No, Mr. Congressman, I Don't Have the Same Beliefs As You

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.