Obama to be prayer day no-show
Julia Duin - Wednesday, May 6, 2009
President Obama is distancing himself from the National Day of Prayer by nixing a formal early morning service and not attending a large Catholic prayer breakfast the next morning.
All Mr. Obama will do for the National Day of Prayer, which is Thursday, is sign a proclamation honoring the day, which originated in 1952 when Congress set aside the first Thursday in May for the observance.
For the past eight years, President George W. Bush invited selected Christian and Jewish leaders to the White House East Room, where he typically would give a short speech and several leaders offered prayers.
Pressed by reporters as to the lack of a formal ceremony, Obama White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the proclamation was Mr. Obama's choice.
"That's the way the president will publicly observe National Prayer Day - privately, he'll pray as he does every day," Mr. Gibbs said.
Shirley Dobson, chairwoman of the National Day of Prayer Committee, said the group was "disappointed in the lack of participation by the Obama administration."
"At this time in our country's history, we would hope our president would recognize more fully the importance of prayer," said Mrs. Dobson, who occupied a prominent seat in the front row for the ceremonies during the Bush administration.
Full Story Here
The only thing that would make this story better would be for Obama to just chuck the entire idea of a "National Day of Prayer" out the window. It's pointless, useless, and is an uncomfortable and unnecessary mix of religion and government.
Shirley Dobson is a dolt. She makes the typical "pay attention to me" religious complaint about needing some kind of public recognition of her need to talk to herself. I'm sure she's the type that would scream bloody murder when a public school does away with morning prayer or 'moments of silence'.
If you want to talk to yourself.....I mean pray.....trust me....NOBODY is stopping you.
Do it in the morning over your Cheerios. Do it on the ride to work. Do it in your cubicle. Do it on the toilet for all I care. It's silent and supposedly personal......keep it to yourself. Not that difficult.
Don't take my word for it......take the word of your personal lord and savior Jesus H. Christ :
"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him" (Matthew 6:5-8).
It's always amazes me how Christians seem to conveniently forget the words of Christ (who never really existed anyway IMO), and pretty much everything else that's in the Bible. Except for hatin' the gays. That part they know like the back of their hand. Amazing.
Julia Duin - Wednesday, May 6, 2009
President Obama is distancing himself from the National Day of Prayer by nixing a formal early morning service and not attending a large Catholic prayer breakfast the next morning.
All Mr. Obama will do for the National Day of Prayer, which is Thursday, is sign a proclamation honoring the day, which originated in 1952 when Congress set aside the first Thursday in May for the observance.
For the past eight years, President George W. Bush invited selected Christian and Jewish leaders to the White House East Room, where he typically would give a short speech and several leaders offered prayers.
Pressed by reporters as to the lack of a formal ceremony, Obama White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the proclamation was Mr. Obama's choice.
"That's the way the president will publicly observe National Prayer Day - privately, he'll pray as he does every day," Mr. Gibbs said.
Shirley Dobson, chairwoman of the National Day of Prayer Committee, said the group was "disappointed in the lack of participation by the Obama administration."
"At this time in our country's history, we would hope our president would recognize more fully the importance of prayer," said Mrs. Dobson, who occupied a prominent seat in the front row for the ceremonies during the Bush administration.
Full Story Here
The only thing that would make this story better would be for Obama to just chuck the entire idea of a "National Day of Prayer" out the window. It's pointless, useless, and is an uncomfortable and unnecessary mix of religion and government.
Shirley Dobson is a dolt. She makes the typical "pay attention to me" religious complaint about needing some kind of public recognition of her need to talk to herself. I'm sure she's the type that would scream bloody murder when a public school does away with morning prayer or 'moments of silence'.
If you want to talk to yourself.....I mean pray.....trust me....NOBODY is stopping you.
Do it in the morning over your Cheerios. Do it on the ride to work. Do it in your cubicle. Do it on the toilet for all I care. It's silent and supposedly personal......keep it to yourself. Not that difficult.
Don't take my word for it......take the word of your personal lord and savior Jesus H. Christ :
"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him" (Matthew 6:5-8).
It's always amazes me how Christians seem to conveniently forget the words of Christ (who never really existed anyway IMO), and pretty much everything else that's in the Bible. Except for hatin' the gays. That part they know like the back of their hand. Amazing.
13 comments:
Personally, I've got no problem with the National Day of Prayer as long as there's a National Day of Hexing.
"It's always amazes me how Christians seem to conveniently forget the words of Christ...and pretty much everything else that's in the Bible."
You must not know the same Christians I do. Don't worry, I'll introduce them to you. :)
Christ himself encouraged us to pray together: "For wherever two or more are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20).
So JC was inconsistent and contradictory. Just like the rest of the Bible!
It's almost like his "words" were written by a bunch of men who never met the man.
Imagine that.
Sorry, me again. There certainly are ways to pray out loud and be a hypocrite. But there are also ways to pray out loud with others in all humility, which is what Christ exhorts us to do.
OK, I'm done for the day.
Looks like we posted at the same time. I understand how you would think the Bible contradicts itself, as do the teachings of so many different branches of Christianity. Again, I believe God sent his Holy Spirit to guide the Catholic Church to faithfully interpret these writings from thousands of years ago. I promise to get you a copy of the Catechism for Christmas this year.
But there are also ways to pray out loud with others in all humility, which is what Christ exhorts us to do.I'm sure that's true to some extent. I would just say that the original point of this post, that being the pointless nature of a government sponsored National Day Of Prayer, still stands.
Again, I believe God sent his Holy Spirit to guide the Catholic Church to faithfully interpret these writings from thousands of years ago.So you rely on men to interpret the words of men and make sense of the blatant inconsistancise. Gotcha!
ps - Good to see you still around and posting too! Hope the move is going silky smooth!
The move is actually in about 6 weeks, but I will be packing and talking to myself (a.k.a.) both out loud and privately that it all goes without a hitch until then. If you'd like to join in, I'd appreciate it.
(One thing I find ridiculous is when in lieu of prayers, people say, "My thoughts will be with you that day." Then I think, "That's nice, but how the hell is that going to help me?" But because I just *think* it and don't say it, they never know, and we both walk away convinced we have made the world a nicer place.)
And I agree completely with the thesis of your post. No one is telling them not to pray, but every one wishes they'd keep it to themselves and not try to make the rest of us a part of their delusions.
I will say this....I've met Justine, and she's a very nice lady who is in no way a troll. She's been commenting and debating on this blog for many moons.
Thanks for sticking up for me Lemmy, but I actually rather like that troll image. It goes nicely with this shaggy new haircut I just got.
AWESOME!! You are so good. I thought you made up that passage that was from Matthew - especially the babbling like pagan part. But I googled it. Sure enough!
I just hate it when someone gets their religion in my government. Ew! It's not a tasty combination.
I have a lot of wonderful Christian friends who are loving people. The problems start when attention whores like Dobson think prayer in public institutions will solve all our problems or Miss Cali defines her bigotry as biblical correctness and spreads hatred.
As for the Catholic Church's "faithful interpretation" of the Bible's teachings? Justine and others might find this illuminating. I know I did. :)
i think, tho i wasn't there, the 2 or more would be in response to the jewish rule about having to number 10 in order for it to be officially called a prayer, even tho there are jewish prayers over food etc. that are done with even one, they are somehow different.
so christ saying 2 or more was sort of a rebuke of the rule.
me? i use kindness as a basis for spirituality.
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