Reasonable to expect our local councillors might support prayer

Dear County Council members: whenever you look again at the procedural by-law that governs your meetings, please consider the following facts.

1. The “Lord’s Prayer” was first suggested by a young Jewish rabbi to a Jewish audience on a Jewish hillside. The prayer was later adopted by a Jewish sect derisively called ‘Christian.’ But the prayer is really still Jewish, because it does not contain any reference to the two distinctively Christian teachings, i.e., that God is known as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and that Jesus is the incarnate Son of God.
2. We live in a democracy where part of our social contract is that, as far as possible, all levels of government should represent the attitude and will of the majority of the people. During the 2001 census, over 75% of Canadians professed some form of Christianity; so, it is reasonable to expect that a majority of our local councillors might support prayer to the God who is worshipped by both Jews and Christians.
3. Both Conservatives and Liberals have identified God as the one to whom we should pray. When Lester Pearson was Prime Minister, a joint committee of Parliament agreed unanimously to put the words, “God keep our land,” into our national anthem, “O Canada.” And, during the debate over the Preamble to the Charter of Rights, it was a then future Prime Minister, Jean Chrétien, who added the phrase “under God.”
4. If Parliament ever has a majority of members who are Muslim or Hindu, they will have the authority to name Allah or Krishna as this country’s benefactor and guardian. In the meantime, may God save the Queen and may God bless Canada!

Al Reimers
Wellington