Hear my prayer

I often ponder God. The source of my faith is humility. I Understand that I am small and God is Great. If God is God, He/She/It is utterly and absolutely beyond my comprehension. God is beyond the understanding of any person on earth. I do not know God. I seek God, but do not know God. For me to say I know God would be arrogant. I believe God is good. I seek truth.

I mistrust people who say they know what God says. If someone tells me they know what God says, I think there is only one thing that can be concluded: They don't know what they are talking about. The ultimate reality of God is not known and will never be known by humans as long as we are human. Even when Jesus was here, touching us as a human, His divinity, His power, His being were cloaked in an absolute shroud of mystery. We only interpreted Him through the filter of our perceptions. With our weak faculties, we can barely conceive of Jesus the divine, Jesus the Creator and master of a billion billion galaxies. Even if Jesus returns, He will appear in a form we understand, which is by definition, the smallest micron of God's totality. Does Jesus appear and die on all the planets of the Universe or does he appear in different forms to different life forms? It is not knowable to us.

Allah must be a mystery as well. Chac Mool or Zeus or Krishna must be unknowable. Any of the hundreds of names and incarnations of God to which humans pray can only be defined by faith. Are they not all different names for the same God? If God is God then there is only One. As members of the human race and seekers of God, we put aside our senses and call out to God in the darkness. God hears all prayers. Whether or not there is communication is a matter of faith. I believe God is available to me. The truth is available. But God does not come to me. I have to seek God. That is God's contract of free will with humanity and the basis of faith.

How can we attribute the consequences of human design to anything but humans? Humans do not execute the will of God. Humans execute their own will. It is within God's power to control our thoughts and actions. But that is not how we operate. We have free will. When we act in the name of God, we take risks. We make choices. We are responsible for the consequences of our actions. In fact, whenever we act, we take risks and make choices. In either case, our actions, choices and associated consequences are our own.

If our actions, choices and consequences are our own, and not God's, why do we pray for our conception of favorable results? Can we control God? Why do we ask God to bless our country? Will God bless our country more than another country? Are the souls in other countries less important than our souls? Why do we pray for our soldiers? Do we hope that God, who has infinite names across the universe, will protect our soldiers and not enemy soldiers? What is God to do with the prayers of our enemies? Does God favor the prayers of liberals or conservatives? Straights or Gays? The woman getting an abortion or the people protesting outside the clinic?

We are in a national debate that is as much theological as it is material. For example, the Southern Baptist Convention withdrew from the Baptist World Alliance yesterday. SBC president, Paige Patterson, noted, "with sorrow in our hearts, a continual leftward drift in the BWA." Patterson went on to say that, "The SBC study committee noted in recent years the BWA's increasingly anti-American stances, tolerance of liberal theology and disregard for its own procedures in accepting the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship as a member in 2003."

Later, President Bush addressed the convention, reiterating stances on life issues, and same-sex marriage.

This is all well and good of course. We live in a country where our religious rights are guaranteed. It is worth noting, however, that the practicing theology of a 16 million person organization is closely tied with our national identity. Their God is an American God. The answers to the above questions are not ambiguous to the SBC. The current president fosters and encourages this thinking. It is dangerous to do so.

The founders of this country staked the outcome of the American Experiment on the idea that it is better for religion and better for government if the two remain completely separate. They understood that man does not speak for God, because we cannot agree on what God is. Therefore we could not be trusted to govern in the name of God. I submit that it is unhealthy to pray in the name of America as well.

Amen