Occupy Washington protesters have been camping on US Park Service property for the past four months. They littered and trashed the park. They urinated and defecated all over it. They even defaced public property and nearby buildings.
But few arrests were ever made.
However, let a group of six religious leaders kneel and pray in front of the White House, only to have Obama’s Gestapo-like US Park Police swoop down like vultures on a fresh kill and carry the men off to jail. From being on their knees in front of the presidential palace, the peaceful protesters were charged with failure to obey a lawful order. After being booked, they each paid a fine of $100 and then were released.
Father Wilde of Priests for Life and Rev Pat Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition organized the prayer meeting in front of the White House to follow up on the lawsuit that Priests for Life filed against the Obama administration to put a stop to the contraceptive mandate.
Speaking to a reporter, Father Wilde said,
“Occupy Wall Street protesters have been occupying federal property for months, but when we kneel in prayer, the police are called in and we are arrested.
“We knew that was the risk when we gathered today, and we will do it again regardless of the risk. What people of faith – of every faith – need to do now is stand with us.”
America has had presidents and other political leaders lead prayers from the steps of various public buildings. There is a chaplain in both the US House and US Senate and supposedly, the President has at least one spiritual adviser. In the US Capitol Building, there is a room that was set aside by the 83rd Congress as a room to be used for prayer and meditation by members of Congress. In that room is a beautiful stained glass window of George Washington on his knees in prayer.
When the first Congress of the United Statesmet onSeptember 7, 1774, it began with prayer. On that morning, Congress was very concerned aboutGreat Britain’s recent attack onBoston. Reverend Jacob Duché, Rector of Christ Church of Philadelphia, was summoned to lead the opening prayers. He first read Psalm 35, after which John Adams stated in a letter to his wife: “I never saw a greater effect upon an audience. It seemed as if Heaven had ordained that Psalm to be read on the morning.” Then rather than read a general prayer as was commonly done, Reverend Duché broke into extemporaneous prayer.
First we have prayer banned from the public schools and many other governmental arenas. Now we have people being arrested for openly praying on public property in front of one of the most revered bastions of America’s freedom. Only those freedoms have been revoked and people are no longer allowed to follow the examples of our Founding Fathers. And if those Founding Fathers like George Washington saw America today, not only would they be on their knees praying, but I’m sure they would also be shedding tears over what they see.
