Spirituality Essay:

Prayer for those of the Right and the Left ( April 2006 )

(This month we offered a prayer written by Rev. Dennis Daniel and Rev. Sydney Wilde, Co-Ministers of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Reston, Virginia.)

Prayer for those of the Right

For projecting evil on those who appear different,
    We ask forgiveness.

For ignoring the pain which our economic and social policies inflict on others,
    We ask forgiveness.

For resorting to war as a path to power and control,
    We ask forgiveness.

For ignoring the rights of innocent people in the name of security,
    We ask forgiveness.

For allowing our fears to overcome our most fundamental values as Americans,
    We ask forgiveness.

Prayer for those of the Left

For blaming our leaders for the actions of others,
    We ask forgiveness.

For our self-righteousness and oversimplification of the complexities of political realities,
    We ask forgiveness.

For our resistance to any kind of check on our freedoms as a cost of security,
    We ask forgiveness.

For our failure to recognize the existence of evil as an active principle in human endeavors,
    We ask forgiveness.

For our failure to speak out in the face of public opinion, forgive all of us our sins and judgements,
O Spirit of forgiveness, pardon us, and grant us atonement.

Amen.

This is one in a series of essays on spirituality. The rest are written by Rick Childs, lay leader of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of the Mendocino Coast. You may want to:
Read more Spirituality Essays
Read more about Rick Childs
Read more about the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of the Mendocino Coast.

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