National Day of Prayer – you can stuff it, say American atheists

I personally am pleased that we have a president that values prayer. I fear the day when we have a president who doesn’t. I think, whether you agree with his policies or not, clearly, he has relied upon guidance from above and I commend him for that.

Thus spake Conservative Christian leader Paul Weyrich – who co-founded the now-defunct Moral Majority with the late Jerry Falwell – after US President Bush marked the National Day of Prayer at the White House on last week, according to this report.

Said Dubya:

I love being the president of a country where people feel free to worship as they see fit. And I remind our fellow citizens, if you choose to worship or not worship, and no matter how you worship, we’re all equally American.

Which is somewhat of an improvement on what his father, Bush senior, told Robert I Sherman, a reporter for the American Atheist news journal, in 1987 when he was asked:

What will you do to win the votes of the Americans who are atheists?

Bush:

I guess I’m pretty weak in the atheist community. Faith in God is important to me … I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.

Americans were reminded this year that the National Day of Prayer –signed into law in 1952 by President Harry Truman – by no means appeals to all.

In Philadelpha last week, motorists were amazed to see a huge billboard – 20ft high and 60ft wide –which declared:

Don’t believe in God? You are not alone.

The billboard was placed by a coalition of local and national humanist and freethought organizations, including the American Humanist Association and it’s independent marketing adjunct FreeThoughtAction, Atheist Alliance International, the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia, the Humanist Association of Greater Philadelphia, and Temple University Secular Students.

It was placed timed to coincide with the National Day of Reason, celebrated by humanists each year on the same date as the National Day of Prayer.

Speaking at a press conference at the Ethical Humanist Society of Greater Philadelphia, Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association, said:

Traditional religious billboards have abounded in the past. Something non-traditional like this is therefore needed to stimulate thinking.

Joe Fox, president of the Humanist Association of Greater Philadelphia, added:

The point of the billboard is to make non-theistic people, such as atheists and agnostics, aware that they aren’t alone.

And Sally J Cramer, president of the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia, declared:

Atheist and agnostic Americans have been made to feel marginalized. It’s time to change that. We’re here and we have a place at the table. We want people to know there’s a serious and meaningful alternative to the religious right that has been dominating American religious discussion.

Fox added.

After all, a lot of people are frustrated with the power that traditional faiths have wielded, and they don’t know where to turn to find others who share that frustration. Now they will.

See full report here.