It’s that time of year again — National Day of Wishful Thinking
29 April 2008 by StardustMay 1st is National Talking to an Imaginary Friend Day where believers pray to their multiple versions of the great invisible sky daddy for whatever. Never mind that “intolerant Religious Right groups are dominating observance of the National Day of Prayer”…there shouldn’t even BE a national day of prayer that is sponsored by any government official. Not only should the government not support intolerant religious groups, but should not be supporting ANY religious events or programs. This is total and utter nonsense.
National Day Of Prayer Showcases Intolerant Religious Right Agenda, Says Americans United
Government Officials Should Not Promote Dobson Prayer Task Force Events, Church-State Watchdog Group Says
Intolerant Religious Right groups are dominating observance of the National Day of Prayer and government officials should refuse to lend them support, says Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
The congressionally mandated National Day of Prayer scheduled for May 1 this year has been largely hijacked by the Religious Right and is being used as an opportunity to promote a far-right religious-political agenda.
“In many cases, this event is more about politics than prayer,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “It’s just another excuse for the Religious Right to attack church-state separation.”
Many events around the country this year are being coordinated by the National Day of Prayer Task Force, a Colorado Springs-based Religious Right organization run by Shirley Dobson, wife of Focus on the Family Chairman James C. Dobson.
The NDP Task Force’s Web site claims it is the “National Day of Prayer Official Web Site,” but, in fact, the group has no official status. The Task Force states that its purposes is to “Foster unity within the Christian Church” and “Publicize and preserve America’s Christian heritage.” Non-Christians are usually prohibited from leading or speaking at NDP Task Force events.
The Dobsons require volunteer prayer coordinators to sign a fundamentalist statement of faith that declares that “the Holy Bible is the inerrant Word of The Living God” and that “Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the only One by which I can obtain salvation.”
In addition, the NDP Task Force Web site promotes “Drive-Thru History,” a home-school curriculum produced by pseudo-historian David Barton that promotes the idea that America was founded to be a “Christian nation.”
Despite its sectarian character, the NDP Task Force often draws support from elected officials. The Dobsons annually visit the White House for its NDP event, and public officials attend NDP Task Force events held at the U.S. Capitol.
This year, President George W. Bush’s official National Day of Prayer proclamation used the same theme as the Dobsons’ Task Force “Prayer! America’s Strength & Shield.” A large number of governors have also issued proclamations adopting the NDP Task Force’s theme.
“The National Day of Prayer Task Force doesn’t even pretend to acknowledge religious tolerance or our country’s great diversity,” Lynn said. “It’s time for the government to stop working with this group.”
Lynn noted that leading Founders such as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison opposed government proclamations of days of prayer. They believed such events constitute improper government intrusion into religious matters. [my emphasis]
Wrote Jefferson, in a Jan. 23, 1808, letter to the Rev. Samuel Miller, “I do not believe it is for the interest of religion to invite the civil magistrate to direct its exercises, its discipline, or its doctrines; nor of the religious societies that the general government should be invested with the power of affecting any uniformity of time or matter among them.
“Fasting & prayer are religious exercises,” observed Jefferson. “The enjoining them an act of discipline. Every religious society has a right to determine for itself the times for these exercises, & the objects proper for them, according to their own particular tenets; and this right can never be safer than in their own hands, where the constitution has deposited it.”
Madison, in his “Detached Memoranda,” warned that governmental religious proclamations “seem to imply and certainly nourish the erroneous idea of a national religion.” He warned that there would always be a tendency “to narrow the recommendation to the standard of the predominant sect” and that partisan political considerations would be likely to come into play.
“The last & not the least objection,” observed Madison, “is the liability of the practice to a subserviency to political views; to the scandal of religion, as well as the increase of party animosities.”
29 April 2008, on 11:49 am
But I love the National Day of Prayer. It’s the only day of the year when I can do absolutely nothing and still feel like I’ve done something. Since I’m such a lazy bastard, this day is like a national holiday for me. Please don’t take it away from me. Without the National Day of Prayer, I might actually have to get off my ass and do something for a change.
29 April 2008, on 1:14 pm
I went to Talladega this weekend (because you’ve got to go at least once if you’re living in the South,) and was a little surprised that there is a national day of prayer car. Only a little, mind you.
29 April 2008, on 1:17 pm
lmao, Bruce…too funny! But on a serious note, doesn’t it seem like we are all screaming our asses off over this kind of shit, and yet, nothing ever happens? Fear-mongering xians still trample all over our liberties, hand-in-hand with the politicians. It seems like we’re pissing into a stiff breeze, here…
29 April 2008, on 1:20 pm
was a little surprised that there is a national day of prayer car.
Oh for fuck’s sake!
29 April 2008, on 1:21 pm
wow, I just went to the link of that prayer-mobile stock car, and I was blown away…
yeppers, go ahead and exercise your religious freedoms…as long as you’re a xian!
29 April 2008, on 1:21 pm
It seems like we’re pissing into a stiff breeze, here…
Yes benjamin, it does.
29 April 2008, on 1:48 pm
“was a little surprised that there is a national day of prayer car”
I see it came in 25th… not praying hard enough, I’m guessing.
29 April 2008, on 1:52 pm
I see it came in 25th… not praying hard enough, I’m guessing.
Maybe gawd was too busy smiting people in Virginia?
29 April 2008, on 1:59 pm
Makes it all seem so… you know, random somehow …
Seriously, this is in no way meant to make light of the tornado victims. Speaking of a stiff breeze!
29 April 2008, on 2:05 pm
I’m just waiting for Pat Robertson’s shit ass to come out and blame the people in Virginia themselves for the tornado.
By the way, what do these modern-day snake charmers and sorcerers actually expect to acheieve with this prayer day bullshit?
29 April 2008, on 2:10 pm
Wow. Madison’s words were chillingly prophetic. The govt. has no business aligning itself with an organization that openly declares homosexuals to be abominations who should be discriminated against, or that christianity should be instated as an official religion (which is what all that “Founding Fathers = Christian” garbage is about).
But hey, we’ve got a Faith-Based Initiatives office in Washington now, so nothing surprises me anymore. And we keep on pissing in the wind because anyone who speaks out against this will feel some good old Christian hatred coming their way from so many sheeple, they’ll be forced to go into hiding. Can you imagine what sort of threats and retaliation Gawd’s Peeple would inflict on any group that tries to separate church and state at this point?
29 April 2008, on 3:23 pm
I live in a place time forgot. We’ve only had shopping on Sunday’s for about a year now. So the ndp is something you’re likely to hear announced on the radio.
My mother sees it as a kind of duty.
She and her CWL buddies take turns chanting in the church and making tea in the hall all day.
You can’t have a good prayer day without hot tea.
Another good thing about ndp is I that you can pretend to participate and who’s going to know you didn’t? Oh yeah I prayed. Sure I did.
I prayed that I’d win the lotto. . . that counts right?
29 April 2008, on 4:05 pm
Gee and to think I always thought May 1 was International Worker’s Day as well as one of those pagan festival days.
Stinkin’ xian thieves.
29 April 2008, on 5:00 pm
OLoPM
I prayed that I’d win the lotto. . . that counts right?
Only if you actually bought a ticket!
29 April 2008, on 6:31 pm
Well, the National Day of Ignoring Reality and the Constitution(oops, I mean National Day of Prayer) is the first Thursday of May, so they only get to use May 1st every seven years, roughly. But it’s not as if I’ve often heard good christians talking about fertility festivals or worker’s rights, or anything else useful or fun.
It’s interesting, actually. International Worker’s Day commemorates, in part, the 1886 Chicago Haymarket riots, yet it is observed mostly in Europe, and scarcely mentioned in America. I guess the people here are too busy being good christian capitalists to worry about those smelly old workers’ rights.
I’ll have to construct a proper rant on this subject sometime. It’s looks to me like a result of the constant mixing of religion and right-wing propaganda that goes on in America. It seems strange to me that in a land of such piety, where religion used to at least occasionally inspire progressive action, that such an important event and the holiday that it spawned are so thoroughly ignored. I guess I’m just a godless pinko subversive.
And of course, good old May Day. Pretty girls, dancing, maybe a little drinky, all in public in broad daylight…never had a chance here.
I’m pretty sure that putting Pray Day so close to Mother’s Day was no accident…pretty standard ploy, really. Keep those associations rolling through the minds of the sheeple.
One last bit. While the sheeple nod heads and cut farts to sanctify their apathy, why not donate to a charity or give blood? One real action beats a million prayers, hands down.
http://www.atheists.org/nogodblog/index.php/2008/04/25/national_day_of_helping_people
29 April 2008, on 6:44 pm
The National Day of Prayer is headed by the creepy genital-free Shirley Dobson, wife of that enraged “preacher-cum-psychologist” by the name of James Dobson. Chuck Colson of Watergate infamy is Shirley’s lap dog on the project. Useful fundie trivia.
29 April 2008, on 7:04 pm
May 1 is also National Day of Masturbation.
Pass it on.
29 April 2008, on 7:57 pm
Try to look at the bright side. If they spend the day talking to the ceiling they won’t be lurching around trying to formulate coherent thoughts.
29 April 2008, on 8:15 pm
Though I realize that it isn’t the sixth day of the month today, that it’s not June, and it’s not even 2006 anymore but my cramped thumb and forefinger remind me that it is always the right time for a National Day of Slayer.
Proud to live within the listening area of such a downward thinking radio station. Wonder who did that?
29 April 2008, on 8:39 pm
HAHA!!! well damn, at least the invisible sky daddy has cool taste in music
30 April 2008, on 1:22 am
Again…For Fuck’s sake.
“This year, President George W. Bush’s official National Day of Prayer proclamation used the same theme as the Dobsons’ Task Force “Prayer! America’s Strength & Shield.” ”
If that’s case, why hasn’t this administration finally abandoned the ludicrous Missile Defense Shield program.
I certainly feel a certain kindred connection with Barry Lynn, even if he is a xtian (he’s pretty much the harmless type) but starting off the argument against a National Day of Wishing by complaining that dominionists have hijacked the National Day of Psychosis is like being upset that the Nazi’s Bogartted fascism.
Clearly, National Talking to Yourself Day is a cold-war holdover. I don’t know much about the history of it, but I’m guessing it was another one of those efforts to distinguish ourselves from the godless commies.
That era has passed, as has our need for a National Day of Compulsive Mumbling–our country needs to admit to it’s mistakes and move on. Given the holier than ever attitude amongst the general sheepery, this is all wishful thinking on my part. A boy can dream, right.
As for the Rapturemobile, if anything can make Talladega more in-bred red-neck, I’m not sure what it would be. My guess is that the 25th place is either due to the fact that they haven’t found a way to actually fuel a car with prayer, or Gawd finds Nascar as painfully boring as I do.
30 April 2008, on 12:11 pm
I’ve been praying to get my stolen penis back !
30 April 2008, on 12:59 pm
ROTFL!!
30 April 2008, on 7:19 pm
I wonder how many True Believers (TM) are praying for us trouble-making godless heathens to go away? And how do they justify that god isn’t answering them - or merely answering “no?”
1 May 2008, on 8:31 am
There should be a National Irritate The Shit Out Of Some KKKristians Day. Oh, wait, we already have 365 of those.
2 May 2008, on 7:41 am
You know how they get their panties in a twist about the War on Christmas? What if we have NDoP-Man fly down from his magical workshop on Phobos and give us all leftover Easter candy and other gifts? We could *totally* secularize this puppy within a few years.
3 May 2008, on 2:05 am
I love the Jefferson quote! I hadn’t heard it before, and it’s great. Do you mind if I post it on my blog?
I don’t see why Xians have such a problem with separation of Church & State. Doesn’t their own Bible suggest such a thing? (”Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things which are God’s?”) Even if they have no respect for the constitution, you’d think they’d make at least a little effort when it comes to their own book….
3 May 2008, on 8:31 am
Etha ^^ I got that quote from another site, so by all means, use it! The more people who post it, the better.
Yes, their own Bible suggests maintaining separation of church and state, however, they tend to disregard a lot of things in their Bible, like the whole entire book of Leviticus, for example. However, with the book of Leviticus, it is a good thing they choose to ignore it.