It’s supposed to be a non-sectarian, non-partisan, feel-good sort of event, but it’s promoted entirely by the Christian Religious Right, and this year they turned it into a full-blown political rally for the Republicans.
During an event organized by the National Day of Prayer Task Force (a non-profit run by conservative evangelical Christians) and attended by members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Dobson slammed President Barack Obama, calling him the “abortion president.”
In a lengthy rant at an event that was supposed to be about prayer, not politics, Dobson attacked Obama primarily for his support of the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate, which says that most businesses must offer insurance plans to their employees that include access to no-cost birth control.
“President Obama, before he was elected, made it very clear that he wanted to be the abortion president,” Dobson fulminated. “He didn’t make any bones about it. This is something that he really was going to promote and support, and he has done that, and in a sense he is the abortion president.”
It’s a violation of the separation of church and state, and now its proponents are using it as an excuse to enlist a god in their partisan political attacks. So why do we still permit this crap to continue? Go pray on your own, Christians, and stop begging for validation from Caesar.
“This is not about proselytizing,” NDP Task Force Vice Chairman John Bornschein
O RLY?
This reminds me of a wedding I went to at a Catholic Church. The bride was noticeably pregnant, and in the middle of the ceremony, the priest(?) went off on a 20 minute rant about abortion. O_o
Any excuse to get on the soapbox I guess…
Goodness, it’s almost like the Talibangelicals never bothered to read their own Holy Scriptures.
The National Day of Prayer attracts political statements from christians. Here was their theme for last year: “Our theme for 2013 is Pray for America, emphasizing the need for individuals, corporately and individually, to place their faith in the unfailing character of their Creator, who is sovereign over all governments, authorities, and men.” They underlined “all” in that sentence.
Yep. It’s a National Anti-Obama Festival of Assholiness.
Quote is from:
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/surprise-national-day-prayer-morphed-anti-obama-affair
This is from the 2012 American Prayer Initiative, a group that includes the National Day of Prayer’s Shirley Dobson:
President Obama sort of goes along with the National Day of Prayer folderol. He issues a proclamation. This year’s proclamation was heavy on the the idea of protecting the “freedom to exercise our faiths freely.” Obama is not an integral part of the planning, execution and hosting of the day of prayer.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-annual-national-day-prayer
“One person chose to walk out, as far as we know,” he said, “and that’s what everybody focuses on. But the people who were there were with me 100 percent, because they also believe in the sanctity of human life.” — Dr. Dobson, in an interview on Fox News
http://crooksandliars.com/2014/05/james-dobson-uses-national-day-prayer-slam
Which American politicians would have the courage to call for an end to the National Day of Prayer? (I’m guessing not one!)
It was inevitable.
Hitchen’s Rule: Religion poisons everything!!! Including itself.
It clearly poisoned the National Day of Prayer. You couldn’t expect anything different.
The advantage of the National Day of Preying is it (1) Identifies the gullible rubes who…; and (2) …Are good lion food.
The Greeks and Romans had required days of religious participation. That went quite well for them.
not as OT as I would’ve hoped:
Alabama’s chief justice says First Amendment only protects Christians
@Gregory in Seattle
Goodness, it’s almost like the Talibangelicals never bothered to read their own Holy Scriptures.
“Christian, n.: one who believes that the New Testament is a divinely inspired book admirably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbor.”
― Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary
That is one of the ironies of Christianity: throughout its existence, it has relied heavily on the written word, yet most of its adherents are either illiterate or have never read their holy texts completely.
There is nothing in the bible about abortion, and lots of stuff about how fetuses are worthless. For example:
Under a month old? 0 shekels.
Under a month old? Don’t count ’em.
How about an end to tax free status, that would be a stronger message.
In 2008 Shirley Dobson and her fellow christians tried overtly to bar non-christians from speaking at National Day of Prayer. Now they do the same thing less overtly. None of the christian-only agenda matches up with Harry Truman’s ecumenical description.
Here’s coverage of that 2008 debacle:
Mother Jones link from 2008.
@mikeyb,
I don’t know that I’d go that far. They can retain their tax-free status, but they will now be required to comply with all the regulations that regular, non-religious charities have to comply with, including public disclosure of their finances. Given how much outright theft of donations happens within the confines of religious institutions, we can even say it’s for their own good.
ck:
I would. It’s a strong-arm tactic from long ago, openly stating the power of the church over all, including government. It’s really past time for that to end.
http://i-am.addic7ed.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/atheist-cartoon.gif
John, thanks for the cartoon.
@5
Lynna, OM
…Ass Holiness?
ya, that’s a minimum.
I’m not sure what gets classified as having “charity” status. I’m suspicious that there is one set of qualifications for the religious/churches, and another for the rest (even leaving aside the public disclosure of finances). Not sure though…
Man oh man, that would certainly upset the mormon leaders. They depend on financial obscurity to cover their ownership of land in Florida, of City Creek Mall in Salt Lake City (more than a billion there), of huge tourist centers in Hawaii, etc. etc.
@16 Usernames are smart
Numbers 5:11-31
Otherwise known as the “Ordeal of the Bitter water”. If you suspect your wife has been unfaithful, give her an abortifacient, and see what happens. Of course, as is usually the case, these preachers conveniently ignore a section of their holy text when it suits their own purposes
How about a national day of WTF!?
Those parts are metaphors.
I’ve never been able to find the parts that say that the other parts are metaphors.
What’s the take away lesson from this little exemplar of morality ?
Psalm 137:9
Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
@Inaji,
I think that forcing the churches to choose between tax-free, but required disclosure of many of the things they’d like to keep secret, or they keep the secrecy but pay taxes would make things far more interesting. If you just force them to pay taxes, they’ll just play the self-martyr which will play well with their congregations and they might even gain more strength politically. On the other hand, if they have a choice that most of them can’t take without serious PR problems (like the ones Lynna mentioned), then you’ve got them cornered because either they take the tax hit, or they have to endure difficult questions from their flock.
In addition to , there’s a bit somewhere (Leviticus or Numbers) about the crime of causing a miscarriage by violence. It’s not punished as murder, but as damage to property.
See also: “The ‘biblical view that’s younger than the Happy Meal“.
Argh, that’s “‘biblical view‘“.
Definitely interesting!
ck @ 29, good points.
brianpansky
Pretty much. On the one hand, being a church gets you nonprofit status with basically no questions asked (exactly how far that goes depends somewhat on state codes, but it usually goes pretty damn far. Scientology famously takes shameless advantage of this, among other less well known scams.) On the other, actual charities/nonprofits have to jump through extensive hoops regarding what they are, in fact, doing to benefit the community etc., audits to see if they’re accomplishing anything (those are usually from funding agencies, not regulatory ones, but nevertheless it’s not a problem churches have nearly as much). A large part of it is that the laws are written in such a way that telling people about your religious beliefs is considered to be prima facie beneficial (it’s specifically called out under the heading of educational missions), and it’s easy to show you’ve been doing that. I’d like those bits removed, and make churches split like any private company, with a (tax-paying) corporate structure for the business end (the church), and an affiliated (tax-free) foundation for charitable activities that follows all the usual rules for nonprofits, including audits etc.
the choice proposed here for tax or full disclosure of religious organizations, churches is a good idea and I would be in favor of it.
It is very unlikely to ever become the law in my life time however. If it ever becomes a reality that a sufficient majority of the people would support such a law and had the ability to pass such a law it probably would not be necessary as religion would have slipped from its place of competitive power and be rapidly becoming marginalized.
it might be possible to get the national day of prayer abolished sooner
either through the courts or through the individual states
uncle frogy
FTA: “Dobson just blew a hole into this idea of being a non-partisan National Day of Prayer,” Hahn said. “It was very disturbing to me … and really a shame. James Dobson hijacked the National Day of Prayer — this non-partisan, non-political National Day of Prayer — to promote his own distorted political agenda.”
Yah think?
National Day of Prayer, from 1952, 2 years before “Under God” was added to the pledge, and 5 years before “In God We Trust” was printed on dollar bills. Oh the glory of McCarthyistic “Deism”.
If there had to be a national prayer day, it really should have been led by Pete Seeger.
Too late, alas.
That’s how you respond. Need more of this tone.
I’m just thrilled that atheistblog approves of PZ’s post.
I’ll support a national day of prayer when believers allow passage of a law prohibiting all prayer during the rest of the year and its strictly enforced.
Corvus @ 2
They do love them some captive audience.
I was in attendance at a hijacked graduation ceremony for a Lutheran college. The sheer conceit of hijacking other’s events to bloviate is just… just…
Steve @29:
Yes, I can see why Boney M did not include that line in their rendition of that psalm.
After reading Num. 5.11……, I’d say the bible is in favor of abortion.