Indianapolis Star newspaper drops prayer; faithful pissed

But then, when aren’t they pissed? In any event, the Indianapolis Star has stopped printing a prayer:

Readers of The Indianapolis Star woke up to some changes in their newspaper this morning. The Business section was wrapped into the A section. TV listings and classified ads were tucked into a new Extra section. But the thing generating most reader complaints has been the decision by the Star to drop the Prayer from page A2.

The Prayer, a short ecumenical petition that is prayer at its most vanilla, has been a staple of the morning read for decades. It debuted on the editorial page in 1963. It moved to Page A1 in 1968 and moved to Page A2 in 2000.

Yet in making the latest changes, the prayer was dropped. Eliminated.

Editor and Vice President Dennis Ryerson offered this explanation:

We appreciate that this has been a long tradition in The Star. But we are re-evaluating our mission and all that we do. I believe that prayer is a very personal thing and that offering prayers is something for individuals and their churches. We are a newspaper, not a church.

Also, we do live in a society in which there are many, many different beliefs. We respect all religions, and the prayer was written only from the Christian perspective.

Because of those issues, we have decided to drop the prayer. I’m confident that people will continue to offer their own prayers reflecting their own lives and faith needs.

Sounds logical and well-reasoned to me. Of course, the decision has reportedly generated numerous complaints. Some of the comments to the story are priceless:

Mary J wrote [...]
Very disappointing decision. If you are able to print the horoscopes, then you should print a prayer ….please reconsider.

As PZ Myers points out at Pharyngula, Mary has just unwittingly equated prayer with the daily horoscope! I couldn’t agree more!

Father Robert Lyons wrote [...]
I don’t really have an issue with this. The Newspaper is supposed to be there to serve the entire community with facts, not to evangelize them. Leave the evangelizing to the Church.

Besides, a vanilla prayer is basically a ‘bone’ thrown to pacify a particular sect or group. Genuine prayer is deep, specific, and heart-felt; and I can’t ever recall seeing a vanilla prayer that met those particular criteria.

He gets it. Most “regular” folk don’t get it, but Father Lyons does. Bravo.

Of course, the newspaper maintains a bible verse at the top of it’s front page, so it’s not like the people who run the paper have suddenly become completely rational…

[via Pharyngula]

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