Problem Prayer

Another pastor is in hot water for praying. Pastor Tim Swartley opened the senate session in the Nebraska legislature with the customary prayer -- "customary" as in the act of praying, not the content of the prayer. From what I understand, the legislature has rules governing the prayer. Those rules include not praying about the agenda of that day, as well as political issues.

Pastor Swartley's comments are as follows:

"I did pray that God would forgive us for abortion," Swartley explains. "I prayed that God would forgive us for teaching our children the religion of evolution, which really does tell us [its version of] where we came from and why we're here and where we're going, just as the Bible does. It's a competing philosophy of life."

Pastor Tim believes he followed the Senate's guidelines for prayer:

"I look at abortion and evolution as primarily moral issues," Swartley says. "Politics, I think, is secondary; and whatever party you are, if you're going to support biblical values, I'm all for it. But I did not intend to support any political agenda."

I have three questions for my readers:

1. Scripture tells us to obey our governments as long as we are not disobeying God. Would following the policy of the Senate be disobeying Scripture?

2. Was Pastor Tim's prayer an illustration of "we must obey God rather than men?" Why?

3. Should the pastor have followed the Senate's requirements (that is, biblically speaking), and was his prayer merely a way to sneak around those requirements?

Those pastors.... They sure do cause trouble, don't they?