On May 7, the United States observes the annual "National Day of Prayer."
The basis of the National Day of Prayer is a federal law passed in 1988 that requires the President to "designate 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."
For those of you unfamiliar with the US Constitution, it prohibits government from making any law respecting the establishment of religion.
It's been argued that the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional, and therefore illegal, because requiring the President to ask Americans to pray is essentially endorsing a religious practice.
There was a lawsuit brought a few years ago by the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a secularist group, that argued this very point. Ultimately, the FFRF lost because a circuit court (these are the highest courts in the land other than the Supreme Court) ruled that the FFRF did not have standing to sue. What this means is that they didn't have any right to sue to have the law overturned. In American law, you have to have a personal stake in something to sue over it - this is what "standing" means. The court basically said that the FFRF had not been "injured," that is, they had not been forced to do anything by the National Day of Prayer law, nor did the FFRF alter its conduct due to the National Day of Prayer. In other cases, courts ruled that secular plaintiffs who altered their commutes to avoid driving past religious displays on public property DID have standing because avoiding these displays cost them time and money - a concrete injury. Since the result was basically "you can't sue, go home," the court didn't even address whether the National Day of Prayer was actaully constitutional.
It's unclear whether or not other circumstances could give a different plantiff standing to sue in the future, but as for now, the National Day of Prayer is constitutional.
Personally, I believe that the National Day of Prayer law IS unconstitutional, for a number of legal reasons I won't get into in this post because they're a bit long and boring. But aside from the legal stuff, here are some other concerns I have with it:
The National Day of Prayer was signed into law in the late 1980s, a time in American history where conservative politics dominated and had much more traction and legitimacy among the public than they do today. The law was passed at the behest of Billy Graham, a famous evangelical Christian preacher. The biggest National Day of Prayer celebrations are organized by the National Day of Prayer Task Force, an openly evangelical Christian organization that takes stances on political issues such as gay marriage - from a Biblical point of view, of course.
Most of the people who openly make a big deal about the National Day of Prayer - and efforts to oppose it - are conservative Christians. Although the text of the law is ecumenical in nature - only referencing God and not any specific religion - it's painfully obvious that the law was put in place by Christians only, for Christians only. Not for people like me (I'm a deist) and not for Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, or any other religious minority. I'm convinced that most of the people who take the National Day of Prayer seriously are exclusionary Religious Right-types that probably do not want adherents of any other religion celebrating the holiday.
In response, secularist groups instead celebrate the National Day of Reason on the same day, involving protests, celebrations, and charitable activities. In addition, several state and city governments across the US have issued Day of Reason proclamations as well.
While I don't have a problem with people that pray, I do have a problem with this "holiday" and think that it's probably violative of the First Amendment. What do you say, NationStates?
