”You know who I pray to? Joe Pesci. Two reasons; first of all, I think he’s a good actor. Ok. To me, that counts. Second; he looks like a guy who can get things done. Joe Pesci doesn’t fuck around. In fact, Joe Pesci came through on a couple of things that god was having trouble with. For years I asked god to do something about my noisy neighbor with the barking dog. Joe Pesci straightened that cock-sucker out with one visit. ” — George Carlin
The USA has a bizarre thing called National Day of Prayer. It is an annual day of observance held on the first Thursday of May, designated by the United States Congress. Each year, the president signs a proclamation, encouraging all Americans to pray on this day. Its constitutionality is being challenged in court by the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
“The Freedom From Religion Foundation is urging President Obama to protect freedom of conscience by ending the unconstitutional National Day of Prayer. The Foundation needs 25,000 signatures before May 31.
Please sign ‘We the People’ petition. ‘We the People’ is set up by the White House to offer the public a way to petition the President.
End the unconstitutional National Day of Prayer, which violates the 1st Amendment. God and government are a dangerous mix.
Congress, in 1952, abridged freedom of conscience when, at the instigation of Rev. Billy Graham, it designated a National Day of Prayer, ordering the President to proclaim “a National Day of Prayer, on which the people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and meditation at churches, in groups, and as individuals.”
The U.S. President has neither the moral nor the constitutional authority to dictate to Americans to pray, much less to tell citizens what to pray about or set aside an entire day for prayer.
Whether to pray, or believe in a god who answers prayer, is an intensely precious, personal decision protected under our First Amendment as a paramount matter of conscience.
Don’t let Christian evangelicals hijack our secular Constitution.
A globalized stupidity. It’s called ‘World Day of Prayer’. The sad thing is, it is organized by women. Prayers are contagious. There is a Global Day of Prayer too. They have funny prayer alert. If the USA continues to celebrate National Day of Prayer, many countries will be influenced by the USA and will start celebrating prayer day by violating constitution.
Many countries mix gods and governments. But the separation of religion and state is urgently necessary. We do not need god’s inhuman, barbaric, unethical laws. We do not want anyone to say that god created some people rich and some people poor, to justify the gap between rich and poor. We do not want anyone to justify women’s oppression by saying men have authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other.
I respect Jessica Ahlquist for her fight to get a prayer banner removed from her school. We need more Jessica. We need organizations like Freedom From Religion Foundation in every country. We need to fight ignorance. We need to secularize the world. No sane person wants a National Day of Superstition.
