Dialogue: To pray or not to pray? Who cares?

By GARTH GEORGE

There are several things that puzzle me about all the fuss over the prayer at the start of the North Shore City Council meetings.

The first is that anyone would bother to object to it; the other is that anyone would bother to object to the objection of the objector.

A set prayer has been a tradition in local government probably for hundreds of years. It is in the same category as the similarly ancient tradition of meeting procedure which provides for movers and seconders, amendments, speaking rights and so on.

The sheer fatuity of new councillor Andrew Williams' objections (the poor chap was surprised and offended by the prayer at his first council meeting) makes me wonder what has happened to our reputation as one of the most tolerant peoples on Earth.

He argued that the prayer suggested it was God, not the voters, who had called the councillors to public service and that it imposed religious views on others and was, therefore, illegal under human rights law.

Well, for a start there is no need to suggest that God rather than the voters put the councillors in their positions. He's been doing that for millenniums.

In the book of Proverbs, God says: "By me kings reign and rulers decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, and all the judges [read prime ministers, MPs, mayors and councillors] of the Earth."

And a few thousand years later, in his letter to the Romans, St Paul wrote: "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God."

But all that aside, I still cannot fathom Mr Williams' argument. How on earth can the recitation of a prayer mean anything more than that there are some people who recognise there is a power at work in this world that is greater than themselves?

As for imposing religious views on others, you might as well say that listening to God Save the Queen or our national anthem is a threat to irreligious freedom.

Quite frankly, if Mr Williams and his ilk want to skulk outside the council chamber while the prayer is read, leave them to it. I had no idea that a simple prayer could strike such terror into anyone.

On the other hand, in the interests of council unity, by which it might give its attention to rather more important matters, why not get rid of the prayer altogether?

That way, those who believe can take God into their meetings in their hearts - where he belongs - and those who don't will no longer be offended. Because if anyone thinks that God gives a hoot whether the prayer is recited or not, they don't know much about him.

(I note that Brian Rudman in his column on Monday refers to God as "she". I call God "he" because that's what the Bible does and because one of his names is "Father" or, in Jesus' words, "Daddy". But I have no objection to "she", for when God created us "in his own image" he created us both male and female, which must mean that God has all the mental and emotional capacities of both genders.)

Which brings me to those who object to the objection of the objector. Their arguments have no more merit than Mr Williams' have and I must, on behalf of many of my Christian brothers and sisters, apologise to him and ask his forgiveness for the unwarranted vilification and abuse he has received.

Irrespective of the validity or otherwise of his arguments, Mr Williams is perfectly entitled to express them and does not deserve to have to face the odious umbrage of the thin-skinned religious among us who seem to think they have to defend God at every opportunity.

The only people the founder of Christianity ever really got stuck into were the uncharitable, pin-pricking religious bigots of the day; and in any case if God depended on such people as me to defend him, he'd have been out of business eons ago.

It is nonsense to suggest that non-Christian councillors should be upholding Christian moral values, particularly when Christians themselves (including Christian councillors) fail at that task in their thousands day in and day out.

This prattling from some sort of perceived moral high ground makes me sick, and I suspect it leaves a nasty stench in God's nose, too. It's long past time we Christians began to understand that we're not better than anyone else, we're just different, and that God doesn't love us any more than he loves anyone else.

What he wants of his people is for us to get our own lives in order and clean up our own backyards. And in the meantime to remember one of Christianity's fundamental principles - live and let live.

* garth_george@nzherald.co.nz