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I've got a friend who is convinced that everything started going downhill in this country when we banned school prayer. This
is a Christian nation, he insists. And we're never going to be truly blessed by God until we return to that original religious
identity.
So I offered a suggestion. I'm a Christian. Let me be in charge of Christianity in Fayetteville. After all, I'm the
Rector of the Episcopal Church here, and we are the descendents of the Established Church if our Mother Country, England.
We're the American version of the Church of England. We know how to be the official church. After all, the National Cathedral
in Washington, D.C. is one of ours. And most of those guys who founded the country were Episcopalians, including the Father
of our Nation, George Washington. If anybody in town ought to be in charge of religion, it's me, I suggested to him.
I could write all of the prayers and morning devotions for the school children. I'll take care of invocations before
all public events. I can develop a curriculum for Bible study in the public schools, and teach the youngsters how to take
the Bible seriously but not literally. That'll be a refreshing change from what some of them have been taught at their churches.
I'll teach them about Sacraments and the Church Year and all of the other great Christian traditions. We'll be a Christian
city. How about that?
My friend doesn't like that idea. He's not Episcopalian. He doesn't much like our church's ways. In fact, his church
ancestors immigrated to this country to get away from my church ancestors. He wants his kind of Christianity to be in charge.
He's Baptist. And, after all, there are more of them than there are of us.
But I don't like that idea. I've had a Baptist minister tell me I'm a heretic and probably going to hell. He meant well,
but I think he's wrong. Nearly every one of the good Episcopal children who go to my church have had one of their friends
try to convince them that their soul is probably condemned unless they come get saved at their Baptist church. My kids feel
oppressed enough already without hearing what bad sinners they are from the school intercom. So unless I'm in charge of public
religion, I'd prefer we keep things the way they are.
As it is, kids pray in school. Especially during math exams. And students can organize their own prayer groups and Bible
study groups if they want to. But Episcopalian teachers can't make Baptist kids sit there and learn about sacraments, and
Baptist teachers can't make Episcopalian kids sit there and be told every word of the Bible is literally true. And Buddhist,
Moslem and atheist kids can go to school and learn in peace.
My friend concedes that I have a point. But, he says, what's wrong with the Ten Commandments being posted in the courtroom
and classroom? After all, that's not just Christian. Everybody agrees with the Ten Commandments. This world would be a
better place if everybody followed the Ten Commandments, he says.
He's right, of course. But I've got another suggestion. What if in some of those courtrooms and classrooms, we replaced
the Ten Commandments with the Nine Buddhist Prayers for Love. I like them a whole lot. Here's a condensed version.
May all be peaceful, happy, and light in body and spirit.
May all be free from injury and live in safety.
May all learn to look at ourselves with the eyes of understanding and love.
May all be able to recognize and touch the seeds of joy and happiness in themselves.
May all learn to identify and see sources of anger, craving, and delusion in themselves.
May all know how to nourish the seeds of joy in themselves every day.
May all be able to live fresh, solid and free.
May all be free from attachment and aversion, but not be indifferent.
I suggested to my friend that the nine might actually be more helpful than the ten, especially in a courtroom or a classroom.
He disagrees with me. We're not Buddhists, he says. Well, some of us are, I say. If you're going to insist that the Ten
Commandments need to be posted in the classroom and courtroom, how can you deny the Nine Buddhist Prayers? The first Amendment
says we're not going to establish one religion above the others.
But he still insists that we're a Christian Nation and we ought to have only Christian symbols in public. In that case,
I think the Episcopalians ought to be in charge. He still doesn't like that.
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