Eric Rasmusen’s Weblog

Pastor Bayly makes a good point about Represenative Welch’s unwillingness to acknowledge her God for fear of displeasing non-Christians:

Our good representatives have been told by some foolish and rebellious judge that they can’t pray in Jesus’ name, so what do they do? They hold what is called a “prayer huddle” in the back of the House chamber immediately prior to the beginning of the legislative session, and here’s Representative Welch’s prayer:

Lord, we just come before you humbly, and we want to tell you we love you and we appreciate you. (Welch went on to ask for divine guidance, that) we may walk and seek to please you, and not men. (She concluded her prayer) in the name of the great I Am. …

Now I don’t deny that many such prayers are said in explicitly Christian settings, but to utter such a prayer utilizing circumlocutions for the glorious Name of Jesus in a public setting where a judge has forbidden the use of that Name is to betray our Lord. It is to be ashamed of Him before men.

Imagine any one of the apostles submitting to such a rule–it’s utterly incomprehensible. Or Luther, Calvin, Knox, Edwards, Lloyd-Jones…

If Representative Welch cannot bring herself to use the Name of Jesus when she prays in our State House, she ought to resign her office and go home.

Our state representative needn’t be a Christian, and I wouldn’t even mind it so much if she took the position that she thinks the Statehouse is no place for prayer, but she shouldn’t have it both ways, proclaiming her religion to Christian voters while cloaking it for the non-Christians.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 5th, 2006 at 1:48 pm and is filed under Religion, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.