A Layman Looks at Prayer

By CHARLES M. GUTHRIE

of the editorial page staff

published by the StarTribune

Feb 18, 1961

   WITH morality at such low ebb despite all the cries of alarm, it might profit us to take a closer look at prayer and our cozy attitude toward it. Our prayers, I think, are too passive, too much an appeal to the Lord to do things we should do for ourselves.

   Church membership is at an all-time high and our prayers are abundant, but crime rises. A store detective estimates in a recent magazine article that 9 out of 10 people are dishonest. We have had rigged TV quiz shows, king-size price fixes and crooked politics. Everyone is out for status and a fast buck, and ethics gets lost in the scramble.

   CHURCHES can't be blamed for this, but neither can they be excused. Too many parishioners figure they've put in their stint of worship for the week when they show up on Sunday, unite in prayer and hear a sermon.

   Perhaps a mere church member--and not one of the best--has no business criticizing organized worship, but I'll criticize it regardless. To be frank, ritualistic prayer does little for me. It frequently nettles me.

   The order of worship has been changed at our church to permit more praying. Some members like it but I don't. We all confess in unison to being a bunch of sinners and technically, I suppose, we are, since none among us is perfect.

   But I fail to see this admission of abasement as the way to uplift or salvation. I think we need to be taken by the scruff of the neck and told that rote prayer is not enough, that church attendance is not enough, that it avails little if we give only lip service to belief and do nothing to implement prayer.

   THE POOR will not be nourished nor the injured made whole unless we take a charitable interest in their needs, unless we become instruments of God by providing understanding and sympathetic help. We do them no good if we pass by on the other side and parrot the beatitudes.

   My wife tells about a lady in her home town who let her 80-year-old mother support her by scrubbing floors while she minced about in prissy piety waiting for the "call" and seeking to impress one and all with her sanctimony. She had no more Christian spirit than a head of cabbage.

   But her tribe remains. I suspect that, though refined and sophisticated, it has increased and that the failure of too many to live their professed faith has much to do with today's travail.

   WE SUFFER from the comforting illusion that churchgoing makes us automatically good. It does nothing of the kind. It can only inspire us to be good and radiate goodness. We can sing hymns and pray, I firmly believe until blue in the face and get little but vocal exercise.

   If we don't leave the church with a fresh resolve to be kind, charitable, patient and tolerant we have missed the purpose. If we don't realize that there is work for man to do, services to render, sacrifices and contributions to make, we are indeed as tinkling cymbals, the Golden Rule is nothing but 11 words and refuge in prayer avails little.

   I've always felt the most rewarding prayers could be said in solitude, when one took time to ponder life's meaning and his place in human destiny and sought guidance according to his personal beliefs. Anyone who's too busy to take such time, I'm sure, is too busy.

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