To His Glory - Kansas Senate Prayer

It seems prayer still upsets some people.
When Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate with a prayer, 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 worshipped other gods and called it "multiculturalism".
We have endorsed perversion and called it "alternative lifestyle".
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, to open our hearts and ask it 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 responding negatively. The church is now receiving international requests from India, Africa, and Korea for copies of this prayer.

Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on "The Rest of the Story" on the radio and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired.
With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire, that we again can be called one nation under God.
Please pass this prayer on to your friends.

"If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for everything."

The Truth: This event actually happened in the Kansas House (not Senate) in Topeka on January 23, 1996. Joe Wright is the pastor of Central Christian Church in Wichita and was guest chaplain that day. He prayed a prayer of repentance that was written by Bob Russell, pastor of Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. According to an article in the Kansas City Star from January 24, 1996, his prayer did stir controversy and one member of the legislative body walked out. Others criticized the prayer. The controversy didn't end there. Later that year in the Colorado House, Republican representative Mark Paschall angered lawmakers by using Joe Wright's prayer as the invocation. Some members there also walked out in protest.

Paul Harvey did air the story and the prayer. He got such a large response that a phone number was set up to handle the calls. He's aired it a couple more times since.