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Paulson: Count blessings on National Day of Prayer
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National Day of Prayer is Thursday. This year's theme is "Prayer! America's Strength and Shield."
This annual emphasis on prayer, established by Congress, encourages Americans to pray for our nation, its people and its leaders.
President Bush has asked citizens of all faiths to participate:
"I ask the citizens of our nation to give thanks, each according to his or her own faith, for the freedoms and blessings we have received and for God's continued guidance, comfort and protection. I invite all Americans to join in observing this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies and activities."
Getting all faiths involved in this day has been challenging. In 2005, Troy, Mich., became the site of a legal battleground over what a National Day of Prayer service should be. In most cities, the National Day of Prayer has been a Judeo-Christian observance.
Attempts to expand the service to include other faiths often resulted in resistance from the Christian groups that had traditionally planned such events. Today, there are two events in Troy. The Christian event meets at one time, an expanded interfaith group at another.
After a Muslim call to prayer, the Troy Interfaith Group presenters read prayers for the nation, verses on kinship and the Golden Rule. They sang, among other selections, "God Bless America" and "We Shall Overcome."
The courts have affirmed that any particular National Day of Prayer celebration can be defined by those who choose to organize it. To do otherwise would be to deny the freedom of free exercise of religion in America.
But there is value in welcoming the rich variety of prayers for compassion, peace and dreams of a better world together.
In America, we are free to embrace and exercise any faith without fear of persecution. Obviously, people may be critical of one's faith, but, with very few exceptions, people are not attacked for their faith. When they are, they are held accountable and condemned by all responsible citizens.
Bush, during his last State of the Union, honored Bangladeshi-born Hassan Askari, who, in a selfless act, jumped to the aid of four Jewish commuters when a group of thugs allegedly responded to their Jewish season's greeting by attacking them. This Brooklyn Muslim took a stand for America's freedom of religion; we should all be willing to do the same.
As we come together to pray this year, may we also say a prayer for those believers in the world who are not free to exercise their faith. In Afghanistan, when a Muslim believer converted to Christianity, he was threatened with death. Only the intervention of Secretary of State Condi Rice allowed him to leave the country.
Unfortunately, the freedom of religion we enjoy is not embraced around the world. The Voice of the Martyrs, a group committed to the support of persecuted Christians around the world, identifies the nations where government policy or practice prevents Christians from obtaining Bibles and other Christian literature. Some have anti-Christian laws that lead to Christians being harassed, imprisoned, killed or deprived of possessions or liberties because of their witness.
The list of restricted nations includes such Islamic countries as Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Iran, Pakistan — and Iraq. In such countries, Christians pray and witness to their faith at their own risk.
Christians believe that Jesus came not to change Rome but to call individuals to faith — changing believers from within one person at a time. Sadly, it seems that when Muslims are in the majority, the goal of Islam is to establish a caliphate under Sharia Law. In a country under Sharia Law, people of other faiths would be infidels and subject to added taxation and controls.
Thankfully, a local reader affirmed the work of the LibForAll Foundation (http://wwwllibforall.org). The Muslim group, based in Winston-Salem, N.C., is working to reduce and discredit the use of terror from within the Muslim faith and to ensure the global triumph of a pluralistic and tolerant understanding of Islam.
On our National Day of Prayer, let us unite all faiths in being thankful for the religious freedom we have. Let us also pray and work together to extend that freedom to others around the world.
— Terry Paulson of Agoura Hills is a psychologist, speaker, author and host to the politicaltalk.org blog. Contact him at terry@terrypaulson.com.
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Posted by hemlock1262 on April 28, 2008 at 5:07 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Is Paulson kidding us? He's suddenly become Mr. Open-to-Others? "With very few exceptions, people are not attacked for their faith. When they are, they are held accountable and condemned by all responsible citizens."
Good ol' Terry McConservative surely considers himself a "responsible citizen." Let us hear him hold accountable and condemn Daniel Pipes, leader of the arch-conservative movement that created so much trouble for a woman named Debbie Almontaser that she was forced to close down her school in Brooklyn, N.Y., simply because it brought Muslim, Christian, and Jewish students together and taught them Arabic.
As the New York Times reports today (ironic, no?), "Ms. Almontaser’s downfall was not merely the result of a spontaneous outcry by concerned parents and neighborhood activists. It was also the work of a growing and organized movement to stop Muslim citizens who are seeking an expanded role in American public life. The fight against the school, participants in the effort say, was only an early skirmish in a broader, national struggle.
“It’s a battle that’s really just begun,” said Daniel Pipes, who directs a conservative research group, the Middle East Forum, and helped lead the charge against Ms. Almontaser and the school.
"
In the aftermath of Sept. 11, critics of radical Islam focused largely on terrorism, scrutinizing Muslim-American charities or asserting links between Muslim organizations and violent groups like Hamas. But as the authorities have stepped up the war on terror, those critics have shifted their gaze to a new frontier, what they describe as law-abiding Muslim-Americans who are imposing their religious values in the public domain."
Well, Terry? You're on. Let's hear how this is anti-American and unfair and not in keeping with the blather you're spouting about our National Day of Prayer.
Posted by mmshoot on April 28, 2008 at 6:03 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Hemlock1262, yesterday I heard that the gang violence in Chicago has yet to be quelled and one person killed was a pastor who just happened to by in the neighborhood. Hardly supports the Pauson statement that "...people are not attacked for their faith." The number of deaths in the Chicago area has risen to 15. One was a man of the cloth.
Most of us know of the spate of church vandalism and arson. That goes for Christian churches, Buddhist temples, Jewish synagogs, and Muslim mosques around the country as well.
Perhaps Mr. Paulson is just kidding. I am wondering if he is related to Pat Paulson, the late presidential candidate who ran in the early 70s. Now there was a funny guy.
Posted by jw1000 on April 28, 2008 at 6:35 a.m. (Suggest removal)
On National Prayer day let us join together and pray that the right wing nutjobs are removed from office next November. So that we may once again have peace and prosperity in this great nation.
Posted by mmshoot on April 28, 2008 at 8:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)
On National Prayer day let us join together and pray that the left wing nutjobs are removed from office next November. So that we may never return to the era of Somalia's collapse, Beirut's abandonment, genocide in the Balkan peninsula provoking military conflict in Bosnia, Herzokevina, and Serbia, the neglect of military interaction in the Middle East to provoke the growth of Al Quaeda to successfully blow a hole in the side of the Naval vessle USS Cole, and the prosperity of dot com bubbles, bank failures, corrupt corporate accounting scandals, and real estate assessors run amok couple with Presidents that seem to have rumor and innuendo surrounding their private sexual activities leading to Impeachment so that we may regain our status in the world's eye as being a great nation.
Amen.
Posted by jw1000 on April 28, 2008 at 9:04 a.m. (Suggest removal)
mmshoot: Exactly what didn't you like about the nineties - peace, balanced budgets, paying down the national debt, economic growth and prosperity greater than any time in history, fewer lifes lost to terrorism? I think on National Prayer Day that you need to pray that your brain may start working again.
Posted by jw1000 on April 28, 2008 at 9:06 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I forgot to add GAS PRICES ONE THIRD of what they are under right wing nutjobs Bush, Gallegly, and Cheney. That is the history of the nineties.
Posted by mmshoot on April 28, 2008 at 9:49 a.m. (Suggest removal)
jw1000: I thought I explained my feeling about the nineties - war in the Balkans and Somalia, mismanaged budgets, adding to future national debt, economic irrational exhuberance and prosperity worse than any time in American history, with more of a threat from terrorism. I think on National Prayer Day that you need to pray that your brain may start getting around to the facts that are presenting themselves without nostalgia for a by-gone era in your analysis when assessing the value of the Clinton Presidency.
I forgot to add GAS PRICES ONE THIRD of what they are under left wing nut jobs Hillary, Boxer, and Obama. That is the history of the year 2008.
Posted by shaver_one on April 28, 2008 at 10:03 a.m. (Suggest removal)
mmshoot let us not forget:
1. The abandonment of Afganistan during the Reagan Presidency that lead the Mujahadeen to become the Taliban.
2. Reverend John Hagee, a McCain endorser, and his accusations against the Catholic Church.
3. Reverends Hagee, Robertson, and Falwell, and their presumptive assertions that 9-11, Hurricane Katrina, and Hurricane Rita were all God's punishment against America for our beliefs in non-discrimination based on Religion, National Origin, Sexual orientation, etc.
Let us pray these "People of God" lose their influence over policy makers in government.
Posted by mmshoot on April 28, 2008 at 10:29 a.m. (Suggest removal)
shaver_one I cannot forget:
1. How badly Reagan blew the whole understanding of the dynamic existing in Afghanistan. I cannot forgive the Reagan administration for the Iran-Contra scandal. I can praise Reagan's accomplishment of seeing an end to the Cold War and the end of the Soviet Union.
2. The Catholic Church. I'd like to but I cannot forget that entity.
3. The evangelical religious nutjobs that presume that they have actual conversations with God and therefor are enlightened by prescient insight about such things as the terrorist activity that occured on 9-11 which resulted in the death of more citizens in the United States of America than any other attack from outside forces on American soil, the horror I felt for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, and my warning to friends and loved ones near New Orleans before the true force of the storm could be felt and suffered while maintaining objectivity about those that are discrimated against based on Religion, National Origin, Sexual orientation, etc.
Let us pray these "People of God" lose their influence over policy makers and respect the rights granted us under the first Amendment to the Constitution reguarding the separation of church and state.
Posted by del on April 28, 2008 at 10:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)
From my old friend Lazarus,
"The most preposterous notion that H. Sapiens has ever dreamed up is that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes, wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures, can be swayed by their prayers, and becomes petulant if He does not receive this flattery. Yet this absurd fantasy, without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all the expenses of the oldest, largest, and least productive industry in all of history."
Posted by shaver_one on April 28, 2008 at 11:01 a.m. (Suggest removal)
mmshoot:
I agree with you...I think.
But you cannot blame Hillary Clinton, Barbara Boxer or Barack Obama for the high cost of gasoline. That falls directly on the shoulders of Exxon-Mobile, Chevron-Texaco, Conoco-Phillips, and the rest of the oil & gas industry that rakes in billions of dollars in profits, while getting billions of dollars in federal tax rebates.
Clinton MAY have added a small amount to the national debt, but he left office with America in surplus funds. Bush wasted that surplus, and added more to our debt than any other president in history...or maybe more than all former presidents combined.
But, that is a topic for another discussion.
Back to the subject:
The First Amendment guaranties give us all the right to practice whichever faith, or lack of faith we choose. But, isn't a Congressionally sanctioned National Day of Prayer a violation of that First Amendment? Isn't a presidential endorsement of a National Day of Prayer against that First Amendment?
Posted by mmshoot on April 28, 2008 at 11:26 a.m. (Suggest removal)
shaver_one, the Declation of Independence does state that there are certain inalienable rights endowed by our Creator.
The Constitution says:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
And that is added to express:
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
I think that means NO LAW. None at all.
I do not buy into the whole Big Oil, Big Elephant, Big Damnation theory you suggest. I'm just not absolutely for sure about why petroleum products are so expensive now. But I have a theory.
Posted by Tom_Johnston on April 28, 2008 at 4:29 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Del, a great quote...Mr "RAH" Long put it quite well.
If religion truly served to comfort Humankind as it collectively seeks to understand I suppose its ok, but clearly an awful lot of "religion" spends its time dealing why other people are apostates, infidels, non-believers, heretics, blaming catastrophes and bud luck on whatever mystic fiction can be devised.
I think "mm" and "jw" cancel each other out...there's a kind of balance to that.
Posted by mmshoot on April 28, 2008 at 4:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Well, at least I didn't lose my voice while I kept my balance. I call it fighting fire with fire. If you want to call that a sense of balance, Tom, thank you!
Posted by jw1000 on April 28, 2008 at 8:56 p.m. (Suggest removal)
mmshoot: Get professional help ASAP. A stained blue dress is trivial compare to the right wing nutjob created messes we have today.
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