Donald Miller prayed the closing prayer at the DNC last night. However you feel about him aside, this is a time when we need to be in prayer for our leaders and for the future of the United States. You can read a transcript of his prayer below and I ask that we continue to be on our knees for the current leader of the US and the future leaders of tomorrow. A video of the prayer can be seen here.
Father God,
This week, as the world looks on, help the leaders in this room create a civil dialogue about our future.
We need you, God, as individuals and also as a nation.
We need you to protect us from our enemies, but also from ourselves, because we are easily tempted toward apathy.
Give us a passion to advance opportunities for the least of these, for widows and orphans, for single moms and children whose fathers have left.
Give us the eyes to see them, and the ears to hear them, and hands willing to serve them.
Help us serve people, not just causes. And stand up to specific injustices rather than vague notions.
Give those in this room who have power, along with those who will meet next week, the courage to work together to finally provide health care to those who don’t have any, and a living wage so families can thrive rather than struggle.
Help us figure out how to pay teachers what they deserve and give children an equal opportunity to get a college education.
Help us figure out the balance between economic opportunity and corporate gluttony.
We have tried to solve these problems ourselves but they are still there. We need your help.
Father, will you restore our moral standing in the world.
A lot of people don’t like us but that’s because they don’t know the heart of the average American.
Will you give us favor and forgiveness, along with our allies around the world.
Help us be an example of humility and strength once again.
Lastly, father, unify us.
Even in our diversity help us see how much we have in common.
And unify us not just in our ideas and in our sentiments—but in our actions, as we look around and figure out something we can do to help create an America even greater than the one we have come to cherish.
God we know that you are good.
Thank you for blessing us in so many ways as Americans.
I make these requests in the name of your son, Jesus, who gave his own life against the forces of injustice.
Let Him be our example.
Amen.
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34 Responses
Watching this, I was very surprised. Donald never ceases to amaze me (for good and “strange” reasons). He actually prayed in Jesus’ name. Interesting, and very very important. Go d.miller! You awesome, odd man.
Posted on August 26th, 2008 at 8:13 am
he didn’t pray anything. he read from the teleprompter.
Posted on August 26th, 2008 at 8:16 am
so when a minister reads from a liturgy he’s not really praying?
Posted on August 26th, 2008 at 10:50 am
did i say that, ryan?
Posted on August 26th, 2008 at 10:55 am
Cameron the editor of Relevant was actually asked to do the prayer and from what he said on Fox News last night, he declined because he didnt want it to come across that he was endorsing either candidate. I was really surprised to hear the founder and editor of Relevant on the news, it was cool.
Posted on August 26th, 2008 at 10:59 am
I don’t know the guy. But that was the fakest prayer ever. I’m sorry but when you pray you don’t pray from something written you pray from your soul.
Posted on August 26th, 2008 at 11:25 am
if I was going to pray in front of a huge gathering of people like that, I think I would probably write some things down also.
You can read more on why Cameron turned it down after originally accepting the invitation at http://relevantmagazine.com/releblog/category/cameronsqa/
He’ll still be taking part in a “Faith in the ‘08 Election” panel on Thursday afternoon at the DNC.
Posted on August 26th, 2008 at 11:40 am
@ TylerM
So I guess when someone sings a praise song or hymn in church they don’t mean it either.
Posted on August 26th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Quotes:
“he didn’t pray anything. he read from the teleprompter.”
” I’m sorry but when you pray you don’t pray from something written you pray from your soul.”
/end Quotes
Some of you guys are seriously slamming him for writing his prayer beforehand? Can we move to something that’s actually important in this case, like for instance, the content?
Do we have trouble with the Lord’s Prayer, then, too? And do we have to be so harsh in our criticism even when there IS some substance to your point?
Posted on August 26th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
donald miller = very cool.
Posted on August 26th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
levi, part of my problem with miller is the fact that he’s aligned with the left. i have no problem admitting that. his books are garbage. that’s my opinion. i’m not gonna back that up with anything other than the fact that he’s involved with the emergent church and theologically wrong most of the time in his books…and i’ve read three of them (blue like jazz, searching for god knows what, and through painted deserts. he also co-wrote to own a dragon, but after reading the third book i’d had enough of him). miller is sarcastic, tongue in cheek and often times harsh (not to mention, many times wrong) in his critique of the theological right, so i don’t think he would ask for anything other than the same.
Posted on August 26th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
See? That’s much better.
Posted on August 26th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
see grant, i respect your poinion, but a lot of christians outside of the US cannot stand the Right because the general perceived attitude is that they’re modern-day pharisees who don’t exercise any grace or forgiveness to those outside of their own bubble. i know that this is not the case in all areas, but there definitely is truth to it.
i don’t want to start an argument, but i do think that miller has done a lot of good for those people who are sick of Christ being seen as a white middle-class republican.
not everybody fits that lifestyle, and to be honest, a lot of countries see the republicans (their foregin and environmental policies specifically) as doing a lot of damage to other cultures and the environment.
bottom line - some christians feel that christ is bigger than the left/right debates, and that what a lot of american preachers proclaim as gospel is (to the outside world) actually cultural tradition.
that’s the end of my rant, and if i’ve offended anyone, i’m very sorry.
have a good day kids.
Posted on August 26th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
grant: See I’ve also read Miller’s book and there is very little in there that I would consider to not be orthodox Christianity. He does describe situations where he participated in “sinful” things, but never endorses them.
I’ve taken three years of seminary at a Bible college in a fairly conservative school and I never read anything by Miller that I’d take major issue with [as an aside: I didn't mention Seminary in order to prove I am right or build myself up, but simply to say I been around hardcore theology type stuff].
As for reading a prayer from a pre-written note, I really don’t believe it’s more or less Spirit led than spur of moment prayers. God can inspire those who are nervous and need to prepare themselves, even if it is before the actual act.
The Emergent church seems to get a bum rap. I can see many flaws within the movement, but no more than i can see within conservative Christianity. The pendulum swung too far and now the change has happened and in the emergent church it is swinging the opposite direction.
The danger is when it get nears the apex.
Posted on August 26th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
And sorry for the essay….I’ve been out of school too long and have a hankering for some expousing.
Posted on August 26th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
I lean to the right, but regardless, we shouldn’t assume that Republicans are “bad” or “wrong” just because the general perception is negative, “pharisaical”. The same can be said of modern Christianity. But don’t we all know that authentic Christianity obviously isn’t that way?
Posted on August 26th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
He didn’t close his eyes!
Posted on August 27th, 2008 at 7:11 am
“…and if you don’t close your eyes when you pray, God won’t answer the prayer” - my mother
Posted on August 27th, 2008 at 7:47 am
Haha, I remember one time in sunday school this kid was praying and goes “And God, I ask that you forgive all the kids in this room that kept their eyes open while we were praying.”
It was so classic.
Posted on August 27th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
I don’t particularly like Donald Miller. Haven’t read a lot of his stuff, but I think I get the gist on where he stands on stuff. I have a bigger problem with the emergent church and its marketing ploys, rather than letting Christ build His church through the gospel.
having said that…
honestly…are we arguing over a read prayer with eyes open? this i find more disturbing than anything. because we aren’t under any real persecution, like Christians are in countries like China, we spend all of our time debating useless stuff instead of uniting in Christ under the word of God. where there are divisions, are you not carnal, as paul wrote to the corinthians? ugh. i’m carnal. i wish it weren’t so.
Posted on August 27th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
I know Tyler, it’s disturbing how much people argue on here. We’ve gotten quite a few more opinionated people commenting under posts than we used to have. I know all this arguing is going to turn a lot of people off to our site, but what can I do? I can’t keep deleting posts because some people want to debate, you know what I mean? It just looks embarrassing for us Christians to see the arguing and name calling.
Posted on August 27th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
maybe if you kept the posts to music instead of politics?
i know i’ve made my fair share of negative comments about things i don’t like, but what i don’t understand is the personal attacks.
what ever happened to the “in love” part of things? :-/
Posted on August 27th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Haha Brandon, why does it feel like you always skip over my posts, and then when someone says something like “this is a silly argument,” you go “you’re right, these people are crazy?” Am I being paranoid or do you secretly block my comments out of your head?
Posted on August 27th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
don’t be so emo
haha
Posted on August 27th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Don’t be such a punk.
…get it?
GENRE WARS.
Posted on August 27th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
http://www.grooveshark.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/emo.jpg
versus
http://armoredsquirrel.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/PunkMohawk.jpg
honestly, who is gonna win that fight?
Posted on August 27th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
I don’t ignore you Levi, of course I don’t. I just didn’t feel like responding till now.
Posted on August 27th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
What’s wrong with argument and debate? As long as there is legitimate discussion I don’t have an issue with it.
But I also agree with tyler h that if people don’t want debate like this stick to only posting about music and avoid other issues like religion/Christianity and politics. Otherwise it’s inevitable that this will happen.
I personally chose to avoid posting my responses to the various parts of the prayer and to the different comments. But I will say is that this was a political prayer and nothing more.
Posted on August 27th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
@ Tyler: The punk. Because he has a gun.
Posted on August 27th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
exactly. gun > tears
60% of the time all the time.
Posted on August 27th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
i’m done coming to this site. if you guys are gonna get upset about opinions then you shouldn’t have the option available for people to comment. what a joke.
Posted on August 28th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Sorry I said anything. You guys are free discuss whatever you want. I’ll just sit here silently.
Posted on August 28th, 2008 at 11:10 am
you’re right, grant, I am only a man IS better than the weak’s end, but probably not as good as the question.
wait, we are talking about emery, right?
Posted on August 28th, 2008 at 11:30 am
It looks like we have a lot of OFFICE fans here. Look at how many people voted for that show. Steve Carell for the win!
Posted on August 28th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
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