<\/p>\n
This evening the Pastor and I attended the local observance The National Day of Prayer was established in 1952 by President The problem I have with President Obama on this matter is The President’s press secretary Robert Gibbs says that Of course, the President can neither tell us to pray nor how For those interested in some further thinking on ecumenism and interfaith matters, I recommend Joseph Ratzinger\/Benedict XVI’s Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief and World Religions<\/span> (Ignatius Press, 2004).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This evening the Pastor and I attended the local observance of the 58th Annual observance of the National Day of Prayer. This year’s theme was “Prayer…America’s Hope.” The occasion was OK. It was Scripture-based with free prayer offered for certain areas of concern (business, family, education, military, government, church). I was only impressed that 50 gathered … Continue reading The President & Prayer<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[1999,2086],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24617"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24617\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nof the 58th Annual observance of the National Day of Prayer<\/a>. This year’s theme was “Prayer…America’s Hope.” The occasion was OK. It was Scripture-based with
\nfree prayer offered for certain areas of concern (business, family, education,
\nmilitary, government, church). I was only impressed that 50 gathered for prayer
\nfor the nation, state and city; I wasn’t particularly impressed by the concern
\nfor all faiths to be represented. One significant disappointment was that it
\nwas too Christian, (too evangelical) and not interfaith. This is not the
\ntypical complaint you would ordinarily hear from me but the fact is event was the
\nNational Day of Prayer it was designed to be inclusive of the city’s various
\nfaith traditions. I freely admit that many occasions of prayer done in the
\ninterfaith mode are vapid and simply not done well. The representatives of the
\nJewish and Muslim faiths were not present and neither were the Buddhist monks
\nnor the Episcopalians nor Lutherans. It would’ve been good to have the
\nclergypeople from the various ecclesial communities and interfaith communities
\npresent, but let’s be careful not to fall into the trap of essentialism.<\/p>\n
\nTruman and President Reagan determined by resolution in 1988 to observe the day
\non the first Thursday of May. <\/p>\n
\nthat he decided to sideline public observance of prayer under the guise that he
\ndidn’t want to wear his faith on his cufflinks. Fine, don’t make a show it. But
\nlet’s be honest, does the President think he can run the country without God?
\nDoes he think that his example is good leadership? So, ultimately I can accept
\nthat the White House would not have its own prayer time but that they would not
\nattend any of the other prayer observances in the District, including the
\nNational Day of Prayer Task Force, I find arrogant.<\/p>\n
\n“Prayer is something the President does everyday.” Really? I am unconvinced.<\/p>\n
\nto pray but he does open the possibility for the nation to pray for the good of
\nthe nation by his own witness. If an atheist were chagrined by a prayer day
\nthen that person could simply observe a moment of silence or offer a poem that
\nlends itself to the ideal of patriotism or the common good. Whatever the case
\nmay be in today’s context, the point is that is important to gather people of
\ngood will with the hope of being united in something spiritual, something that
\ntakes the other person’s destiny seriously.