Freethought-Now

I almost feel sorry this year for the National Day of Prayer Task Force — the self-appointed busybody promoter of the National Day of Prayer, a federal law declaring the first Thursday in May as the “National Day of Prayer.”

It seems that the task force’s work has been pre-empted. First, our pandering president one-upped the task force, which historically holds events in D.C. in early May, by proclaiming an all-day prayer event, “Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving,” on the National Mall for Sunday, May 17. This event has totally dwarfed anything the task force might do.

Adding to the slight, House Speaker Mike Johnson, although a fervent Christian nationalist himself, surprised everyone — including, we’re sure, the prayer task force — by declaring an almost unheard-of recess for that first week in May.

What’s a poor prayer task force to do? Well, this year it is holding a virtual broadcast. In a way, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which once sued the task force over the National Day of Prayer, could hardly have done much better in defanging this entity.

The task force, which evolved from James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, has spent years bullying presidents, governors and local public officials into issuing proclamations based on scripture that the task force writes. It’s still pumping out its propaganda, choosing for its theme this year 1 Chronicles 16:24: “Tell of His glory among the nationalism His wonderful deeds among all the peoples.”

But in this day of unfettered federal Christian nationalism, the National Day of Prayer Task Force seems to have been made superfluous. Maybe it’s a case of be careful what you wish for. Who needs the task force when we have a pastor-in-chief who usurps their role by calling, willy-nilly, for bigger days of prayer?

The 1952 law, amended in 1988, reads: “The president shall set aside and proclaim … a National Day of Prayer, on which the people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and meditation in churches, in groups, and as individuals.”

Evangelist Billy Graham suggested the law in the midst of a revival in D.C., saying, “What a thrilling, glorious thing it would be to see the leaders of our country today kneeling before Almighty God in prayer.” Senator Absalom Robertson, father of televangelist Pat Robertson, sponsored the legislation and a Senate report was read into the congressional record citing as rationale that the Framers of the Constitution prayed during the Constitutional Convention. In fact, the Framers did not pray once during the long, acrimonious months spent adopting our godless and entirely secular Constitution. When Benjamin Franklin suggested a prayer, the convention adjourned for the day, apparently out of embarrassment. We’re proud that FFRF’s federal lawsuit challenging the National Day of Prayer corrected the lie that the National Day of Prayer was based on.

It’s so important to correct the historical record because bad history makes for bad law. We filed our feisty lawsuit in 2008, and, to our great enjoyment, also named Shirley Dobson, chair of the National Day of Prayer Task Force, as a co-plaintiff, along with President George W. Bush. The task force, our lawsuit charged and documented, was “working hand in glove” with the government in organizing the National Day of Prayer’s exclusionary events, even in those days geared not to all believers but to evangelical Christians.

In a historic 2010 decision declaring this public law to be unconstitutional — a decision that “was heard around the world” with massive media coverage — U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled: “Recognizing the importance of prayer to many people does not mean that the government may enact a statute in support of it, any more than the government may encourage citizens to fast during the month of Ramadan, attend a synagogue, purify themselves in a sweat lodge or practice rune magic. In fact, it is because the nature of prayer is so personal and can have such a powerful effect on a community that the government may not use its authority to try to influence an individual’s decision whether and when to pray.”

Crabb observed that “In this instance, the government has taken sides on a matter that must be left to individual conscience.” Her decision even sneaked in the injunction against public prayer that is the favorite bible verse of freethinkers: Matthew 6:5 (“You, however, when you pray, go into your private room and, after shutting your door, pray to your Father who is in secret; then your Father who looks on in secret will repay you.”)

What a disappointment that the Obama administration, which had inherited the case, appealed our victory, and then, when a federal appeals court threw out our lawsuit on standing, not the merits, the following year. Even back then, we were loath to appeal this technicality to the already archconservative Supreme Court. But our lawsuit educated and had a chilling effect upon the more public activities of the task force and public officials (until President Trump).

On this National Day of Prayer, we encourage freethinkers and state/church separatists to take a few minutes to enjoy Crabb’s beautifully written and researched decision — and maybe to also take a little satisfaction in the careless comeuppance the prayer task force has received from its federal allies.

Disclaimer: The views in this column are of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

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