NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER…. As “holidays” go, the official National Day of Prayer is difficult to understand. For the faithful, every day is a day of prayer. For a secular government that separates church from state, the idea of a state-sanctioned day in which the public is encouraged to pray is rather odd.
In the early 1950s, when lawmakers were adding “under God” to the Pledge and changing all American money to include the phrase “In God We Trust,” Congress created an official annual Prayer Day for the nation. Congress, under pressure from the religious right, changed the law in 1988 to set the National Day of Prayer as the first Thursday in May, which brings us to today.
The good news is, President Obama is choosing to honor the official National Day of Prayer in a very different way than his predecessor.
The National Day of Prayer White House event is history — for now.
The White House has announced that President Obama will sign a proclamation on the National Day of Prayer, to be held on Thursday, but will not hold any sort of event. This marks a return to the practice of presidents before George W. Bush, who hosted religious leaders for a ceremony in honor of the day.
Conservative Christian leaders who popularized the event are regarding it at a snub, calling it a “boycott.” … During the Bush administration, the first Thursday in May — the National Day of Prayer, as mandated by Congress — included a ceremony in the White House East Room with prominent evangelicals. It was headed by Shirley Dobson, wife of Focus on the Family founder James Dobson.
There’s no White House ceremony this year.
Good. If Americans want to pray today, they will. If not, that’s fine, too. There’s no need for the White House to host a special event, organized by evangelical activists, promoting an exclusive and unnecessary “holiday” encouraging worship.
In the early 1950s, when lawmakers were adding “under God” to the Pledge and changing all American money to include the phrase “In God We Trust,” Congress created an official annual Prayer Day for the nation. Congress, under pressure from the religious right, changed the law in 1988 to set the National Day of Prayer as the first Thursday in May. Obama, like his predecessors, issued a proclamation (pdf) honoring the “holiday.”
So, what’s the problem?
Unlike George W. Bush, Obama didn’t open up the White House to the self-appointed National Day of Prayer Task Force, run by religious right activists, which has hosted exclusive events for the last eight years.
This has led a variety of conservatives to make a variety of demonstrably false claims:
Lie #1: Rush Limbaugh said Obama tried to “cancel” the National Day of Prayer.
That’s obviously not true; Obama issued a proclamation acknowledging the day. No effort was made to “cancel” anything.
Lie #2: Fox News’ online project, Fox Nation, said the president “won’t celebrate” the National Day of Prayer.
Again, the proclamation proves otherwise.
Lie #3: Fox News’ Gretchen Carlson said the president’s decision to participate in “private” prayer on “National Prayer Day” is evidence of Obama “giving in to the PC society that we live in.”
No one pressured Obama to keep the National Day of Prayer Task Force out of the White House; it was just the obvious thing to do. As for the knock on “private” prayer, I might recommend Gretchen Carlson read Matthew 6:6.
Lie #4: Fox News’ Steve Doocy said Reagan and George H. W. Bush held events similar to that of George W. Bush.
As hard as this is to believe, Doocy has it backwards. Reagan largely ignored the NDP for his first seven years in office.
Lie #5: Elisabeth Hasselbeck said on Fox News that the National Day of Prayer “has been a huge tradition” in the U.S.
That’s just nonsense, since most presidents, like most Americans, have largely ignored the “holiday.” Besides, Obama is keeping the “tradition” going by doing what his predecessors have done — he issued a proclamation.
Hasselbeck — who is she again? — concluded, “We should be able to gather and pray as we see fit.” What I’ll never understand about conservative activists is why they think they need government to get involved in spiritual matters. Hasselbeck could get together with others to pray as they see fit yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Whether the Dobsons get to hang out in the East Room of the White House is irrelevant.
Honestly, I’m not sure which is more annoying — the conservatives’ prayer-related dishonesty or their prayer-related whining.
If the religious right is really believing that there is really a god, do they also really believe to serve that god by lies instead of prayers? I guess they are changing the holiday in the National Day of Blasphemy.
