The Kansas City Star’s weekly column, Voices of Faith, for last Saturday was the question: “Do you believe in generic prayers?” The two responders were the Lama of a Tibetan Buddhist monastary and the Pastor of a Baptist church.
The crux of the Lama’s answer is:
… our prayer should have the energy of faith, compassion and love. … Nhat Hanh says … “The mere fact that we pray doesn’t lead to a result.” … Public prayers should refrain from using language specific to one faith and instead be inclusive using language that reflects our rich diversity.
The crux of the Pastor’s answer is:
If prayer is done to pacify or is generic, based on the occasions that bring together people of all backgrounds and persuasions, then it calls for sincere desire by the one who is called upon to pray out of his own conviction.
So, both are advocating the generic prayer but with the pray-er being deeply sincere in his own heart.
To me, the generic prayer doesn’t do anyone any good. Trying to use language that spans all religions — language that no one really and personally uses — results in all religions being short-changed. Language that is not faith-specific can be neither heart-felt nor said with conviction. Can you imagine David trying to write a Psalm to “the great benevolent being” or “the universal life force”? No, Christians have to call out to the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. Muslims have to call out to Allah.
In this day and age of “religious tolerance” being either the work of the devil or the ultimate in PC-ness, the generic prayer is an example of the easy way out. How hard is it to be tolerant of Muslims when no one mentions Mohammed or the Allah? How hard is it to be tolerant of Buddhists when no one mentions Buddha?
True religious tolerance is being able to kneel down next to a Muslim performing salah and pray with him. True religious tolerance is relating to your God in your way while the person next to you relates to her God in her way. True religious tolerance is not homogenzing everything into a bouillabaisse of meaningless rhetoric that is pleasing to the ear but meaningless to the heart.
Pretty much spot on.
Tolerance for me is respect for others without requiring either to abandon sincerely held beliefs.
Of course this does not mean we can not discuss, debate, or disagree concerning those issues. We do it with respect.
At the end of the day………it is God that is going to sort all this out. He’ll get it right.
Bruce