Despite a judge’s ruling that declared the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional, special observations were held across the nation and in several places in the capital city including the Pentagon, the Cannon House Office Building and the steps of the US Capitol, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Rev. Franklin Graham, who had been disinvited to the Pentagon because of comments he had made regarding the Islamic faith after 911 nonetheless prayed on a sidewalk outside the building. Graham is honorary chairman of the private National Day of Prayer Task Force.
However, President Brack Obama, whose administration on April 22 appealed the judge’s ruling and issued a National Day of Prayer proclamation, did not hold an interfaith observance at the White House, according to the SunGazette.
On April 15, U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled that the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment. However in her decision, Crabb said ceremonies could still be held pending appeals.
In observances at Williamsport-Lycoming County, Pennsylvania keynote speaker state Superior Court Judge Cheryl Allen challenged Crabb’s argument centered on the separation of church and state, and alleged violation of the First Amendment, the SunGazette said.
Allen said, “I couldn’t find separation of church and state in the Constitution.” Regarding the First Amendment she cited the first part which says, “Congress shall make no laws establishing a religion” and said the founding fathers came to America to escape England, which had established a church and persecuted those who would not attend. Allen then noted the second portion of the First Amendment clause which states: “or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
James Dobson, who founded Focus on the Family and whose wife chairs the National Day of Prayer said the event puts a prayer covering over the nation and noted that since 1775 the first Continental Congress called for a national day of prayer.
Dobson noted that 34 out of 44 Presidents have called for a national day of prayer including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, George Herbert Walker Bush and George W. Bush, the New York News Today reported.
Dobson said, “How can something be unconstitutional when it was passed by both houses of Congress unanimously and signed by Ronald Reagan and Harry Truman and implemented by all those Presidents back through the years?”
Charles Haynes, a First Amendment scholar who specializes in religious liberty expects President Obama to succeed with his appeal. He said a judge could possibly cite a 1983 Supreme Court decision that upheld the right to legislative prayer on grounds that “the offering of prayer is a tolerable acknowledgment of beliefs widely held among the people of this country,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
tolerable, in 1983, but not tolerable in 2010… where a significant fraction of americans who believe that government paid-for and sponsored religious observance is inappropriate. laws like these need to change to reflect the prevailing culture.
when our country was founded, if you said you were an atheist you could be stoned to death or hung. it’s very likely that many people who didn’t believe in gods or angels were afraid of saying so.
now people are less afraid. maybe we should give them reason to fear? start burning them again?
There is much confusion over a national day of prayer that the government ALLOWS and acknowledges out of respect for its citizens, and one that a government would MANDATE and make mandatory. Our government has done no such thing as commanded anyone to pray. No one is going to jail if they don’t pray on that day.
I would venture to say that if a certain other religious group wanted a National Day of Prayer here in America (which they may soon), that no one would say a word about it…much less take them to court. On the contrary. We are walking on eggshells with this particular faith.
The whole thing is a ridiculous double standard…and I wish atheists would admit the difference between a command and a simple acknowledgment of a day that means something to a lot of people.
Prayer is one of those things that no law will ever be able to take away. It’s unconstitutional to pass a law that bans prayer for any reason. What happened to freedom of speech or freedom of religion. Prayer is for anyone who wants to pray. If you are a atheisis or some other religion and don’t want to pray that’s between you and God or who ever you serve. This law violates the law of God. Any one who believes in God or is a christian needs to stand up against this Idea that government can take God out of everything. Wheather their is a national day of prayer or not you can still pray, and know one, no government, no judge, no human being can take that away. Even if christains are persecuted, fined, or sent to jail because of this absured law they can’t stop you from praying. God said pray without ceasing. He also teaches us to obey the laws of the land, But if the laws of the land are going against God we as christian are not obligated to follow those laws. Just like the same sex marriage law in california. God clearly poke against such things and destroyed sodom and gamorrah because of homosexuality. And yet their is that law that allow same sex marriage. Christain are not obligated to submit to that law. This needs to change. All I know is that no matter what happens, and no matter how bad things get I’m gonna pray. Sometimes that’s all you can do.
Good re-cap Tiffany,
PRAYER The most powerful weapon of Christians’ the great privilege the creator God given to His children, Nothing on earth can stop us from indulging in this activity, only thing we need to look into this with more care and sincerity in doing this. The Great Man of God F B Meyer said, ” The great tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer but unoffered prayer.
In the latest book (When God Does not Answer) of Dr. Woodrow Kroll, President, Back to the Bible, Lincoln, Nebraska quoted Former US President Abraham Lincoln: “I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.”
Let the present generation(administrators as well) at US should make note of Abraham Lincoln’s words.
May God Bless (Save) America!!!
Thanks for sharing this Tiff and associates
Fools on both sides of the National Day of Prayer issue go into apoplectic fits when faith or religion is even mentioned in the context of the “state”…The Constitutional Article referring to the state not “establishing..church” or “prohibiting the free exercise thereof” is not a law….It is a constitutional principle set forth by the framers of the US Constitution to (1 protect those who do not want to practice a religious faith and don’t want it crammed down their throat by the state and (2) to protect those who want freedom to practice their faith. That phrase does both by implying that the state cannot be the church and the church cannot be the state. Who among us wants the US to have a State Church such as England, Iran or Afghanistan? I don’t want my church, The Presbyterian Church to be the State Church nor do I want the Roman Catholic Church to be the State Church; that is what causes denominational battles; and is a slap in God’s face. States don’t have souls to save; only people do! I want to practice my Christian faith under the protection of the state but not imposed or me or anyone else via the power of the state. That is all the constitutional framers were saying. Fanatics on both side, get a life!! God/Jesus does not need or want the help of the state and has never asked for it in the context of the United States of America or England or Italy or Israel or Iran or Qatar. If each of us, as individuals, lived up to the tenets of the faith we screech so loudly about, why would God need our help? In any case, He doesn’t need our help; we need His!
Incidentally, I will resist, even physically, anyone doing anything to cram their “religious” ideology, dogma, doctrine down my throat in any context. God gave me “free will” and intend to exercise that free will. I don’t need the help of fanatic religionists to determine why volition regarding matters of MY soul!!! You attend to your soul and I will attend to mine. I won’t force the articles of my faith down your throat and don’t you cram your articles of faith down my throat–unless I solicit such assistance–in any context…in the street, the polling place, the television, the public school, legislatures, wherever!!! That is what the Founding Fathers meant….and I will bleed to uphold that article….for myself and for America. God is not impressed with those who seek his favor(or public power)by using cajolery, force, politics, bribery, threats, etc., in His name! He says that plenty of times in His New Testament! Walk Humbly with the Lord…He won’t be impressed if you walk arrogantly with Him. He’ll call that a sin and tell you to refer to First John 1:9 for forgiveness of that sin! The state deals with crime; God deals with sin!