Diana Butler Bass has an interesting essay here in which she explores the difficulties of implementing a National Day of Prayer in a pluralistic society. But, the pluralistic society she describes originates from the beginnings of the republic where Anglicans, Puritans, and Quakers had sharp disagreements about the proper mode of prayer. She details the sharp doctrinal disputes whether prayers should be spontaneous and extemporaneous (moved by the spirit) or written (to be theologically rigorous).
She concludes: “The sentiment of a National Day of Prayer for communal forgiveness and social unity is nice, even noble. It is also politically expedient. Honestly, what politician can vote against prayer and hope to get re-elected? But whose prayer? Which theology? What form of devotion? National prayer without a state church is utterly unrealistic and consistently raises knotty theological and political questions, as our forebears discovered. American prayer has more often divided us rather than uniting us. If today's news headlines are any indication, that is still the case. Maybe the Quakers had it right all along: Next year we should try a ‘National Day of Silence’ instead.”
More analysis and useful links at the Constitutional Law Prof Blog: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/conlaw/2010/05/constitutionality-of-national-day-of-prayer.html#comments
Posted by: Patrick S. O'Donnell | 05/07/2010 at 03:21 PM