Here’s a project for all of us: Altered Prayers

After my note the other day on the editing of the Kaddish prayer by an odious West Coast rabbi, a reader observed that clergy  of numerous denominations are tweaking prayers to suit their political or other agendas regularly. Why not — the reader craftily suggests — put together a compilation of prayer alterations as the basis for a feature article in First Things? It’s a brilliant idea. Let the scoundrels know that vigilantes for orthodoxy are watching them.

 

Please send anecdotes, covert tape recordings, satellite images or other documentation to me. Something worthwhile might come of the project.

Dear Reader,

Can I be direct with you?

War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.

First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.

But we can’t do it without readers like you.

Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.


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If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.

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