Skip the Proclamation, Host the Event

Thursday is National Day of Prayer, as mandated by Congress. What should President Obama do? Should he follow tradition and sign a ceremonial proclamation? Should he follow President George W. Bush's practice of hosting a formal White House event? Should he ignore it completely?

A proclamation of a National Day of Prayer will neither save the country from sin, nor ruin it as a secular society. But it is an oversight not to host an event at the White House. It is the events of public prayer that demonstrate the religious pluralism of the country, and that is an important thing to do right now. Proclamations are just so much paper.

As an outside observer, it seems to me that this is the kind of compromise that is typical of the Obama administration. Sign the proclamation, don't host the event. Perhaps that is an unwarranted criticism. The explanation for a proclamation and not an event could simply be that there's a lot on the President's plate right now. Hosting a National Day of Prayer event at the White House could be just one thing too many. Or, it could be a prudent move to not have an event when the swine flu is about. But for the future, I'd like to make a case for doing the event. It's more important than a proclamation.

I go to a lot of such public prayer events. There is an annual Chicago Prayer Breakfast here every fall. It gets a huge attendance. As I watch the Illinois politicians work the room over eggs and toast, I have often pondered what such events have to do with prayer. Politicians are not saints, particularly not in Illinois. It is unlikely, therefore, that many of the politicians present at events such as a prayer breakfast came solely because of the prospect of deepening their spiritual lives. The same is true in Washington DC, I'm sure. But that does not make such events useless. This prayer breakfast is now a popular item on the civic calendar of Chicago. It is where a segment of the leadership of the city, and even the state, get together. This is not a bad thing in and of itself. People need to know one another to get the business of governing done.

But it is also the case that the public prayer is not irrelevant to what this event has become for Chicago. The leadership of the Chicago Prayer Breakfast has made a huge effort to increase interfaith participation. For many people at the event, this is the only time they will hear prayers not of their own faith. The Chicago Prayer Breakfast is where I first encountered the Interfaith Youth Core. The young people of many faiths speaking of their commitment to civic service and to learning about young people of other faiths through that work is a good teaching moment for the city. I came to know Interfaith Youth Core through this event and have, in fact, joined its Board of Trustees, because I think this is a message young people need to hear and to teach. This public event has been important to Chicago and indeed to Illinois because of the modeling of religious pluralism.

So I actually think that while signing the proclamation is not going to turn the United States of America into a theocracy, as secularists may fear, nor be a route to national salvation, as religious conservatives may wish, it is probably an oversight not to have a related event. It is in the act of coming together to hear diverse prayers spoken that we build whatever civic solidarity we can, and we build our religious pluralism at the same time.

Maybe next year the President could skip the proclamation and host the event.

By Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite  |  May 5, 2009; 11:19 AM ET
Share This: Technorati | Del.icio.us | Digg | Facebook
Previous: President Obama's Subdued Religion Seems More Real | Next: The Grumpy Dog's Lesson About Mother's Day

Posted by: Farnaz1Mansouri1 | May 7, 2009 10:06 PM
Report Offensive Comment

Posted by: artistkvip1 | May 7, 2009 5:44 AM
Report Offensive Comment

Posted by: gladerunner | May 6, 2009 3:31 PM
Report Offensive Comment

The comments to this entry are closed.