Thursday, September 30, 2010

LIVES BUILT ON PAST SLAUGHTER

Theologian Stanley Hauerwas makes this note before the following prayer: "I wrote this prayer during the celebration of the five hundredth anniversary of Columbus's 'discovery' of America."

Dear God,
our lives are made possible
by the murders of the past--
civilization is built on slaughters.
Acknowledging our debt to killers
frightens and depresses us.
We fear judging, so we say,
"That's in the past."
We fear to judge because
in so judging we are judged.
Help us, however, to
learn to say no, to say,
"Sinners though we are,
that was wrong and is wrong."
May we do so with love.
Amen