National Day of Prayer, RIP?

The National Day of Prayer is a joke foisted upon the country and its suck-up politicians by a gaggle of Christianist right wingnuts.

Why in god's name would a secular country have a "national day of prayer"? And which god would the nation pray to?

We've had these nods to god for some years now. All it gave us was Reaganism and Bushism - in other words, disaster! These people are insane. The reason I know that is because all this praying has not done one damn bit of good. To keep doing the same thing over and over again while obtaining the same results every time is a clear indication of insanity.

For some time the chief honcho of this mess was none other than James Dobson's wife! Yup. Shirley herself leading the nation in prayer to the fundamentalist god of the Dobson clan and all the fruitcakes who follow them.

You can read all about the National Day of Prayer here.


Finally, some people have decided it's time to do something about this nonsense. The Freedom From Religion Foundation has filed a lawsuit in federal court, claiming (rightly) that the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional and creates a "hostile environment for nonbelievers."

It should be clear to anyone who has read the United States Constitution that a National Day of Prayer is blatantly contrary to that document. A National Day of Prayer is to recognize a religion! It is to recognize Christianity! And that is directly and specifically forbidden by our Constitution!


The Alliance Defense Fund, a collection of misguided Christianist fundy lawyers, intend to fight the lawsuit. Brian Toon (aptly named!) says "The lawsuit will not keep us from responding to our call to ask Americans to intercede in prayer for our nation's leaders and their families. We pray without fear of retribution."


That sounds so nice and pious, but in reality it's nastiness wrapped in a religious wrapper. It is a blatant attempt to impose Christianist fundamentalism upon the nation.

I'd say to Toon and the other loony toons at ADF, "Drop your defense. Nobody is saying you can't pray! Go pray your little hearts out! You have that right. You don't, however, have the right to make your national day of prayer an official part of the government, or a national event that assumes everyone believes as you do."


And finally, isn't it interesting that the god these kooks believe in is so damn obtuse or so ignorant or so detached that he/she doesn't have a clue as to what the country needs or the world needs, nor does he/she care about those needs.

So, it behooves these kooks to gather as many like-minded folks as possible to bow and scrape and plead over and over again with their loving deity to look upon our nation with his/her favor.

What kind of god is that?