The Church of England has published a prayer for people to use in the run-up to the UK’s General Election on Thursday, but not everyone is saying, “Amen.”
A prayer for the 2019 General Election.#GE2019
Visit https://t.co/6ILdDUUyJB for an accessible version. pic.twitter.com/aceYEBMOmd
— The Church of England (@churchofengland) November 6, 2019
The offending phrase appears to be, “as we discover your will for our country,” which some object promotes the view that the General Election will be directly decided by the will of God, and that the winner (widely projected to be Boris Johnson) will be able to claim to have been divinely appointed, prompting calls for the prayer to be withdrawn and rewritten.
Jesus told us to be childlike, but this is just infantile. Why should a GE result reveal God’s will? Who writes this nonsense? Unuseable, and will rightly be pilloried by the public. #theologyunbecoming @maggidawn @RevRachelMann @MichaelSadgrove @cmrpemberton @GrahamRKings https://t.co/rgiXnbBaze
— Jeremy Pemberton (@canonjpemberton) December 10, 2019
Commenters have noted that throughout the Bible, the will of the people has often been shown to be at odds with the will of God. Which holds sway in a democratic election?