The 6th Annual Mayors Prayer Breakfast is coming up, and along with the annual “Guess who the mystery speaker is” contest, this year the theme of the breakfast is “Prayer, for a time such as this.”
What Happens if Weste loses next week? And is the surprise guest speaker a Pentecostal?
Now in the past I’ve cast a skeptical eye at the MPB, especially when they invited Ralph “Women Belong in the Kitchen!!1!!” Drollinger a few years ago.
But things have changed. And my heart has softened.
Alas, Santa Clarita is in indeed in a “time such as this.” So, in lieu of the City’s forthcoming PraySCV.com campaign, I’ve decided to write a prayer for my city.
O God! My God.
We are a troubled people Lord. For many seasons, you bestowed your grace and blessings on our people.Vehicles sold. Homes were raised, then sold. Money changed hands. Mighty ridgelines and Oak trees fell before the rumbling plow.
And lo, the people saw our bounty, and they came to us. Yay, Lord, they wanted to be us.
But Lord, you have forsaken us. In our present distress, we see empty dwellings,vacant businesses, and auto row is overgrown with weeds, as if in the wilderness.
Our river runs dry, our aqueduct is salted, and our hills burn with fire in the hot season.
Our people, once upright and blameless, now visit massage parlors and hire illegal aliens, oh Lord. And they greedily hoard their money instead of sharing it in our marketplace. Or they forsake us and shop in other communities, robbing the coin due to us.
Oh heavenly Father, restore us to our past glory. Shower Your prosperity and grace down upon us so that we might build a mighty empire of single family houses and vehicle-friendly strip malls from here to the sea, in Your name. Give us O Lord sales activity on Creekside, so that Your City coffers might be filled once again. Make real estate a worthy profession again, O Lord, so that we may fund many Charity balls with windfall profits. Make ostentation a virtue again, O God, that we might show off your generosity and favor with Hummer H2s and Porsche Cayennes. May our children, and our children’s children, enjoy a thousand promotion ceremonies, oh Lord. Protect us Father from high density developments, out-of-town developers, mass transit and Global Warming legislation.
Do not turn your face away from us O Lord. In our hour of need, hear our prayer.
Sincerely,
Santa Clarita
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Oh spare us from such self serving nonsense like this prayer bs.
Ask an altar boy if prayer worked for him. Although it seems to work for the pedophile priests and the coverups.
Now get back to work and pray on your own time!
I’m gonna pray for you Brian.
I’m gonna think for you Olenka.
Religion is ridiculous! Gotta love how it’s mixed so conveniently with politics here in SCV. Now go ahead and censor this atheistic post if you must.
Mmmmmm, are they gonna have pancakes?
No. Manna bread.
Sorry, I’ve been corrected: Banana Manna bread.
Yummmmm, Banana Manna Bread sounds delicious! 0:-)
Jeff, I think that should be declared the official prayer of Awesometown!
And why not put it on a plaque and hang it in the City Council Chambers?
Yeah, that’s the ticket!
Now . . put . . . the keyboard down . . . walk away from the computer . . atta boy . . deep breaths . .
I’m curious how TBB, Katz, Gauny and Harrison feel about this MPB.
First one to denounce this as a seperations issue gets my vote!
1. “Katz” and “Harrison” refers to the same individual: Harrison Katz.
2. There have been many days of prayer established throughout America’s history. Shockingly, the nation has managed to endure. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Day_of_Prayer). But if only you had been around to tell John Adams, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, and Barack Obama that they were being unconstitutional for endorsing prayer, I’m sure our nation would be a much better place. (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-easter-prayer-breakfast)
Thanks for fighting against the greatest threat to Santa Clarita–prayer.
My bad with Katz.
Now just say HELL NO! on religious intrusion into government!
Why should I support religion which is a fairy tale when the religious conservatives won’t support the most basic human needs of health care, which is a very real problem? Shove that in a tea bag!
I have enough time to fight any and all threats to SCV, thanks for noting that. What if the MPB was a Muslim, Wiccan or other belief you don’t believe in? Of course you will say the MPB is multi-denominational to which I reply, BS! Just make it Islam and see what happens!
Alahu Akhbar?
“What if the MPB was a Muslim, Wiccan or other belief you don’t believe in? Of course you will say the MPB is multi-denominational to which I reply, BS! Just make it Islam and see what happens!”
It is multi-denominational. Sadly, writing “BS” can’t undo that fact (marvelous attempt at an argument, BTW). And if there was a Muslim prayer or something like that, I’m sure there might be a few people shaking their heads and muttering, but most would just sit quietly and allow the faithful to make their observance. As these events, they usually go out of their way to get people from mutliple faiths.
It shouldn’t be part of our governing body. Prayer is personal. Government is not.
My religion is BBQ. Can we include that, too?
“Why should I support religion which is a fairy tale when the religious conservatives won’t support the most basic human needs of health care, which is a very real problem? Shove that in a tea bag!”
Brilliant.
Clearly, prayer breakfasts are not just a Santa Clarita thing. Removing the apostrophe from the title of Mayor seems to have cooled things down a bit, though, because the praying seems less attached to the position of Mayor without that pesky apostrophe.
TBB said he’d BRB with his opinion on the MPB.
Do you think they would mind if I showed up and prayed using “Allah” instead of capital G god? That might be fun.
agreed
Prayer is personal. Government is not.
How exactly is government NOT personal?
Government is for the masses. Do I really have to clarify that?
Weste needs to start using an up to date photo.
Is Obama the surprise guest, maybe reverend Wright.
Nah. It’s probably going to be someone not as exciting. Like McKeon.
Jeff,
Loved the prayer. Never been much of a believer in prayer… but I might start now. Thanks to you.
Gee, the silhouette on the right in the flier looks like a man standing at a urinal…
Saying; hold it I need to zip my pants.
HAHAHA!
Where are the Bob Kellar critics who felt that he should have announced that he was not operating on behalf of the City for an event? Shouldn’t the same logic apply here?
Maybe you could wait for the event to actually happen. It would be a bit premature for Mayor Weste to say “I will not be speaking as a City Official but for myself on May 6, 2010.”
CC – Yes, and this comes up every year when the city folk are included.
All made better by the deletion of the apostrophe, right?
So now “Mayors” is plural, not possessive. How many mayors are typically in attendence?
We have only one mayor in thei valley, so when you put the mayor’s name in it, it is clearly an associationwith the City.
If it was “Leadership Breakfast” or some other term more descriptive of the invitatino to all local leaders, then it would not be nearly so controversial.
No one would reasonably begrudge a mayor’s attendance; it’s the implied sponsorship that crosses the “establishemnt” doctrine boundary in many people’s minds.
One could say it’s a meeting of Special Interests and by promotion, by not attending, you could be hurting your chances of getting a city contract or other jobs from the attendees.
Religion used to identify for favor. If that’s not wrong then what is?