Rick Warren's prayer

http://www.baptistboard.com/showthread.php?t=56679

 

The other thread is in the Baptist only section. Now all of us "Others" have a place to comment. I have no doubt whatsoever that there will be numerous posts critical of Warren's prayer. All the comments on the other thread reminded me of a story I heard once concerning President Eisenhower and his cabinet meetings.

Eisenhower opened his cabinet meetings with prayer - sometime a pause for silent prayer or the President would call on a member of the cabinet to pray. The story goes that Ike called on his Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Benson to pray. Apparently Benson's prayer was barely audible and Eisenhower quipped that he couldn't hear a single word of the prayer.

Benson replied, "That is okay, Mr. President, I wasn't talking to you."

Criticize Rick Warren if you wish but as far as the prayer he offered today... he wasn't talking to you, either.

 

I don't know that his prayer wasn't in part for show. But I do not have much if any problem with it over all.

 

What ruins your point is that Benson was a Mormon.Later,in the 1980's he became President of the LDS.It was probably good that Eisenhower didn't hear his "prayer" -- it only bounced off the walls.

 

I find no fault with Rick Warren's prayer.

I'm thankful that God placed the thought into the plan to include someone who could and would stand in the breech to represent the Christian faith.

I didn't get to see it live: I hope that Christians present in the crowd accepted the opportunity to join RW when he entered the repetitious "The Lord's Prayer". It was the one time to stand up, identify, and be heard.

 

Then I guess you missed the point... Rick Warren wasn't praying to any of us. He was a Christian man praying to God in the name of Jesus Christ in a very public place. We got to listen in.

I read some of the comments in various news threads about this invocation. I'm amazed at the number of "Monday morning quarterbacks" there are in this world who write to the effect he should've said this or that and the equal number who feel they could have done a much better job.

The long and short of it is Rick Warren was asked to pray and none of us were. I don't know if I could bear the scrutiny... a few million saying I wasn't Christian enough and a few million saying I was too Christian and exclusionary... I've read comments inferring that Warren could have made a bold statement on that highly visible international stage. He wasn't called on to make a statement. He was called on to offer a prayer of invocation - to invoke God's blessing on our nation and our new President.

I have been in public places where pastors have used their invitation to pray as a bully pulpit for enumerating the sins -both individual and corporate- and the infinite shortcomings of every breathing soul with the exception of the one who was offering the prayer. I question the motive, sometime. Do you pray that way because you that's where your heart is or were you waiting for someone to slap you on the back and say, "You really told them, Brother!"

 

Just curious, does anyone know if he was paid for this prayer ? Did he give that money to a charity ?

Don't bite, I'm just asking.

 

It was a good prayer and yes, when the camera panned, I did see a few people saying the Lord's Prayer, too.

 

He prayed to God and he prayed in the name of Jesus. I thought it was fine.