The Prayer of the Fascist; the Prayer of the Brat

So, apparently the latest legislative session for the Commonwealth of Virgina was opened with a prayer.

The Rev. Debra Peevey, pastor of the Journey of the Heart Ministries in Reston, was invited by Brian Moran, an Alexandria Democrat, to deliver the session’s opening prayer, the Washington Times said Saturday.

“Holy One, convict those who are using their power not to lead or to guide, but to harm gay and lesbian citizens, a small minority within this commonwealth,” she said Friday. “We need to be reminded of what unites us, not pitted against one another. A house divided, you have warned us, cannot stand.”

NRO’s Editor Kathryn Jean Lopez inferred from this prayer that the Reverend, who is apparently a lesbian, was “[praying]against those who presumably are against same-sex unions:”

I have to disagree with Ms. Lopez (not that she’ll care a whit whether some lowly blogger agrees or disagrees with her) because I don’t get that from the prayer. Same sex marriage is not mentioned – that would actually be preferrable to the amorphous, ambiguous charge being leveled that some are out to “harm” gays and lesbians, a charge so ill-defined that it could mean anything, and open up the door to all sorts of interpretation down the road.

What strikes me is that, unless there is more to this prayer than is being reported, this minister is apparently, sadly, a one-note wonder. Charged (one presumes) with praying FOR the lawmakers of her Commonwealth, and the people they are pledged to serve, she excludes all but the “small minority” within whose ranks she herself dwells. Then she calls on the Almighty to come in and get the bad guys the way Commissioner Gordon used to call on Batman.

This is a small, narrow-minded, ungenerous Prayer of the Fascist, a Prayer of the Brat, a Prayer of the Seeker of War. Susan Estrich would have loved it.

I don’t know where (or if) this woman studied, but all of my studies have told me that prayer should be enlarging and charitable, wishing for the GOOD of others, even for those with whom we might disagree.

I really, really hope there was more to the prayer than this angry, unhelpfully bleak offering. If there was, I’d love to see it.

Until I do, I am forced to call this Book 6 in the series of DemoBRATS: Staggering Stories of Surpassing Silliness: Dames Droning Damnation!