Joe Nelm’s NASCAR Prayer
Surely you’ve read about or viewed the NASCAR prayer by Pastor Joe Nelms.
He thanked God for the Dodges and Toyotas, for Sunoco Racing Fuel and Goodyear Tires, and then he thanked God for his “smoking hot wife” and “my two children, Eli and Emma or as we like to call them the little Es.” Then he closed with, “In Jesus’ name, boogity, boogity, boogity, Amen.”
I’m not one to judge another person’s prayers nor to pile on when others criticize people, especially pastors. You can watch the video yourself and come to your own conclusion about its appropriateness.
Here’s my main thought. In a public prayer with strangers, how self-focused, or focused on me and mine, should our prayers be?
Certainly in praying alone to God our prayers can focus on God, ourselves, and others. And in praying with another spiritual friend or in a small group, self-referential prayers seem appropriate. And it’s certainly good that a husband and father is thankful for his wife and children.
But has our society become so individualistic that no one wonders about a public prayer that is so self-focused? Is it a sign of our me-centered times?
Join the Conversation
In a public prayer with strangers, how self-focused, or focused on me and mine, should our prayers be?
It is my belief that our prayers in public should be other oriented. I’ll not criticize Pastor Nelm but I will say that when my 21 year old son finds something like that entertaining and reminiscent of a movie scene it gives me pause.
Are we really representing God accurately or even to the best of our ability? That is the question that always comes to my mind when I’m asked to pray for a public event or in a public setting. And, of course, that’s also the question that I ask myself on a daily basis as a follower of Christ.
I believe that we can do better.