Pictures Of Prayer

Warren Mayor Jim Fouts takes pride in being different

One of the first things a visitor sees when walking into Warren's city hall is a small table labeled Prayer Station. When someone calling the city gets put on hold, Frank Sinatra music plays during the wait.

Neither feature is exactly common in American cities these days. Both were introduced under Mayor Jim Fouts, the city's sometimes sensitive, sometimes combative and always political mayor.

Fouts isn't worried whether people think his love of Sinatra borders on the quirky -- an entire wall in his office is devoted to Old Blue Eyes. Nor is he afraid to take an unpopular political stand when he's convinced he's right -- such as allowing religion inside city hall or a recent battle over putting his age on an election application.

His uncompromising style has won him his share of opponents, who, when they are being kind, say he's difficult to work with.

Jogging is his only passion outside of work. At home, his kitchen table is an office and he eats his meals from a tiny spot cleared among the papers. He spends his evenings making phone calls to constituents and much of his weekends working.

"I don't like the word 'retirement,' " Fouts said. "I don't believe in it. I enjoy going to work every morning."

Warren Mayor Jim Fouts won't discuss his age or the recent lawsuit over his refusal to put his date of birth on an election application.

Three of his opponents in the August primary sued the city, saying the law requires candidates to disclose their ages and Fouts was getting special treatment. They wanted him off the ballot.

He said he was taking a stand against ageism. The city -- and by extension Fouts -- won, and he's on the ballot without disclosing his age.

But some say this isn't the only time he has gotten what they consider special treatment during his tenure as mayor.

"He knows how to campaign on city dollars," said Kathy Vogt, a City Council member and one of the candidates who sued. Vogt referred to activities for residents the mayor has instituted, such as dances for senior citizens.

"They're all very nice, but he fails to disclose the cost," Vogt said. Plus, not all city officials get invited, she said. "If it's a city event and the city is paying for it, then every city official should be invited."

Debate over city-sponsored dances is just one of many things that polarize people when it comes to Fouts. No one questions his devotion to politics. But few people in Michigan's third-largest city who know him personally are neutral when it comes to Fouts.

A Garden Called Gethsemane: Picture Framed Prayer

Sometimes I call up a prayer to God out of desperation.  Sometimes I don't attend to the issues in life until they are upon me and I am playing a game of rapid catch up on my prayers. Sometimes I have prayed earnestly for the same thing over and over, wondering, what am I praying wrong.  Silly me. If I have any inkling that I will have a need, or I have knowledge of what I must do for the day or the week or next month, why don't I pray about it up front.  I am a person who looks at things from every angle before I do them. I pre-plan until it is ridiculous sometimes. Almost never is "Pray About This" on the top ten on my list. Oh I pray over the specifics, like - Lord help me be on time...etc. And that is good, but I just plain forget to pray about the big picture up front. In my mind, I can imagine a place for the big picture kind of prayers. With significance.  I thought, if something is important enough to make plans for it, why not sort of put a mental frame about it and feature it in my prayers rather than doing a post it note on the corkboard kind of praying.  The place where I lose the notes I post. Prayer is made of both.  The kind of prayer that I quickly pray and then forget about it until one day I am cleaning the cork board and say, oh that is where I put that number. I just couldn't see it for the clutter. Or there is the kind of prayer that like your grandchildren, you really wish you had a frame and a place to put each and every picture. If I had my way, I would have one of those revolving picture shows with every picture I have of my children and grandchildren, going on a big screen,  all the time. That is how I would like my prayers to be sometimes. Featured, easy access, and always right in front of me. For my sake of course, not God's. Give it to him one time and it's done.  He isn't any more impressed with my multiple returns to pray over the same thing than he would be about letting Jesus die for my sins over and over again.  Not going to happen.  He does help me see how to pray with faith when I return over and over again sometimes. And delightfully, I can see when my prayer is answered when I return to it, quite often. Hopefully, at some point, I come with faith as well as my prayer, 'cause sometimes I forget that bringing faith is an act not a feeling.  Faith is something you have - not do, but acting upon it is something you do.

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