Website owner:  James Miller

Prayer of Rev. Joe Wright in Kansas state legislature

   The following is a prayer given by Rev. Joe Wright of the 
   Central Christian Church, Wichita, Kansas in front of the 
   Kansas state legislature that aroused a great furor, bringing 
   forth both huge support and angry walkouts in two legislatures.  
   It has been read in front of several legislatures, read two 
   times on Paul Harvey's ABC Radio newscast, reprinted in 
   hundreds of church newsletters and other publications, 
   generated thousands of phone calls and letters, and read from 
   pulpits across the nation. 

   "Heavenly Father, we come before You today to ask your 
   forgiveness and 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 inverted our values. 

   We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of your 
   word and called it moral pluralism.  We have worshiped other 
   gods and called it multiculturalism.  We have endorsed 
   perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.  We have 
   exploited the poor and called it the lottery.  We have 
   neglected the needy and called it self-preservation.  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 esteem.  We have abused power 
   and called it political savvy.  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." 


                                    Source: front page article in the 
                                       Washington Post (5/20/96)

   May 1996