“Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says: “Woe to those who call evil good”, but that is exactly what we have done.
- We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.
- We have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it Pluralism.
- We have worshiped other gods and called it multiculturalism.
- We have endorsed perversion and called it alternative lifestyle.
- We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
- We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
- We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
- We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
- We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.
- We have abused power and called it politics.
- We have embezzled public funds and called it essential expenses.
- We have insititutionalised bribery and called it sweets of office.
- We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition.
- We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
- We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us, Oh GOD, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen!”
This prayer burst into the public consciousness back in January of 1996, when the Rev. Joe Wright, senior pastor of the 2,500-member Central Christian Church in Wichita, was invited to deliver the opening prayer at a session of the Kansas House of Representatives.
On that occasion he offered the following “Prayer of Repentance” (which was not entirely of his own crafting but rather was a version of a prayer written in 1995 by Bob Russell, who had offered it at the Kentucky Governor’s Prayer Breakfast in Frankfort):