National Day Of Prayer

[marycontrary]

A federal court in Wisconsin decided Thursday that the country's National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional because it calls on citizens to take part in religious activity.

 

The pundits on Fox news are livid. I'm confused by this. Don't they already have Sundays to pray? Can't they keep their personal relayshunship with gawd personal? Why do they even need a day?

 

Happy to see this since I've seen far too many commercials about about gawd in the last month due to the whole easter thing. I personally liked the commercial that asks "what do you have to lose?" My reply is not sleeping in late on Sunday and 10% of my income.

[Sexton Blake]

Being careful of the nutjob fundamentalists in America, Judge Barbara Crabb said that it was unconstitutional because it told people when they should pray, and that it had nothing to do with prayer itself.

 

 

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gd8532foDasi_HtAzi9JolkMVlqQD9F3QF7O0

 

 

What is it about christians that they need people to know just how religious they are? Do they need to be told when to pray? Does someone need to know they are being prayed for so they can heal better? Do people need a crucifix on display to shove their religion in people's faces, even in hospitals like happened in the UK?

[Andy]

Apparently these people like being told what to do. No one is saying they can't pray. They're just not saying you have to pray. It boggles my mind that this would make anyone angry.

[lunaticheathen]

Let's hope "Meet at the Flagpole" bullshit is next.

Like my sticker on my seatrunk says "Don't pray in my school, and I won't think in your church."

[Carmen]

I don't think that government leaders should be telling us that we have to pray, but I don't see why they should declare the holiday itself as unconstitutional. No one is forced to celebrate it, just like no one is forced to celebrate any other holiday. I say we should just let the religious people have their holiday. It's a free country after all.

[The-Captain]

I don't think that government leaders should be telling us that we have to pray, but I don't see why they should declare the holiday itself as unconstitutional. No one is forced to celebrate it, just like no one is forced to celebrate any other holiday. I say we should just let the religious people have their holiday. It's a free country after all.

 

Because the holiday, from the government side consists solely of the President calling the entire nation to prayer. In a strict interpretation, he is using his office to promote a purely religious exercise. They can still have their holiday though.

[Guest ephymeris]

My fundie sis-in-law is all pissed off over the government offending her as a "CHRISTIAN AMERICAN" (yes, she writes that in all caps). There are so many things wrong with her feelings of persecution, I don't even want to start with her. There was even one younger Christian girl that took the more lovey standpoint that they shouldn't need a day of prayer but should "walk with love everyday" and my sis-in-law just poo-poo'd her and said christians need to "stand up for themselves sometimes." Ugh, spare me your sense of persecution.

[Loren]

A great deal of what's going on with the whole FOX News outrage is that the rich and powerful behind-the-scenes power brokers are in bed with each other. When Bush Junior was President, the wife of Focus On The Family's founder James Dobson was Chair Person of the National Day of Prayer Committee.

 

From OpEdNews. The whole article can be read here.

 

The holiday began in 1775, when the Continental Congress asked Americans to pray for guidance as it was trying to birth a nation. Abraham Lincoln called for a day of fasting and prayer in 1863. Nearly a century later, Harry Truman made it an annual event, and in 1988, Ronald Reagan set aside the first Thursday in May so citizens could join in worship across all religious boundaries.

 

That changed in the 1990s, when the National Day of Prayer Committee established a task force to help coordinate activities across the country and connected it with Colorado's Focus on the Family. The conservative group, led by prominent evangelical James Dobson, took charge of the day, then insisted that all participants adhere to its "Judeo-Christian" theological tenets. Shirley Dobson, wife of James Dobson is the chairperson of the Task Force since 1991.

 

The Task force's website says that the National Day of Prayer Task Force was a creation of the National Prayer Committee for the expressed purpose of organizing and promoting prayer observances conforming to a Judeo-Christian system of values. People with other theological and philosophical views are, of course, free to organize and participate in activities that are consistent with their own beliefs.

 

A Task Force volunteer must be an evangelical Christian who has a personal relationship with Christ. According to the Task force website the applicants must indicate whether their lives reflect a belief statement that begins: "I believe that the Holy Bible is the inerrant Word of The Living God. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the only One by which I can obtain salvation and have an ongoing relationship with God."

 

Thanks to Dobson, this year's task force volunteers are required to sign pledges, stating: "I commit that National Day Prayer activities I serve with will be conducted solely by Christians while those of differing beliefs are welcome to attend."

 

FOX News knows perfectly well what it's true function is: A political propaganda instrument. They know which side their bread's buttered on.

[Deva]

Persecuted Christians are all up in arms about losing their National Day of Prayer. Wish they would do what their Lord said and just go pray in the closet.

[lunaticheathen]

Persecuted Christians are all up in arms about losing their National Day of Prayer. Wish they would do what their Lord said and just go pray in the closet.

Awomen Deva!