“The Hit Dogs”

John Schmidt

1/29/04

There is an old saying “It’s the hit dog that yelps.” That certainly proved true this week in another of those controversial prayers given before a state legislature by someone who had the courage to speak the truth regardless of its unpopularity – or the consequences.

The dogs began to yelp before the sound of State Rep. Doug Quelland ‘s voice had ceased reverberating in the chamber of the Arizona House, when he opened the session last Monday. The Phoenix lawmaker uttered a prayer that plowed no new ground in the minds of the vast majority of the people, but it drew immediate fire from the House Democrats. The content of the prayer has been circulating on the Internet ever since Pastor Joe Wright addressed the Kansas House of Representatives in 1996. The U.S. House of Representatives was treated to a similar prayer in 2003.

Here are a few excerpts from the prayer:

"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 neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.

"We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.

For the most part, the prayer contains a wide-ranging collection of common and succinct observations that resonate strongly with the majority of us because they scathingly point out truths we all know, but seldom speak out loud. Someone might be offended.

It also constitutes a virtual litany of that social pathology the Democrats call a “party platform.”

Certain elements in the House immediately filed an angry protest, even though no specific political individuals were named, nor political parties identified. It seems that the simple moral observations made in the prayer about our national hypocrisy was enough to ignite a controversy.

Interestingly, the Democrats were the only ones who flew into a rage. If the things that stir us up are any outward indication of what fills our hearts, then their reaction exposed them as the supporters and sponsors of that Public Hypocrisy enumerated in the prayer far more effectively than had the speaker actually named the individuals or party.

They might have been a little more covert about their displeasure, but the “hit dogs” just yelped without any thought that they were waving a red flag over their camp and saying, “that prayer is about us!”

The protest they filed shows how thoroughly they reject the prayer’s confession. They called it “disrespectful,” “divisive,” “a mudslinging, name-calling political statement,” and “hateful and mean-spirited.” Read the elements of the prayer yourself and imagine which statements provoked such spluttering rage.

They also charged “The citizens…deserve better.” That is certainly true. The citizens really do deserve better than the mayhem that has been served up in the name of good leadership by the same types that protested the prayer.

In my opinion, the final indignity occurred during the invocation when the speaker closed with the name “Jesus Christ.” For, instead of being embedded in a curse, dropped from the tongue in some condescending or dismissive manner, or simply omitted (to avoid offense) - it was uttered publicly, solemnly, and sincerely. “We will not have this man to rule over us!” (Luke 19:14)

The “Hit dogs” really do yelp. They yelped when the truth hit them in a prayer. Would to God that more people would throw off the fear engendered by Political Correctness and simply expose the lies, and the liars, for what they are.