My Prayer

I first gave this prayer at the Oklahoma State AFL-CIO Convention in 2005

God of all humankind, God of many names, honored in many ways.

Your prophet Amos told the people of his nation, "Hear this, O ye who swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail. . . . I will turn your feasts to mourning and your songs to lamentations.

As your prophets long ago called their nation to repent of their sins against your justice, may our nation in our time hear your prophetic voice call us to repentance.

Lord forgive us.

For we have failed to pay too many workers a livable wage so that they and their families must live in poverty in our land of wealth and plenty.

We have treated health care, not as the right it is, but as a commodity for our profit, so that now 40% of all American companies offer no health benefits at all for their employees because employers cannot afford to do so.

We have denied the workers of this great land their right to free association by allowing those in power to harass and intimidate workers who wish to form unions, even to the point of denying them their constitutional right to organize at all.

We have denied our fellow Americans their right to dignity. For Lord, when we try to call human rights, "special rights", we merely seek to justify our fears and excuse our exploitations.

Lord, forgive us for our sins, for we have truly done what we ought not to have done, but, what is worse, we have left undone those things that we ought to have done. May we not grow weary in our labors to bring about your justice and mercy to our land. For in these times, your work must truly be our own.

Amen