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  • 2004-12-30 (xsd:date)
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  • In Defense of Prayer (en)
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  • Often titled Paul Harvey and Prayer, versions of a piece defending the practice of public prayer has been circulating online since 2000, variously attributed to long-time radio commentator Paul Harvey, political commentator Andy Rooney, and to someone named Samuel Thompson: In fact, most of this item is the work of Nick Gholson, a sports writer for the Times Record News in Wichita Falls, Texas. Gholson's September 1999 essay (which was a fair bit longer than the version later circulated online) decried the prohibition against school-led prayer at high school football games. It kicked off with a few paragraphs about the need for a sense of humor which prefaced the following bit, leading into the Internet-circulated version's I don't believe in Santa Claus ... opening: Also excised from versions now in circulation was the following section, which contained references to national sports events and figures of the day as well as teams local to Wichita Falls: Though most of the Internet-circulated version of this essay is undeniably the work of Nick Gholson, its ending is not. Gholson's 1999 column about prayer at football games terminated with ... well, just sue me. The part which now lies beyond that (quoted below) was penned in 2003 by someone unknown to us: Somewhere during the course of its murky textual history, the Gholson/unknown author patchwork came to be attributed to Paul Harvey. This misapprehension has in turn been helped along by its appearance in the print media (e.g., a December 2004 letter to the editor of the Denver Post made this declaration). Paul Harvey, the popular radio personality best known for his Rest of the Story offerings, at various times had a number of Internet-circulated essays mistakenly laid at his feet, including These Things I Wish for You (a postulation of adversity's being good for children), The Man Without a Face (a false tale that a horrible experience in Mel Gibson's life inspired the film of that name), and a glowing review of the 2004 film The Passion. (en)
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