May 5, 2005: ACLU-TN Responds to National Day of Prayer

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, May 5, 2005

Contact: Hedy Weinberg, Executive Director,
615-320-7142

ACLU-TN Response to National Day of Prayer

The “National Day of Prayer” jeopardizes religious freedom in the United States. The bill, passed by Congress and signed into law by President Truman in 1952, declares a day for prayer each year.

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” And yet, with this 1952 proclamation, Congress inserted itself into the private lives of individuals by designating a day for prayer. One of the precious guarantees of the First Amendment is to ensure that individuals can decide for themselves if to pray, when to pray, where to pray, and to whom to pray. ACLU-TN remains firm that any government action to promote prayer encroaches on that religious freedom.

Two of our key framers – Thomas Jefferson and James Madison – opposed the government issuing religious proclamations. Although Madison issued a “prayer day” proclamation while President under political pressure from Congress, he later said such proclamations are inappropriate. “They seem to imply and certainly nourish the erroneous idea of a national religion,” Madison wrote in a document referred to as the “Detached Memoranda.” Jefferson made a similar argument, writing to the Rev. Samuel Miller in 1808: “Fasting and prayer are religious exercises; the enjoining them an act of discipline. Every religious society has a right to determine for itself the times for these exercises, and the objects proper for them, according to their own particular tenets; and this right can never be safer than in their own hands, where the Constitution has deposited it.”

In 1988, thirty-three years after the original law was passed, Congress passed a law requiring the President to “issue each year a proclamation designating the first Thursday in May as 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 language suggests that “the Day” is meant as an opportunity for all Americans who wish to do so to pray according to their own faith, not to promote any particular religion or form of religious observance.

Modern presidents have echoed this interfaith approach. President Reagan said in his 1987 proclamation that on the National Day of Prayer, “we join together as people of many faiths...” In 1998, President Clinton referred to the proclamation as honoring “ ...the religious diversity our freedom permits.” President George W. Bush used precisely the same language in his 2001 proclamation.

However, in practice, nearly all highly publicized events that take place commemorating the Day are organized by the National Day of Prayer Task Force, a Christian organization headed by Shirley Dobson, wife of James Dobson, who founded the Christian group Focus on the Family. The Task Force, which bills its website as the “National Day of Prayer Official Website,” organizes Christian-only events in all 50 states and literally dominates organizing efforts in every major city. The Task Force strictly limits its involvement to Christian events, and will not lend any support to organizers of interfaith events.

More troubling for ACLU-TN, however, is when elected officials choose to align themselves with groups like the Task Force and use “the Day” to promote Christianity. For example, that is exactly what Mayor Don Fox of Lebanon did this year. He promoted “the Day” as an exclusively Christian event. On the City website, Mayor Fox recommends coming together “as Christians” in recognition of “the Day.” Mayor Fox asks his constituents to “bring those you care for and expose them to this wonderful gathering of Christians.” Such a limited and narrow view ignores the religious diversity in Lebanon and throughout the State, and completely undermines constitutionally protected religious freedom.

The “National Day of Prayer” is not necessary in order for Tennesseans to practice their religious faith. In Tennessee, people can pray on the first Thursday of May; they can pray once a day or five times a day; they can pray once a week; or they can choose not to pray at all. In Tennessee, people can pray to whichever God they believe in. In Tennessee, people can stand and bow their heads, they can kneel on a prayer rug; they can burn candles and incense; or they can take a walk by a waterfall. In Tennessee, religious freedom flourishes because of the First Amendment and our State Constitution, not because of the “National Day of Prayer.”