First up from The God Machine this week is a recognition of an annual “holiday,” established about a half-century ago, called the National Day of Prayer. It’s basically an official, symbolic slap in the face to church-state separation — every year, the president issues a proclamation promoting the value of prayer and encouraging Americans to honor the day. Like most presidential proclamations, this is generally ignored.
Conservative activists, however, tend to treat the holiday with some reverence, and do their best to support the state-sponsored prayer day. This year, they had limited success.
Let us pray that, on next year’s National Day of Prayer, there is better attendance at the “Bible Reading Marathon” on the West Front of the Capitol.
Organizers put out 600 folding chairs on the lawn — the spot where presidents are inaugurated — and set up a huge stage with powerful amplifiers. But at 9:30 a.m. yesterday, not one of the 600 seats was occupied. By 11 a.m., as a woman read a passage from Revelations, attendance had grown — to four people. Finally, at 1 p.m., 37 of the 600 seats were occupied, though many of those people were tourists eating lunch.
Where was everybody? “This isn’t that kind of event,” explained Jeff Gannon, spokesman for the host, the International Bible Reading Association. Gannon, actually a pseudonym for James Guckert, had earned fame in 2005 representing a conservative Web site at White House briefings until it was revealed that he posted nude pictures of himself on the Web to offer his services as a $200-an-hour gay escort.
Things weren’t much better in front of the Supreme Court, where the Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition scheduled a “National Day of Prayer observance” and news conference. Eight participants and one reporter (from something called the Washington Sketch) showed up.
You’d think Americans had come to believe they could make their own decisions about prayer, and don’t need a government holiday. Go figure.
Next up is a religious right leader praising the importance of secularism in government — just not our government.
In an April 30 e-mail to “Friends & Supporters” of his lobbying group, American Values, [Religious Right warrior Gary Bauer] touched on the boiling controversy over Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s push for a presidential candidate with close ties to Islamic politics. Erdogan has ticked off the nation’s secular parties by promoting Abdullah Gul, a close ally and his foreign minister, as the nation’s next president.
Founded in 1923, Turkey is an overwhelmingly Islamic nation with a steadfastly secular government. Women enjoy many civil liberties there not widely shared by others in the Middle East. The secular state also has the fierce backing of the nation’s military. Gul, a member of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, has a well-known Islamic background and would, as The New York Times noted, “extend the reach” of the party “into the heart of Turkey’s secular establishment for the first time.” Gul, if elected president, would nominate judges, academic leaders and be able to influence cabinet picks.
In his e-mail under a section dubbed “Trouble In Turkey,” Bauer wrote favorably about the massive protests against Gul. He also extolled the nation’s military, which recently issued a statement reminding the nation that “the Turkish armed forces is one of the sides in this debate and the absolute defender of secularism.” The military’s statement ominously added that “When necessary, it will display its stance and attitudes very clearly.”
Bauer praised the expression of devotion to secularism, calling it “a sign of hope for moderation in the Middle East.”
How generous of Bauer. He believes Turkey should embrace an unwaveringly secular government, while at the same time demanding that the United States tear down the wall of separation between church and state to become a “Christian nation.” Secularism for thee, but not for me….
And finally this week, we bid adieu to one of the religious right movement’s most extreme institutions, which has finally closed its doors.
The Center for Reclaiming America for Christ, founded more than a decade ago to propagate a largely antiabortion, antigay message, has closed its doors.
The offshoot of Coral Ridge Ministries laid off an undisclosed number of workers Thursday at its headquarters here and at an office in Washington in what was called a “streamlining.”
“We’re getting back to our core competency, the production of media,” said Brian Fisher, executive vice president at Coral Ridge, which was founded by the Rev. D. James Kennedy. “Our heart and soul is the teaching of Dr. Kennedy, and getting it to more people than those who come to church.”
So long, Reclaiming America for Christ, we hardly knew you. Actually, scratch that; we knew you all too well.