PeaceBang reports on a story I hadn’t heard: that Barack Obama prayed at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and, as is customary, placed a written prayer in a crack. Then, as PeaceBang says,
Some schmuck fished the note out of its hole and made its contents public.
Yes, I provided a link, which makes me part of the violation of Senator Obama’s privacy.
And I clicked on the link, which makes me complicit. But the prayer was every bit as lovely as I might have hoped. But, now what? As PeaceBang says:
Do we have a right as citizens to know to Whom or for what our leaders are praying? Or do we merely want to know because we think having this information gives us special insight into the character of the one praying? If the contents of your own prayers were made public, would that make you fit or unfit for office, in your own opinion? [...] Whether [Obama's prayer] was written as the sincere petition of his heart or after some political reflection and consideration we’ll never know.
Which serves us right.
Amen.
NB: From the Huffington Post:
The rabbi in charge of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinovitz, called it an intrusion on Obama’s intimate relationship with God.
“The notes placed between the stones of the Western Wall are between a person and his maker. It is forbidden to read them or make any use of them,” Rabinovitz told Army Radio.
The newspaper’s action “damages the Western Wall and damages the personal, deep part of every one of us that we keep to ourselves,” he added.
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