23 February 2008

Another Question

The recent decision by the premier to remove the Lord's Prayer from the beginning of each parliamentary day has stirred up a small ruckus- some in favour, some against. Some claiming society is now secular, and prayers should be removed, others saying Ontario is historically Christian and our parliament should reflect that history.

One article I saw today dug up an interesting point: When Jesus gave us the Our Father in Matthew 6, He prefaced it with the words: "5And 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 their reward. 6But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."

Now, on the one hand, I am dismayed that, once again, our society is again trying to remove any trace of God from our public life. But on the other hand, Jesus did not want the prayer He gave us to be a public prayer in the first place. Are their secularists, in their zeal, possibly, just possibly, even as they seek to remove God, helping us to do His will?

No comments: