School Prayer 
School Prayer Timmy was nervous. Today, it would be his turn to lead the class in prayer and he still had no idea what he would say. Other kids spent hours, some even days, reading the bible, looking for verses to include in their prayer. Timmy had done none of that. The mere thought turned his stomach.
The bus
pulled up to the school and stopped to let the children out. A million thoughts ran
through his mind. Most of them about how to get out of this dread assignment. Few, about
what to say.
Timmy entered his classroom, his stomach in a knot, his hands all sweaty.
The bell rang. Today it seemed shorter than normal. The class rose to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. That seemed shorter too.
The children all sat back down. Timmy broke out in a cold sweat. He tried to think of some way to fake his own death when the teacher said "Timmy, would you please lead us in prayer now?"
With no time left to think, Timmy started "Dearest satan…" 
"Timmy!" the teacher screeched. 
"Satan is evil! We don’t pray to
him. We pray to god."
"But, I was going to ask satan to be good."
"Satan won’t be good. He’s evil. Praying to him won’t change that." argued the teacher.
"Maybe he’ll change if we ask nicely" Timmy replied.
"No, Timmy. Satan won’t listen to your prayers. No matter how nice they are."
"How do you know? Have you ever tried?"
"Timmy, lead us in a prayer to god. The one true god. The god that loves everyone, even you. Or, would you rather go have a chat with the principal?"
The thought of seeing the principal didn’t seem quite as bad as having to lead the class in this infernal prayer, but, Timmy thought, he’d probably end up having to do both if he didn’t pray to god now. No matter how much the thought sickened him, he had no choice. He’d have to lead the class in a prayer to god.
Timmy bent his head. He closed his eyes. He tried not to think about what he was saying. He heard the prayer almost as if another student were leading it. "Dear god," he said "we have many problems here on Earth. My dog died last week and my brother scratched one of my favorite records. But that’s not what I want to talk to you about. Those problems of mine are minor compared to some of the problems other people suffer from."
"My grandfather died almost three years ago. He had cancer. It was a long slow painful death. Towards the end, he could barely speak. He spent the last two months in a hospital with tubes in his nose and veins. People shouldn’t have to suffer like that."
"I thought Grandma would never stop crying. She did, of course. At least on the outside. She was never really the same after Grandpa’s death. In a way, I think it was a relief when she died last January. At least her death was quick and painless. She just went to bed one night and didn’t wake up the next morning. Still, people shouldn’t have to suffer like that"
"As much as I hate what happened to my grandparents, these problems are still minor compared to those that some other people suffer from. Last week a bomb exploded in Northern Ireland. A married couple was killed, among others, leaving three orphaned children. Worse yet, in that plane crash yesterday, a three year old’s mother was killed. His father was already dead. So now he’ll also have to grow up as an orphan. An orphan that can’t walk that is. His left leg was crushed in the crash. God, people shouldn’t have to suffer like that."
"Still, as bad as all that was, there are still people that suffer even more. Over in Africa, there are people starving. Their crops have failed because they haven’t had enough rain. Meanwhile, in India, people have died, or lost their crops due to floods. They’ve had too much rain. Many of these people also suffer from diseases and parasites. They suffer from a lack of suitable drinking water and poor sanitation. Many of them don’t even have enough energy to swat flies away from their face. Please god, people shouldn’t have to suffer like that."
"And so god, it is for these people that I pray; the people who are dieing slow agonizing deaths; the people who have lost a loved one and see no further purpose to life; the people who’ve lost both parents and are now going to have to grow up as orphans; the people who’ve lost the use of limbs in accidents; the people who are starving due to drought or floods or plague or pestilence; them and everyone else that is suffering. I pray for all of them. God, people shouldn’t have to suffer. I pray that you end all the suffering in the world. All the suffering everywhere. You are supposed to be all powerful, so surely you could do that, couldn’t you?"
"In fact, if you cannot end all suffering, I offer you myself. End all the suffering that other people experience and transfer that suffering to me. I won’t like it, but at least I would have the satisfaction of knowing that I had done something good for humanity."
"Of course you won’t do that will you? The world will go on suffering and you’ll do nothing about it. So I guess that instead of wasting our time praying to you, we ought to, instead use our time and energy looking for solutions."
"If I’m right about this, please give me a sign. Do what you've always done. Nothing."
"Amen, " concluded Timmy.
The teacher looked upset. She took a moment to compose herself and then finally said, "Timmy, you need to spend more time reading the bible. Apparently, you know nothing of god’s love. You blame god for all the evil of the world, but give him no credit for the good in the world."
Timmy said nothing. He was just glad the prayer was over.
The teacher continued, "Obviously you’ve learned nothing of god’s love. You will not be leading the class in prayer again."
Timmy should have felt relieved about that, but he didn’t. Instead he just wondered why his teacher insisted on calling god good when he does nothing to end suffering. Give god credit for every good thing that ever happens everywhere and that still does not justify his lack of effort to end suffering.
So why does god allow all that suffering? Timmy wasn’t sure before he started his prayer. But now, he thought he knew the answer. In his prayer he learned the truth which had escaped his teacher. There is suffering in this world because that’s just the way it is. The world wasn’t made for humans and there is no god looking out for us. We just have to work to end our problems and leave our superstitions behind.
Last updated on Monday, January 08, 2007.
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