Presidents Should Be Free to Call the Nation to Prayer

First - I find it entertaining that Bush, despite courting the evangelical vote - did not go to church during his 8 year term.

Second - while I do not find the content of this essay offensive, what I do find offensive is that this nation currently does not respect the religious beliefs or non-beliefs of all of its citizens. Bush called atheists non-citizens. Muslims became synonymous with terrorists during the election.

Until everyone is accepted for what they do or do not believe, having the president be able to call upon the nation to pray is offensive, because we have not yet reached a point where society will graciously allow those who wish to decline to do so without public ridicule.

The president should seek to unite us - not highlight how we are different.

Politicians and prayers. Don't expect Obama to back away completely from the hypocrisy but hope that he would adopt a low profile.

As other readers have pointed out, in today's America people pray to different gods and, unlike the politicians, some of us have no problem stating that we do not pray at all.

Faith or lack of it has nothing to do with being a good, patriotic, law-abiding citizen. It is regrettable that for an American president the failure to invoke god's name would be akin to political suicide.

Re: Thanksgiving, here is an excerpt from Jon Carroll's column (it is repeated every year) in The San Francisco Chronicle:

"Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. It is comfortably free of the strident religious and/or militaristic overtones that give the other holidays their soft emanations of uneasiness.

At Christmas, for instance, we are required to deal with the divinity of Jesus -- I know some of you folks have made up your minds about that one, but not me -- and on the Fourth of July we must wrestle with the question of whether all those simulated aerial bombardments represent the most useful form of nationalism available."

sparrow4 :
lepidopteryx- that sounds like a beautiful prayer. I'm keeping it to use at my own thanksgiving dinner.Hope that's ok- it was just very beautiful.

Now that I could get behind as a national call to prayer.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sparrow dear, feel free to use any words of mine that you find feed your spirit.
What I wrote wasn't exactly a prayer - more of a decription of the overall spirit of the event, but it would certainly work as a prayer, and if you wish to use it as one, I am touched.

Our actual table grace is a bit more compact, but still manages to suit the ecumenical gathering at my house: We partake of this food with gratitude for all the blessing of heaven and earth, for the efforts of those who have prepared it, and for those with whom we share it.

For me the "blessings of heaven and earth" includes the sun, the wind, the rain, the soil, pollinting insects, the plants and animals whose bodies we eat.

"Those who have prepared it" includes not only the cooks, but the farmers, ranchers, and dairymen who produced the fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, milk, butter, and cheese, the bees that produced the honey I so love, the maple trees that produced the syrup with which I coat the sweet potatoes before baking them with apples and raisins, the truck drivers who hauled it to the store, the brewers and vintners who processed grains, fruits, and honey into beer, wine, and mead, the meat packers and buthcers, even the checker at the supermarket. It's amazing how many strangers contribute to every meal we eat.

"Those with whom we share it" includes not only the people gathered around the table, but the pets who will be given tidbits of turkey, the insects and bacteria who will consume the plate scrapings after they are put in the composter, those passed on or living at a distance who are with us in spirit and mind, though not in body.

lepidopteryx- that sounds like a beautiful prayer. I'm keeping it to use at my own thanksgiving dinner.Hope that's ok- it was just very beautiful.

Now that I could get behind as a national call to prayer.

"Every President - even including Jefferson, the most deistic - has been a believer in God."

This point can't really be argued, because every President has said they believe in God.

However, how many non-practicing believers do you think have said, "Faith has always been an integral part of my life blah blah blah," because they knew it would help get them elected?

While on the campaign trail, candidates say pretty much whatever they think the people want to hear. What chance would somebody have to get elected if they said, "Sure, I believe in God, but it stops right there. I don't go to church, don't pray etc."

What I see to be the main problem is that if you let one religion in, you have to let all religions in. Can you honestly say you would have written this article the same way if Obama had been Muslim? People love to talk about integrating religion, as long as it's their own religion being integrated.

President Bush is a nit-wit with ZERO credibility. He can make whatever proclamation he wants; after all, he is still the President; he exists, lives upon the earth, and breathes. He still roams the lonely rooms of the White House; he has got to do something, by the very nature that he is still there. Maybe one last phoney proclamation is what he needs to do, to mark time and keep out of trouble until January 20 finally gets here.

Then, I will be THANKFUL!!

(I am excited like a little kid on Christmas Eve; I can hardly wait).

Eh. You know, if certain troubled souls weren't turning everything, even Yule/Christmas or Thanksgiving into a Christianist 'culture war' territory-marking, I'd really be inclined to say, 'Well, the President can *ask.* Preferably in a way that doesn't imply I'm less of an American if I pray to different Gods.'

Turn it into a pissing contest about thin ends of wedges, with my civil rights at stake, somehow it's not so unifying or part of holiday cheer to me, go figure.

Contrary to what some say, the *more* religious minorities feel safe and included in America, the more OK we feel about people about officials praying their own way.

The more it gets territorial and exclusionary, the more it's *not-OK.*

Easing up might work.

"My fellow Americans, let us each read with conviction the lines on our palms so we may see clearly our way out of economic devastation."

Sure the President should be free to call us to prayer. But wouldn't it be more productive for him to call us to dowsing so we could find more water? Maybe the President should be calling us to astrology to design our foreign policy.

b.....As Presidents have been free to call the nation to prayer, they have been free to use what each considered the appropriate religious language. I see no convincing reason why this custom should not continue.

Moi: Ick.

We always have been one nation under God, and never have been of one mind in defining God.

Moi: God never described the US as "under" Him. I can say that Eisenhower authorized the addition of the words "under God" to the Pledge of Alligiance on June 14, 1954, but God didn't comment.

Every President - even including Jefferson, the most deistic - has been a believer in God.

Moi: How would you know? What president would have had the courage to say otherwise?

All presidents - including future unbelievers, if any - should be free to call the nation to common action in language appropriate to the person and purpose.

Moi: Too vague a proposition to be considered seriously.

And to whom is the president going to callt he nation to pray?
We don't all pray to the same deity; in fact, we don't all pray.

Our family celebrates Thanksgiving, but we do not give thanks to Jehovah. We offer thanks to the farmers and ranchers who raised the meat and produce on the table. We offer thanks TO the animals and plants whose bodies will soon be consumed in order to sustain our own. We offer thanks to the earth for its nourishment of the plants we eat, and the animals who eat those plants, and who we then eat. We offer thanks to eh rain which provides water for them and us. We offer thanks tot he wind which carries pollen from male plants to female plants, making fruit possible. We offer thanks to the sun, without whose light and warmth, there would be no life. We give thanks to each other for love and friendship.