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27 Dec 2006 06:26:54 AM |
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National Day Of Prayer Questions & Answers |
National Day Of Prayer Questions & Answers
http://www.au.org/site/DocServer/National_Day_Of_Prayer_FAQ.pdf?docID=153
National Day Of Prayer
Questions & Answers
The National Day of Prayer (NDP) is an official religious observance
mandated by the federal government. The NDP was established as an annual
event by an act of Congress in 1952. Before then, there were occasional
instances of official prayer proclamations by Congress and the
presidents. In 1988, at the behest of the Religious Right, Congress
officially set the date of the annual event as the first Thursday in May.
This Q&A examines some of the constitutional concerns surrounding the
What's wrong with an official National Day of Prayer?
There's nothing wrong with Americans engaging in voluntary religious
worship; that's what the First Amendment is all about. Every day, millions
of people of different faith traditions worship in their own way, without
aid or interference from the government.
The NDP, however, is an official religious observance, through which the
government urges all Americans to pray. That undermines the separation of
church and state. It isn't the job of government to promote or encourage
religious worship through official prayer days; it's the job of religious
leaders. People of faith are more than capable of making up their own minds
about when to pray and what to pray for; they don't need "help" from the
government.
What is the National Day of Prayer Task Force?
Over the last decade, the NDP Task Force has taken the lead in organizing
and promoting NDP events, and coordinates virtually all of the prayer day
events in Washington, D.C., and around the country. The Task Force
claims that it organized 30,000 observances of the NDP last year.
The NDP Task Force, however, is a private nonprofit group that is part of
the Religious Right. It is headed by Shirley Dobson, wife of Religious
Right broadcaster James Dobson and operates from the headquarters of
Dobson's Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, Colo. In recent years,
the Task Force's events have reflected a fundamentalist Christian view of
the world and advanced the claim that America is a Christian nation.
Is the NDP Task Force affiliated with the federal government?
The Task Force does not have formal ties to the government, but the group
has assumed a pseudo-official role. In 2002, for example, the Task Force
used the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill to host its NDP event
for Washington, D.C. Representatives of all three branches of federal
government, as well as a representative from the military, spoke at the
event. Moreover, the former Senate chaplain wrote the group's NDP prayer.
In 2001, President George W. Bush actively participated in Task Force
efforts, personally hosting the group's religious observances in the
nation's capital. In addition, Bush held a prayer day event at the White
House featuring Relig ious Right leaders such as James and Shirley Dobson,
Jerry Falwell and Richard Land.
Is it true that a taxpayer-financed chaplain wrote the official prayer for
2002's NDP Task Force?
In 2002, Lloyd Ogilvie, former chaplain of the United States Senate, wrote
a "Prayer For America" for the NDP Task Force. Ogilvie's prayer, which
Religious Right activists urged all Americans to recite at 12 noon on May
2, was written to "acknowledge [God's] sovereignty." The prayer asked God
to grant "supernatural powers" to the president and Congress and called on
the nation "to be faithful to You as Sovereign of our land and as our
personal Lord and Savior."
"We rededicate ourselves to be one nation under You," Ogilvie's prayer
said. "In You we trust. We reaffirm our accountability to You, to the
absolutes of Your Commandments, and to justice in our society."
Isn't the Senate chaplain a publicly financed position?
Yes, at the time Ogilve was a minister serving as a pastor to members of
the Senate, and taxpayers finance his salary. In fact, the federal budget
in 2002 allotted $288,000 to Ogilvie's office.
Are NDP events open to people of all religious traditions?
Events organized by the NDP Task Force are for Christians who share the
Religious Right's fundamentalist perspective. While NDP Task Force
materials claim, "The National Day of Prayer belongs to all Americans," the
group says its events are exclusively for Christians. This is identical to
the approach the Task Force has taken in recent years. In 1999, for
example, the Task Force's NDP materials said the group's events were
intended for a Christian audience and said every NDP volunteer "must be a
Christian" with "a personal relationship with Christ."
The group even said event organizers should limit access to the microphone
at NDP events to church leaders who believe in "salvation by grace alone"
and who "have a personal relationship with Christ."
Is the Religious Right supporting the NDP?
Absolutely. In recent years, NDP materials have included revisionist
history crafted by Religious Right propagandists. In 2002, the NDP Task
Force promoted a statement from Jay Sekulow, head of TV preacher Pat
Robertson's American Center for Law and Justice, which argued government
promotion of religion is both legal and useful. Sekulow's essay defended
the NDP by saying, "The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly determined that
the First Amendment protects religious speech." Of course, religious
liberty activists respond that Sekulow's argument misses the point. No one
is arguing that Americans don't have the right to pray for the nation.
Advocates of churchstate separation merely argue that citizens don't need
the government to give them instruction on when and how to pray.
Is President Bush involved with promoting an official prayer day?
In 2002 Bush issued a White House proclamation on the NDP. It called "upon
the Almighty to continue to bless America and her people" and asked
Americans to "seek moral and spiritual renewal." The president's
proclamation also cited a quotation from the Christian scriptures.
Do all U.S. governors issue prayer proclamations in honor of NDP?
According to Focus on the Family, only one governor refused to issue a NDP
proclamation in 2002: Jesse Ventura (I-Minn.). Ironically, Jim Weidmann,
vice chairman of the NDP Task Force, replied to Ventura's inaction by
telling Focus that "citizens don't need a governor's proclamation to pray."
Coincidentally, that's exactly what advocates of church-state separation
believe, leaving many to wonder why citizens need an official prayer day if
they already can pray whenever they wish. Even without a decree from the
governor's desk, the people of Minnesota were able to pray, or not pray,
based on the dictates of their beliefs and conscience.
What did the Founding Fathers think of government prayer proclamations?
Key Founders such as James Madison and Thomas Jefferson thought
presidential prayer day proclamations were violations of the constitutional
separation of church and state.
Jefferson, the nation's third president and a leading visionary on
religious liberty, refused to issue prayer proclamations during his two
terms in the White House. Writing to the Rev. Samuel Miller in 1808,
Jefferson said, "Fasting and prayer are religious exercises; the enjoining
them an act of discipline. Every religious society has a right to determine
for itself the times for these exercises, and the objects proper for them,
according to their own Americans United for Separation of Church and State
particular tenets; and this right can never be safer than in their own
hands, where the Constitution has deposited it."
Madison, widely recognized by historians as the "Father of the
Constitution," also considered prayer proclamations to be inappropriate.
Although Madison issued a few "prayer day" proclamations while president
under political pressure from Congress, he later said such proclamations
are inappropriate. In a collection of writings referred to as the "Detached
Memoranda," Madison said religious proclamations by the government "seem to
imply and certainly nourish the erroneous idea of a national re ligion." He
also wrote that it is problematic for the government to use its authority
to intervene in religion and that public officials lack "an advisory trust
from their Constituents in their religious capacities."
Are government-sponsored prayers constitutional?
Court rulings have been mixed on this issue. On multiple occasions, the
U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against government-sponsored prayer when the
religious exercises are held in public schools. However, in a controversial
1983 decision, the justices ruled 6 to 3 that the Nebraska legislature can
hire a chaplain to open legislative sessions with prayer.
Lower court rulings have also varied. Judges have frequently drawn the line
at use of public resources to organize prayer events. In 2002, a federal
district court in Georgia ruled that a city official could legally host a
prayer breakfast, so long as there was no official sponsorship by the local
government, a prohibition that included use of public funds, employees,
facilities or supplies to subsidize the religious events.
Courts have also barred official religious observances that favor specific
faith traditions. In 1999, a federal district court in Arizona ruled
against a town proclamation issued to honor "National Bible Week."
So what's the bottom line?
The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for
Separation of Church and State, said, "It is wholly inconsistent with the
principles of the First Amendment for the government to set aside a special
'prayer day' for the nation. Americans don't need official instruction from
politicians on when and how to pray." AU's Lynn noted that the NDP Task
Force in 2002 gave the NDP the theme of "America United Under God."
"Americans and their government are united, but under the Constitution, not
some kind of government-imposed religion," Lynn concluded at that time. "On
May 2, people should pray, or not pray, based on their beliefs. It simply
isn't any of the government's business."
Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington,
D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans about the
importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom.
If you would like to learn more about religious liberty, please contact:
Americans United for Separation
of Church and State
518 C Street N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20002
e-mail:
website: www.au.org
***************************************************************
You are invited to check out the following:
The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm
American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
Church and State in general, listed below]
HRSepCnS · Hampton Roads [Virginia] SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
[Its not just Hampton Roads folks who are members, there are members from
all over the US and a couple from overseas as well]
***************************************************************
.. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
.. . .
****************************************************************
USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote
"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"
That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.
It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.
*****************************************************************
THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
****************************************************************
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