Public prayer is a good start

What good does a moment of silence do, in contrast to a prayer to God? Fence Post writer Theodore Utchen prefers silence. Regarding the shooting victims in Tuscon, he thinks God acted arbitrarily in allowing some victims to die while others lived and yet others went uninjured. And he sees no point in praying for the victims after they died. “These tragedies happen because they happen...,” he said. In short, Utchen has no use for God.

I do recognize that a moment of silence shows respect to the families and friends of the victims. A demonstration of respect and compassion is a moral obligation among those who believe in God. However, a moment of prayer shows more. It shows our humility before God. It shows our utter powerlessness over our lives and events, even though our natural inclination toward pride makes us think that we can control everything through the sheer exertion of will.

The prayer shows our submission to God and his law. Without such submission, a just and orderly society is impossible. Those who refuse to submit present a danger to their fellow men, because nothing constrains their behavior. They answer to no one and do as they want. The only moral problem such persons face is the prospect of getting caught.

This moral submission is especially important for public servants because the public must have faith that they will honor their oaths of office. Persons who submit to no moral authority except their own, do not have to honor anything, not any man-made law, not their oaths and, certainly, not the U.S. Constitution.

Public servants have enormous power our lives. They can destroy an entire economy with a few strokes of a pen. We do not need them to think that they can do what they want. Public prayer makes for a good start.

George Kocan

Warrenville