Offering Prayer to God for Our Political Leaders Has Always Been an American Custom
            To the modern utilitarian mindset, the proposal seems a bit absurd.  Pray?  For the state government to act?
            But that has always been a custom for leaders of our country, including Thomas Jefferson, the man who is quoted ad nauseum as being in staunch opposition.
            One of the first such events in our nation’s infancy was Thomas Jefferson’s appeal for the colonies to pray against King George’s Boston Port Act.    He coined the phrase “wall of separation” between church and state, but he also advocated in 1774 that everyone pray that the government of the day (in this case, the English monarchy) rescind its ruling concerning Boston.  A direct result of Jefferson’s call to prayer for Massachusetts was the rallying of patriots for the founding of the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia.
            Here in our own state, there are more examples.  Samuel Adams not only was a member of the first Continental Congress, but was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, also part of the state group that ratified the US Constitution, as well as serving as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts and then Governor of Massachusetts.    Acting in that capacity in 1795, he issued a proclamation that everyone in the state should pray that “[God] would direct the administration of our Federal and State Governments, so that the lives, liberties and property of all the Citizens, and the just rights of the People, as Men and Citizens, may be forever acknowledged, and at all times defended.”  Of particular concern at the time were the negative cultural influences that were bleeding over to the New World from the anarchistic French revolution.         
          Samuel Adam’s proclamation went on to implore that God would “enable Legislators and Magistrates of this Commonwealth, to discharge the important duties incumbent on them.”  At the present moment, we are in desperate need again of legislators and judges in this state who will indeed act upon what is right and just.  Too long we have all settled for politicians who do only that is politically expedient. 
            Today, there is a vacuum when it comes to moral, principled leadership in the executive offices on every level of government.  In the absence of great men like Samuel Adams and Thomas Jefferson, we must extend our efforts in their spirit to again call people to pray for our government leaders, and to give them wisdom and courage in these challenging times.
            It is no coincidence that when people do respond to a sincere call to pray, society ultimately changes for the better.  Jefferson’s declaration for prayer directly led to the establishment of the First Continental Congress, and Samuel Adam’s proclamation marks the leading edge of the Second Great Awakening in the United States.  We expectantly hope that when people do respond, we likewise experience a renewal of righteousness in our society.