Inclusive Prayer Day

We are Calling for an Inclusive National Day of Prayer

May 7, 2009. Our campaign applauds President Barack Obama's inclusive proclamation today of the National Day of Prayer. JewsOnFirst.org, the parent organization of the campaign for an Inclusive National Day of Prayer, welcomed President Obama's open-hearted proclamation with its focus on unity for the benefit of our nation. JewsOnFirst.org and the Interfaith Alliance wrote to President Obama last month requesting just such an inclusive approach and also asking the president not to issue a separate proclamation for the exclusivist fundamentalist Christian group linked to Focus on the Family that has hijacked the annual observance. We thank everyone who joined our campaign and wrote to the president. Please click here to read President Obama's statement and a responding statement from the Interfaith Alliance.

Help Get President Obama Onboard! Jews on First and Interfaith Alliance have jointly sent a letter to President Obama requesting his endorsement of an Inclusive Day of Prayer on May 7th to help counter the exclusivist National Day of Prayer promoted by Shirley Dobson and the National Day of Prayer Task Force. The letter requests the President Obama restore the day to its original meaning, as a day of prayer and mediation for all people. Read the origninal letter and then send your own letter of support through the Interfaith Alliance.

The National Day of Prayer falls on May 7th 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! 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 works with religious, civil rights and social justice activists in many states to lobby elected officials 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. We also work to educate the public about the Task Force's religious discrimination.

We have posted a sample letter that you can send your elected officials, requesting that they not issue special proclamations or give special treatment to the Task Force.

As they did last year, groups working with the Campaign for an Inclusive National Day of Prayer will call on elected officials to insure that clergy representing Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and other faith traditions be included in all observances staged on public property. Some groups held their own inclusive events. You can read about those events here. And you can see news coverage of last year's campaign here.

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 send elected officials here.