National Day of Prayer for (Some) Christians Only

Thinking Homeschoolers are challenged to write about either National Spankout Day or the National Day of Prayer, by April 30th. I choose the National Day of Prayer to write about.

I used to think what's the big deal. In fact I kind of liked the idea that on one day everyone would come together and pray for our nation and each other.

Then I read Our Official National Day of Religious Supremacism by Frederick Clarkson .

Apparently I have been labouring under the delusion that on this one day we all set aside our differences and pray for one another. Nope all prayers are not created equal and instead of a day to heal it's a day to advance the religious rights agenda. It's time for this mockery to come to an end. Obviously what we need even more then a national day of prayer is a national day of common sense.

From Inclusive Prayer Day
The National Day of Prayer falls on May 1st this year, and in most parts of the country, there is a religious "litmus test" limiting participation to fundamentalist Christian evangelicals. Focus on the Family, the largest organization on the Christian Right, and groups allied with it control the occasion, calling themselves the National Day of Prayer Task Force and asserting that their website is the "National Day of Prayer Official Website."

Our Founding Fathers must be spinning in their graves. They knew first hand the damage having a national religion and relegating those of differing beliefs to a second class status could do.