Parliament's Prayer

Exposing the Curse

In New Zealand the Parliament opens its sessions with a prayer.  The text is as follows:

Almighty God, humbly acknowledging our need for Thy guidance in all things, and laying aside all private and personal interests, we beseech Thee to grant that we may conduct the affairs of this House and of our country to the glory of Thy holy name, the maintenance of true religion and justice, the honour of the Queen, and the public welfare, peace, and tranquillity of New Zealand, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Every so often politicians raise the question of dumping this prayer in favour of one that reflects more comprehensively the beliefs and commitments of the majority of the population.  A Green MP, Gareth Hughes is the latest, writing on his blog:

Speaking in my personal capacity, I think it’s time to have a discussion around it.  Like many Kiwis and MPs I am not a Christian and I don’t think the prayer reflects the rich and varied religious and spiritual life in New Zealand in 2013. To me, it’s an issue of having Parliament – the representatives of the people of New Zealand – actually reflect the people of New Zealand rather than only one religious group. We should have an inclusive ceremonial opening that all kiwis can feel comfortable with, whatever their faith.

So what would a prayer which reflected the "rich and varied religious and spiritual life of New Zealand in 2013" actually look like.
  The Greens of course would want to pray to Gaia.  The Maori Party, one presumes, would want to pray to the spirits of ancestors.  But for the rest?  The vast majority of MP's are either deists or agnostic or atheistic materialists. 

We imagine that the deists would like a prayer that ran something like this:

Great god. You have created everything and set it running like clockwork.  You have gone away and are not interested in anything we humans do or say.  You most certainly do not want to interfere in our affairs.  Thank you for your studied absence.  We apologise for using your name all the time in our speech, exclamations, and curses which just goes to show how stupid we are and how we need to grow up.  We believe that the universe operates according to abstract laws, rules and principles.  We will try to follow them in this Parliament if we only knew what they were.  We know that you don't care either way.  We are on our own.  Have a good day.  Bye.  Amen.

The agnostics would be happy with any prayer--including the one above--as long as they could add at the end, "We have no idea whether anything we have just said is true or has any meaning at all. Amen." 

The atheists would want a prayer that would come the closest to our actual political religion which is the worship of Power. 

There is no deity nor morality nor ethics.  There is only brute power.  Parliament is the most powerful institution in the land and so we adore it. We offer our devotion.  We worship this holy place.  Here we get to act like the mythical ancient gods of the past.  We do not pray to another.  We pray to ourselves.  We are it.  Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac and we are madly in love. We get to decide everything for ourselves and convenience.  We get to decide who lives and dies.  We determine for ourselves, at our pleasure, what is right and wrong.  And the people bow and pray--to us.  How cool is that.  Amen.

This is truly the established religion of our nation.  We fervently hope that all the pretence and hypocrisy will eventually be stripped away and that the atheist prayer will become the invocation of Parliament.  At the very least it would resonate in the hearts of the vast majority of our countrymen. It would reflect "the rich and varied religious and spiritual life in New Zealand in 2013" which is neither rich, nor varied.  It would also accurately reflect what almost all parliamentarians and politicians actually believe in their hearts. 

It would make manifest the curse that lies upon our land.