A Prayer for Civility

I need to provide a little background for this post.  I'm really not a big fan of discussing politics, and I've become less of a fan over the last few years with the negative tone that all political ads, debates and discussions have taken.  There has always been contention and fighting between the parties, that's the way the system was designed, and for the most part over the years, it seemed to have worked.  The goal always seemed to be the greater good, but maybe I was just too naive.  Maybe the goal always was to make yourself look better, or better yet, make your opponent look much worse. 

Anyway, the tone from the two parties has been largely negative, and in the era of continuous and constant connectivity, it has spilled over into our everyday lives and in all of our communication.  Whether it's news feeds on the internet, television or social media like Facebook, we get a constant barrage of negativity.  Very little "my candidate is the best because ..." or "my party has the best interest of the country because ...", but negativity or personal attacks on the various candidates.  OK, I'm not telling anyone anything new here, I realize that.

Where it really hit me was when two of my cousins, who I love dearly, started sniping at each other on Facebook.  While politics can be and will be contentious, it doesn't have to be personal.  When I saw the posts back and forth, it reminded me of hearing the stories from history that talked about brother versus brother fighting in the Civil War.  So, it inspired me to a Prayer of Civility, that is not affiliated with any political party, it's bi-partisan, not endorsed by Fox or MSNBC, not affiliated with any particular religious denomination.  And it goes something like this:

"Gracious God, I'd like to lift up the following people to you in prayer, and ask you to look over them and help them see their way through these difficult times. 

I lift up to you, President Obama and Vice President Biden and I ask that you look after them as the Republican National Committee and groups such as Fox News and the Tea Party unleash their venom of hatred and lies toward them during this election year.

I lift up to you, Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan and I ask that you protect them as the Democratic National Committee and groups such as MSNBC and MoveOn.org attack them with vicious attacks on their personal character and beliefs during this election year.

I lift up to you all of those people that use you and your son, Jesus Christ, and try to align their party with what you would have us do.  Help them to understand, Jesus would never be a Republican, He would never be a Democrat, Jesus was a radical, and He would be appalled at anyone trying to align their political agenda with His teachings.

I lift up to you our nation as we have grown more and more into worshipping other names besides yours, names like Prada, Gucci, Lexus, Nike, help us to see that the worship of things, and the money that buys those things, is very short-sighted and short-lived.

I ask that you help some of us to see that not everyone who is on welfare is on welfare because they are shiftless and lazy. 

I ask that you help some of us to see that not everyone who is rich, or corporations that are rich, are greedy and self-serving.

I ask that you help some of us to see that just because someone is different, a different religion, different national origin, different sexual orientation, different race, that doesn't mean that they are inherently evil or bad.

I ask that you help our politicians see that compromise, working together, listening to one another, isn't a weakness, it's a strength.  We're all in this together, and the only way to grow and improve this nation, and our world, is through working together.

Finally, Lord, I ask that you help me to walk the talk.  It's easy to say all of these things, but it's much harder to live them.  Help me to practice what I preach.

In Jesus name, I pray, Amen."