Prayerful Politics
Prayers at Utah's Capitol often are milquetoast affairs where lay clergy from the state's dominant religion -- often the lawmakers themselves -- improvise as they go along.
But the daily supplication for guidance gets interesting when the professionals -- Jewish cantors and rabbis, Episcopal priests -- or even perceptive schoolchildren speak to a mostly oblivious audience.
Earlier this session, Rabbi Tracee Rosen, a lesbian, quoted Biblical verses from Leviticus -- not the part that is widely interpreted as a repudiation of gay sex, but the part about extending hospitality to strangers. The Rev. Lee Shaw, from St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in West Valley City, made a reference to "all sexual identities" a few weeks ago.
And Cantor Laurence Loeb, from Congregation Kol Ami, quoted from Ecclesiastes last Friday, noting King Solomon's 3,000-year-old kvetch on business as usual:
"If you see . . . oppression of the poor and suppression of rights and justice, do not wonder at that fact, for one high official is protected by a higher one, and both of them by still higher ones."
Loeb continued to hit close to home reminding lawmakers nothing erodes public confidence "more than the representatives of the people acting primarily in their own best interests, concerned more about re-election, pleasing powerful interests . . . at the cost of their own integrity and the expense of the greater good."
But the most pointed "reverence" of the session came from a Franklin Elementary School teacher. An English-learner class -- where white students were the minority -- read a statement they had written, urging lawmakers to protect Utah's quality of life and respect diversity.
Then teacher Edna Ehlringer noted she and most of her students learned to speak English as a second language. Franklin Elementary is a Title I school in the Salt Lake City School District. Ehlringer left her job as an administrator at Olympus High School to work at the west-Salt Lake school.
"Please take a minute and look amongst yourselves."
Lawmakers paused for a moment and pretended to look at their white colleagues.
"I want you to reach forward," Ehlringer said. "Look at the children in front of you because they are our future. They will take the light. They will be the ones."
Amen.
-- Rebecca Walsh and Glen Warchol
But the daily supplication for guidance gets interesting when the professionals -- Jewish cantors and rabbis, Episcopal priests -- or even perceptive schoolchildren speak to a mostly oblivious audience.
Earlier this session, Rabbi Tracee Rosen, a lesbian, quoted Biblical verses from Leviticus -- not the part that is widely interpreted as a repudiation of gay sex, but the part about extending hospitality to strangers. The Rev. Lee Shaw, from St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in West Valley City, made a reference to "all sexual identities" a few weeks ago.
And Cantor Laurence Loeb, from Congregation Kol Ami, quoted from Ecclesiastes last Friday, noting King Solomon's 3,000-year-old kvetch on business as usual:
"If you see . . . oppression of the poor and suppression of rights and justice, do not wonder at that fact, for one high official is protected by a higher one, and both of them by still higher ones."
Loeb continued to hit close to home reminding lawmakers nothing erodes public confidence "more than the representatives of the people acting primarily in their own best interests, concerned more about re-election, pleasing powerful interests . . . at the cost of their own integrity and the expense of the greater good."
But the most pointed "reverence" of the session came from a Franklin Elementary School teacher. An English-learner class -- where white students were the minority -- read a statement they had written, urging lawmakers to protect Utah's quality of life and respect diversity.
Then teacher Edna Ehlringer noted she and most of her students learned to speak English as a second language. Franklin Elementary is a Title I school in the Salt Lake City School District. Ehlringer left her job as an administrator at Olympus High School to work at the west-Salt Lake school.
"Please take a minute and look amongst yourselves."
Lawmakers paused for a moment and pretended to look at their white colleagues.
"I want you to reach forward," Ehlringer said. "Look at the children in front of you because they are our future. They will take the light. They will be the ones."
Amen.
-- Rebecca Walsh and Glen Warchol
1 Comments:
One correction: The 5th and 6th graders from Franklin Elementary who gave the reverence in the Senate are not from an English-learner class, they are from the ELP "Extended Learning Program," which serves gifted and talented students.
These kids are the cream of the crop from Franklin, and they have made great strides in their education. They are of such diverse nationalities as Tibet, Tonga, Mexico and South America.
To have gone from not speaking English to collectively writing such a powerful, poignant speech is noteworthy, and a demonstration of their character and the quality of the school.
Bravo, Franklin ELP students and staff! We are proud of you!
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