The Prayer Amendment: A Satire of Southern Politics and Religion

by Dennis Hale

Alabama Governor James Forbe was elected to office on one simple promise: he would make Christian prayer mandatory in public schools. And he delivers, making more than half of his home state ecstatic.

Two grade-school girls, Emma and Susie, follow the Governor's orders and begin reading the prayer off the chalkboard every day at school. But strange things start happening when Susie and Emma accidentally invert some of the words; the prayers--all...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1588381188
• ISBN13: 9781588381187
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: NewSouth Books
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.3" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Things Change Prayer

"The Prayer Amendment" is a seamless read that little betrays its status of "first novel." It is not a long book, but the rich character development in the space available makes me wish the book perhaps were a little longer, for the purpose of knowing more about the believable and for-the-most-part likeable people created by Dennis S. Hale. The plot unfolds efficiently and economically. It is, as I believe Hale intended, a cautionary tale for our time, lifted from Alabama politics and culture with disturbing faithfulness.In the book a conservative, feckless governor endorses a law requiring the recitation of a Christian prayer in Alabama schools. School children--with the faith of children--begin praying in earnest, and things for which they pray begin coming to pass. Hilarity and more serious consequences ensue. Are the prayers being answered? They seem to be. Is this good? People are getting well, and dictators are abdicating. Aside from the obvious breach of the separation of church and state, what is the downside? Fat Cats in the defense and health industries are getting restless and laying people off in the face of declining demand for their products and services. So, the repentant governor becomes one of the book's heroes by leading the fight to repeal his own problematic law. I'm positive Hale regards this as a good turn, yet the governor's motivation is the rescue of those who profit from suffering.This created confusion for me. It seems in "The Prayer Amendment" the good guys win for the wrong reasons, and, conversely, the bad guys lose but under less-than-satisfying circumstances. And the governor's epiphany, to me, was not convincing unless taken from the charitable view that, indeed, with God all things are possible. A Baptist missionary and a Unitarian Universalist pastor, Dennis S. Hale is, I suspect, attempting to present all sides of the issues he raises, while championing personal faith and secular government equally. "The Prayer Amendment" is a wonderful book for those who love to begin a conversation with, "What if...".

A must read fable!

Hale manages to take us into a surreal world where the nature of prayer is questioned, both as an expression of religious faith and as a bargaining chip for politicians. At the same time he weaves a delightfully wonderful and humorous tale. Hale's own faith in human nature shines through and where other writers might have been tempted to create villains, Hale presents to us a very human cast of characters in which all too often we catch glimpses of ourselves.

The Prayer Amendment review

Very interesting story of the innocence of children and the life of those around them. What would happen in our world if the prayers of our children were so clearly fulfilled as they are in this book? Although this book is occasionally "preachy", and not in the manner one would expect, the story itself is very intriguing and the characters are captivating. Susie and Emma, two school-aged girls around whom the story centers, keep the reader enthralled with their heartfelt prayers and the other characters jumping through hoops. It's a great read!