Joining together in prayer
It probably couldn’t happen in this day and age when the U.S. Supreme Court and the American Civil Liberties Union watch and affect our every move, but one of the most popular daytime radio shows during World War II began with a prayer.
Don McNeill, host of the “Breakfast Club,” would get festivities going by saying, “Each in his own words, each in his own way, for a world united in peace, bow your heads and let us pray.” McNeill would then have the studio lights dimmed for the duration of a 15-second silent prayer.
“Prayer Time” was such a popular feature of the “Breakfast Club” that it was carried over into the post-war years. Prayer breakfasts became quite a vogue for a time after that, usually sponsored by church groups. There was even a congressional prayer breakfast in Washington.
I had a hand in sponsoring a series of these prayer breakfasts in Cleveland in 1979 — a time when the city was in financial doldrums. Dennis J. Kucinich, now a congressman from Ohio and, more currently, one of the several Democrats running for president, was then mayor of Cleveland when in the late ’70s the city was being dragged into bankruptcy.
As church editor of the Cleveland Press, I suggested in a front-page story that the city’s civic and religious leaders sponsor a series of prayer breakfasts to “help dispel the malaise that now engulfs Cleveland. … Political and economic solutions will work only if we can change the spirit of the city and its leaders.”
The proposal snowballed quickly and civic and religious leaders offered their backing. Not everybody, however, was enthusiastic. A columnist for rival newspaper The Plain Dealer labeled the prayer breakfasts “civic boosterism’s darkest hour.”
It also saddens me to say that Kucinich, the man who would be president, did not think much of the idea either. He turned down my invitation to address one of the weekly breakfasts. But we did not lack for distinguished speakers.
Despite the mocking of a few critics, some 300 people sloshed through a January snowstorm to gather at the first of the breakfasts. Even The Wall Street Journal came.
“Clevelanders Appeal for Divine Guidance in Financial Crisis” said the Journal headline. “Fifty people had to be turned away.”
The prayer breakfasts went on for 11 weeks. Speakers included Dr. Robert White, one the country’s top brain surgeons who told the overflow audience, “If we are to save this community from the threat of financial and social defeat, we must pray for God’s help and ask for divine intervention.”
Did the prayer breakfasts “work”?
Well, Cleveland recovered from its malaise and regained its financial footing. Later it was voted one of the “comeback cities” of the country. A few years later down the line, it became the home of the American League baseball champions, the Cleveland Indians, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The pride and glory were back. The “Cleveland jokes” stopped.
If prayer worked for Cleveland, can it work for the country?
We may have a chance to find out this September when a prayer organization in Missouri known as the Unity School of Christianity sponsors its 10th annual World Day of Prayer. The organization typically holds the World Day of Prayer on the second Thursday of September. The prayer theme this year is “Let Go and Let God.”
To find out more about the event visit online at www.unityworldhq.org or call Unity’s toll-free number at (800) 669-0282.
In the words of McNeill, “Each in his own words, each in his own way, for a world united in peace, bow your heads and let us pray.”
(George Plagenz is a syndicated columnist.)