The below prayer is the invocation given by Rev. Paul Jehle at the Glen Beck Rally held last week in Washington DC. I’ve had an opportunity to hear Jehle speak several times in a close setting and I was impressed with the man’s knowledge on our founding era, though his Charismatic – pentecostal lean gave me pause.
This prayer at this event has my Spidey sense tingling overtime and has raised a multitude of questions in my mind about just exactly Dr. Jehle was doing in this prayer.
The prayer can be accessed at,
I have transcribed it word for word from Dr. Jehle’s mouth. I’ll give the prayer first and I’ll offer some analysis and questions.
Lord God, Sovereign Almighty, Ruler of the Nations, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, The Holy One, The Righteous One
You are the King of the Earth
All nations belong to you and you are the one addressed in the first 1606 charter that opened English settlements to these shores. It was you that was addressed, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ should be the central focus of every settlement. It was you our forefathers knelt too erecting a wooden cross on the sandy shores of Virginia. It was you that was addressed in the Mayflower Compact whose first words were, ‘In the name of God, AMEN.’ It was you who the pilgrims knelt too and blessed the God of heaven. It was you that Governor Winthrop wrote, ‘We shall be a city set upon a hill.’ It is you lord gods that brought William Penn and modeled peace with the first peoples. It was you lord gods that brought the black regiment of preachers to all across the continents to preach your words to prepare your people to be able to stand for liberty and it was you who was addressed in the Declaration of Independence as the, ‘Creator,’ — ‘as the Author of all inalienable rights.’ It was you lord gods that was declared as the one who created all equal and it was you lord gods who called us to account when we broke the treaties with the first peoples. You called us to repentance and you O gods called us to repentance when we did not live up to our creed and we did not treat everyone as equal. But Lord we found out that you are a God of forgiveness, you are a God of covenants, you are a God of restoration, you are a God of healing, and you have healed us and you are healing us.
And we come now to the mall in Washington. And we come now to you now in humble repentance for the shedding of innocent bloods. And we come to you in repentance for not modeling marriage among your people. And we come to you once again asking for healing, for restoration, for recovery and for reconciliation and we know you’ll do it because you’re gods and your Son Jesus Christ is the eternal Redeemer, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords and so we honor you for your word declares, ‘you will honor those who honor you.’
We come back to you today and we see you — the restoring gods, the King of Kings. And in Christ’s name and for the advance of your Kingdom, we once again say, ‘May you God bless America.’ May we be one nation under gods.
In Christ’s name — AMEN
1.) I find it hard to believe (though not impossible) that the flip flopping that Jehle has done here between “God,” / “Lord God” and “gods” / “lord gods” is accidental or coincidental. Though I have conceded it is possible that this is accidental, I again say that there is so much flipping back and forth between deities that is not unreasonable for someone to want an explanation. This is especially so since the gathering was an ecumenical gathering.
2.) I can not discern any pattern or reasons for the ongoing switching in Dr. Jehle’s prayer from God to gods. We have the singular God through Winthrop’s desire that Plymouth colony would be a “city set on a hill.” Suddenly with the arrival of William Penn (an anabaptist) we go to lord gods, and we stay with lord gods through the breaking of treaties and the lord gods call to repentance for previous generations not treating everyone equally.
Suddenly though, we revert back to God when it is ascribed to Him that He is a God of forgiveness, covenants, restoration and healing. However, a few sentences later it is gods who are ascribed with the power of healing, recovery, restoration and reconciliation. These (this?) gods apparently have a singular Son named Jesus Christ.
3.) Dr. Jehle finds peroration with an attribution to the “restoring gods” followed by a plea that the singular God would bless America finishing with the desire that we would be “one nation under “gods.”
Look, I understand that the man was praying before 500,000 people. I understand that can make a man nervous, and maybe all the plurals sprinkled throughout this prayer can be attributed to the guy being nervous. Or maybe it can be attributed to something else?
How about this for an explanation beyond being nervous. Given the ecumenical nature of this event (Christian Ministers, Mormon Elders, Jewish Rabbis, Muslim Imams, etc.) it is not beyond belief that some kind of concession was made for the invocation to use language that would satisfy everyone there. Such language, in order to satisfy everyone there would have to be both inclusive (hence the use of “gods) and exclusive (hence the use of “God”). The invocation thus becomes a least common denominator invocation that satisfies all the different religions and offends nobody.
Postscript,
A person called Dr. Jehle’s church and the secretary told him that Dr. Jehle could not hear himself and he was trying to project his voice and the result was that he could not hear himself speak and that led to the added “s’s,” on his words.
Dr. Jehle has not changed his theology. Dr. Jehle’s added “s’s” were accidental.
What crap. It’s full of PC nonsense, Bret. He’s repenting on behalf of the nation because “we did not treat everyone as equal.” What does this mean? Is he apologizing because it used to be that women couldn’t serve in the military? Is he apologizing to Beck for the treatment of the Mormons in the nineteenth century? There are, of course, a thousand possibilities.
This guy should go back and read Winthrop’s “Model of Christian Charity.” The “city on a hill” image is uttered in the context of warnings against covenant backsliding. Curses befall those who covenant with God but then reject him.
“Gods,” eh? We really are cursed.
Hmm. Does the explanation given in the postscript make sense, Bret? His pronunciation was fine otherwise. I’m pretty sure that I’d know, even if I couldn’t hear myself, whether I were saying “God” or “gods.” Seems odd.
I was also struck by Beck’s remarks prior to the prayer in which he talked about Moses and God’s chosen people on the “other side of the planet” … and then “at the same time those things were happening, on this side, on this land, another group of people were gathered here and they too were listening to god.” I assume he is talking native Americans?
It sounded to me as though he was not quite finishing his words before starting to take a breath. I heard him add an “s” to several other words, as well, especially ones with a similar sounding ending. He was certainly shouting, and also sounded like he was starting to hyperventilate. I’ve preached and prayed before crowds up to maybe 150-200 and was nervous enough, let alone 500,000!
John,
Beck’s screwy Mormonism is definitely raising its head in that whole spiel. He connects God’s Chosen People, The American Indians, and the Pilgrims almost in a familial relationship.
Generations of Mormons have grown up with the notion that American Indians are descended from a lost tribe from the House of Israel, offspring of a Book of Mormon figure named Lehi, who left Jerusalem and sailed to the Americas around 600 B.C.
For faithful members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Lehi’s story is neither fable nor parable. It is truth. Historical fact. Every bit as real as the Pilgrims dropping anchor at Plymouth Rock in 1620.
As Mormon doctrine holds, Lehi’s children split into two warring groups after arriving in the New World — the kind-hearted, white-skinned Nephites and the marauding, brown-skinned Lamanites.
The Lamanites, Mormons believe, ultimately exterminated the Nephites in the 5th century A.D., and their offspring today are among the people the rest of the world commonly refers to as American Indians.
Because of that, Mormons believe American Indians have a special place in their church. It is a constant theme for their missionary efforts in South America and the Pacific Islands, and Mormon President Gordon B. Hinckley even uses the story of Lehi to inspire converts at temple dedications abroad.
“It has been a very interesting thing to see the descendants of Father Lehi in the congregations that have gathered in the temple,” Hinckley said at an August 1999 temple dedication in Ecuador. “So very many of these people have the blood of Lehi in their veins, and it is just an intriguing thing to see their tremendous response and their tremendous interest.”
So, a well versed Mormon watching the Beck rally had to believe that this was an advertisement for Mormonism. Indeed, one could almost say that it is the mainlining of Mormonism into the American Psyche.
Mormons aspire to godhood themselves. I cannot know what was going through the praying pastor’s mind, but this particular Mormon aspiration immediately came to my mind as I read through the prayer transcript. I understand that Mormons believe there are myriad planets throughout the cosmos that have an individual “god” presiding over it that was once mortal human.
As for Beck, I do not trust him at all.
I know Dr, Jehle personally and I know for a fact that he said “God”. Often when he says “D” at the end of a word it sounds like “S” and I think the factor that he could not hear himself was aggravating it, but that is just the way he talks. I will testify to his absolute rock-solidness as a Christian. I am grieved that his prayer was so misunderstood, and I know on my honor that he does NOT believe in ‘gods’.
Pilgrim Girl,
Dr. Jehle’s secretary has cleared this up and since it has been cleared up no one should question that Dr. Jehle is anything but rock solid.
I was grieved before Jehle even opened his mouth to speak. What does it tell the watching world when a Jew, a Mormon, a couple Indians, and a Christian gather to pray together? It fit perfectly with the polytheistic nonsense that Beck was spouting.
The link provided has been removed. Here’s another link connected to the prayer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9EjthDeOZ0