Prayer at Political Conventions

International Religious Liberty Association · Chicago, Illinois · Jul 19, 1900

FromThe American Sentinel, The Sentinel of Liberty, Vol. 15, No. 28.

Prayer at Political Conventions

“While a minister was offering public prayer at the opening of the great political convention on July 4,” says the Michigan Christian Advocate, “a strong band came marching into the hall with every instrument tooting or clanging. The worldly methods are noisy, and too often drown the contemplative moods. This is true in the case of all men. In this special instance it was a great pity that the devotional moments of skilled politicians should be at all shortened. They are all too brief already in every party.”

We don’t want to discourage prayer, but if there is a place where it is utterly inappropriate that place is a political convention. There is no more reason why a political convention should be opened with prayer than that the polls should be opened by prayer. The idea that “skilled politicians” feel any true devotion at such a time, except devotion to party, is absurd.