You may not have heard, but with the third anniversary of the 9/11 attacks occurring over the weekend, Bush issued a proclamation once again taking it upon himself to urge Americans to pray. Indeed, he proclaimed Sept. 10-12 as “National Days of Prayer and Remembrance.”
Because I keep track of such things, I’d like to note that Bush has declared 19 official, government-sponsored days of prayer in about 44 months, which translates to an official prayer declaration from the White House once every 2.3 months since Bush was inaugurated. No president in U.S. history has ever issued so many official prayer edicts.
The point isn’t that there’s something wrong with worship; the point is Americans don’t need their president telling them which days he wants them to pray. It’s none of Bush’s business and it far exceeds his job description.
Bush heads the executive branch of a secular government that separates church and state. The U.S. may be one of the most religious nation’s in the world, but therein lies the point — Americans are more than capable of deciding on their own whether to worship and we don’t need the White House setting aside special “prayer days.”