Support the National Day of Reason resolution "to govern by the power of reason, not superstition."

It's good to know that Rep. Jared Huffman has reintroduced a National Day of Reason resolution in Congress. I trust that Trey Hollingsworth will competently represent me and vote in favor.

Rep. Jared Huffman @RepHuffman

I’m thrilled to be a co-founder of the new Congressional Freethought Caucus, which will help spark an open dialogue about science and reason-based policy solutions, and the importance of defending the secular character of our government.

In 2010, the FFRF actually won a court case about the National Day of Prayer. It was appealed by President Obama and overturned.

Thanks, Obama.

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Support the National Day of Reason resolution

Please join the Freedom From Religion Foundation in supporting the National Day of Reason resolution, which aims to reaffirm the separation of church and state and ensure that reason guides public policy and law.

This resolution has been reintroduced in Congress by Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., to serve as an enlightened alternative to the National Day of Prayer, during which government officials typically exhort ask their constituents to join them in prayer. This resolution also designates May 3 as the National Day of Reason, which aims to promote “public policy that is based on reason and logic instead of politics and ideology.”

Ask your U.S. representative to support this judicious resolution to govern by the power of reason, not superstition.

Act Now!

Background

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has taken the lead in challenging the annual National Day of Prayer, enacted in Congress in 1952 at the behest of Rev. Billy Graham, who said he wanted to see members of Congress on their knees praying to “the Lord Jesus Christ” and “almighty God.” U.S. Sen. Absalom Robertson, father of Rev. Pat Robertson, introduced the bill in the Senate. What was a roving date became the first Thursday in May, when the act was amended under President Reagan in 1988 at the request of a coalition of evangelical Christians, who then started the National Day of Prayer Taskforce, working hand in glove with public officials. The law requires the president to issue a National Day of Prayer proclamation, as a date “on which the people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and meditation at churches, in groups, and as individuals.”

FFRF noted in its legal challenge that the law was based on bad history, with sponsors falsely claiming the Founders prayed during the Constitutional Convention. In a historic 2010 ruling, U.S. District Judge Barbara C. Crabb sided with FFRF, observing, “The same law that prohibits the government from declaring a National Day of Prayer also prohibits it from declaring a National Day of Blasphemy.” She said the government could no more enact a statute in support of prayer “than the government may encourage citizens to fast during the month of Ramadan, attend a synagogue, purify themselves in a sweat lodge or practice range magic. In fact, it is because the nature of prayer is so personal and can have such a powerful effect on a community that the government may not use its authority to try to influence an individual’s decision whether and when to pray. . . . In this instance, the government has taken sides on a matter that must be left to individual conscience.”

(Postscript: FFRF’s case was appealed by President Obama, where the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unfortunately ruled that FFRF and its plaintiffs had not been injured, and therefore did not have standing to sue. So while the lawsuit was overturned, it was overturned on standing, not the merits.)

Clearly, the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional. Fight back, by supporting a National Day of Reason.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, based in Madison, Wis., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational charity, is the nation's largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics), and has been working since 1978 to keep religion and government separate.

Thursday, May 4 is the National Day of Reason -- a counterweight to the unconstitutional National Day of Prayer.

If on'e sole professional obligation is to publish verbatim press releases, some background information is lost.

Me? I'm praying that the newspaper improves. Nothing else seems to work.

This reader comment wins the Internet: Should have prayed for better weather.

The article is credited to "NEWS AND TRIBUNE," suggesting that it has been contributed from an outside source. Shouldn't this be identified clearly as a press release or submission?

Most importantly, the Freedom from Religion Foundation explains how evangelical Christians hijacked the constitution.

Brief History of the Unconstitutional National Day of Prayer

... The Senate report over the National Day of Prayer reveals that the National Day of Prayer law is based on bad history: The revisionist myth that the founders of our secular Constitution prayed during the Constitutional Convention. Prayer was indeed suggested, but the proposal, floated by Benjamin Franklin, was not adopted. Instead, the convention adjourned for the day. Our founders went on to adopt a godless and entirely secular Constitution, whose only references to religion in government are exclusionary.

Next, the alternative. Perhaps next year I'll think to submit a press release to the newspaper.

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National Day of Reason - May 4, 2017

A consortium of leaders from within the community of reason endorsed the idea of a National Day of Reason. This observance is held in parallel with the National Day of Prayer, on the first Thursday in May each year. The goal of this effort is to celebrate reason—a concept all Americans can support—and to raise public awareness about the persistent threat to religious liberty posed by government intrusion into the private sphere of worship.

The National Day of Reason website is co-sponsored by the American Humanist Association and the Washington Area Secular Humanists.

The Day of Reason also exists to inspire the secular community to be visible and active on this day to set the right example for how to effect positive change. Local organizations might use “Day of Reason” to label their events, or they might choose labels such as Day of Action, Day of Service, or Rational Day of Care. The important message is to provide a positive, useful, constitutional alternative to the exclusionary National Day of Prayer.

To facilitate the commemoration of the National Day of Reason by individuals and organizations throughout the U.S., the American Humanist Association and the Washington Area Secular Humanists joined together in 2003 to launch this National Day of Reason web site.

This web site is designed to serve as the focal point for an effort to recognize the National Day of Reason, and as a platform to offer a criticism of the federally-sponsored National Day of Prayer. We hope that it will be a resource to the community of reason, the press, and the general public.

Why Do We Oppose the National Day of Prayer?

• The National Day of Prayer violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution because it asks federal and local government entities to set aside tax dollar supported time and space to engage in religious ceremonies. This results in unconstitutional governmental support of religion over no religion.
• Lead by fundamentalist Christian Shirley Dobson, the National Day of Prayer Task Force promoted thousands of events specifically in accordance with its Judeo-Christian beliefs and focused on a small segment of the Protestant Christianity. Since they hold their events on the government sponsored National Day of Prayer, government officials of all levels participate in these events as if they were government endorsed.
• The Supreme Court has made it clear (and most Americans agree) that state sponsored prayer in school is inappropriately exclusionary. Why is a nationally sponsored day of prayer any more inclusive? This national effort geared toward a small slice of the religious spectrum is clearly outside the boundaries of proper governmental reach.
• The National Day of Prayer makes those who don’t pray feel like second-class citizens. Why set aside a national day that needlessly excludes?
• Religious Americans who wish to pray don’t need to be reminded by government to do so, so there’s no reason to limit prayer to a single day for those who chose to practice their chosen faith in that way. Government has no business saying when or what Americans should do when and if they engage in religious practice.
• Government also violates the First Amendment with the National Day of Prayer by acting to promote a certain manifestation of religion. It emphasizes only one form of religious practice, and therefore discriminates against the many others, including alms giving, social justice, fasting, peace activism and meditation.
• Many traditional religious groups encourage adherents not to make their prayer public, so this state sponsored public display of prayer is a direct affront to such teachings and disrespects countless religious Americans. Many Americans faithfully follow the words from the Sermon on the Mount, “When you pray don’t do it loudly in the synagogue or on street corners so that everyone can see you and think you are really good and holy.”
• Whenever government involves itself in religious practice as is done with the National Day of Prayer it taints that religious practice by reducing the co-opted religion’s effectiveness to protest government action, and also (in an infeasible effort to broaden the practice’s appeal) government inappropriately dilutes the messages of faithful adherents.
• Freedom of expression and worship, including the opportunity to pray or not pray as we wish, are already present without government endorsement. There is no need to set-aside a public day for prayer.

Me? I'm praying that the newspaper improves. Nothing else seems to work.

This reader comment wins the Internet:

Should have prayed for better weather.

The article is credited to "NEWS AND TRIBUNE," suggesting that it has been contributed from an outside source.

Shouldn't this be identified clearly as a press release or submission?

For me, not doing so is a unmistakable sign of intellectual dishonesty, though Bill Hanson probably reckons it helps him sell ads to churchgoers.

It's striking to see Mayor Jeff Gahan vowing his attendance. Just last week he didn't bother showing up to the meeting of the New Albany Housing Authority's new board, one composed entirely of scentless sycophants Gahan himself appointed, as they voted to approve their paymaster's annexation of public housing.

Gahan can't look public housing residents in the eye, but he can attend religious observances on government time.

His priorities are tragically skewed, as always. Speaking of which, did the newspaper have a reporter at last evening's city council meeting?

Maybe they'll cover the prayer meeting.

New Albany moves National Day of Prayer service indoors

NEW ALBANY — This Thursday is predicted to be the worst day of this week, weather-wise, with rain and cold temperatures. So New Albany’s annual National Day of Prayer commemoration, which has always been held outside the City-County Building downtown, will now take place in the gym at the Salvation Army, 2300 Green Valley Road.

The time remains the same — at noon here and across the country. The public is invited to attend the brief program of music, Scripture reading and prayer involving a variety of groups within the community. The service will last no later than 12:40 p.m.

Officials with the sponsoring Salvation Army of Southern Indiana urge people to help spread the word about the venue change. They now expect that each year’s event will be held inside at this site with plenty of seating.