Up On My Soapbox

Soapbox:  A crate for packing soap, or, by extension, and inexpensive crude platform raised above the surrounding level to give prominence to the person on it, especially when used for speeches.

I don't say The Lord's Prayer at the end of the meetings I attend.  Here in the States it's very common to say this prayer when our festivities conclude although I understand, from correspondence with our Central Office, that it's rare in almost every other country.  I don't dislike the prayer.  I don't care if other people say it.  I'm just not going to say it myself.

There are a few reasons for this.  Mostly, I associate the prayer with my formal religious upbringing.  For the longest time this upbringing really burned my goat and stuck in my goat's craw, causing the goat to choke dangerously from time to time.  It really wasn't fair to the goat.  I objected to the rules and strictures of this organized religion.  I couldn't make myself go to church for the longest time and when I did I got really angry.  And this from a kid who attended church and a religious book study after I left home for college.  There weren't a lot of other college kids in attendance.  I was pretty religious.

A few years ago a group I attended decided to vote on whether we should close meetings with The Serenity Prayer or with the Lord's prayer.  Holy shit, were the grenades flying on that one.  People who never came to meetings were up on their soapboxes (soapbox: a crate for packing soap, or, by extension, and inexpensive crude platform raised above the surrounding level to give prominence to the person on it, especially when used for speeches) giving impassioned speeches that would make a country preacher proud.  The Lord's prayer supporters won and their behavior further irritated the Serenity Prayer advocates.

I wonder how those of us who support this prayer would feel if we had to attend all of our meetings in countries were the predominant religion is Islam or Hindu or Buddhist?  I wonder how we would feel if specific gods were brought up in the concluding prayer and if this prayer was unfamiliar to us?  

Here in Vacation City the meeting leader asks someone to close the meeting with a moment of silence followed by the prayer of their choice.  That's nice.