Most kids my age during WWII preferred Captain Marvel to Superman, as comic book sales of the time testify. One reason being most of us kids could more readily relate to Billy Batson than to Clark Kent. And after all, Billy was of our world not from some distant planet. Also, we could easily fantasize the magic of “Shazam” as actually being possible to a mortal if one were favored of the gods. Even to Christian kids this did not seem a heretical thought. Many of our comic book heroes of the time had supernatural powers, and we seemed to separate the mystical attributes of these various characters from what we were taught in church and Sunday school. Of course, there was enough of the supernatural and mysticism in the Bible to encourage our believing the same things might be possible for our comic book heroes.

However, while accepting Shazam changing Billy Batson into Captain Marvel none of us had any luck pronouncing such a magic word doing the same for us, which did not prevent our imagining such a thing was possible. Such is the wonder of childhood, believing so many things possible within the realm of imagination beyond the reality of our daily lives.

But with the passing of many years, I have come to realize that calling out to God seems of as little avail as trying to get Shazam to work for me when I was a kid. Like Lee Marvin in Death Hunt “I never did have much luck prayin’.” Though I often feel like the father in the New Testament crying out “I believe Lord, help thou mine unbelief!” it remains I never did have much luck praying.

And so, over a very long period of time I came to reflect that my calling out “Shazam” and calling out “Lord God in heaven” were very similar; and equally ineffectual. However, what worked for Billy Batson may work in prayer for those favored of the gods so I don’t entirely discount the possible efficacy of prayer, though I continue to think much of praying is in the category of us kids wishing pronouncing Shazam could be made to work for us.

My great-grandmother was the saint of my life. But once while I was building a magnificent structure out of wood blocks on the floor she accidentally hit it with her foot, causing the whole thing to collapse. She looked at the devastation and said to me in a mysterious voice, “The Phantom did it.” She knew the Phantom was one of my favorite heroes in the funny papers, but as an adult seemed not to realize he would never do something like knocking down my masterpiece any more than she would have done such a thing on purpose. As wise as she was, she had misspoken in an attempt to soften the blow of what she had done. The problem was that it would never have entered my mind to correct her, nor as a small child would I have known how to attempt an explanation of her error. Perhaps this is how I stand with God. I know he wouldn’t hurt me on purpose, but the explanations for such damage seem too much like my great-grandmother trying to soften the blow. But who am I to say to God: “You’re wrong.” Not only would it not enter my mind to do so, I wouldn’t know how to explain why God is wrong. And while I knew my great-grandmother was wrong, though I believe there were errors in the “Creation” as with all creative processes, I do not know if God is wrong.

But it often occurs to me as it did to Thoreau we may have good cause to wonder that while God might be lonely, the Devil has many friends. I will say if there were no Devil he would have to be invented just as an attempt to understand the lunacy of how America has changed from the time I was a child. Governor Schwarzenegger has signed a bill approving perversion in our public schools: From WorldNetDaily: “Mom and Dad” as well as “husband and wife” have been banned from California schools under a bill signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who with his signature also ordered public schools to allow boys to use girls restrooms and locker rooms, and vice versa, if they choose...The bills signed by Schwarzenegger include SB777, which bans anything in public schools that could be interpreted as negative toward homosexuality, bisexuality and other alternative lifestyle choices...

Knowing most legislators rely on legislative analysts rather than reading the bills they pass, I understand the unintended consequences of this. More people putting their children in private schools and a boon for salivating lawyers with more lawsuits at taxpayer expense against the public schools that don’t comply with what is very ambiguous language in SB777. Of even greater concern is the backlash this is bound to have on homosexuals as the great majority of sexually normal people who have a very natural aversion to sexual perversion grow increasingly angry over having the agenda of a very few forced upon every one. The high flown rhetoric of those forcing a homosexual agenda in the name of “rights” and “equality” cannot help but have an adverse effect on society as a whole.

While Schwarzenegger is rightly condemned for espousing perversion, though possibly unwittingly in this case, it is no less perversion when the White House and Congress refuse to secure our borders for the sake of slave labor. Both are an abomination to the America I knew as a child, the America so many were sacrificed for and continue to be sacrificed for.    Millions of Americans pray for our nation, that God will intervene on our nation’s behalf and deliver us from the wicked that seem determined to follow Satan and do his bidding, that are determined perversion, greed, and corruption will rule until America is destroyed. But I believe I can be forgiven if I think the prayers of these millions fall into the category of my saying Shazam as a kid. It may have worked for Billy Batson but it didn’t work for me.

One of the major obstacles that may be standing in the way of prayer is what we have in our leadership, many of whom declare they are believers; that they believe in prayer. But if we are to judge by their actions, none of us credit their profession of belief, none of us credit their prayers. Whether true or not, this is the leadership of America, a leadership that by every bit of evidence determined by their actions seem sold out to the Devil, sold out to an agenda of perversion, greed, and corruption. While I may not be any judge of the efficacy or lack thereof concerning prayer, I’m far from being alone when it comes to being a judge of hypocrisy. There is a definite foul odor always accompanying mendacity, as “Big Daddy” observed, and that odor is overpowering throughout the leadership of America both political and religious.

I will not excuse those leaders in the churches who make a pretense of their prayers ever as much as any Pharisee despising the Publican, all the while faring sumptuously in palaces and wearing soft clothing. Where are any in politics or religion qualified to tell We the People we should repent in sackcloth and ashes in order to gain favor with God? Until America has such leaders, I can be forgiven for believing Shazam is of more efficacy than the prayers offered by the present leadership of America whether religious or political.

But I recall when I joined the Captain Marvel Club in order to be able to decode the secret messages how disappointed I was to find out it was only the alphabet in reverse. This didn’t prevent my continuing to enjoy the comic books, but somehow Captain Marvel just wasn’t quite the hero he had been to me before this. Still, that was a comic book hero; I have a right to expect more from the “real thing” in America’s leaders.