That’s Not Billy Graham’s Prayer

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on February 17, 2009

More than a few e-mails have been flying around since last fall claiming to be Billy Graham’s prayer for our nation. The prayer includes lines like:

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem.
We have abused power and called it politics.
We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.

It’s a powerful prayer. But it’s not Billy Graham’s prayer. More than a few folks have debunked it, including Snopes, Truth or Fiction, Trans World News, Bible Belt Blogger and more. It’s actually a 1996 prayer that pastor Joe Wright gave to open a session of the Kansas House of Representatives (and he based it on a 1995 prayer by Bob Russell).