Prayers to Heal the Nations

My computer dictionary defines 'prayer' as "a solemn request for help or an expression of thanks; an earnest hope or wish." If this definition is correct, I suppose everyone prays quite often in his or her everyday process of living.

I like to think of prayer as multifaceted--that it consists of intended and unintended behaviors and that a supreme being doesn't have to be the recipient of such a prayer for it to be effective and beneficial to others. Joy, compassion, patience, forgiveness--even expressing intelligence and doing something unselfishly is prayer to me. I enjoy watching little children "praying" while they play with others or alone. I like their childlike innocence. They seem very natural and uninhibited about their lives. I appreciate this kind of prayer.

I like the term "National Day of Prayer." It makes me think of unity of thought and purpose in a constructive manner. I believe our country and the world benefits from this sort of interaction. To me, it could be called "National Day of Unselfishness" or "National Day of Humanity" or "National Day of Doing Good Stuff" and still get the effect mankind needs. As president, I would gladly sign and endorse a proclamation that encourages people to be thankful, helpful, joyful, and full of expectation for good. When have we needed it more than at this period in time?

mountainlake, you said,
"But prayer that aligns one's heart with universal good [...] is effective and brings results."
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i'm all for "aligning with universal good" and i don't doubt that you've personally seen positive effects from your prayers. that's great. maybe on national prayer day people of all beliefs can say a prayer before leaving for work. they can even specify a time to make sure they're all doing it at the same time. or maybe after work they could all go to their places of worship and commune.

we talk about how this prayer breakfast is inclusive and open to people of all faith and how it's a chance to build bridges and unity and all that. what about atheists? to atheists the spectacle of our government leaders making incantations to invisible gods looks...well...silly. and it's a waste of my taxes. i admit i haven't looked too much into who pays waht for all this, but i shudder to think at the cost of all these ceremonies across the country.

I applaud Mr. Davis's comments -- we as individuals and as a nation have much to learn about the power of prayer, and what needs to constitute prayer in order for it to be effective. I have seen how a heartfelt, humble understanding of God's all loving nature and goodness can transform a life. It can do the same for our nation. If individuals feel prayer is ineffective, I would say it is one's concept of prayer that needs an overhaul. I have never found prayer that is merely begging, or reciting of dogma, to be effective. But prayer that aligns one's heart with universal good, with a God who is a mighty, saving presence, is effective and brings results. We can all become better pray-ers, and can come to know a God whose will is one of healing and progress.

In the sense that Mr. Davis describes, I don’t see the difference between a prayer and the process of inducing an action in a receptive person by suggestion or persuasion. As in voodoo, you have to be receptive otherwise it doesn’t work and you have to start by inducing a sensation, belief or action.
However, I think that getting god into this game is misleading and actually diminishes the effect and the end result. If we could prove that meditation or concentration or whatever that is generated by ourselves can be powerful and healing at times, with no BS, the results could be positive. Which isn’t the case, like FV points out below, and in some cases it was even proven to be detrimental.

"Perhaps our National Day of Prayer will inspire us both to pray more and to expect concrete results from that prayer."

Be careful what you wish for. There have been quite a number of studies to determine whether prayer can affect outcomes. The more rigorous the study, the clear it becomes that prayer does NOT affect outcomes beyond anything more than placebo.

If people start expecting observable results from prayer, they will invariably be disappointed. It's best for you to stick with the 'strange and mysterious ways' angle if you want to keep people in the fold.