{"id":258,"date":"2010-07-22T05:00:28","date_gmt":"2010-07-22T11:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=258"},"modified":"2010-07-22T05:00:28","modified_gmt":"2010-07-22T11:00:28","slug":"spanish-prayer-not-welcome-in-utah-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=258","title":{"rendered":"Spanish Prayer Not Welcome in Utah Town"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Pastors\u00a0who\u00a0cannot offer\u00a0their prayers in English\u00a0will be\u00a0barred from praying at public events in the Utah town of Hyrum.\u00a0 Town officials, who invited a local pastor to pray at a city-sponsored Independence Day event this past July 4th<\/a>, have been inundated with calls to City Hall demanding their resignations.\u00a0 Even though the pastor’s Spanish-language prayer was simultaneously translated into English, some of the good citizens of Hyrum apparently think that God only hears us when we pray in English.\u00a0 Good grief!<\/p>\n

As an Anglo, English-only speaking pastor in New Mexico, where I am in the minority<\/a>, I have perhaps become more sensitive to cross-cultural issues, particularly when these issues intersect with the faith community.\u00a0\u00a0While the congregation I serve is predominantly\u00a0white, non-Hispanic,\u00a0 our church has an ethnically diverse staff and membership.\u00a0 The community where I live, Alamogordo–home to Holloman Air Force Base<\/a> and White Sands National Monument <\/a>–is an ethnic melting pot, with\u00a0Hispanic (Mexican), Anglo, Native American (Apache), and German residents\u00a0working and living side-by-side.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

As a Southern Baptist pastor in the state, I have been\u00a0able to\u00a0meet and get to know several of the\u00a0Spanish-language pastors who serve churches\u00a0throughout the\u00a0Land of Enchantment.\u00a0 I appreciate their\u00a0love for the Lord and their love for\u00a0New Mexico and the United States.<\/p>\n

On multiple occasions, I have attended meetings\u00a0where a Spanish-language pastor was called on to offer the\u00a0opening or closing prayer.\u00a0 Even though most in attendance spoke only English\u00a0or very limited Spanish (I wish I could say my Spanish was\u00a0limited, but that would be a gross exaggeration), no\u00a0one\u00a0was (or is)\u00a0offended when the Spanish-speaking brother prays in his native language.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

When I hear someone pray in a tongue other\u00a0than English, I am reminded\u00a0that we serve a God who\u00a0is not limited to hearing our prayers in only one language.\u00a0\u00a0God, who is the Creator of all, will one day hear the singing of a new song:<\/p>\n

You are worthy to take the\u00a0 scroll,\u00a0And to open it seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe<\/strong> and tongue<\/strong> and people <\/strong>and nation<\/strong>, And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.\u00a0\u00a0 Revelation 5:9-10<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For those residents of Hyrum, Utah who were offended by a Spanish prayer and who have made it clear that English is the official prayer language of their town, I would simply remind them that God welcomes prayer in any language where He lives.\u00a0 And the sooner they\u00a0realize this truth, the better!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pastors\u00a0who\u00a0cannot offer\u00a0their prayers in English\u00a0will be\u00a0barred from praying at public events in the Utah town of Hyrum.\u00a0 Town officials, who invited a local pastor to pray at a city-sponsored Independence Day event this past July 4th, have been inundated with calls to City Hall demanding their resignations.\u00a0 Even though the pastor’s Spanish-language prayer was simultaneously…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[494,504,925,1045],"class_list":["post-258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-holloman-air-force-base","tag-hyrum-utah","tag-spanish-prayer","tag-white-sands-national-monument"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-4a","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}