National Day Of Prayer Showcases Intolerant Religious Right Agenda

[Mick Jagger]

National Day Of Prayer Showcases Intolerant Religious Right Agenda, Says Americans United
Friday, April 25, 2008

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.

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.”

Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans about the importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom.

 

[fossten]

Atheists push 'humanist' holidays


April 25, 2008
Washington Times

By Karen Goldberg Goff -

Now that Earth Day is over, let the planning begin for the summer solstice and World Humanist Day in June.

The Institute for Humanist Studies, an Albany, N.Y.-based nonprofit, is calling attention to its calendar of atheist holidays on its Web site, www.secularseasons.org. The group wants nonbelievers (or at least noncelebrators) to have a handy reference guide of the calendar of holidays honoring free thinkers, banned books and nature, among other themes.

Matt Cherry, executive director of the Institute for Humanist Studies, says his group is trying to expand options and alternatives for secular holidays. He hopes even those affiliated with a particular religion will pay attention to the options.

"Some religious holidays are about culture and tradition, not theology," he says. "Even people who go to church only on Christmas or to synagogue on the High Holidays do so out of cultural heritage, not because they believe the religious doctrines associated with it."

Some of the highlights of the Secular Seasons calendar include Thomas Paine Day (Jan. 29), April Fool's Day (as always, April 1), and Ingersoll Day (Aug. 11). The latter celebrates the birthday of 19th-century thinker Robert Green Ingersoll, who was known as "the Great Agnostic." Secular Seasons recommends visiting his birthplace in Dresden, N.Y., for a holiday celebration. (Hey — you only live once.)

The site also breaks down the customs of Festivus, the holiday popularized by Jerry Stiller on "Seinfeld." In case you missed that episode: A Festivus pole is plain aluminum, made to contrast the ornate Christmas trees; the official greeting is "Happy Festivus"; and each person complains to family and friends how they have disappointed them in the last year.

Mr. Cherry says Darwin Day (Feb. 12) is growing in popularity. February 2009 would be Charles Darwin's 200th birthday, and next year will also be the 150th anniversary of the publication of "The Origin of Species."

Honoring the man who helped us understand science and humanity is a reason to celebrate, says Mr. Cherry. His recommendations: Throw caution to the wind and attend a biology lecture or even have folks bring fossils to a party.

"This year, there will be almost 1,000 events for Darwin Day around the world," he says. "I hope Hallmark would come out with a card. There are lots of photos to celebrate evolution."

William J. Murray, chairman of the Religious Freedom Coalition, a Washington non-profit, says the United States already has plenty of made-up holidays.

"We've got Valentine's Day, although that actually is a saint's holiday," he says. "We've got Mother's Day, Father's Day. If someone wants to make up a holiday, they can be my guest — as long as they are not going to impose that holiday on the vast majority of us who celebrate religious holidays.

"There is no smaller minority in this country than atheists," says Mr. Murray. "The proposition of [atheist holidays] is in itself ridiculous."

The recently released Pew Forum U.S. Religious Landscape Survey showed that 16 percent of Americans consider themselves unaffiliated. However, most of that number (12 percent) said they were "nothing in particular," rather than the 1.6 percent who said they were atheist. Christians of various denominations make up the largest segment at 78 percent.

Meanwhile, Mr. Cherry and Secular Seasons are seeking input from the public on holidays to add to the calendar.

"We've gotten more ideas for free thinkers to be celebrated," says Mr. Cherry.

Among them: Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, Mexican revolutionary statesman Benito Juarez and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk first president of Turkey.

What? No Evita Peron or Woody Guthrie?

Also suggested was an expanded celebration of Cosmonautics Day, the Russian holiday on April 12 that celebrates Yuri Gagarin's first manned space orbit.

Since you just missed it, put the blinis away until next April and get fired up for May's National Day of Reason, organized a few years ago to counteract the National Day of Prayer. Common customs: a day of care to help the elderly or disabled, and a blood drive.

Just don't expect a church service. Or candy.

One more thing not to expect with atheist holidays: parades featuring pandering politicians trolling for votes.

Now that's cause for celebration.