The following is an email from Congressman Randy Forbes, and my reply
to his random, mass email. Maybe I'm just having an off day, but this
really got my underoos in a twist:
A Nation Founded in Prayer
By Congressman Randy Forbes
May 2, 2013
The greatness of a nation comes from its
foundation. Today marks the 62nd annual observance of the National Day
of Prayer, and there could be no more appropriate time than today to
acknowledge the action that has most shaped our country―prayer.
The foundation of America, from the Revolution to
the Constitutional Convention, was steeped in prayer. When the first
Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in 1774, its first act was to
ask a minister to open in prayer. As our war-tattered nation was
struggling to hold fast in the wake of the fight for freedom and the
members of the Constitutional Congress found themselves in a quagmire of
fighting and disagreements, they turned to prayer. Benjamin Franklin
called on the members to begin each meeting in prayer, famously stating,
I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I
live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth - that God Governs
in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground
without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his
aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that ‘except
the Lord build the House they labor in vain that build it.’ I firmly
believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we
shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of
Babel.
Only after the members heeded Mr. Franklin’s advice
was the world’s greatest founding document, the Constitution, born out
of the ashes of war and disagreement.
Presidential recognition of the vital role of prayer
in the continuance of our freedoms has a strong pedigree. As our
nation was on the verge of splitting in half in 1863, President Lincoln
proclaimed a national day of prayer, that “the united cry of the nation
will be heard on high and answered with blessings no less than the
pardon of our national sins and the restoration of our now divided and
suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and peace.” On
the eve of D-Day in 1944 as General Eisenhower and his troops carried
out the perilous invasion of Normandy, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
led the nation in prayer. Since the inauguration of President
Washington in 1789, there have been well over two hundred fifty
Presidential calls to prayer.
The first National Day of Prayer as we now know it
was passed by Congress on April 17, 1952, and called for the President
to “set aside and proclaim a suitable day each year . . . on which the
people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and meditation at
churches, in groups, and as individuals.” On May 9, 1988, President
Ronald Reagan signed the current version of the law, calling on the
President to issue a proclamation each year designating the first
Thursday in May as a National Day of Prayer.
Today, we stand at another critical moment in our
nation’s history. We must decide whether we will continue to honor the
principles on which our nation was founded, or allow our religious
freedoms to be squelched in the wake of a cultural shift that champions
equality and tolerance, even as it continues to silence the voice of
faith everywhere except the most private of places.
On this National Day of Prayer, let us continue to
build on the foundation laid for us in faith by our Founding Fathers and
join together today in prayer for our leaders, for our communities, and
for our spiritual welfare. Let us stand up and defend our heritage, so
that all who follow in our footsteps will find we were faithful to the
God who blessed our nation because it was founded in prayer.
My reply:
I do hope that while you encourage a national day of prayer, you also
keep in mind that not all of those who would pray are christians.
Encourage all of us, no matter our faith, to pray. And also encourage
those with no faith to meditate on their morality on that day, as even
those with no spiritual beliefs often have as as high a moral standard
as those who do.
I understand that the majority of our citizens, now as well as when
this country was founded, are christian, but our laws are written to not
only protect christians in the exercise of their faith, but also to
protect the muslim, the jew, the buddhist, the pagan, the atheist and so
forth. No one is trying to squelch any christian's freedom to worship,
so long as all people of all beliefs (or none) are just as welcome. This
is most clearly a case of all or nothing, as the laws of this country
are set up to deny the government the ability to set one belief over
another.
Thank you Representative Forbes for your time and leadership, and
hopefully for your thoughtful consideration and inclusion of those
citizens of the Commonwealth who, like me, are a spiritual minority.
Sincerely,
Rhalynn Blackburn
For those who stuck with me through
these long emails, thank you. I suppose some of the reason I got wound
up is pretty obvious, you know, that whole idea that the government has
no right, or business, espousing any religious belief over another. I
think the thing that really sent me over the edge was the fact that this
politician just assumed that my beliefs are the exact same as his. And
that brings home to me another fact, that most politicians are
completely clueless to the idea that us citizens are not all exactly
alike. And they don't care enough to be sensitive to that fact. I may
be a minority in the spiritual arena, but these politicians work for me
just as much as any other citizen, and they should remember that. Is
that really too much to ask?
That is all.
