www.Inclusive Prayer Day.org

people of many faith traditions calling for an inclusive National Day of Prayer

We are calling for an inclusive National Day of Prayer

The National Day of Prayer falls on May 1st this year, and in most parts of the country, there is a religious "litmus test" limiting participation to fundamentalist Christian evangelicals. Focus on the Family, the largest organization on the Christian Right, and groups allied with it control the occasion, calling themselves the National Day of Prayer Task Force and asserting that their website is the "National Day of Prayer Official Website."

The National Day of Prayer has been hijacked!

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What began in 1952 as President Truman's declaration of a National Prayer Day for all Americans is now excluding and dividing us on religious lines. The "Task Force" excludes Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Catholics and even mainline Christians from participation in the events it coordinates around the country. Many of those events are staged in government venues with elected officials, in a deliberate affront to the separation of church and state.

Our Inclusive National Prayer Day project has been working with religious, civil rights and social justice activists in many states to lobby governors to refrain from proclaiming or endorsing the National Day of Prayer in ways that enhance the Task Force's exclusive control of the day and its efforts to create the appearance of government-sponsored religious ceremonies.

Now, in late April, when, despite thousands of calls and letters, almost all the governors have given proclamations to the Task Force, the campaign is asking activists to re-contact their governors. The goal, in the final week before the National Day of Prayer, is to request that governors issue statements calling on the Task Force (1) to immediately renounce its written policy of barring all but fundamentalist Christian clergy from participating in observances and (2) to insist that clergy representing Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and other faith traditions be included in all observances staged on public property. Activists are reminding governors that the Task Force deliberately strives to stage observances in government settings with the participation of elected officials.

Even though we are disappointed that so many governors issued proclamations to a group that practices religious discrimination, we remain hopeful that, once governors understand how narrow and exclusive the Task Force is, they will respond with the statements activists are requesting.

We have compiled talking points and documentation about the National Day of Prayer Task Force. Please click here. You will find a model letter to write your governor here and a telephone script here.

The call for an Inclusive National Day of Prayer is a project of JewsOnFirst.org.