Source: The Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0506/p01s03-uspo.html

On May 6, 2004 The Christian Science Monitor reported, "As they voice their values before God and neighbor in this election year, faith communities are finding prayer can provide a disarming and galvanizing type of communication around otherwise divisive political issues. But as they do, they're proceeding carefully with the aim that their prayers, however well intentioned, don't create more divisiveness in the end - and aren't demeaned or dismissed as mere political propaganda. 'Prayer is language that is nonthreatening across those boundary lines of left, middle, and right,' says Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches. 'I see it as an instrument of pausing to reflect on the level of violence we inflict on each other. My hope is that by stopping to pray, all of us - especially those in the religious middle - will open our hearts to rethink how we can use our superpower status with humility.'"