Ebony's Pearls

NDP Crowd at the Capitol
Originally uploaded by nodigio

For the past 7 years, I have helped organize a National Day of Prayer event for the non-Christians in Oklahoma who choose to participate.

We started it because a private group called the National Day of Prayer Task Force (NDPTF), run by the Dobson family, began to present itself as a government agency under Bush, Jr. They set about excluding everyone who wasn’t approved by their organization, even going so far as to over-ride and cancel events planned and scheduled by religions they apparently didn’t approve of. They weren’t targeting any specific group; it was a scatter-gun approach against any religion not theirs, including other Christian groups. I could go back and dig out press releases they issued that presented themselves as a government agency, and news reports of religions that were barred by the NDPTF from reserving public areas because they weren’t “approved”, but I’m not going to right now.

The NDPTF was very powerful for a few years. Former president Bush, Jr. held “interfaith” prayer sessions in the White House – interfaith in that he invited 1 Jewish and 2 Christian religious leaders to participate.

I learned of their activities just in time 7 years ago to be able to schedule a non-Christian Blessing on the capitol’s south steps. We were able to hold our Blessing and were greeted by the Governor and all that, so the NDPTF was foiled here that year. The next year, they ramped up their efforts and we almost were declined because of them, but we managed to hold on to our spot and time. After that, we’ve held a small Blessing each year on the south steps and followed it by a picnic lunch.

This year, the NDPTF doesn’t appear to be stirring up things as they have in the past, perhaps because they aren’t being invited to hold a televised NDP event at the White House. People caught on that they weren’t a real government agency and lacked the power to block organizations from reserving public space for National Day of Prayer events, nor do they deserve special government recognition.

We don’t have a government agency that oversees any federal holiday, not even the 4th of July. There are no government rules on themes, who can participate, or how the celebrations must be held. The National Day of Prayer is a token holiday – kind of like the National Bad Poetry Day. In the scale of holidays, it’s pretty minor. Most people would live through the day never knowing it connoted anything other than another week day (the National Day of Prayer is held on the first Thursday in May by former President Reagan’s decree instead of being a floating day as it was in prior administrations).

The NDPTF have changed the wording on their “About” page so they don’t sound as government-official as they once did and include a sentence now about how other religions are free to organize their own NDP events – so generous of them to grant us that permission, but only so long as our celebration of the day is “deemed appropriate”. I wonder who is deciding what is “appropriate” or not for recognizing this day?

I don’t particularly care what the NDPTF considers “appropriate” for this day. We will still hold out blessing on the south capitol steps, with chanting and all followed by a lunch-time picnic held off the capitol grounds so other groups have time to hold their NDP events without us blocking their access with yummy food.


1808 - Thomas Jefferson also opposed declarations of national days of prayer by the Federal government. He wrote "Fasting and prayer are religious exercises; the enjoining them an act of discipline. Every religious society has a right to determine for itself the time for these exercises, and the objects proper for them, according to their own particular tenets; and right can never be safer than in their hands, where the Constitution has deposited it."

Circa 1813 - President James Madison proclaimed a day of prayer. He later said such proclamations are not appropriate. "They seem to imply and certainly nourish the erroneous idea of a national religion."

1952-APR-17: A bill proclaiming an annual National Day of Prayer (NDP) was unanimously passed by both houses of congress. President Truman signed it into law. It required the President to select a day for national prayer each year.

1988-MAY-5: President Reagan signed a bill which fixed the annual NDP at the first Thursday in May.

1993 to 1998: The concept of the NDP as a multi-faith event which recognizes the extensive diversity of religious expression in the U.S. was echoed by subsequent presidents in their proclamations.

1999-MAY-14: Jesse Ventura, governor of Minnesota, refused to issue a proclamation for the NDP because of separation of church and state issues. He commented "There are people out there who are Atheists, who don't believe at all. They are all citizens of Minnesota, and I have to respect that." Ventura signed a statement of recognition instead; it acknowledged that the NDP existed, but did not offer state support for it.

2003: National Day of Reason organized to by various Humanist, Agnostic, Atheist, and other secular groups coincide with National Day of Prayer. It is intended to support those Americans who do not believe in a Christian deity.

2004: Shirley Dobson, chair of the NDPTF, barred Mormons from participating in NDP events.

2005: Americans United for the Separation of Church and State organized a truly inclusive NDP event in Oklahoma City, OK, for Christians, followers of other religions, and persons who followed no religion. (grew out of the efforts I and my co-religionists did starting in 2002, when the NDPTF started excluding people and religions not approved by them).

From 2001 – 2008, the NDPTF reports that there were 40,000 NDP events across the US and claim that 2.5 million people attended them – approximately 6200 people per event. Their numbers must be off, because the 7 events they scheduled in OKC had fewer than 200 people at most of them, especially the years that it rained and we Pagans outnumbered them.

Who knows what will happen this year, now that the NDPTF doesn’t have access to the White House to host their televised event at taxpayer expense.