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Why a NATIONAL day of prayer?
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The National Day of Prayer violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution because
it asks federal and local government entities to set aside tax dollar supported time
and space to engage in religious ceremonies. This results in unconstitutional governmental
support of religion over no religion.
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Lead by fundamentalist Christian Shirley Dobson, the
National Day of Prayer Task Force promoted thousands of events specifically in accordance with
its Judeo-Christian beliefs and focused on a small segment of the Protestant Christianity. Since they
hold their events on the government sponsored National Day of Prayer, government officials of all
levels participate in these events as if they were government endorsed.
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The Supreme Court has made it clear (and most Americans agree) that state sponsored prayer
in school is inappropriately exclusionary. Why is a nationally sponsored day of prayer
any more inclusive? This national effort geared toward a small slice of the religious
spectrum is clearly outside the boundaries of proper governmental reach.
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The National Day of Prayer makes those who don’t pray feel like second-class citizens.
Why set aside a national day that needlessly excludes?
Why a DAY of prayer?
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Religious Americans who wish to pray don’t need to be reminded by government to do so, so
there’s no reason to limit prayer to a single day for those who chose to practice their chosen
faith in that way. Government has no business saying when or what Americans should do when and
if they engage in religious practice.
Government also violates the First Amendment with the National Day of Prayer by acting to promote
a certain manifestation of religion. It emphasizes only one form of religious practice, and therefore
discriminates against the many others, including alms giving, social justice, fasting, peace activism and meditation.
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Over recent years the National Day of Prayer has become an exclusive day within religious traditions and
last year the Senate Chaplain even offered an official prayer that fit closely to the Christian tradition.
As the Washington Post said in a January 31, 2003 editorial, "The problem…is official prayer,
and the implausible notion that it can ever be truly ecumenical."
Why a day of PRAYER?
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Many traditional religious groups encourage adherents not to make their prayer public, so this state
sponsored public display of prayer is a direct affront to such teachings and disrespects countless
religious Americans. Many Americans faithfully follow the words from the Sermon on the Mount,
"When you pray don't do it loudly in the synagogue or on street corners so that everyone can see you
and think you are really good and holy."
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Having a National Day of Prayer sends a strong signal from an inappropriate source that individuals faced
with problems should pray for solutions instead of working to solve them. This may discourage people from
participating in meaningful social action and is another way for politicians to abdicate their responsibility
to act on behalf of the electorate.
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Whenever government involves itself in religious practice as is done with the National Day of Prayer it
taints that religious practice by reducing the co-opted religion’s effectiveness to protest government action,
and also (in an infeasible effort to broaden the practice’s appeal) government inappropriately dilutes the messages
of faithful adherents.
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Freedom of expression and worship, including the opportunity to pray or not pray as we wish, are already
present without government endorsement. There is no need to set-aside a public day for prayer.
Why not focus on something we all can participate in?
Lets celebrate a National Day of Reason!
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