NDR Media Coverage

Prayers, and Other Offerings

by Carol Eisenberg

As the Rev. Roy Kirton prays for President George W. Bush in a Copiague service today marking the National Day of Prayer, a small band of nonbelievers will be embarking on an alternative observance.

They're calling it the National Day of Reason, and they're asking atheists, agnostics and free thinkers to demonstrate what they call "the supremacy of reason" by donating blood from 4 to 7 p.m. today.

"We were looking for a positive alternative to prayer, something that would reflect the life-affirming ideas of nonbelievers," said Kenneth Bronstein, president of the New York City Center for Atheism, one of several groups supporting the blood drive. "At the same time, we want to let America know that there are millions of us who do not pray."

Bronstein said he had no idea about how many might give blood. "Working with atheists is like trying to herd cats," he acknowledged.

Not so with supporters of the National Day of Prayer, who say they expect about 5,000 people to attend 23 events organized in evangelical churches throughout the New York area, from Bay Shore to Brooklyn, according to New York area coordinator Beverly Cook.

The national event dates to a 1952 resolution in Congress. In recent years, the day has been embraced primarily by evangelical Christians, with this year's effort headed by Shirley Dobson, wife of Focus on the Family chairman Dr. James Dobson, a leader of the religious right.

"At a time when so many principles found in Scripture have been rejected by society, it's all the more vital that God's people stand firmly in defense of the precepts He's laid out in His Word," Shirley Dobson said.

Nonbelievers say they have no problem with people praying, even if they do not personally believe it works. But they say they do object to what they see as government intrusion into the private sphere of religious worship.

"The government should not be sponsoring religious prayer - any more than it should be sponsoring a day to oppose religious prayer," said Gerry Dantone of Huntington, coordinator of the Center for Inquiry on Long Island, a group also supporting the blood drive.

But that argument carries little weight with the organizers of the National Day of Prayer, many of whom see the country's Christian heritage as the key to its vitality.

Kirton, pastor of Circle of Love Ministry, a small, evangelical church in Copiague that is hosting an event tonight with two other local churches, asserts that belief in God - and in the efficacy of prayer - are foundational values of America.

"This country was built on traditional values," he said, "and one of those is prayer. We pray for anyone who's in office - Democrat, Republican or independent. It has nothing to do with politics. It's about humanity."

Copyright 2006 Newsday, Inc.

Read the original story on the The Newsday Web Site.

This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of Humanist issues. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.