National Day of Prayer

Damn! I missed it again. For other poor ignorant souls out there, it's on the first Thursday in May. It's the law of the land. Here's the last part of the Ob's proclamation on that day (and here's the rest):

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 2, 2013, as a National Day of Prayer. I join the citizens of our Nation in giving thanks, in accordance with our own faiths and consciences, for our many freedoms and blessings, and in asking for God's continued guidance, mercy, and protection.

Here is an excerpt of what Nicolle and Michelle's pastor had to say about it in response to a story in the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung (taken without permission from the Faith UCC website):

Mr. Bornschein states the National Day of Prayer is a very important day for this nation because, “The moral values of the sanctity of human life, preservation of marriage, defense of Israel and religious freedoms became the focus of attack while many remained unaware of the new aggressive, socialistic agenda sweeping across the land.” Every one of these is a controversial issue individual Christians and Christian denominations hold diverging views over. This reflects the diverging views held in the general population and within political parties.

There is no one “Christian” view on these matters, so if one of the goals of the National Day of Prayer is to bring people together across denominational and political lines, these issues will not do it.

Some Christians are pro-choice and some are totally anti-abortion; some churches bless gay marriage and others condemn it. Some churches support Israel right or wrong and others support Israel but also lift up the rights of Palestinians. Some see a socialist agenda in this nation and others see the 1 percent rigging the system for their own selfish ends at the expense of the 99 percent.

These are obviously important issues that need to be debated and some resolution reached, but they are not appropriate for an event like the National Day of Prayer.

 Let me do more than take issue with Bornschein reason’s for the National Day of Prayer. Here are some things I suspect all of us can join together and pray for:

• The individuals and families affected by the bombing in Boston and the explosion in West. May God sustain them and heal them in a time of great tragedy and loss.
• For the unemployed in our community from the recent losses at the Scooter Store to nationwide as many still seek to recover from the economic nightmare from four years ago.
• Peace in our land and around the world and for our troops who sacrifice much to carry out our national policies — and often return home in need of both physical and spiritual healing.
• In the best tradition of the Bible, let us pray for the widow, the orphan, the stranger, the poor in our midst and rededicate ourselves to finding ways of helping them.
• Finally, let us pray for humility in our spiritual lives, that we would remove any logs from our own spiritual eyes and not get too carried away with removing the splinters from our neighbor’s eyes.

...

The Rev. Scott B. Martin is pastor of Faith United Church of Christ.

The post on the UCC website contains the original NB H-Z story as well as the full version of the one excerpted above which was also in the NB H-Z.

Vivian and Evan - what will you be thinking about on May 6, 2027? Religion has endured time better than most other institutions. So it's likely that on that day religion will be a strong force for both good and evil as it is today. It is something that we inherit from our parents like almost nothing else. I hope you don't do that. Think about it. Perhaps there's a rare God out there who is just right for you. Or perhaps there aren't any and you too will wonder why the whole country is praying even if they do find common ground.