This seems very simple: a personal prayer is a private communication between you and God. Right? Except when you are a public figure: then there is no shame or common decency.
See what happened when Senator Barack Obama went to Jerusalem:
At the Western Wall, Obama was greeted by a crowd of curious onlookers and photographers. He donned a white skullcap, listened to a rabbi read a prayer, and inserted a folded white piece of paper between the stones.
That’s unmistakably a private prayer in the tradition of the Western Wall. And what do people do? A student TOOK IT FROM THE WALL and PUBLISHED IT.
The paper’s decision to make the note public drew fire. The rabbi in charge of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinovitz, said publishing the note intruded in Obama’s relationship with God.
“The notes placed between the stones of the Western Wall are between a person and his maker. It is forbidden to read them or make any use of them,” he told Army Radio. The publication “damages the Western Wall and damages the personal, deep part of every one of us that we keep to ourselves,” he said.
Click the link above if you want to read it. I’m not gonna repeat it or offer a value judgment on it. It wasn’t meant to be read by me or you. Yet people are evaluating it and offering judgments on its content.
I wrote a month or so back that we drove our future President from Church. Are we now so shameless that we would interfere with a communication between Obama and God…and offer JUDGMENTS on it?
Sigh. OK, it’s Friday night. Now I can relax. Thanks for reading. Thoughts?
I completely agree. I actually just finished making a comment on another blog that was criticizing his prayer. My comment said much of what you said, but with the addition that his prayer seemed appropriate for a man in his position and that it is often the kind of prayer that I will pray for someone in a leadership position. One of the criticisms is that it is “me” focused…obviously, non-Christian McCain followers. I am neither, I am still waiting to gather more information. This whole issue makes me so angry. I can’t imagine someone intruding in on my prayers…that is a private, intimate thing. Okay, I’ll stop, but I obviously have reacted and have some strong opinions about this.
this is extremely distasteful. yes, of course, someone like obama needs to be aware that EVERYTHING he does will undergo public scrutiny but still, that doesn’t give anyone permission to intrude like this, both on obama and on the wall. and i will certainly NOT click the link that shows his prayer.
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