Related commentaries – Prayer

The Prayer of Faith – James 5:13 – 5:20

Prayer - “I wasn’t addressing you, Mr. President.”

The story goes that one time when Bill Moyers was a special assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson, he was asked to say grace before a meal in the family quarters of the White House. As Moyers began praying softly, the President interrupted him with “Speak up, Bill! Speak up!” The former Baptist minister from east Texas stopped in mid-sentence and without looking up replied steadily, “I wasn’t addressing you, Mr. President.” (Don Oberdorfer in Washington Post, quoted in Reader’s Digest, April, 1980)