Yesterday (August 25, 2008) Christian writer Donald Miller (author of Blue Like Jazz) said a prayer at the Democratic National Convention. His website has the transcript:
Father God,
This week, as the world looks on, help the leaders in this room create a civil dialogue about our future.
We need you, God, as individuals and also as a nation.
We need you to protect us from our enemies, but also from ourselves, because we are easily tempted toward apathy.
Give us a passion to advance opportunities for the least of these, for widows and orphans, for single moms and children whose fathers have left.
Give us the eyes to see them, and the ears to hear them, and hands willing to serve them.
Help us serve people, not just causes. And stand up to specific injustices rather than vague notions.
Give those in this room who have power, along with those who will meet next week, the courage to work together to finally provide health care to those who don’t have any, and a living wage so families can thrive rather than struggle.
Hep us figure out how to pay teachers what they deserve and give children an equal opportunity to get a college education.
Help us figure out the balance between economic opportunity and corporate gluttony.
We have tried to solve these problems ourselves but they are still there. We need your help.
Father, will you restore our moral standing in the world.
A lot of people don’t like us but that’s because they don’t know the heart of the average American.
Will you give us favor and forgiveness, along with our allies around the world.
Help us be an example of humility and strength once again.
Lastly, father, unify us.
Even in our diversity help us see how much we have in common.
And unify us not just in our ideas and in our sentiments—but in our actions, as we look around and figure out something we can do to help create an America even greater than the one we have come to cherish.
God we know that you are good.
Thank you for blessing us in so many ways as Americans.
I make these requests in the name of your son, Jesus, who gave his own life against the forces of injustice.
Let Him be our example.
Amen.
“Heart of the average American”
Now, I disagree with a lot of what Miller said in that prayer (e.g., the presumption that teachers are underpaid, and the idea that government is responsible for providing healthcare to all) but those are political disagreements. Setting aside my political principles, the first statement in Miller’s prayer that bothers me is this: “Father, will you restore our moral standing in the world. A lot of people don’t like us but that’s because they don’t know the heart of the average American.”
The heart of the average American is wicked and sinful, just like the heart of the average Indian or the average German or the average human being. I don’t know much about Miller’s theological convictions, but if America’s moral standing in this world is based upon the “heart of the average American” then the whole world is in trouble.
“Against the forces of injustice”
The second statement that bothers me almost escaped my attention. It is this: “I make these requests in the name of your son, Jesus, who gave his own life against the forces of injustice. Let Him be our example.” Actually, Jesus gave his life not to combat injustice, but to satisfy justice. It is Jesus Christ who sacrificed his life to pay the penalty for my sins and yours, in order that God’s wrath might be satisfied and a pardon extended.
I have rarely agreed with anyone more, Jew. Way to break it down.
Denny Burk has a good discussion of Miller’s pre-prayer interview with Christianity Today on his blog.
This was a disturbing prayer, but at least the Emergent crowd is finally taking a stand on something. They pretended for a long time to be apolitical, but now both Miller and McLaren have sworn their allegiances to liberalism and the Democratic Party.
The platform of the Democratic Party is outlined in that prayer, and for the most part isn’t an evil platform.
One of the Democratic party’s stated goals is help for the needy, something that Christians are mandated to do. While many of us here feel that the means are wrong and ineffective, the goal itself cannot really be criticized by Christians. The Emergent church seeks to more zealously help those in need, a laudable goal. Where they go wrong is in thinking that the best way to do so is through forcibly collected funds (taxes) rather than solely through voluntary giving.
I think that Jew misinterprets the meaning of the claim that people hate us because they do not know our heart. He is not intending to imply that our hearts are not wicked and sinful, but rather that morally we do have a desire to help those in need. Last year, Americans VOLUNTARILY gave a record breaking $300 billion dollars to charity. 75% of that is individual giving, and the article mentioned the follpwing: “In philanthropic giving as a percentage of gross domestic product, the U.S. ranked first at 1.7 percent. No. 2 Britain gave 0.73 percent…”. This is the “heart of America” that Miller was referencing, and to think otherwise is to deliberately distort his words out of their context.
I fully agree that the “forces of unjustice” comment was invalid though, and if he were my pastor I would want to talk to him about it. I would like to believe it was an accidental misstatement, but fear it is the result of soft doctrinal beliefs. Jesus was indeed killed by forces of injustice (his execution as an innocent man was unjust), but he gave his life to SATISFY justice. An error on this point cuts straight to the core of the gospel, and even if it was merely a misstatement it was a grave error to have made.
“The Emergent church seeks to more zealously help those in need, a laudable goal.”
I would contend that much of the Emergent church seeks to replace the “gospel once delivered” with a social justice gospel.
Atanamis, you make a good point about the generosity of Americans. We do like to give–as well we should, considering our wealth.
I wondered if Miller was getting at charitable giving. I don’t think so. In context it’s more likely that he’s indicating that the average American disagrees with Bush’s foreign policy. Miller’s comment about “humility and strength” don’t make much sense if he’s talking about charitable giving, but it’s perfectly on message if he’s alluding to foreign policy.
It is safe to say that this prayer is one of the more theologically shallow ones to be prayed by a supposed evangelical Christian in the national spotlight.
I’m pretty much in agreement with Atanamis on this one.
I like Miller as an author. I own Blue Like Jazz, Searching For God Knows What, and Through Painted Deserts, all of which I enjoy but I think the last one is by far the best. That said, I don’t agree with him theologically in a lot of places. What Miller does well in his books is give voice to the 20 something University student’s Christian experience. He’s not out to discuss theology, but to discuss his experiences and hope that other Christians can relate. Sometimes he makes big blunders when he does this.
That would also be true (Bush’s foreign policy is highly unpopular), and would ALSO mean that your article distorted his intent. His reference to the “American heart” might have meant our generosity or it might have meant our support for the Iraq war, but it was definitely not intended to mean that Americans have spiritually pure hearts. In either case, the meaning is that the average American DOES care about global suffering and DOES want to help others. (Those who oppose the Iraq War do so because they believe it is resulting in needless suffering, not because they supported Sadaam’s abuses or the current terrorist attacks on Iraqi civilians.) This particular criticism of the prayer is simply unfair.
I think my criticism is fair. Miller probably didn’t intend to imply that Americans have spiritually pure hearts, but he chose his words poorly and potentially communicated an unbiblical view of mankind. It’s not as big an error as the comment about Jesus giving his “life against the forces of injustice” but it’s still a problem. But if I were to write the article again I probably would focus only the “injustice” comment and not even mention the “heart of the average American” phrase.
This just in: prayer spoken at politcal convention was more politically correct than theologically correct.
The only part that bothered me was when he completely distorted why Christ sacrificed himself. I cannot imagine why he said that.
“I cannot imagine why he said that.”
Perhaps because, as many leaders in the Emergent movement have been prone to do, he has rejected the real reason that Christ sacrificed himself. McLaren has hinted that he rejects substitutionary atonement and that he believes that God taking out His wrath on Jesus is “divine child abuse” (nevermind that Jesus and God are One).
“Father, will you restore our moral standing in the world. A lot of people don’t like us but that’s because they don’t know the heart of the average American.”
I think Miller just doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I’ve lived in Europe, Central America, and Austrolasia in the last 20 years and I’ve been overseas most of the last 5 years. The vast majority of people I have met like Americans just fine. They hate some (not all by any means) of our foreign policies. Bush in particular and the American government in general are universally despised as unbelievably arrogant.
A lot of the image problem of the us government is unfortunately self inflicted. A minor but telling example would be Bush’s trip to the Apec (Asia Pacific economic cooperation) conference in Sydney. Every newspaper in the pacific rim gleefully pointed out that while the delegation of New Zealand flew commercial (got to love Helen Clark), the delegation of japan came in a small learjet Bush showed up with 6 jumbo jets, 50 suburbans, and 700 people. Then he managed to call Apec Opec and congratulated the Austrian troops on a job well done during WW2. Needless to say his policy discussions didn’t get much notice.
Oh well.
It seems apparent to me, and maybe I am just too quick to judge, that Miller’s “moral standing” and “heart” comments are not so much theological as political. I would excuse a politician using these words so carelessly - but if a man claims to be “of the house of God” and throws these terms around in the context of alliances and political positioning, then I think we have a problem.
An educated Christian should know that morality is not related to what other nations think about America and Americans. Nor is “the heart of the average American” anything to write home about. I know my heart isn’t - I’m a depraved sinner.
Exactly, Colin. I would even understand if Miller had to pray off-the-cuff. But he had plenty of time to prepare. He chose those words deliberately and carefully.