The Church of England has published a prayer for people to use in the run-up to the UK’s General Election on Thursday, but not everyone is saying, “Amen.”
A prayer for the 2019 General Election.#GE2019
Visit https://t.co/6ILdDUUyJB for an accessible version. pic.twitter.com/aceYEBMOmd
— The Church of England (@churchofengland) November 6, 2019
The offending phrase appears to be, “as we discover your will for our country,” which some object promotes the view that the General Election will be directly decided by the will of God, and that the winner (widely projected to be Boris Johnson) will be able to claim to have been divinely appointed, prompting calls for the prayer to be withdrawn and rewritten.
Jesus told us to be childlike, but this is just infantile. Why should a GE result reveal God’s will? Who writes this nonsense? Unuseable, and will rightly be pilloried by the public. #theologyunbecoming @maggidawn @RevRachelMann @MichaelSadgrove @cmrpemberton @GrahamRKings https://t.co/rgiXnbBaze
— Jeremy Pemberton (@canonjpemberton) December 10, 2019
Commenters have noted that throughout the Bible, the will of the people has often been shown to be at odds with the will of God. Which holds sway in a democratic election?
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Yes, we should be a little skeptical of the idea that the outcome of democratic electoral procedure necessarily reflects the will of God.
Question: Does this skepticism apply to the outcomes of TEC General Convention?
Seeing that recently we have heard from Americans who appear to believe in the “divine right of kings,” or at least of presidents (and, to be fair, Rick Perry did want to apply it to any president), we might have some of our own folks with these issues.
There is nothing partisan in asking for God’s help and guidance. Winston Churchill credited God for his escape from capture in the Boer War: “I prayed long and earnestly for help and guidance. My prayer. . . was swiftly and wonderfully answered.” No doubt Winston Churchill prayed many times for God’s help in staving off defeat to Hitler. When news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor reached Churchill, he realized this meant that Hitler would be ground into powder, and later wrote: “I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and thankful.” . . . “The United States, united as never before, have drawn the sword for freedom and cast away the scabbard.” One of Churchill’s favorite poets, Tennyson, in The Death of Arthur, speaks through the dying King Arthur: “The world little dreams the things that are wrought by prayer.” It’s okay If one thinks it was happen-stance that American and British scientists developed the A-Bomb before Hitler could. I’m not so sure.
Well, if I were British I’d be voting for Corbyn and Labour.
Looks like that would be a vote for a Labour Party in collapse…