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National Day of Prayer
May. 13th, 2009 02:44 amOn the first Tuesday of May each year, the US observes a day full of prayer nationally. That's great! No one has the day off, but people around the nation pray for various things. Churches in which I have been involved often decided to focus on national and global issues on this day, since we as a nation were "united". Thing is, this is a nation, under God, and indivisible with liberty and justice for all; however, in this great nation, we also hold separation of church and state in some regard. Our nation's founders and forefathers planned the separation of church and state to provide a refuge from our religious persecution by governments. It is a liberty to choose to be involved in the National Day of Prayer. Our president decided to observe this day privately. I loudly applaud Obama for seeking a private place - it demonstrates Obama's humility and decidedly abhorrence of Republican pomp and circumstance.
We were watching an old episode of The Colbert Report this morning where Stephen Colbert highlighted Fox News' blatantly skewed and myopic hatred of Obama. I find it ludicrous that the Fox News article of Obama's reduced visibility during the National Day of Prayer appears on the Politics web page, when after all, this nation is known around the world for its heretofore stalwart separation of church and state. Bush put yet another blight on our Constitution's First Amendment.
There are MORE IMPORTANT THINGS (btw - separate, distinct references for each word here) at play than whether or not our president makes a bloated show of how or that he prays. Moreover, I'm so glad that Obama did not give into media pressure by not even having an attendant from his administration at the event. Shirley Dobson, wife of Focus on the Family's James Dobson, was the national coordinator. Fine. Let her have her moment, but please do not let that homophobic, self-promoting, hypocritical, hate-promoting Focus on "the Family" group to be openly supported by our nation's leader.
Shirley Dobson had the audacity to say, "We would hope our President would recognize more fully the importance of prayer." Honey, it's not that he regards prayer as unimportant; no. It's that he's devout and humble enough not to need a stage on which to present his beliefs.
We were watching an old episode of The Colbert Report this morning where Stephen Colbert highlighted Fox News' blatantly skewed and myopic hatred of Obama. I find it ludicrous that the Fox News article of Obama's reduced visibility during the National Day of Prayer appears on the Politics web page, when after all, this nation is known around the world for its heretofore stalwart separation of church and state. Bush put yet another blight on our Constitution's First Amendment.
There are MORE IMPORTANT THINGS (btw - separate, distinct references for each word here) at play than whether or not our president makes a bloated show of how or that he prays. Moreover, I'm so glad that Obama did not give into media pressure by not even having an attendant from his administration at the event. Shirley Dobson, wife of Focus on the Family's James Dobson, was the national coordinator. Fine. Let her have her moment, but please do not let that homophobic, self-promoting, hypocritical, hate-promoting Focus on "the Family" group to be openly supported by our nation's leader.
Shirley Dobson had the audacity to say, "We would hope our President would recognize more fully the importance of prayer." Honey, it's not that he regards prayer as unimportant; no. It's that he's devout and humble enough not to need a stage on which to present his beliefs.
