While the Bush administration continues to insist that Iraq will be a secular country, the same administration continues to issue government edicts encouraging Americans to pray. For some reason, I find this strangely contradictory.
It may not be one of the major gift-giving holidays on the calendar, but today is one of Bush’s favorite days — it’s the 52nd annual National Day of Prayer.
In the early 1950s, when lawmakers were adding “under God” to the Pledge and changing all American money to include the phrase “In God We Trust,” Congress created an official annual Prayer Day for the nation. Congress, under pressure from the religious right, changed the law in 1988 to set the National Day of Prayer as the first Thursday in May, which brings us to today.
Now you may be wondering, “But, Carpetbagger, why does the country need an official day for our secular government to encourage citizens to pray?” Well, I’m glad you asked. The answer is we don’t. I’m one of those silly small-government people who believe Americans are more than capable of deciding on their own whether to pray and we don’t need Congress and the White House setting aside a special day to encourage worship. But that’s just me.
This year’s NDP “holiday” has a variety of interesting angles. My friends at Americans United for Separation of Church and State have prepared a helpful backgrounder, for example, highlighting how and why the so-called National Day of Prayer Task Force is really a religious right-run enterprise, led by James Dobson and his wife.
Also this year, there are plenty of examples of exclusionary NDP events that, predictably, favor Christian prayers above other faith traditions.
But, once again, my real concerns are about the one issuing the National Day of Prayer proclamations in the first place — George W. Bush.
To be fair, Bush doesn’t deserve to be singled out from his modern predecessors for this. Sure, he’s issued a proclamation touting prayer as an “opportunity to praise God for His mighty works, His gift of freedom, His mercy, and His boundless love,” which seems to be way outside the president’s job description, but Bush is far from alone. Every president since Eisenhower has issued similar proclamations during their respective presidencies.
But Bush deserves plenty of criticism for how he celebrates the NDP and how often he chooses to do so.
As the Washington Post noted today, Bush is hosting a special NDP ceremony at the White House tonight with evangelical Christian leaders. While that’s not unusual, the fact that Bush will have the event broadcast on Christian cable and satellite TV outlets nationwide is.
For Bush, the broadcast is an opportunity to address a sympathetic evangelical audience without the risk of alienating secular or non-Christian viewers, because it will not be carried in full by the major television networks. Frank Wright, president of the National Association of Religious Broadcasters, said more than a million evangelicals are expected to see the broadcast.
Who needs campaign advertising when religious broadcasters will do it for you for free?
And my other concern is the frequency with which Bush encourages Americans to pray. While I have no doubt that Bush is personally devout, I find it hard to imagine why he feels it necessary to repeatedly promote prayer for the rest of us. He’s a chief executive, not a chief evangelist.
At this point in his presidency, Bush has marked 15 days as official days of prayer in the U.S. He’s been in office about 39 months, which translates to an official prayer declaration from the White House once every 2.6 months. No president in U.S. history has ever issued so many official prayer edicts in such a short period of time.
Here’s a quick summary of Bush’s prayer declarations:
January 21, 2001 — In one of his first acts as the nation’s chief executive, Bush issues a proclamation ordering Jan. 21 as a “national day of prayer.” In the proclamation, Bush called “upon the citizens of our Nation to gather together in homes and places of worship to pray alone and together and offer thanksgiving to God for all the blessings of this great and good land.” He added, “I ask Americans to bow our heads in humility before our Heavenly Father, a God who calls us not to judge our neighbors, but to love them, to ask His guidance upon our Nation and its leaders in every level of government.”
April 30, 2001 — Bush honors the National Day of Prayer, issuing a proclamation encouraging “the citizens of our Nation to pray each in his or her own manner, seeking God’s blessings on our families and government officials and personal renewal, moral awakening, and a new spirit of harmony across our land.”
May 25, 2001 — Bush declares Memorial Day as “a day of prayer for permanent peace, and I designate the hour beginning in each locality at 11:00 a.m. of that day as a time to unite in prayer.”
September 13, 2001 — Bush declares a national day of prayer for the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
April 26, 2002 — Bush honors the official National Day of Prayer again, asking “Americans to pray for God’s protection, to express gratitude for our blessings, and to seek moral and spiritual renewal.”
May 21, 2002 — Bush celebrates Memorial Day with another designation of the day as one of “prayer for permanent peace.” Like the previous year, Bush encourages local governments to set aside 11 a.m. as a time for Americans to “unite in prayer.”
August 31, 2002 — Bush proclaims three days of prayer, spanning Sept. 6 to Sept. 8. In his proclamation, Bush asks that Americans and houses of worship “mark these National Days of Prayer and Remembrance with memorial services, the ringing of bells, and evening candlelight remembrance vigils.”
April 31, 2003 — Bush recognizes the National Day of Prayer for the third time, concluding that “in this hour of history’s calling, American are bowing humbly…in the presence of the Almighty.”
May 23, 2003 — Bush celebrates Memorial Day with another designation of the day as one of “prayer for peace.” Like the previous year, Bush encourages local governments to set aside time for Americans to “unite in prayer.”
September 4, 2003 — Bush proclaims three more days of prayer, spanning Sept. 5 to Sept. 7. In his proclamation, Bush asks that Americans “pray for peace and ask God for patience and resolve in our war against terror and evil.”
April 30, 2004 — Bush honors the official National Day of Prayer again, asking Americans to give thanks “for the freedoms and blessings we have received and for God’s continued guidance and protection.”
Keep in mind, in the “good old days,” this didn’t happen. Presidents such Thomas Jefferson and James Madison opposed official government prayer days.
For the truly devout, every day is a day of prayer and government proclamations are irrelevant. It’s a shame Bush doesn’t understand that.