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General discussion

Rev. Wright

Feb 19, 2010 1:35AM PST

The other Rev. Wright. From my inbox, confirmed at Snopes.

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask
your forgiveness and to seek your direction and
guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those
who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we
have done.

We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed
our values.

We have exploited the poor and called it
the lottery.

We have rewarded laziness and called it
welfare..

We have killed our unborn and called it
choice.

We have shot abortionists and called it
justifiable.

We have neglected to discipline our
children and called it building self esteem....

We have abused power and called it
politics.

We have coveted our neighbor's possessions
and called it ambition.

We have polluted the air with profanity and
pornography and called it freedom of expression.

We have ridiculed the time-honored values
of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts
today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.
Amen!



The response was immediate. A number of
legislators walked out during the prayer in
protest. In 6 short weeks, Central Christian
Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than
5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls
responding negatively. The church is now receiving
international requests for copies of this prayer
from India , Africa and Korea .

Discussion is locked

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You get stuff in your e-mail about events in 1996?
Feb 19, 2010 3:42AM PST

That's COOL...

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Here's what Snopes says
Feb 19, 2010 4:13AM PST
http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/prayernation.asp

Some of the verbiage is in variance between the two accounts of the prayer's text. But, you're correct about the age of the piece. I can't see that anything has changed between now and then that make the prayer irrelevant today. If anything, the words would need to be stronger, IMO.
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Snopes from 2008
Feb 19, 2010 5:28AM PST

story from 1996....Flog that dead horse?

Agree with Billy Graham, don't agree with Rev Wright, even if they say the same things?

How does that work?

It's not the message, it's the messenger?

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Now I'm really confused....not sure what you're saying
Feb 19, 2010 5:50AM PST

From the snopes I linked, both Billy Graham and Paul Harvey were cited as having done the first prayer. That was noted as false. Though a somewhat different presentation from Wright was apparently true. the reaction noted in the OP was a bit embellished. Something got cross-linked. As for myself, regardless who said what and when, I think there's some value in the observations presented...even though expressed creatively and not as precisely as fact.

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the "other" Rev Wright
Feb 19, 2010 11:29AM PST

2 Rev Wrights, 1 uses other peoples prayers (or maybe they both have, you can only say the same thing so many ways) and the other was a minister in the church Obama attended.


this is the other Rev Wright that James was firing a shot at.

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The "other" Wright is what James referred to
Feb 19, 2010 9:51PM PST

and the post even named his congregation. It's not the same name as Jeremy Wrights. So, prefacing with "other", should be enough unless Jeremy is already burned indelibly in the readers head as the only Rev. Wright out there. I don't see where James mentions or alludes to Jeremy at all.

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RE: It's not the same name as Jeremy Wrights.
Feb 19, 2010 10:41PM PST

I know.

I don't see where James mentions or alludes to Jeremy at all.

I do, when he mentions/alludes to "the other" (aka Jeremy) Wright.

Why dig up an e-mail from 1996?

Jeremy is already burned indelibly in the readers head

And now he wants to burn the "other" in our head from 1996?


I think he just wanted to refresh our memory.

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I think he just wanted to refresh our memory.
Feb 19, 2010 11:05PM PST

about Jeremy...without mentioning his name

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NO
Feb 19, 2010 11:54PM PST

I was hoping to avoid any confusion over the name "Rev. Wright", which you desired to make something entirely different from. As for 1996, maybe it hit mailboxes then and in the intervening years, but it just hit mine a couple days ago. I guess it's still one of those popular legends still being passed around the email circuit.

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No, I think he wanted to
Feb 20, 2010 12:36AM PST
detach Jeremy Wright from the prayer as that Rev. Wright has lost credibility even from the perspective of our president. As well, you mentioned an e-mail from 1996. There isn't evidence presented in the Snopes article that it was in the form of e-mail but that it "...burst into public conscientiousness in January of 1996,..." when delivered to the Kansas H of R. It also was not penned by either Wright but a Bob Russell who'd offered it at a prayer breakfast in Ky. I said "prayer" because such would be expected and not be a surprise bomb drop.

I've actually been sent this e-mail long and knew it wasn't entirely accurate. What happens often, as it did with this one, is that the originator wasn't a person of note so it gets a renowned person's name attached to add credibility. In this case it was Paul Harvey and Billy Graham...both are mostly respected. Reverend Jeremy Wright is of dubious respect. Thus, James said "other" so as not to confuse the two. Just my take.
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Snopes got it in 2008?
Feb 20, 2010 2:08AM PST

I get it start of 2010. Still quite current, especially as "internet legends" go. I suspect Snopes gets a lot of such emails before I do.

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RE: Snopes got it in 2008?
Feb 20, 2010 3:12AM PST

You're surprised?

You're the one that said it was confirmed by Snopes. Did you find another Snopes page with a different confirmation date?

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you snoped it as 1996
Feb 20, 2010 4:39AM PST

as if I got it then, or should have. Yet snopes didn't see it till 12 years later. You then have problem that it took another year and half to reach me? You're just being silly.

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you snoped it as 1996
Feb 20, 2010 5:30AM PST

I did?

You're just being silly.

I think someone has

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You know, I never thought I'd say this, but I actually agree
Feb 19, 2010 9:11AM PST

with prayer except for the comment on welfare which is not universally true but is partially true, and the myth that poor parenting is about fostering self-esteem. Poor parenting is usually about neglect and insufficient boundaries because the parent is lazy or damaged themselves.

Rob