What's your take on the National Day of Prayer?

[hedgehog]

I am a very active Catholic, but when our Director of Religious Education tried to recruit people to put on a prayer service for the National Day of Prayer, I ran the other way. Mixing up Church and State is BAD for both Church and State, IMO.

[BOSSHOG]

1. The mere title oozes a total disregard for SEPARATION

and is merely another attempt by "conservatives" to destroy the constitution.

[endarkenment]

2. Theocreepist bullshit. nt

[Mountainman]

3. Depends on the prayer. Do they ask forgiveness for killing Iraqis or do they ask for more material

wealth?

[nichomachus]

10. They say the War Prayer

http://www.ntua.gr/lurk/making/warprayer.html

O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

From Mark Twain

[lyonn]

11. Ouch! nt

[Mountainman]

13. The Old Testament is full of things like that. This group smote that group and this king

smited that king and god both smote and smited the rest. Praise the lord!

[Cant trust em]

4. don't practice, don't care.

No one's going to make me pray and I'm not going to look like an outcast for not doing it. I'd be highly against this if it were in a school where someone who chose to not go with the flow would wind up being outed in front of a group of people.

[JDPriestly]

5. If you don't like the word "prayer," just try to stay in the moment

and be aware of your place in the universe for a few minutes one day. As far as I am concerned, that is what prayer really is. Some religions call it meditation. And even the non-religious are practicing it a la Eckhart Tolle. A silent moment is perfectly harmless.

There is a tradition behind this that makes it difficult to argue in a court that the practice is unconstitutional. At a time of great dissension in the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin (according to the legend) proposed that the Founding Fathers pray. The purpose was to promote harmony. Apparently it worked. A moment of silence brings us to remember our priorities. The word "prayer" is grating for a lot of people, but there are many worse words.

[chaplainM]

12. Never passed

Although Dr. Franklin proposed a daily prayer, the Convention adjourned without voting upon it.

Hamilton is rumored to have said of the matter that he wasn't convinced that the convention was in need of "foreign aid."

[nichomachus]

6. Not all spirituality

involves religion or involves babbling away in idiotic formulas designed to give god her marching orders.

"Oh thou -- who knowest all things -- oh -- you know."

I mean -- this "Look of Eternal Constipation" really impresses the almighty.



How juvenile. I mean, seriously, do you get extra points for screwing up your face like this?

Or how about the waving your hands in the air like you're at a rock concert -- stupid in both places.

If god is everywhere, why do "christian" athletes have to make such a show of pointing directly over the ballpark every time they do something mildly interesting? Why don't they ever point down? Isn't god there too? Just once, I'd like to see a guy point down.

If you feel you must communicate directly with the almighty in order to win the lottery or have your high school football team kick the crap out of the kids from the next town, be my guest. Keep normal people out of it.

[lyonn]

7. I have no religion and appreciate the fact that we should have

separation of church and state. Especially since there are so few non-believers, we have no representation basicly except our Constitution and it apparently isn't that specific. Why should it matter if I pray or don't? Who should care what my religious beliefs have been throughout my life or yours? Since the Rev. Wright thing is still haunting us I felt like responding. My time in an organized church was more than the person heading it. It was the church's doctrine I guess and the people. Mine was a Mormon experience. Really nice people, doctrine hard to maintain a belief in.

[endarkenment]

17. 8% of the population: non-believers/no-religion

more like 20% of the population doesn't actually 'believe' regardless of their stated affiliation.

But 8% is far larger than many other religious groups.

[MindPilot]

8. Nothing fails like prayer...

I'm sick of having god-nuts and jesus freaks running the government and using government power to make every citizen participate in their mythology.

STFU and go pray in private like Jesus told you to.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

9. From George Carlin:

"The first thing they teach kids is that there's a God -- an invisible man in the sky who is watching what they do and who is displeased with some of it. There's no mystery why they start that with kids, because if you can get someone to believe that, you can add on anything you want."

[Mojambo]

14. There shouldn't be National Day's for anything

It's a stupid idea, particularly for prayer, but really for anything.

[immoderate]

24. Whoa! There's National Pickle Week! Don't throw out the baby with the pickle juice!

[cosmik debris]

15. In the interest of fairness...

Could we also have a National Day Of NO Prayer?

That would be cool!

[moggie]

19. Have 364 (365 this year) n/t

[smoogatz]

20. How about a national day of thought

In which we ponder the finite?

[cosmik debris]

21. Fairness requires equal treatment for all sides.

If we appoint a day for one religious point of view, fairness requires that we appoint a day for every opposing point of view.

If the religionistas want to push religion on us, we should have the opportunity to push the absence of religion on them. It's only fair.

[Rob H.]

16. It would be okay if it were more inclusive

but it's coordinated by the crew of right-wing fundagelical fuckwits over at Focus on the Family, so I'm completely on the "anti" side.


Edit: FTR, I'm an atheist and I think it's kind of a stupid idea in the first place. With so many religious people in the U.S., there are technically national days of prayer at least once a week--or twice, if you're some flavor of Christian living in the South.

[TechBear_Seattle]

18. If it were this prayer, I'd have no problem

O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle – be Thou near them! With them – in spirit – we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with hurricanes of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it – for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen."

-- From The War Prayer by Mark Twain

[Dervill Crow]

22. There's a national day of prayer?

:shrug:

I guess I missed it.

[pegleg]

23. As long as the prayer is voluntary, it's no one else's business.

To forbid voluntary prayer anywhere is a violation of the separation of church and state.