriate term] be led to make good decisions. If I fell that I'm called to make a specific pronouncement I'll discuss with whoever asks me whether they feel they can invite me when such is going to happen.

I'm certainly willing to offend other people, but not when it will serve no purpose. Being too offensive is a destructive to the Word as being too inoffensive. It seems to me that in the case I cited earlier the offensiveness was for show rather than purpose. It made the pastor feel like he'd spoken against the powers of the world, but really didn't change anyone's mind. It made the pastor's congregation feel like they had a pastor who spoke out against evil while the pastor risked little or nothing.

In the end, this pastor's invocation seems to me to be more about serving self than about serving God - even though God is all that is mentioned. I think that what bothers me most is that we are called to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves and this prayer seemed to me to be as vicious as serpents and as stupid as doves. But it may be the sense I have that the pastor is like the Pharisee who thanked God that he was not like the tax collector - that sinner praying over in the corner. And who goes away justified?