Children don't know The Lord's Prayer

So, it has been revealed by a survey, about half the children in UK don't know the words of a prayer that Jesus used to illustrate how to pray without 'babbling like heathens'; in other words, how to pray without repeating the same old thing as if it is a magic chant. Well I say, Hurray! Why would we want to teach children words that they don't understand and don't mean. The mere parrot-fashion repetition of the prayer in school assemblies does not achieve anything other than teach children that they will be allowed to stop saying it when they are grown up. 

To cap it all, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, thinks it is a bad thing on the grounds that, 'This is something that's really, really important to lots and lots of people and can change their lives.' No it doesn't! Jesus can change their lives, but not a bunch of words that Jesus never suggested should be repeated verbatim. Rowan Williams also suggests that if children memorise the prayer then later on they can, '...make up their minds whether to use it.' Surely it would be better for children to make up their minds later on as to whether they are going to accept Jesus or not. They won't do that by relying on a memorised chant,  but by escaping the religious, legalistic frame of mind that insists on children (and adults) learning things about Jesus by heart instead of accepting him in their hearts.

The idea that anyone can ever truly understand these words without an innner, personal knowledge of Jesus is twaddle. For Rowan Williams to say that the prayer 'isn't a very big or complicated thing' is strange in the extreme. It baffles many Christians, including apparently, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who seems to accept the words as having some form of intrinsic power and value.  Jesus taught simply, and his teaching was that neither words nor material sacrifice are  enough. Only by sacrificing our inner selves to him can we come into a good relationship with the great god above all gods, Yahweh. 

The words Jesus used in his teaching have been taken out of context and turned into a meaningless mantra. It is taught to people as if it is important in its own right; as if it holds power; as if it is an object of worship. The so-called 'Lord's Prayer' or 'The Our Father' has become for some people an idol. 

And we know what Yahweh thinks of idols!