Yes, in the days Jesus walked the earth, the nation was hungering for God and for deliverance. Public prayer would have been popular but the Pharisee's motive for public prayer was to be seen by others. It is seen as politically astute in a nation that respects God. However, that is not the context within America today because ,when you pray in public, you are, for the most part, either castigated or ridiculed - just as we see here in this example of the First Lady humbly praying the prayer that the Lord taught us. If we truly want to be a great nation we cannot do so without God. May the Lord richly bless her for standing up and submitting herself to mockery for calling upon God, our Father, with the prayer Jesus taught us.
I think the true context for what we are seeing here is Matthew 5:10
- “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.
How I long for us once again to be one nation under God with liberty and justice for all.
Online Speech Bank: Benjamin Franklin's Prayer Speech at the Constitutional Convention of 1787
[QUOTES="Washington"]
"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Man and citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity...
Let it simply be asked where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice?"
- Sep. 19, 1796, "Farewell Address," Philadelphia's American Daily Advisor
"While just government protects all in their religious rights, true religion affords to government its surest support."
Oct. 1789, Letter to the Synod of the Reformed Dutch Church of North America