The Power Of Prayer

Here's why Christopher Hitchen's knows his stuff.



I'm not a particularly religious person, though I do still attend church on occasion just out of pure curiosity, so this topic really intrigued me.

Hitchens is unblushing in his beliefs ( or lack thereof ) while Perkins is a classic conservative Christian - loves only select parts of the Bible and shows abject ignorance to the Constitution and the very real and well documented history of the Founding Fathers. As a friend of mine once mentioned - can any conservative tell you where Thomas Jefferson went to church?

I do, however, have to offer this one caveat. No one is forced to pray, as it's completely voluntary. But it's easy to that this does step on religious freedoms enough to violate the Constitution. As Hitchens rightly pointed out, what about other days of religious prayer? This isn't a strictly "Christian" nation, it's a nation that was designed to be accepting of all religions.

God May Love You....

....but James Dobson thinks you suck.

Focus on the Family founder James Dobson scolded the White House for neglecting to send a representative to yesterday's National Day of Prayer event at the Capitol, but a source familiar with the situation said the Obama team didn't have much of a chance. That's because the event organizers stipulated that the White House representative had to be opposed to abortion rights, according to this source.

"The administration's representative had to be pro-life," says the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "Nobody else was allowed to go."

Only one White House staff member got an invitation, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. He didn't attend. Good for him.

More from US News

To Pray As We See Fit

The Fox-generated "controversy" of the day continues to be Barack Obama not playing by the George W. Bush "everybody-look-how-much-I-love-Jesus" playbook.

In another round of nonsensical prattling, the Fox And Friends trio of gleefuly ignorant goons had on Elizabeth Hasselbeck ( who appeared to be sporting a garlic necklace, presumable to ward off those vampires that Obama set lose once he got elected ) to have her speak her piece about the National Day of Prayer.



Did you see that little flash of hypocrisy?

I think that we are looking to him today to lead this country and this has been a huge tradition. It has also been one that has been protected in our country through our constitution. We should be able to gather and pray as we see fit.

Their discussion was set up in order to slander Obama's lack of continuing a "tradition" that was started by George W. Bush. Hasselbeck's statement starts out as a dithering spout of praise for Bush and what he had done and she ends up stating what this is all about - the right to pray as we see fit. Obama doesn't need to set some religious agenda, that's not his job.

More to the point, there were no "East Room" ceremonies involving the National Day of Prayer until Bush started them.

Brian Toon, Vice President of The National Day of Prayer Taskforce, said in an interview with the Baptist Standard stated:

There was no East Room event until George W

Also, the article stated as well that:

Prior to the Bush years, task force leaders held more low-key events, including at Lafayette Park across the street during the Clinton administration.

The "tradition" that Hasselbeck is speaking of is completely confined to George W. Bush's presidency. His father and the consistantly diefied Ronald Reagan only held events once during each of their times in the White House to mark this day. That's 12 years with only 2 formal events. This is something that you'll not hear uttered on Fox"News", unless some guest has the ability or inclination to bring it up.

Considering the people that are the leaders of the taskforce, it makes one wonder what their true motives are. Think Progress goes on to state:

Rev. Susan Thistlethwaite, a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, pointed out that the organization is chaired by Shirley Dobson — wife of the ultraconservative Focus on the Family founder James Dobson. Indeed, the fact that conservatives and the Task Force in particular feel the need to lie about the history and traditions surrounding the NDP suggests that they are less concerned with promoting prayer in America than they are with taking every possible opportunity to “slam Obama” for political gain.

Reverence Vs. Zealotry

In typical right-wing fashion, Fox"News" is using the occassion of the "National Day Of Prayer" to cast aspersions at Barack Obama. The Three-Stooges-Of-Morning-TV took to their assigned task with ridiculous ferver.



Fox Nation insists that Obama isn't even celebrating the day.

The poorly constructed thesis that they are operating around is that since Obama is not making a specticle of the day, then he must be anti-religion. Whereas George W. Bush used his "faith" as a theatrical set-piece during his presidency, Obama is showing reverence for not only the day but is being humble in his approach to it.

Having grown up in a staunchly conservative and religious family, I saw more rank hypocrisy in those that made it widely known that they attended church as many times as they could each week. And, seeing as how the religious-right is more about creating divisiveness in America rather than treating each person as equals, it is no suprise that Obama is not using this day as a "show". This angers conservatives and their media mouth-pieces are willing to take up the torch and fan the flames of ignorance as much as they can.

It's interesting to not that Obama has decided he will mark this day in private at the White House. I say this only because of a bible verse that the religious-right seems to have forgotten:

Matthew 6:5-6

And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men....when thou prayest, enter into thy closet and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret....

Seeing as how these are allegedly the words of Jesus, and the religious-right is widely known for attempting to interpret the meaning of Jesus' teachings, I'm guessing they aren't going to touch this one.

To interpret this literally, one would get the assumption that Jesus is saying that praying in public ( i.e. in a church, religious gathering ) is wrong. However, this passage is more about using the occassion of prayer in order to draw attention to yourself is what is wrong. And, as there is a clear seperation of chruch and state, it's likely that the Obama adminstration is not going to violate that by hosting theatrical events as George W. Bush did.