The Power and Place of Prayer, Revisited

Prayer can be an indicator, like a barometer of sorts.  Just look at the Senate chaplain.  Washington Post's 2chambers blog traces the increasing anxiety of his prayers over the past few days as failure and default came ever closer.

A longtime Navy chaplain and Seventh-Day Adventist minister, retired Admiral Barry C. Black opens Senate sessions with a brief prayer. Over the last few days--as the Senate has slid closer to a national default--those prayers seem to have revealed Black as one of the most worried people in the chamber.

Black's prayers have moved from "hopeful generalities" to warnings to "a prayer that might have fit the crew of a sinking ship." Read the whole article here.

(the painting is "Ship of Fools" by John Alexander)