Robert Green Ingersoll said, "Labor is the only prayer that Nature answers; it is the only prayer that deserves an answer -- good, honest, noble work.
" Though nothing in human history can be said to fail as often and as consistently as prayer (i.
e.
, 100 percent of the time), President Obama followed the lead of his predecessor and urged the faithful (and presumably the rest of us) at the latest ill-advised National Day of Prayer service to return to civility and an emphasis on prayer.
I favor the return to civility - not so much the public prayer idea.
What might replace an emphasis on prayer? How about an emphasis on reason, evidence, education, justice, liberty, science and/or rationality? I hope (but do not pray, for god's sake) that our president's programs for rescuing the economy, dealing with terrorists, reforming health care and controlling Republicans is more evidence-based than a fatuous call for reliance on superstition.
Suppose Obama had asked us to burn incense, do a rain dance or toss salt over our shoulders? Derision would follow.
But, how different is prayer? At the breakfast in 2010, Obama remarked: While prayer can buck us up when we are down, keep us calm in a storm, while prayer can stiffen our spines to surmount an obstacle - and I assure you, I'm praying a lot these days - prayer can also do something else.
It can touch our hearts with humility.
It can fill us with a sense of civility.
Well, we're all entitled to our own ways to buck up, calm down, stiffen the spine and be humble and civil.
No problem there - if the president wants to consult an astrologer, burn incense or tea leaves, sacrifice a goat or whatever to buck up and such, I suppose that's his right - but is it such a big ask in this religion-besotted society to expect a more rational example from the Educator-in-Chief? Personally, I think the president should give James Dobson and his extremist Right Wing "Focus on the Family" Prayer Breakfast rituals that involve government officials a pass.
I'd rather see Mr.
Obama lead the way educating the electorate toward a naturalistic understanding of how the universe works.
It is inconceivable to me and absolutely without evidence to believe that there is a sky god listening for or responding to prayers, pleas or other imprecations from presidents or other humans, on Earth or elsewhere in a cosmos too grand to even imagine.
Mr.
President - Americans believe too many crazy things already - help us out here.
We can buck up, calm down, stiffen our spines and be humble and civil without begging for help from imaginary friends.
If we are to improve our lot, it will be as a consequence of good, honest and noble work - qualities that will be answered by nature (natural consequences), not a Grand Wazoo in the clouds.
On the day of the Prayer Breakfast, Americans United for Separation of Church and State called on President Obama to honor his pledge to reform the 'faith-based' initiative by banning job discrimination in tax-funded programs and making it clear that public funds cannot support proselytizing.
Unfortunately, the Obama Administration continues to fund religious groups.
It does so without requiring accountability.
As a result, faith-based operations continue to misuse taxpayer funds to proselytize and discriminate within public programs on religious grounds.
During the presidential campaign, Obama raised hopes for a return to a proper separation of church/state.
He said that the Justice Department would look at constitutional issues in the faith-based idea and a stop would be put to any proselytizing or job discrimination based on religious grounds.
At a time of record deficits and amid calls to control discretionary spending, this would be a good occasion to stop the flow of billions of federal tax dollars for untested if not ineffective programming.
It's always a good time to ensure that safeguards are in place to see that religious AND secular liberties as well as civil right are protected in Federal programming.
During the campaign, the president told supporters in Zanesville, Ohio, As someone who used to teach constitutional law, I believe deeply in the separation of church and state.
Well, the time to put that belief into practice has come.
To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, Mr.
President, "don't let the Religious Right tear down that wall, the one protecting our secular government from religious meddling.
" Stop allowing government to function as if we were a theocracy.