Of course the only slightly referenced matter of “school prayer” involves a great deal more than simply praying in public. What we are really talking about it the desire (unique to white American Protestants) to have their children’s spiritual educated guided by government operated public school systems.
Most other sects are quite strongly dedicated to educating their children in this sacred matter themselves, with the guidance of their own church, and clergy. How can anyone trust children’s very souls to the same system that substantially fails to teach those same children to read, write, and do arithmetic? The level of hypocrisy here would shock even the Pharisees. (Did the Pharisees send their children to learn to pray at Roman schools?) How can anyone face the Lord in prayer, alone at home, after suggesting that this is an acceptable substitute for teaching our children of God ourselves?
But then, perhaps politics matters more to some people than either their children, or their God.
I’m going to slightly hi-jack this, as I wanted to address RoundGuy and his assertion that, “When I see people praying in restaurants, I cringe…”
Essentially, when people pray at a meal, they are following a commandment from Christ. We indeed peform the sacrament of Communion; however, Christ was making the point that every time we sit down at a meal we are to remember Him. In this way we are constantly reminded of His teachings and sacrifice. For this reason, I don’t really see praying over a meal as a “show,” particularly since in my observation it’s usually done very quietly and quickly, so as to cause as little disturbance to other diners as possible.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled thread…
Sorry, I thought I had responded to this already but I see the hamsters got that post.
Too bad I didn’t lift individual verses and neglect the overall context, however in your example you did.
No, unlike prayer where Jesus said to do it alone, he did not say to dress naked. If you follow your citation down to verse 33 it is made fairly clear that he says not to worry about your clothes and that god would provide it for you if you had faith. While in reality that probably isn’t true, it’s still his message as opposed to going naked.
Sure, you are probably a Christian who has disobeyed Jesus by praying in public.
And the other overriding theme which you mentioned below:
That part of the overriding theme is important too, don’t you think?
Above is where you start making it up on your own.
Lots of rules/regulations/laws in the Sermon on the Mount read it again and you’ll see.
Not according to Christ’s own example. If he didn’t have to follow these rules, then he wouldn’t have to pray either — and yet he did. He wouldn’t have to observe the Sabbath – and yet he did.