Obama Cancels National Day of Prayer

[DigitalShadow]

This was on that rickross link earlier in the thread:

"The National Day of Prayer was established by an act of Congress in 1952 and amended in 1988 to designate the day as the first Thursday of May each year."

But regardless of how old it is, canceling it was just as much a political move as starting it was.

It's not as if Obama canceled the whole day all together as the title of this thread appears to imply. From what I can tell, he simply isn't holding a public ceremony at the white house like his predecessor did.

[MarginOfError]

This was on that rickross link earlier in the thread:

"The National Day of Prayer was established by an act of Congress in 1952 and amended in 1988 to designate the day as the first Thursday of May each year."

But regardless of how old it is, canceling it was just as much a political move as starting it was.

Heh. Are you wunna those short-term memory folks, or just making a jab at them?

"We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back,

when brown can stick around,

When yellow will be mellow,

When the red man can get ahead, man,

And when white will embrace what is right!"

No political stunting going on with the current administration, no sir!

LM

It's not as if Obama canceled the whole day all together as the title of this thread appears to imply. From what I can tell, he simply isn't holding a public ceremony at the white house like his predecessor did.

Digital Shadow has it right. The White House prayer service was established by George W. Bush, and is the only part that Obama canceled. He did attend the breakfast and signed the proclamation. I believe I made a point of saying that earlier as well.

[MarginOfError]

While I’m ranting, what exactly is the point of wondering to whom Obama prays. Are you worried he’s a Muslim? Oh the horror, a man that might pray to Allah!

That just makes me wonder why you are afraid he might be a Muslim.

Are you afraid he will go easy on extreme Islamic terrorists with whom we engage in warfare? You’d have to be highly uneducated about Islamic factions to believe that, because the fighting that goes on between Sunnis and Shiites is pretty indicative of how well different ideologues get along there.

Oh, I know! You must be afraid that Obama is of the same ideology as bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. That makes perfect sense, seeing as Obama is what you would describe a “bleeding-heart liberal” and al-Qaeda endorses sharia. Can you really hold a straight face while trying to discredit Obama as being “Muslim” while simultaneously accusing him of being a “left wing radical?” If you can, Roger Clemens has a spot for you on his legal team.

Or is it possible that the distaste for the idea that Obama might be a Muslim grows purely from religious bigotry? This reminds me of an Action Alert I got from the American Family Association a few years ago. The AFA was encouraging people to write their Senators because something horrible had happened—a Muslim had been asked to give the invocation to the upcoming Senate session. “NO! ONLY CHRISTIANS CAN PRAY IN OUR GOVERNMENT!”

Again. Good job President Obama for breaking this time-honored tradition (sarcasm: only G.W. Bush ever had a prayer service in the White House) and re-emphasizing the importance of prayer in our private lives.

Take it easy. No reason to get all upset. I would hate for someone your age to have a heart attack just because you and someone that calls themself "GODLESS" are wrong.

Where I live our children say the Pledge of Allegiance, with the words, "under God" each morning. We have prayers before school board meetings and other school ativities. They even had a prayer before the prom Saturday night. If a boy becomes an Eagle Scout, it's on the front page. All the scouts in our area are sponsored by churches. So living in this environment it did bother me what he did. Sorry about where you're stuck.

How interesting it is that you try to discredit my point by talking about something entirely different.

Perhaps you could explain to me exactly why it matters what God President Obama prays to? What difference would it make if President Obama was a practicing Muslim? What concerns you about the God to which President Obama prays?

[bytor2112]

Digital Shadow has it right. The White House prayer service was established by George W. Bush, and is the only part that Obama canceled. He did attend the breakfast and signed the proclamation. I believe I made a point of saying that earlier as well.

Obama didn't send a delegation either....which is the first time since 1993.

[MarginOfError]

Obama didn't send a delegation either....which is the first time since 1993.

That's fair...you can make a fuss about that. But just a small one :)

Interesting tidbit, the Interfaith Alliance asked President Obama not to participate in the National Day of Prayer as organized by the NDP Task Force. They also praised him today for his actions.

Interfaith Alliance Praises President’s National Day of Prayer Proclamation

[bytor2112]

That's fair...you can make a fuss about that. But just a small one :)

Interesting tidbit, the Interfaith Alliance asked President Obama not to participate in the National Day of Prayer as organized by the NDP Task Force. They also praised him today for his actions.

Interfaith Alliance Praises President’s National Day of Prayer Proclamation

I personally don't care either way.........just to be fair, I think Notre Dame should not have made such a stink about the President speaking their......regardless of who is in the office, he is still the President of the United States.

[Moksha]

I have questioned these National Prayer Day services ever since a poster who is intimately involved in this activity announced he would not pray on the same platform with Mormons.

[Maxel]

While I’m ranting, what exactly is the point of wondering to whom Obama prays. Are you worried he’s a Muslim? Oh the horror, a man that might pray to Allah!

IIRC, the Islam religion holds Abraham as one of its patriarchs. The God of Islam- Allah- is the God of Abraham; the same God that Christians and Jews worship. So when a Muslim prays to Allah, they are praying to the God of Abraham. What they don't realize- and they're in the same boat as Jews here- is the special relationship within the Godhead, Christ's role as mediator, etc.

That just makes me wonder why you are afraid he might be a Muslim.

I would be seriously upset if he were anything but a Christian, because that's what he sold himself as during the campaign. If he's anything other than a Christian, than he lied to the American people during his campaign to make himself more popular in the public light. A damnable act for sure.

Unless we're justified in forgiving his serious deceptions because we like his policies.

Again. Good job President Obama for breaking this time-honored tradition (sarcasm: only G.W. Bush ever had a prayer service in the White House) and re-emphasizing the importance of prayer in our private lives.

Really? My understanding was that the National Day of Prayer- and its progenitors; non-fixed days of prayer- was to encourage private prayer and public prayer, but not to enforce the recommendation in the slightest.

Thomas Jefferson was against the idea, saying in a letter to the Reverend Samuel Miller:

Fasting and prayer are religious exercises; the enjoining them an act of discipline. Every religious society has a right to determine for itself the time for these exercises, and the objects proper for them, according to their own particular tenets; and right can never be safer than in their hands, where the Constitution has deposited it. ...civil powers alone have been given to the President of the United States and no authority to direct the religious exercises of his constituents.

John Adams, the father of the Constitution, had a slightly more moderate approach:

There has been another deviation from the strict principle in the Executive Proclamations of fasts & festivals, so far, at least, as they have spoken the language of injunction, or have lost sight of the equality of all religious sects in the eye of the Constitution. Whilst I was honored with the Executive Trust I found it necessary on more than one occasion to follow the example of predecessors. But I was always careful to make the Proclamations absolutely indiscriminate, and merely recommendatory; or rather mere designations of a day, on which all who thought proper might unite in consecrating it to religious purposes, according to their own faith & forms. In this sense, I presume you reserve to the Govt. a right to appoint particular days for religious worship throughout the State, without any penal sanction enforcing the worship.

National Day of Prayer- Wikipedia

Prayer and meditation are common among virtually all religious traditions and non-theistic philosophies, excepting mainly agnosticism and atheism. I'm not surprised that agnostics and atheists are the largest groups complaining about how this is some sort of violation between Church and State. Unfortunately, we have the 8-year long catastrophe that was G.W. Bush's presidency to actually cross that boundary and invite religious leaders to the White House... Now, the overblown reaction is to do away with the idea entirely.

George Washington prayed at his inauguration. George Washington, a Deist founder of our country who understood the concept of separation of Church and State quite well, saw fit to begin his term as president with a public prayer. That should tell us all something about the importance of acknowledging a guiding force outside of our own that oversees us- the acknowledgment of a God of Nature who laid the foundational laws that guide the processes of the universe- and that the idea of the public promotion of private prayer isn't a violation of any Constitutional principle.

Maybe he's *gasp* an atheist!!! We've all been deceived!!!

You should be upset if he is and atheist, Godless, because he would have lied to America during his campaign. Unless, of course, you're okay with that particular lie because it would put his ideologies more in line with yours. I respect and like you, Godless, but this sentiment is absurd and disingenuous. Unless it was a joke and I missed it... If that's the case, my apologies.

If a president lies to maintain his public reputation, I want him out of office- whether he be lying about his sexual relations with his intern, his involvement in Watergate, his religion, or his made-up reasons for starting a pointless war.

[Faded]

I followed this link Interfaith Alliance Praises President’s National Day of Prayer Proclamation and found this:

Washington, DC – Interfaith Alliance President Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy issued the following statement in response to the proclamation issued this afternoon by President Obama for the National Day of Prayer:

President Obama did the right thing today by issuing a proclamation for the National Day of Prayer that is inclusive of all Americans. We must cherish the freedom in this country to pray or not to pray.

The reality is that we don’t need our elected leaders to instruct us in the ways of religion just as we don’t need our religious leaders to tell us for whom to vote. However, if we are going to have such a day, I am glad to see that this president understands that it should be inclusive.

Interfaith Alliance, along with Jews on First, sent a letter to the president in April calling for him to support an inclusive day of prayer and reject the exclusionist version supported by Shirley Dobson’s so-called National Day of Prayer Task Force.

So my question is this: Is all the fuss on this story over the fact that Obama broke ranks with the National Day of Prayer Task Force? If that is the case then why is there a problem? They actively exclude Mormons and a lot of other religions. They are an Evangelical Christian group. Why do we need them to be the official National Day of Prayer people? They're intolerant and to advocate them would be to publicly advocate Evangelical Christianity in preference to all other religious voices. The religious world doesn't need their intolerance.

[Maxel]

I followed this link Interfaith Alliance Praises President’s National Day of Prayer Proclamation and found this:

So my question is this: Is all the fuss on this story over the fact that Obama broke ranks with the National Day of Prayer Task Force? If that is the case then why is there a problem? They actively exclude Mormons and a lot of other religions. They are an Evangelical Christian group. Why do we need them to be the official National Day of Prayer people? They're intolerant and to advocate them would be to publicly advocate Evangelical Christianity in preference to all other religious voices. The religious world doesn't need their intolerance.

My problem is that there are those who are using this so-called "breach" of separation of Church and State to further their agenda of taking God out of the public discourse and eventually the lives of Americans- especially by furthering the false idea that reason and religious observances are dichotomous to each other.

As far as the National Day of Prayer in its current incarnation has been abused, I do not condone. However, the proposed solution- abolishing all encouragement of prayer from government officials (which is the ultimate goal)- is just as bad, if not worse. The devil sends errors into the world in pairs; pairs of opposites.

I think perhaps the National Day of Prayer should be replaced with the precedent of the President coming out and encouraging Americans to pray during times of crisis.

[Guest Godless]

You should be upset if he is and atheist, Godless, because he would have lied to America during his campaign. Unless, of course, you're okay with that particular lie because it would put his ideologies more in line with yours. I respect and like you, Godless, but this sentiment is absurd and disingenuous. Unless it was a joke and I missed it... If that's the case, my apologies.

If a president lies to maintain his public reputation, I want him out of office- whether he be lying about his sexual relations with his intern, his involvement in Watergate, his religion, or his made-up reasons for starting a pointless war.

Yeah, I was mostly being tongue-in-cheek. I say mostly because he's a politician, and one of the oldest tricks of a politician is to lie and deceive in order to gain or stay in office. It sucks and it's inexcusable, but unfortunately it's also the norm. Yes, part of me would be upset if Obama turned out to be an atheist, or anything other than a Christian, because it means he would have lied during a campaign that otherwise seemed very clean and honest. However, I'm more inclined to judge him more by his actions in office, not the methods he used to get there.

[prisonchaplain]

I confess, I don't know much about the history of the National Day of Prayer. However, I do know that it was during the 50's that "In God We Trust" became the national motto of the US and began being printed on all US currency (it had been printed on some currency previously, but not all). The reason for this: to fight Communism. As such, I think these measures are a tad bit dated.

Oh resist...resist...I can't!!! Arrrgh...gotta say it...You mean it's a tad dated because they won???

[jadams_4040]

Good for him! I admire a man who won’t use prayer as a political stunt.

Notice also that he didn’t cancel the prayer breakfast, and that he also signed the proclamation recognizing the National Day of Prayer. All Obama did was choose not to have a prayer service in the White House.

Wo is me! Obama didn’t pray on national television. Proof that he hates Christianity, I say! It’s proof!!

unfortuanetly obama cant go to the bathroom without being evil?

[Jenamarie]

unfortuanetly obama cant go to the bathroom without being evil?

Even his toilet paper is under-handed.

[Dravin]

Even his toilet paper is under-handed.

Obama insults white Americans through choice of toilet paper color, more at 11!.

[bytor2112]

Not holding a prayer meeting or inviting religious leaders to the White House is one thing, but I think he erred in not sending a delegate.........of course I am sure that was intentional and calculated as most things are with politicians.

[Guest Godless]

Oh resist...resist...I can't!!! Arrrgh...gotta say it...You mean it's a tad dated because they won???

LOL! Well, that and the fact that modern America is finally growing out of its irrational fear of foreign ideologies. The funny thing is that, as an atheist, the religious slogans really don't bother me that much. I'd probably be much more up-in-arms about it if I were a Christian. I don't think I'd take too kindly to the government using the name of a diety in such a trivial and, dare I say, vain fashion. In the 1970 case of Aronow v. US, the slogan "In God We Trust" was deemed to be "of patriotic or ceremonial character". In the 1984 case of Lynch v. Donnelly, the Supreme Court declared that the motto and the use of "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance are "a form a 'ceremonial deism', protected from Establishment Clause scrutiny chiefly because they have lost through rote repetition any significant religious content."

I mention this because it seems that the National Day of Prayer is an apple from the same tree of religious triviality that gave us these religious slogans. And like I said, as an atheist, it really doesn't bother me that much to see Christians turn their faith and their God into a public spectacle.

[prisonchaplain]

Godless, there's no doubt but that we like our civic religiosity. We are overwhelmingly believers in deity, and most are Christian. And yet, we do not impose Christianity, or even monotheism substantive ways. We make cultural nods to the reality that permeates most of our peoples. It's good that you are okay with this. Some aren't, and wish to drive out any vestige of any type of theistic platitude from the public square.

The decisions you cite are largely right. The phrases in question are not sectarian enough to warrant serious protest. They will not drive one soul to their knees before a holy God. But we like them and wonder why those who do oppose are so determined to stick their fingers in the eye of America's cultural preference for theism.

[Faded]

My problem is that there are those who are using this so-called "breach" of separation of Church and State to further their agenda of taking God out of the public discourse and eventually the lives of Americans- especially by furthering the false idea that reason and religious observances are dichotomous to each other.

As far as the National Day of Prayer in its current incarnation has been abused, I do not condone. However, the proposed solution- abolishing all encouragement of prayer from government officials (which is the ultimate goal)- is just as bad, if not worse. The devil sends errors into the world in pairs; pairs of opposites.

I think perhaps the National Day of Prayer should be replaced with the precedent of the President coming out and encouraging Americans to pray during times of crisis.

Certainly can't disagree with you there. What I find particularly annoying is that the National Day of Prayer Task Force created such a perfect storm scenario for all of this. Rather than uniting all religion in prayer, they are excluding everyone that doesn't think like they do. So when the Atheist organizations come a suing like they always do, how much public outcry is there going to be when if and when the legal system starts bullying the religious bigots? There's the trouble, nobody will feel sorry for them. Divided amongst ourselves, it is easier to push us around.

Their religious intolerance divides and dilutes the power of collective faith in God throughout the world by qualifying who gets to belong to their exclusive club. Believers in God need to stand united in the face of the enemies of all religion. The Evangelicals are being idiotic about this, and their timing couldn't be much worse.

[Guest Godless]

Godless, there's no doubt but that we like our civic religiosity. We are overwhelmingly believers in deity, and most are Christian. And yet, we do not impose Christianity, or even monotheism substantive ways. We make cultural nods to the reality that permeates most of our peoples. It's good that you are okay with this. Some aren't, and wish to drive out any vestige of any type of theistic platitude from the public square.

Understood. It just seems to me that this cultural integration of religion undermines the personal and sacred nature of religion and robs it of its significance and meaning. You're the Christian here though, not me, and as such I respect your position even though I can't see myself embracing it if I were in your shoes.

The decisions you cite are largely right. The phrases in question are not sectarian enough to warrant serious protest. They will not drive one soul to their knees before a holy God. But we like them and wonder why those who do oppose are so determined to stick their fingers in the eye of America's cultural preference for theism.

It's all about political correctness, something that I'm personally not all that crazy about.

[Churchmouse]

How interesting it is that you try to discredit my point by talking about something entirely different.

Perhaps you could explain to me exactly why it matters what God President Obama prays to? What difference would it make if President Obama was a practicing Muslim? What concerns you about the God to which President Obama prays?

If you check the posts you will see that you are the one that started all the Muslim talk. I never mentioned the word. I don't care what religion he is, but I must admit after listening to his church leaders rants I'm not sure I would consider his leader to have Christian views.

[Churchmouse]

In 2004, Mormons were barred from conducting services during National Day of Prayer ceremonies by the group's task force chairwoman, Shirley Dobson.

More recently James Dobson heaped praise on the Church for their stand on California's Proposition 8. He did this twice on his morning radio broadcast. Of course, he did say we have different religious views.

[Churchmouse]

Obama insults white Americans through choice of toilet paper color, more at 11!.

He better use white or he have Algore after him for destroying the planet.

[MarginOfError]

in the White Houise. He says he prays in private. I wonder whom he prays to.

This guy worries me more and more each day.

Then perhaps you would care to clarify what you mean by “I wonder whom he prays to.”

You’ll have to forgive me for lumping you in with all the other paranoids that have been saying things like this for the past two years trying to imply he isn’t a Christian.

Regardless of whether you use Muslim (the most common implication) or any other religion, the question still stands…what does it matter what God he prays to? You still have yet to explain that.

[Churchmouse]

Then perhaps you would care to clarify what you mean by “I wonder whom he prays to.”

You’ll have to forgive me for lumping you in with all the other paranoids that have been saying things like this for the past two years trying to imply he isn’t a Christian.

Regardless of whether you use Muslim (the most common implication) or any other religion, the question still stands…what does it matter what God he prays to? You still have yet to explain that.

I don't know how to clarify "I wonder whom he prays to". Would be hard to make it any more simple. The guest host for Rushbo (Don't remember his name. British man) asked the same question. He wondered if maybe he prays to himself.:

BTW, if you're trying to insult me by calling me paronoid:( you'll have to do better than that. During four in the Marines I was called worse.