I really appreciate when Adam leaves comments on my blog. It’s good to get input from the other side, especially when it is well-thought out, carefully considered, and free from invective. Even if it is wrong. 😉 I go to Adam’s Blog all the time (though sometimes I get a little invectivish, usually trying to make a shocking or morbid point) to provide some godless liberal heathen “fair and balanced” over on his site. I’m sure his readers think I’m depraved.
I was originally posting on the murder of those two little girls in Zion, but the conversation shifted to my always conflicted thoughts on the death penalty, then to us “secularists” (did you know we joined a club?) who “misinterpret” Scripture, and then onto the recent National Day of Prayer we had. We had this little exchange that I thought deserved a spot on the weekend.
“Radical” Russ wrote:
To me, of course, the National Day of Prayer is another one of those insults to those of us faithless people. Yes, our leaders always say, “yer just as patriotic no matter how you believe, or if you don’t believe at all”, but then they announce a national call to action that only includes the believers. It’s very patronizing. If it were a “National Day of Rememberance” or “National Day of Reflection” it would go down better and be more in keeping with the First Amendment.
Well, I understand your frustration. However, we have a national day of prayer for the same reason that we have Veteran’s Day. Just as we’re not discounting pacifists on Veteran’s Day, we’re not discounting people of non-faith on the National Day of Prayer. Prayer has been powerful throughout our nation’s history: Washington at Valley Forge, Lincoln 8 times during the Civil War, and FDR on D-day. Its been the belief of our country that prayer makes a difference. “Rememberance or Reflection” don’t. In addtion, the National Day of Prayer isn’t a day people get off with pay. In one way, its like National Tartan Day where people choose how to observe it.
That’s the most interesting response to the National Day of Prayer I’ve read. So, I assume you’ll have no problem, then, accepting a official, state-sanctioned, proclaimed by the public officers who are paid by the taxpayers National Day of Tolerance following the next gay-bashing-related assault or murder. After all, we’re not discounting people of intolerance. It’s been the belief of our country that treating all people equally makes a difference. No one has to get any day off work with pay, either.
Look, either prayer “makes a difference” because it is a sacred religious thing meant to influence the blessings of God, or it is something trivial like “National Tartan Day”. If it’s a religious ceremony, it should be a personal private thing, not established by the government. If it’s trivial, then changing the name to “Remembrance or Reflection” shouldn’t get your feathers ruffled, eh?
