Let Us Pray

Today is the National Day of Prayer. Really.

NDP, as it's referred to by the National Day of Prayer Task Force, was established by Congress in 1952, when the Cold War was just really firing up, and when the right figured that America needed something to separate itself from the godless communists of the Soviet Union (see “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance). In 1988, the organization says, President Reagan set the NDP as the first Thursday in May.

The NDP Task Force, as the self-anointed guardian of what's good and right about NDP, has a chairman – yes, NDP calls leader Shirley Dobson “chairman,” which might give you a hint as to where the group is coming from. It seems that Shirley Dobson is married to Dr. James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family. Focus on the Family is a Christian group that purports to advocate for the rights of families, apparently only as long as they are composed of a straight mother who is married to a straight father and are raising their children straight and not in some other chosen lifestyle. The Focus on the Family website has links to stories with blurbs such as: “A former abortion advocate's pro-choice rhetoric failed when God used Focus on the Family to confront her with the truth.” The NDP Task Force says it has no link to FOF, which is technically accurate, because there's a link on the FOF website to the NDP site, but not vice versa.

The NDP Task Force claims that the National Day of Prayer is not Christian. But it says, “[T]he efforts of the NDP Task Force are executed specifically in accordance with its Judeo-Christian beliefs.” (For the record, there are no Jewish prayers on the website.) It also says that the chairman (sic) before Shirley Dobson was “Mrs. Vonette Bright, wife of former Campus Crusade for Christ president and founder Bill Bright.” The sample program outlines prayers to be said for the Executive Branch, the Congress, the Judicial Branch and the military. The program specifies those prayers should be led by a “Christian leader from the Community.”

Of course, pResident Bushcheney has issued a proclamation supporting NDP. It reads, in part: “Through prayer, we recognize the limits of earthly power and acknowledge the sovereignty of God. According to Scripture, 'the Lord is near to all who call upon Him . . . He also will hear their cry, and save them.' ” Governor Vilsack's proclamation is almost heathen by comparison. After a series of whereases, the Iowa governor “call[s] upon citizens to recognize this day in his or her own special way.”
 
Maybe the Guv should have clicked on the NDP Task Force's list of things to pray for. The Media section is interesting. “We can . . . pray for the Christian individuals in the news and entertainment industries, asking the Lord to grant them strength and perseverance as they endeavor to let their lights shine in what is often an environment hostile to those who voice their belief in Christ.” So al Jazeera, we're not praying for you; live with it.

Under Education, we find this: “Many of our schools and universities are minimizing traditional subjects such as history and math, and are instead promoting a radical social agenda. For example, some schools begin teaching homosexual propaganda to kindergartners. As a result, our children are entering the 'real world' knowing more about politically correct ideas than they do about reading or science!”

There's a section about Church – not church and synagogue, just church – “Pray for your churches and their leaders, asking God to grant us the wisdom and vision to make the Church a vessel for healing and revival in America.”

Oddly enough, I believe in spirituality, but not bunkum. So in honor of this Congressionally bestowed National Day of Prayer, I offer my own:

Creator of us all: Help our eyes and ears to be opened and our hearts to be full. Help us realize that the way to know you has no singular path and no straight line. Help us to understand that no human being can claim to speak for you, and no one has the right to govern a population on the basis of that claim. And help us find the strength and the will to restore this country to a mission of sharing its bountiful wealth with its people, and of using its influence to better the lives of people everywhere. Amen.