National Day of Hypocrisy

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. (6)But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (7)And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. (8)Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. – Matthew 6.5-8 NASB

I have a huge problem with evangelical christians who deny history, constitutional law, and if you believe that jesus existed and said the above per the new testament, deny the words of the dude with whom they have a close personal relationship.

This is what two of our greatest presidents thought of a National Day of Prayer. First, from Thomas Jefferson.

“I have duly received your favor of the 18th and am thankful to you for having written it, because it is more agreeable to prevent than to refuse what I do not think myself authorized to comply with. I consider the government of the U.S. as interdicted by the
Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises….

Certainly no power to prescribe any religious exercise, or to assume authority in religious discipline, has been delegated to the general government…. But it is only proposed that I should recommend, not prescribe a day of fasting & prayer. That is, that I should indirectly assume to the U. S. an authority over religious exercises which the Constitution has directly precluded them from. It must be meant too that this recommendation is to carry some authority, and to be sanctioned by some penalty on those who disregard it; not indeed of fine and imprisonment, but of some degree of proscription perhaps in public opinion. And does the change in the nature of the penalty make the recommendation the less a law of conduct for those to whom it is directed?

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. 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.

This is from James Madison. You can read a list of his reasons at the link, but here’s his general argument. (It’s interesting that the folks that are challenging this National Day of Prayer’s constitutionality come from Madison, Wisconsin.)

“Religious proclamations by the Executive recommending thanksgivings & fasts are shoots from the same root with the legislative acts reviewed.
“Although recommendations only, they imply a religious agency, making no part of the trust delegated to political rulers.

So, what about our current President, the constitutional law lecturer?

President Obama issued a proclamation last Friday as his Justice Department appeals a federal judge’s ruling last month that the day of prayer is unconstitutional.

“Prayer has been a sustaining way for many Americans of diverse faiths to express their most cherished beliefs, and thus we have long deemed it fitting and proper to publicly recognize the importance of prayer on this day across the Nation,” Obama said in the proclamation.

The folks that are in charge of this even include Mrs. James (beat your children into submission) Dobson as well as Franklin (muslims are evil) Graham. You can find a history of the controversial event here. There is an on going bible reading in Washington, DC and other events to protest the judge’s decision.

Meanwhile, Obama had this to say in his proclamation.

“I call upon the citizens of our nation to pray, or otherwise give thanks, in accordance with their own faiths and consciences, for our many freedoms and blessings, and I invite all people of faith to join me in asking for God’s continued guidance, grace, and protection as we meet the challenges before us,” Obama said in his official proclamation.

I have to admit to being one person that feels extremely uncomfortable when some one stands up in a crowd and suggests we offer up a prayer to his/her deity (whatever it is.) Being surrounded by people obediently reciting things gives me the same kind of creepy, uneasy feeling I get when watching “1984” or those ‘we love fearless leader ceremonies’ they do in North Korea. I feel surrounded by aliens that might turn on me or shriek and point like those pod people did to Donald Sutherland.

I now defiantly stay seated. I do not bow my head to something I believe does not exist. I no longer add that extra ‘under God’ remnant from the cold war in the pledge. I refuse to sing “God bless America” although I have been known to sing Dogs Bless America. I’m really tired of having to endure people’s need to prove themselves sanctified. I do not want to participate in a show of forced holiness.

Isn’t it time to put these folks back in their churches where the constitution protects them and me? I don’t need the President telling me what to do with any religious conviction I might have. That’s above his pay grade.