Not quite, but it appears that I'm giving it about as much attention as our president. President Obama discontinued the annual religious right-focused prayer service that George W. Bush held during his eight years in the White House. Looks like James and Shirley Dobson are going to be out in the cold for awhile.During the Bush years the Dobson's, along with other religious right leaders, took part in an annual government-sponsored prayer service. According to Americans United for Separation of Church and State: "The relationship appeared to give governmental endorsement to the Dobsons’ National Day of Prayer Task Force, a private fundamentalist group that sponsors Christians-only prayer meetings around the country."
Obama has indicated that he will sign a proclamation recognizing the National Day of Prayer on Thursday, but that no special White House prayer service will be held.Here's what Barry Lynn, AU's executive director, had to say about President Obama's actions:
I am pleased that President Obama has made this decision. The president is required by federal law to declare a National Day of Prayer, but there is no requirement that a special event be held at the White House in observance of this event.Barry Lynn is right. There's a time and a place for prayer, but at the White House -- on a specific day -- is not it. This is something evangelicals like Dobson fail to understand, and what they also don't get is that religious freedom is only guaranteed when there is church-state separation.
During the Bush years, the Dobsons and other Religious Right leaders were given special access to the White House. That seems to have come to an end, and I’m glad.
Congress should never have mandated a National Day of Prayer. Americans don’t need the government telling them when to pray and what to pray for. But if the federal government is going to set aside a prayer day, it should recognize the broad diversity of faiths, not just fundamentalist Christians.
4 comments:
Thank god!
The law requiring the president to declare a "National Day of Prayer" is unconstitutional and unamerican.
[It's still legal - and always God-honoring - to air messages like the following. (See Ezekiel 3:18-19.) In light of government backing of raunchy behavior (such offenders were even executed in early America!), maybe the separation we really need is the "separation of raunch and state"!]
In Luke 17 in the New Testament, Jesus said that one of the big "signs" that will happen shortly before His return to earth as Judge will be a repeat of the "days of Lot" (see Genesis 19 for details). So gays are actually helping to fulfill this same worldwide "sign" (and making the Bible even more believable!) and thus hurrying up the return of the Judge! They are accomplishing what many preachers haven't accomplished! Gays couldn't have accomplished this by just coming out of closets into bedrooms. Instead, they invented new architecture - you know, closets opening on to Main Streets where little kids would be able to watch naked men having sex with each other at festivals in places like San Francisco (where their underground saint - San Andreas - may soon get a big jolt out of what's going on over his head!). Thanks, gays, for figuring out how to bring back our resurrected Saviour even quicker!
Anon - thanks for the laugh!
BAC
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