'Disrespectful' Prayer?

Or is this just calling it like it is? The prayer that has originated on the Internet around 1996 was spoken by Rep. Doug Quelland on the Arizona House floor Tuesday (1/27):

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to 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 pluralism.
We have worshiped other gods and called it multiculturalism.
We have endorsed perversion and called it 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 self-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.

And we have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, O God, and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be some wicked way in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.

In the name of your son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Democrats filed an official protest saying that prayer that opened the legislative session:

"was divisive. It was a pandering, mudslinging, name-calling political statement. It was hateful and mean-spirited. It was undignified. . .members of this body we must set aside our differences and show respect for Arizona in all of its diversity."

Now there are four things I see here.

First, I think that Rep. Quelland's citation of this prayer is an expression of a Christian worldview that expresses that the world and its inhabitants is, essentially fallen and sinful. With this, I agree. I believe that the various parts of the prayer simply expresses the Scriptural condemnation that begins in Romans 1:18 and climaxes in 3:23: "There is none righteous, not even one". None. Nobody. Not me, not you, not the Pope. Paul then leads us to the great hope and gift of Salvation from there.

Second, one point of the Democratic response is correct: The prayer is divisive. It divides us from the hope that we are somehow ok, not sick and good. But, clearly as Paul argues in Romans, we cannot be so. Reworking an old saw, thinking that we are not sick turns us from accepting the treatment that will make us whole and healthy.

Thirdly, although I agree with the contents of the prayer, and such a prayer is a good thing to prayer, I find the prayer lacking. It lacks specific action. There is very little application. The prayer, outside of a context, simply condemns without providing salvation. Such a prayer must exist within a framework that communications what to do next: How can we not worship other gods and yet live in this culture? How can we not endorse homosexual practice and yet preach the Gospel to gays and lesbians in a mannor that people will listen? How can we not covet our neighbor's possessions?

Finally, some aspects of the prayer are purely political statements. The parts concerning the lottery, welfare and the values of the forefathers are, to me, interpretations of these issues. The lottery has become, in my view, a tax on the poor; the selling of dreams of wealth for a $1 a try. A sort of opiate for the masses. Well, that's up to them to decide if they want to participate; nobody buys a lottery thinking winning is a sure thing. To categorize all those on welfare as lazy is a bold and unfair statement--no matter how poorly the system is run. The values of our forefathers is rather vague. I presume that the prayer author meant the American forefathers--Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, et al. I am of the understanding that a number of our forefathers were Diests--not orthodox Christian. I admit that I haven't much research in this area.

It seems to me that the prayer is the statement of one person's worldview and political positions. A good portion of it I can agree with, but some of it is, well, not very useful to me.