Consider Perry's Prayers

Rating for this letter writer: Unrated because having read and re-read this letter repeatedly I am not entirely sure what the author is wanting us to understand
Author:  Daniel Younger, Itasca
"Consider Perry's prayers"


Out of all those we see running for president, none is perfect.


However, I hold a lot of respect for Gov. Rick Perry and the way he was quick to humble himself before our creator and call for a day of prayer as we faced the out-of-control fires in Texas.


You can look back through history and see the effects from leaders who called for a day of payer when we were in crises.


In the early 1950s, we were suffering from a severe drought.  There was a group of people at Waco who had hired a "rainmaker," and that was the year that tornados hit downtown Waco and many lives were lost.


Hmmmmm.  Well, I thought a good long while on whether to condemn, praise or otherwise characterize your letter Mr. Younger.  But, in the end, a letter to the newspaper that seems to suggest humbling oneself in public prayer is found to be of credit to a political candidate just begs out for me to comment on it solely on the basis of content, even when your overall message seems muddled to say the least.


First things first.  Finding a politician engaged in public prayer during a campaign is about as remarkable as finding that it's cold in Winter and tells us just about as much about Mr. Perry's character as saying he's to be admired because he wears sensible shoes.  If you find this generates in you enough respect to set him above the admittedly less than perfect candidates, you are easily impressed.


You say we can look back through history and see the effects of leaders who called for a  day of prayer when we were in crises.  Indeed we can.  Type such a search in Google and you'll get a list of references to public prayer events too long to even begin to fathom.  What I could not find was any reports of the "effects" of these prayer events.  Could you be so kind as to give me a list of the relevant prayer events side by side with their effects?  I'd like to know which approaches to arranging and conducting these events seems most effective in actually producing the stated purpose.


However, I would like to point out that Adolph Hitler made multiple appeals to The Almighty and HE certainly got the intended results.  The greatest of these events took place in a place called Nuremberg.  The results of these public appeals were so astonishing the Allies chose Nuremberg as the site for trials of Nazi's and what we can only presume were also The Almighty's justice here on earth.


I'm not sure what you mean us to gain from the "rainmaker" and "tornado" connection.  Are you suggesting that they got a death-dealing tornado instead of rain because they should have been praying rather than "hiring" the work out to a contractor?


People pray for many things and have good motivations in doing so.  I recommend prayer in fact; but on a one on one basis with God, in private.  God's will is not a popularity contest and his good benefices do not depend on a minimum number of requests.  All public prayer is suspect and should be.  Letting everyone else know that you are praying for the same thing they are causes me to wonder  what is to be gained from demonstrating one's needs for Divine intervention in public, when the need for intervention or relief is obvious in the first place.


So, here in public let me chastise you just a bit by giving you Matthew 6 versus 5 through 7.


- 5. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites [are]: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
- 6. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. 
- 7. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen [do]: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.


God hears the prayers of every single soul regardless of their place on earth, their place in the public eye but least of all their place in a crowd.  


Finally, humbling oneself before one's creator is indeed a great virtue.  Humility is in fact a virtue we should all practice with greater frequency.  The fact that Gov. Perry chose to publicly demonstrate his humbling in public suggests to me he practices humility in private to a very much lesser degree.