Pop Prayer

Most Christians still feel content to express their prayers in 17th century English, laced with archaic court periphrastics and metaphors that derive from feudalism. On the assumption that these forms give God the reputation of being hard to talk to, the Rev. Malcolm Boyd has devised a hippier style of communicating with the Almighty. Episcopalian Boyd, who had a successful career in advertising before his ordination in 1955, and has since ministered to college students, last week published his orisons for the age in Are You Running with Me, Jesus?, a book of what Anglican Bishop John A. T. Robinson calls "pop prayers." Samples:

> "It's morning, Jesus. I've got to move fast -- get into the bathroom, wash up, grab a bite to eat, and run some more. Where am I running? You know these things I can't understand. It's not that I need to have you tell me. What counts most is just that somebody knows, and it's you. That helps a lot. So I'll follow along, okay? But lead, Lord. Now I've got to run. Are you running with me, Jesus?"

> "Somebody forgot to push the right button, Jesus, so all hell broke loose. Airline schedules are loused up, somebody is shouting at somebody else who can't help the situation, a lot of money has been lost, and about two dozen people are caught up in a cybernetic tangle. We've missed our plane, which isn't our fault, and I was due in Chicago to participate in a meeting forty-five minutes ago. Please cool everybody off, Lord, including me."

> "This is a homosexual bar, Jesus. It looks like any other bar on the outside, only it isn't. Men stand three and four deep at this bar--some just feeling a sense of belonging here, others making contacts for new sexual partners. This isn't very much like a church, Lord, but many members of the church are also here in this bar. Quite a few of the men here belong to the church as well as to this bar. If they knew how, a number of them would ask you to be with them in both places. Some of them wouldn't, but won't you be with them, too, Jesus?"

> "It's bumper to bumper, and the traffic is stalled. I want to get home, Lord, but the traffic won't move. Really, it's too much. Don't ask me to be patient. Okay. I'll try some more to be human, but it's nearly been knocked out of me for one day. Stay with me; I can't do it alone. Jesus, thanks for sweating it out with me out here on this highway."

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