Every year, the Central Christian Church in Wichita, Kan., has \u201cRepentance Sunday\u201d and seeks God\u2019s forgiveness.<\/p>\n\n
During a period of meditation, worshippers are asked to write their sins on pieces of paper. Then everyone goes to the front of sanctuary, where the notes are burned in urns.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always a very moving service,\u201d said the Rev. Joe Wright, who leads the 3,000-member congregation. \u201cTossing your sins into the flames is something that really touches you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
This year, \u201cRepentance Sunday\u201d began a chain reaction that touched America. Wright was still thinking about the service the next day when a church member who is a Kansas legislator asked him to pray at the capitol, since the pastor was going to Topeka for hearings on gambling. By the way, he was told, please bring a copy of your prayer for the records.<\/p>\n\n
So Wright wrote a few lines and, as the legislature opened on Tuesday, Jan. 23, he bowed his head, read the prayer and then handed it over. He doesn\u2019t remember receiving any strange looks at the time, but a newspaper reporter did ask some questions hours later. As Wright drove home, his car phone rang and the church secretary bluntly asked: \u201cWhat have you done?\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The easy answer is that he read a prayer about sin. The complicated answer is that Wright jumped into America\u2019s tense debate about whether some things are always right and some things are always wrong.<\/p>\n\n
His prayer said, in part: \u201cHeavenly Father \u2026 we confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of your word and called it moral pluralism. We have worshipped other gods and called it multi-culturalism. We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have neglected the needy and called it self- preservation. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Wright\u2019s staff stopped counting telephone calls after the first 6,500 and he still gets dozens each day. He has heard from all 50 states and many foreign countries. He has been on dozens of radio shows and the subject of numerous TV and print news reports. The prayer has been read in other legislatures, causing everything from quiet applause to loud jeers.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI thought I might get a call from an angry congressman or two,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I was talking to God, not them. The whole point was to say that we all have sins that we need to repent \u2014 all of us. \u2026 The problem, I guess, is that you\u2019re not supposed to get too specific when you\u2019re talking about sin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Wright said he didn\u2019t try to aim to the left or right or consciously try to fire both ways. A major theme in his preaching, he said, is that \u201cpeople who think either political party is going to solve this country\u2019s real problems are dreaming. \u2026 Politicians aren\u2019t big on absolute truths, these days.\u201d If he had an agenda, it was to pray about the sins he sees daily in ministries linked to the inner city, suburban families, crisis pregnancies, sexual confusion and other hot issues.<\/p>\n\n
That\u2019s what he was thinking about as he wrote: \u201cWe have killed our unborn and called it choice,\u201d \u201cshot abortionists and called it justifiable,\u201d \u201cneglected to discipline our children and called it building esteem,\u201d \u201cabused power and called it political savvy\u201d and \u201ccoveted our neighbors\u2019 possessions and called it ambition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Whether he intended to or not, Wright has become a symbolic figure in an election year that will almost certainly focus on issues of morality and character. He also lives in Kansas.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cNo, I haven\u2019t heard from \u2026 anybody close to Bob Dole,\u201d he said. \u201cIf they asked me to pray at the Republican convention, I guess I\u2019d say `yes.\u2019 I\u2019d be glad to pray at the Democratic convention, but I\u2019d be rather surprised if they asked me to. \u2026 Truth is, I\u2019ll pray anywhere I\u2019m asked to pray, so long as people don\u2019t try to tell me what I can pray.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Every year, the Central Christian Church in Wichita, Kan., has \u201cRepentance Sunday\u201d and seeks God\u2019s forgiveness. During a period of meditation, worshippers are asked to write their sins on pieces of paper. Then everyone goes to the front of sanctuary, where the notes are burned in urns. \u201cIt\u2019s always a very moving service,\u201d said the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n