National Day of Prayer

Something that's been in the news lately is a controversy surrounding the constitutionality of a government approved and endorsed "National Day of Prayer." So far, it seems the judges going over the case see it as a form of government-imposed religious observance and are systematically striking it down. To many Christians, this seems like a form of persecution; the lawmakers are trying to remove God from the public sphere and promote atheism and secularism. This, they claim, is an attempt to take America further and further away from being a "Christian nation."

In regard to the lawmakers striking down this piece of legislature I say, "Thank you. You are doing your job well! We do not want or need a government instigated National Day of Prayer." If you live in the United States of America, you are in a country that protects the separation of church and state. The government has no right to influence religious practice in any way, shape, or form. The government cannot make an atheist observe a National Day of Prayer any more than it can make a Hindu observe Yom Kippur. Instituting a National Day of Prayer is not only unconstitutional, but can violate the freedom of conscience of millions of the people.

Let me explain some of the problems associated with a National Day of Prayer. Who are we going to pray to? Are we going to pray to the triune God of Christianity? Jews do not believe in a Trinitarian God or that Jesus is God. Are we going to pray to Allah? As a Christian I will not. Buddhists do not believe in a god. Hindus have millions of gods. What about the atheist or agnostic who does not believe in a deity? If this is to be a government endorsed event, there is no way it can do this in a way that will satisfy all of its citizens without calling us all to compromise our faiths in some way. As a Christian, compromising my belief in the Triune God who revealed Himself to us in Jesus Christ is not something I will do. Nor does the government have a right to force me to do so. The other alternative is for the government to simply adopt one god as its official national deity and pray to that. Presumably. this would be the Christian God because the majority of the people in the country identify themselves closest with Christianity. However, it is a dangerous thing to adopt a form of religion as the official one of a nation.

In case any of us are forgetting out history, let us remind ourselves that many of our earliest founders came here fleeing the state-allied religions common in Europe since the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine. The governments of Europe gave special preference to certain religious groups whether it was Roman Catholicism in the last stage of the Roman Empire and Middle Ages, or the Reformed and Anglican faiths of the post Reformation age. Even today, many of those nations' governments give money or power to ecclesiastical authorities. For example, one of my favorite theologians, N.T. Wright, is a member of the House of Lords in England because he is the Bishop of Durham. The Puritans, Anabaptists, and others fled from Europe because the result of a state-sponsored religion is persecution from deviants of the established faith. Our founding fathers recognized this and included the Separation of Church and State clause in the constitution. As soon as the government gets its hands into the realms of religious practice, either the government becomes subservient to the church as happened with Roman Catholicism, or the church becomes a subject of the state as happened with the Lutheran church of Germany during the Nazi reign.

The United States is not a theocracy. It is not, nor was it ever, a "Christian Nation;" the countries our ancestors were fleeing were "Christian Nations," and many still are. The United States is a nation where it is safe for us to be Christians of whatever persuasion our conscience dictates. It is also a safe haven for those who are not Christians. No religious group has the authority to impose its views on the people, and a government cannot impose religious views or practices on its people. A day of prayer is a matter of personal conscience. Let me say it again; when the state becomes involved in religion, we find ourselves on a fast track towards totalitarianism. Should we have a National Day or Prayer? Let's have it as long as it is organized and executed solely by the federally independent churches that make up this country. If the government wants to make it a law, I believe as Christians who believe there is no religious authority except Christ and the Bible, we should oppose it.