Prayers of the Faithful

I hold a fairly simple philosophy about 'Prayers of the Faithful'/'Bidding Prayers'. One starts with the Pope and Bishops, one finishes with the Faithful Departed and in between one keeps it simple, short and balanced between the overly-specific and totally vague.
It's interesting therefore to browse through the 1977 Collegeville collection entitled 'Prayers of the Faithful' which seems to include more than its fair share of the trendy and the banal.
Take for example the following:

For activists who spend lonely days fighting strip mining companies, water and air polluters, and others who ravage this world, that they will find support and strenght, let us pray to the Lord

Can you smell the liberation theology? Down with those evil strip-miners! Another suggested prayer is:

For rich men the world over that they will give of their wealth to the needy, let us pray to the Lord

I suppose the general rule is that we should keep things nice and PC and gender inclusive - except when we're dealing with the male-oppressor. A rather curiously worded prayer for the Second Sunday of Lent goes as follows:

That all leaders may learn from Pontius Pilate's example that they must listen to the truth no matter who speaks itm let us pray to the Lord

If one weren't paying attention, one would think that Pilate was being set before us as a role model. :)