June also brings with it special moments in the lives of many younger people as they end a lengthy educational chapter in their lives. It is the culmination of years of patience, hard work and sometimes a great deal of money spent, especially on the upper end of the educational sphere.
But it seems that every year brings some major controversy when certain top-notch students are chosen to represent their fellow graduates at a planned school ceremony. These are given the title of class valedictorian.
This year there was a fuss at the Riverside School district in Lake City, Arkansas where the administration actually opted to not go through with a sixth grade graduation after a lone parent protested against prayer during the ceremony. In another setting, the president of the 2013 graduating class of Lincoln County High School in Kentucky boldly continued a longstanding tradition of student-led prayer at the school's graduation ceremony despite efforts from at least six students to shut it down. One schoolmate has stated that he may consider legal action.
But one of the more famous controversies this season came when valedictorian Roy Costner IV in South Carolina ripped up his graduation speech and prayed the Lord's Prayer. Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly said that America's Christians have a new hero who symbolically got right into the faces of the secularists who want to keep Jesus out of public schools. Kelly said, "It says something about the country that we live in now that it takes courage for you to recite the Lord's Prayer at a seminal moment in your life."
Any look at early American history shows that the nation itself was born in a prayer meeting. And we all know how prayer is no problem at all, and even encouraged, when any major disaster strikes like the recent tornadoes in Oklahoma. At these moments, even those unfamiliar with any form of prayer seem to try and even covet prayer from those who practice it as a lifestyle. And then of course there is the installation of the nation’s leader in January. It is a national political spectacle that includes prayer and then is followed the next day by an official and massive public prayer meeting in the nation’s capitol. But a simple quoting of the Lord’s prayer at a graduation is unacceptable, distasteful and somehow even dangerous? How utterly silly and beyond hypocritical.
So just what does the Bible suggest concerning prayer as part of the Christian faith? It must be remembered always that prayer cannot be separated from the life of a true child of God. In Philippians 4, we read, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." Then too, 1 Thessalonians 5 states, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."
We also need to note just two clear biblical examples on the subject. In the Old Testament, Daniel was forbidden to pray publicly or privately to God. He boldly ignored the official ruling and was slated for execution for doing so. Most know the end of the story. The God he served and obeyed miraculously delivered him from certain death and thereby made a huge public statement to the people and anti-prayer rulers of that day.
Then in the New Testament we see the story the apostles in Acts 5. They, too, were in hot water for preaching the name of Jesus in public. The passage gives the details. “And the high priest asked them, saying, 'Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man's blood on us!' But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: 'We ought to obey God rather than men.'" Man's law was not to supercede God's no matter what the consequences might bring!
Those who oppose prayer may want to consider some of its obvious benefits. An example would be seen in 1 Timothy chapter 2. "Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence." Prayer tends to support and encourage leaders for good while promoting peace – for all! And if there is a verse to close the issue with it would have to be the one found in James 5:16. "The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."
Perhaps those who protest prayer at America's graduations, or in any other public forums, should reconsider what the fervent prayer of God's righteous people has done for their nation and thus for they themselves! It has helped provide them a lifestyle that is still the envy of the world. It has given them amazing security and nearly unlimited blessings. And it has even provided the rare freedom to protest the results of the Christian-based prayer that has benefited them more than they may ever know.
Maybe they need to go back to school for a time and use the Bible as their text. Maybe they would even discover the purpose, power, promises and prosperity associated with the act of fervent prayer directed to the God upon which their great nation was founded! What a blessed national graduation that would be!
Bill Breckenridge
