This Pastor has GUTS!

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I don’t usually post stuff from non-Catholic sources, but I’m making an exception tonight. This pastor REALLY inspired me with this speech:

Subject: FW: This Pastor has guts!!

Thought you might enjoy this interesting prayer given in Kansas
at the opening session of their Senate. It seems prayer still upsets some people.

When Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard:

"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 reversed our values.

We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and call it Pluralism.

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.

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 politics.

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.

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

Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from
every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent to direct us to the center of Your will and to openly ask these things in the name of Your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ.

Amen!"

The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest…

In 6 short weeks, Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively.The church is now receiving international requests for copies of this prayer from India, Africa and Korea.

I HOPE THE CATHOLIC PRIESTS THAT READ THIS ARE INSPIRED TO DO THE SAME.

God Bless.
 
Proof that all groups share in God’s truth and the mission to teach it.
 
GrowingGrape:
Just proves “There is a God” and some are paying attention!!!
Thanks for posting the article.
Mary, Seat of Wisdom, pray for us.
Peace on earth to men of good will.
LaVada
 
WOW!! A strong and powerful prayer. :bowdown2:

Thank You for sharing this with us all 👍

ALL priests and bishops should have this courage, lets pray that they will.
:gopray2:
 
What is the source of this post?

I want to request permission to post it EVERYWHERE!!

And I really want to hang it on my wall for everyone to see.

Thanks for posting!
 
MAYBE??? This is the original source. I just typed in “Minister Joe Wright” into Yahoo search engine. I got a whole gob of sites that had printed this. I think you can contact Minister Wright through this site though:

centralcc.org/joe.html
 
a.) the state lottery doesn’t exploit the poor any more than church bingo’s and monte carlo nights do.

b.) ambition and envy are two distinct things. pastor seems to have definitions confused. Ambition is"a cherished desire; “his ambition is to feed the worlds hungry until no more mouths seek food.” thats not a bad ambition.

c.) time honored morals of our forefathers??? Thomas Jefferson fathered HOW Many children out of wedlock with SLAVES he owned??

d.) Welfare is wrong? what happened to “whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, you do unto me.”? giving the poor money from taxes to feed and clothe them is wrong now in the eyes of this good, kind pastor?

wait, i know, just for fun, good and gracious pastor, lets look at the words of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Department of Social Development and World Peace in 2004:

"Welfare Protects human life and dignity
Strengthens family life
Encourages and rewards work
Preserves a safety net for the vulnerable
Builds Public/Private Partnerships to overcome poverty
Invests in human dignity "

oh yes, i see the error in welfare now.

5.) porno on the airwaves is acceptable? Janet Jackson showed 3 TENTHS of a second of nippliage on the air and the network was fined an OBSCENE amount of cash.

most of the other points he made are acceptable, but this isn’t great writing, he writes with a 4th grade grasp of the English language and the subjects he addresses are butchered by a man on a mission to arouse passion in the people without first weighing the validity of the points he makes.

thumbs down for the pastor from the chrismyster.
 
a.) the state lottery doesn’t exploit the poor any more than church bingo’s and monte carlo nights do.

Poor people often spend significant amounts of money they can ill-afford on lotto tickets, in a desperate attempt to relieve their misery. Lotteries do harm to some poor people. If your church harms some poor people with its bingo and Monte Carlo nights, then it should stop.

c.) time honored morals of our forefathers??? Thomas Jefferson fathered HOW Many children out of wedlock with SLAVES he owned??

He said ‘forefathers,’ not ‘founding fathers.’ Who said anything about Jefferson??

d.) Welfare is wrong? what happened to “whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, you do unto me.”? giving the poor money from taxes to feed and clothe them is wrong now in the eyes of this good, kind pastor?

You confuse the welfare system with compassion. To be generous with one’s own money is to generous; to be generous with other people’s money is to be liberal.

What the pastor is talking about, IMO, is not welfare per se but the inappropriate fostering of dependence on welfare among those who otherwise would be able to learn to rely on themselves; in other words, making weak people slaves to the Democrats.

5.) porno on the airwaves is acceptable? Janet Jackson showed 3 TENTHS of a second of nippliage on the air and the network was fined an OBSCENE amount of cash.

Who said anything about Janet Jackson? Do you know what porn is? Are you for it? Are you a pro-porn Catholic? Vote for Kerry and stop annoying the rest of us.
 
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thechrismyster:
a.) the state lottery doesn’t exploit the poor any more than church bingo’s and monte carlo nights do.

b.) ambition and envy are two distinct things. pastor seems to have definitions confused. Ambition is"a cherished desire; “his ambition is to feed the worlds hungry until no more mouths seek food.” thats not a bad ambition.

c.) time honored morals of our forefathers??? Thomas Jefferson fathered HOW Many children out of wedlock with SLAVES he owned??

d.) Welfare is wrong? what happened to “whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, you do unto me.”? giving the poor money from taxes to feed and clothe them is wrong now in the eyes of this good, kind pastor?

wait, i know, just for fun, good and gracious pastor, lets look at the words of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Department of Social Development and World Peace in 2004:

"Welfare Protects human life and dignity
Strengthens family life
Encourages and rewards work
Preserves a safety net for the vulnerable
Builds Public/Private Partnerships to overcome poverty
Invests in human dignity "

oh yes, i see the error in welfare now.

5.) porno on the airwaves is acceptable? Janet Jackson showed 3 TENTHS of a second of nippliage on the air and the network was fined an OBSCENE amount of cash.

most of the other points he made are acceptable, but this isn’t great writing, he writes with a 4th grade grasp of the English language and the subjects he addresses are butchered by a man on a mission to arouse passion in the people without first weighing the validity of the points he makes.

thumbs down for the pastor from the chrismyster.
Click to expand...
You must be a liberal and probably don’t even know that either.http://forums.catholic-questions.org/images/icons/icon9.gif

MrS
 
i’m a republican. rather far to the right wing.
my opinion is this pastor is a rather elementary writer. not much substance, just emotion, which is the way a child writes. feelings are not important, facts are. his facts are wrong.

and as for the comment " Vote for Kerry and stop annoying the rest of us." - you aren’t witnessing the catholic faith very well for those reading these boards. and i’m not commenting on what the pastor wrote, “in your opinion”, because the thread is on what he said, not how you interpreted it. I’m not a pro-porn catholic, the Ms. Jackson analogy was a comment on societies disdain for pornography on the public airwaves. please read my posts before you spew mundane rebuttals that deal with your interpretations rather than stated fact.

and “MrS”,
i’m not a liberal, I simply don’t swallow the bait because i’m hungry like some who agree with the pastor do.
 
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Savagedds:
a.) the state lottery doesn’t exploit the poor any more than church bingo’s and monte carlo nights do.

Poor people often spend significant amounts of money they can ill-afford on lotto tickets, in a desperate attempt to relieve their misery. Lotteries do harm to some poor people. If your church harms some poor people with its bingo and Monte Carlo nights, then it should stop.

c.) time honored morals of our forefathers??? Thomas Jefferson fathered HOW Many children out of wedlock with SLAVES he owned??

He said ‘forefathers,’ not ‘founding fathers.’ Who said anything about Jefferson??

d.) Welfare is wrong? what happened to “whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, you do unto me.”? giving the poor money from taxes to feed and clothe them is wrong now in the eyes of this good, kind pastor?

You confuse the welfare system with compassion. To be generous with one’s own money is to generous; to be generous with other people’s money is to be liberal.

What the pastor is talking about, IMO, is not welfare per se but the inappropriate fostering of dependence on welfare among those who otherwise would be able to learn to rely on themselves; in other words, making weak people slaves to the Democrats.

5.) porno on the airwaves is acceptable? Janet Jackson showed 3 TENTHS of a second of nippliage on the air and the network was fined an OBSCENE amount of cash.

Who said anything about Janet Jackson? Do you know what porn is? Are you for it? Are you a pro-porn Catholic? Vote for Kerry and stop annoying the rest of us.
Click to expand...
Well said. :clapping:
And as for thechrismyster’s comments about 4 grade English, the good pastor probably got his education at one of our great state funded schools. Actually my dad had only a 6th grade education and was one of the smartest men I have ever known. He worked and supported our family and was never on welfare because he was willing to do anything that was honorable to support us. So do not make derogatory comments about someone who may or may not be as well educated as you
 
Confirmed this on Snopes:

Claim: The Rev. Joe Wright opened a Kansas legislative session with a controversial prayer.

Status: True.
Origins: Yes, this item is basically true as quoted above. Back in January of 1996, the Rev. Joe Wright, senior pastor of the 2,500-member Central Christian Church in Wichita, was invited to offer the opening prayer at a session of the Kansas House of Representatives (not the Kansas Senate, as claimed in the text), and the prayer he offered was this one (which differs somewhat from the version cited in the text above):

Heavenly Father, we come before you to ask your forgiveness. We seek your direction and your guidance. We know your word says, “Woe to those who call evil good.” But that’s what we’ve done.

We’ve lost our spiritual equilibrium. We have inverted our values. We have ridiculed the absolute truth of your word in the name of moral pluralism. We have worshiped other gods and called it multiculturalism.

We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.

We’ve exploited the poor and called it a lottery. We’ve neglected the needy and called it self-preservation. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. In the name of choice, we have killed our unborn. In the name of right to life, we have killed abortionists.

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 taxes. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, oh, God, and know our hearts today. Try us. Show us any wickedness within us. Cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of the State of Kansas, and that they have been ordained by you to govern this great state. Grant them your wisdom to rule. May their decisions direct us to the center of your will. And, as we continue our prayer and as we come in out of the fog, give us clear minds to accomplish our goals as we begin this Legislature. For we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
 
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Lance:
Actually my dad had only a 6th grade education and was one of the smartest men I have ever known. He worked and supported our family and was never on welfare because he was willing to do anything that was honorable to support us. So do not make derogatory comments about someone who may or may not be as well educated as you
Click to expand...
my comment wasn’t about you or you’re dad. stop with the liberal martyr complex, … it was a comment on the on the writing style of the pastor… the fact is that a 4th grader will not write at the same level as a post-graduate student. that’s just the fact.if you’re dad was an intelligent man, that’s fine, but i haven’t had the chance to read his writings so i can’t make that determination.
 
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thechrismyster:
my comment wasn’t about you or you’re dad. stop with the liberal martyr complex, … it was a comment on the on the writing style of the pastor… the fact is that a 4th grader will not write at the same level as a post-graduate student. that’s just the fact.if you’re dad was an intelligent man, that’s fine, but i haven’t had the chance to read his writings so i can’t make that determination.
Click to expand...
First time in my life I have ever been accused of being a liberal. If that is your uneducated opinion of me run with it. All you have to do read some of my other post to see that I am very conserative. If you don’t like what is posted in a thread don’t read it.
 
how would i know what is posted in a thread unless i did read it?
 
Get this thread back on the topic and stop with the bantering back and forth. This thread will be closed if the civility level can’t be brought back to charitable levels.
 
I agree with Anne Carmel!!!
Why is it that when someone has something to say, we have to rip it to shreds. Word by word, phrase by phrase.???

My opinion is alot of what this pastor said is TRUTH. And I believe we all need to hear it, especially politicians…

However, not being highly educated, myself I’m sooo reluctant to say anything on this forum, because it would be torn to shreds…So that’s why I don’t post too often.
There are alot of mean spirited people here…who I know are good Catholics…
Maybe we need to pray for words of wisdom before we post…
God Bless
Jeanette
 
Chrismyster-

Because this topic is touches so many passions as I’m sure you know for yourself by now, maybe you can explain your views and if it’s not clear that you mean no harm or disrespect in your writing then say so because I find over and over again that it is all too easy to misinterpret the “written word” without some kind of explaination to follow. Sometimes we let our passion rule our speech and that is why we get so angry with each other and let animosity gain the foothold. I know because I’ve been guilty of this myself. When this happens I take a step back and take a breather. (I just had to “ban” myself for awhile from the “PoliticsII” thread.
Personally, I rather applaud this pastor myself and I agree with the sentiments expressed in his prayer. Sometimes the simplest way to express things can be the best. God bless! - Mfaustina1
 
yah, i take offense to that welfare=laziness statement. it’s like that one minister during the turn of the century who said ‘it is altogether wrong to be poor anyways’ or something like that. whatever.
 
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