Repeal the National Day of Prayer

President Obama indicated recently that he decided not to invite James and Shirley Dobson to the White House for the National Day of Prayer,  May 7.

In fact, in another repudiation of conservative tradition, there is no official prayer service at the White House this year. The president will instead issue a proclamation, as required by law.

Bravo, Mr. President.

The president should take one step further, however, and ask Congress to create legislation to repeal the National Day of Prayer. The law that established the National Day of Prayer violates the principle of separation of church and state enshrined in the Constitution by the First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The legislation establishing the National Day of Prayer was signed by President Eisenhower on April 17, 1952. You may recall that this is the same dark era that saw the words “under God” added to the Pledge of Allegiance.

This was done during a time of anxiety, when our country felt the threat of communism and when many legislators, especially Joseph McCarthy, wanted to assert, against all democratic principles, the United States as a Christian nation.

The Dobsons are fixtures of the religious right. Mr. Dobson heads the right-wing evangelical Christian group Focus on the Family. He is a notoriously anti-gay religious conservative who  organized massive rallies to support President Bush’s reelection campaign and cheekily demanded that the president hew to the anti-gay, pro-life line more closely.

President Bush, of course, obliged. He made a point of inviting the Dobsons to National Day of Prayer observances held in the White House.

Mrs. Dobson heads the National Day of Prayer Task Force. The organization is headquartered in the Focus on the Family complex in Colorado Springs. It’s website indicates that it is the “official website” for the National Day of Prayer.

What is troubling about this is that although the law does not specify that Christian prayer is mandated, the National Day of Prayer Task Force advocates very specific evangelical Christian observance.

A lawsuit filed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation alleges that the National Day of Prayer Task force is “‘working hand-in-glove’ with the government in organizing the National Day of Prayer.”

President Obama, who has been too nice to the religious right, has nevertheless been inspiring in his willingness to uphold the wall of separation between church and state.

In an April 6 speech during his visit to Turkey, President Obama said, “One of the great strengths of the United States is…we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation, or a Jewish nation, or a Muslim nation, we consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values.”

Exactly.

It is time that President Obama live up to these ideals and act to rid our country of this regressive law. Americans must feel free to pray or not pray, and the president should not be required by law to each year proclaim an unconstitutional call to prayer.

Simi Blinks First; Lessons from the Civil Rights Movement

It’s not quite over, least of all for Liliana, the immigrant sheltered in a Simi Valley church, but the Ventura County Star reported today that the city’s bill of $39, 307 to the United Church of Christ has been put “on hold.”

 

 

Make no mistake about it, the Simi Valley city council and the mayor blinked first.

 

 

Faced with the threat of legal action by the American Civil Liberties Union, the city made its first intelligent decision in this entire affair—it backed down. The church did not.

 

 

City Manager Mike Sedell is quoted in the Star’s report as saying, “The city’s biggest concern is public safety, cost comes later.”

 

 

Contrast this with what he told the Los Angeles Times last week: “We warned [church officials] that if they flaunted it in the public, then these [protests] will occur and there will be consequences.”

 

 

This lofty attitude came with a price: on shaky legal ground, the city is trying to repair its damaged reputation.

 

 

“The city will continue to pursue resolution of this issue, and the mayor will recommend to the City Council that further action against UCC to enforce the letter sent to UCC asking for reimbursement of costs be placed on hold pending further discussion,” read a joint statement issued by Mayor Paul Miller, the Rev. June Goudey, and others.

 

 

What will happen to Liliana remains to be seen, but odds are she’ll be deported.

 

 

It occurs to me that there are similarities between those who heckled the Little Rock Nine 50 years ago and those who picketed the churched harboring Liliana last week.

 

 

The protesters of both eras were intolerant, trying vainly to preserve a way of life that had already disappeared.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now, 50 years after the forced integration of Little Rock Central High School, former president Bill Clinton held the doors open for those who bravely risked violence to claim the education that was justly theirs.

 

 

 

Politicians fall all over themselves to give lip service in commemoration of the event. In addition to Clinton, the governor of Arkansas and the mayor of Little Rock attended a ceremony honoring the Little Rock Nine. President Bush issued a statement: “We resolve to continue their work to make America a more perfect Union,” said the president.

 

 

The day will come, probably sooner than we think, when politicians will fall all over themselves to praise the contributions of Latinos to American culture. They will say that they always supported a humane immigration policy.

 

 

When that day comes, we will remember those like Mayor Miller and Congressman Elton Gallegly barred the gates.

 

 

The United States should adopt more humanitarian immigration legislation, that which allows economic migrants, like Liliana, to stay in the country as guest workers. Groups like Save Our State would deride this as amnesty, but they forget our long tradition of offering shelter to those like Liliana who come here seeking a better life.

 

 

I’ll take Rev. Goudy’s version of America over Mayor Miller’s any day.

 

 

Greenberg Gets it Right

Congratulations are in order for Steve Greenberg, editorial cartoonist for the Ventura County Star, for his superb piece in Sunday’s paper. I think it captures my feelings about the constitutionality of the matter pretty well. Check out his website for more well-crafted cartoons.