NDR Media Coverage

Atheists Hold Rally Against State National Day of Prayer Event

by Samira Jafari
Associated Press

A dozen atheists quietly walked through the state Capitol Thursday, taking a stand against elected officials' participation in the National Day of Prayer.

The members of the Atheist Law Center visited the old Archives chamber and a Ten Commandments display, which they called "phony" and "misleading."

"This is all a lie," said Carol Moore while pointing to a Ten Commandments plaque given to Gov. Bob Riley for display at the old Supreme Court library.

Their short tour followed a noon rally just yards away from the Capitol steps, where more than 250 residents, state and military officials and legislators prayed and sang hymns for more than an hour.

"I'm convinced prayer will see us through the many of our trials and tribulations we're going through today," Riley told the prayer group. "This country was founded on prayer."

The prayer day program opened with the Pledge of Allegiance, with several supporters shouting the words "under God" toward the atheist rally and picnic.

The atheists were unfazed.

"Today is the National Day of Prayer - a day when our government flouts the constitutional principle of separation of religion and state," said Larry Darby, president of the atheist organization.

Darby said his event initially was supposed to "celebrate reason," but it turned into an anti-prayer rally when he was denied access to the Archives chamber because no state official or legislator would sponsor the room as the group's "rainy day" location for its rally.

Darby said Rep. Jay Love and Sen. Larry Dixon, both Montgomery Republicans, turned down sponsorship for the old Archives chamber because the group does not believe in God. Sponsorship by a legislator or department head is needed for use of the space inside the Capitol.

In an April 7 letter responding to Darby's request, Dixon wrote the group can "protest all you want. However, please try not to involve me."

Darby was joined by a handful of speakers on the south lawn, including Ken Cornelius, one of 11 plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against ousted Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore. Cornelius said Moore owed the people of Alabama some $500,000 in legal fees that he spent in fighting a court order to remove his Ten Commandments monument from the state Judicial Building.

Moore's "shenanigans" cost Alabama "lots of money that, as you know, this state can ill afford," Cornelius said.

For the most part, the two groups rallied peaceably side by side. And as a few atheists sauntered over to the prayer event, Darby amicably shook hands with John Giles, president of the Christian Coalition of Alabama.

Jan Niel, prayer minister at the Frazer Memorial United Methodist Church and co-organizer of the day of prayer, said it's the country's foundations in religion that allow atheists to rally alongside a religious event.

"The reason they can do this is because of the God they don't believe in. This country was founded on godly principles," she said. "I very much disagree with their position, but I do respect their right to be here."

Copyright 2004 The Tuscaloosa News

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