Articles by Rev. Chad O'Shea

"No Drums & No Bugles"

Like the delightful musical, the hills around here "are alive" these days, but not with the "sound of music"... they’re chock full of church signs, billboards and bumperstickers proclaiming "We Still Pray." I don’t know how anyone else is relating to that crusade, but, personally, like the crusty old gal in the classic Burger King ad, I find myself wondering "where’s the beef?"

I don’t recall any federal, state or local legislation being passed or Supreme Court ruling handed down that takes away anyone’s personal right to pray. I do remember a recent Supreme Court decision that basically said, "no one has the right to impose a specific religious orthodoxy on anyone else in a publicly funded setting . . . like a football stadium or a courtroom or a public school classroom. Okay, so be it, but, again, "where’s the beef?"

I thought most folks had basically agreed since 1787 that meaningful religious freedom must include "freedoms from" as well as "freedoms to." If I am to enjoy the grace of authentic religious freedom, I must be "free to" drop by all those public places I’m compelled to visit from time to time (courtrooms, DMV stations, public schools, etc.) "free from" having to deal with overt expressions of any religions doctrine or practices. Dare I ask once more "where’s the beef" in that?

I can’t imagine anyone having the slightest problem with someone privately praying to their soul’s content. Go for it! Enjoy the grace! What I don’t understand is why sincere, earnest Christians have mounted a crusade because the Constitution says, "pray all you want . . . just don’t insist on making your specific denomination’s prayers and rituals a public spectacle in public places that have to be frequented by folks who march to a different spiritual drummer." The "we still pray" folks seem to be suggesting that prayer isn’t really prayer unless it’s being spoken out loud in a public setting. Do you remember what Jesus had to say about that kind of prayer?

Clearly, anyone with a passing relationship with His teachings would recognize how far the "we still pray" advocates have strayed from the Jesus understanding of spiritually informed prayer. I can hear Him now . . ."Oi vey, why don’t they read their scriptures? My disciple, Matthew, clearly stated my position regarding prayer in the sixth chapter, fifth, sixth and seventh verses of his Gospel!" Listen up!

Fifth verse . . . "And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you . . . They have received their reward." Doesn’t sound to me like Jesus would break a sweat over someone telling Him He had to keep His talks with Dad a private affair.

Jesus goes on in the sixth verse to encourage the establishment of a private, confidential, spiritually mature prayer relationship with the "secret" Nature of the Divine Presence . . . Sixth verse . . . "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to the Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."

It seems pretty clear here that Jesus is counseling us to conduct our prayer life in the privacy of our souls. No drums, no bugles, no crowds, no public pretense... just me and Father/Mother God. It may well take a village to raise a child, but it doesn’t take one to pray. Of course, you can honor the spirit of this teaching right in the middle of the pandemonium on the fifty-yard line by keeping with impeccable fidelity the sweetness of solitude in the midst of the crowd.

In the seventh verse Jesus goes on to skewer the spiritual materialism evident in those "hypocrites" who strive to enhance their religious status by vainly repeating their prayers wherever they happen to be . . . Seventh verse . . . "But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking." Any questions?

An unbiased reading of that scripture wouldn’t seem to leave much doubt regarding how Jesus would have responded to the Supreme Court’s ruling. He certainly wouldn’t have whipped the disciples into a fervor of righteous indignation and sent them out to the churches and the street corners chanting, "we still pray," Quite the contrary. If He caught them stoking their egos with a public display of their spiritual confusion, I’ve got a hunch He’d invite them to "stifle thyselves . . . Sit down . . . Be still and pray!"

And let each of us in this merry band of seekers called Unity "be still" and pray that all beings explore the grace of "being still" that we might truly know the sweetness of Father/Mother God’s loving Presence.