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   The Disreputable Bede (badbede@deacon.social)'s status on Sunday, 22-Sep-2024 09:26:47 JST The Disreputable Bede

   I regularly attend our church's Saturday morning prayer meetings. There are many of my old friends there, including my parents. But I walk out when the prayer turns to culture and government. I spend my time in the church library enjoying the wealth of knowledge that past generations have left us. I do so because 1) prayer about those things are very irritating, and 2) I think it's largely a waste of my time.

   The reason is that I believe Christians in America today need to look to the church of the first century and the Jews in exile as examples. In the Bible, I do not see a *single example or teaching* saying that we should pray to God to change secular culture or against government. The examples we do have are Daniel, who served under Babylonian and Persian administrations, and who was part of the government though trying his best to advise the king according to what was right. For example, Daniel 4:27: "Therefore, Your Majesty, be pleased to accept my advice: Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue."

   Another example is Jeremiah, who wrote to the exiles in Babylon to pray for the prosperity of the city they were in (Jeremiah 29). The final teaching is in 1 Timothy 2:1-4 where Paul urges believers to pray for kings and all those in authority for their good!

   Nowhere in scripture are believers taught to pray to God to change culture. I'm sure there were many things that were unbiblical in Babylonian, Persian, and Roman government and the society during those times. But we never see any examples of believers praying to God about those things. It doesn't make those things right, but that's not our focus. Our focus needs to be on witnessing about Christ, sharing the gospel, showing an example by our lives, and making disciples. Any prayer meeting that focuses on these issues I'm totally there for. But I'm not going to waste my time listening to people pray to God about DEI policies, transgender agendas in schools, or for their favored political candidates.

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     Fu (fuat2mb@theres.life)'s status on Sunday, 22-Sep-2024 09:26:47 JST Fu

     in reply to

     @badbede there certainly can be advantages of praying that God's will be done, that political opponents can see Christ in each other's humanity and love them, that our hearts be softened in the face of worldly politics, that we accept results of elections regardless of who wins, but when it turns into "may my candidate win", "may they pass legislation I agree with" etc. it's dangerous for our walk and our witness at the least & may well be idolitry at the worst.