Rrrrrrrr

Perhaps time and chance never caused our paths to cross so I’ve
never had an introduction to Supreme Court nominee John Roberts.
It may also be that relatively obscure gospel preachers like me
and larger than life guys like Roberts don’t have much of a
chance at meeting outside of being given four or five extra
lifetimes.

Although I’ve never met Supreme Court nominee John Roberts, I
did have a run in of sorts with America’s most notorious atheist
Madalyn Murray O’Hare in the nineteen eighties. As I walked into
a radio station to drop off tapes of my former radio show the DJ
called to me from within his booth. As I entered the booth he
said “we have a minister here that may be able to answer that
question.” He pulled a chair up to the microphone and beckoned
for me to sit. He whispered to me that it was a phone connection
from somewhere in Texas and Madalyn Murray O’Hare was on the
line being interviewed. My volunteering it seemed was already
far underway so I acquiesced and listened to O’Hare’s questions.
I calmly answered each question and the more I did the angrier
she seemed to get. The final straw was when she asked me if I
wouldn’t agree that all any minister was interested in was
money. She said that even I was only doing ministry for the
bucks. She missed by a mile when she asked that question. I told
her that my present ministry was completely voluntary and I
received nothing for my labors.

O’Hare was only a hair short of using four letter words in a
wild retort that lasted so long I thought the DJ was going to
cut her off. In fact only a few words later he did just that. I
have been unable not to notice that in the cases of people I’ve
met who were demon possessed that this same kind of anger always
exists. They curse a lot and think nothing of blaspheming God.
Also worthy of note is that the Bible says the last world leader
who is completely possessed by the Devil cannot speak without
blaspheming God or the people of God. Rev 13:6 KJV

I have been amazed of late that when I mention Madalyn O’Hare to
anyone under twenty one years old; many of them do not know who
she is. In 1964 O’Hare was said to be America’s most hated women
according to Life Magazine. She was hated because she single
handedly managed to get prayers removed from the American public
school system. In the case of, Murray v. Curlet in 1963 O’Hare
won a landmark victory which summarily removed prayer from our
schools. She caught the churches off guard and the best of the
clergy sleeping at the wheel. I have often thought that her
complete victory that was done almost stealthily and with almost
no resistance should be given much study. A comparison can made
to the victories of Adolph Hitler who managed to swing a nation
into the murky waters of the Third Reich, while the church
debated theology, held rummage sales and generally slept until
the water was too dark to see through at all. After that the
responses of the church in Germany fell under the heading of…Too
little, too late.

Perhaps like the turtle who through persistence and a bit of
cunning finally took the lead in that famous fantasy race, Mr.
Roberts may be America’s favorite to win as candidate for the
Supreme Court. For the conservatives he is the top pick but even
the most nervous liberals would have to back up a bit at
Robert’s shining record. Now released to the Senate Judiciary
Committee, is more than 5000 pages of material from the Ronald
Reagan Library on the details of John Roberts government
service. In a memo dated November 21, 1985 Roberts said he was
critical of the decision to halt voluntary prayer in schools and
that such a decision was essentially not mandated by the
Constitution.

The race did not end twenty years ago in the minds of any
Americans. The O’Hare grabbed the lead and if it were not for
side issues in her life (much like the diversions of the hare)
she may still be in the race. Rule are rules and side trips
notwithstanding for the hare the turtle it seems is about to
make a showing. Roberts can’t bring prayer back in single handed
but he is the best scale tipping promise since the race began.

Will voluntary prayer in our schools heal all the problems our
school system now faces? Of course it won’t heal all the
problems. It may start to remove the insult given to the God
that most of us worship. It may help to abate the insult of not
acknowledging God to our most precious gift, our youth. It will
also begin to balance the unwillingness we have had to even
mention him against his willingness to bless us with goods and
materials above any nation in history.

Our newest self appointed enemy, militant Islam doesn’t flinch
when it comes to prayer. Several times throughout the day
Muslims stop everything they are doing to pray. Whether we agree
that the God they pray to really be God at all is another matter
entirely. Their dedication to these prayers should be enough to
shame any Christian, any American. The Senate hearings may be
what lead to the final decision about John Roberts but I submit
that there is at least one thing we can do to help the outcome
of the hearings. It is something we can’t miss again like we did
in the sixties. You guessed it…pray!