Americans United for the Separation of Church and State maintains that the National Day of Prayer Task Force promotes an inaccurate 'Christian Nation' version of American history.  The annual National Day of Prayer has been hijacked by Religious Right organizations that are using it to promote their religious political agenda, charges Americans United for Separation of Church and State. 
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     The National Day of Prayer is a congressionally mandated observance that occurs on the first Thursday of each May (May 6 this year). Established by Congress as an annual event in 1962, the date was set in 1988 as the first Thursday in May. Congress intended the prayer day as an interfaith "civil religion" occasion. But Americans United charges that events surrounding the day have become increasingly dominated by the National Day of Prayer Task Force, a fundamentalist Christian group affiliated with religious broadcaster James Dobson and other Religious Right leaders. 
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      Task Force materials distributed this year exclude Mormons, Muslims and other minority faiths, distort Supreme Court decisions and give a false impression of U.S. history said Americans United Executive Director Barry W. Lynn.  "The National Day of Prayer has become yet another platform for the Religious Right to advance its 'Christian nation' agenda and make minority religions feel like second-class citizens," said Lynn. 
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      Lynn, a United Church of Christ minister, charged that the National Day of Prayer Task Force's materials reveal their narrow sectarian approach and extreme politics. "They're using the National Day of Prayer to promote bad history, bad law and bad interfaith relations," he said. 
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      Lynn cited several examples: 

       * Fundamentalist Christians Only: Lynn noted that Task Force materials tell local organizers that they need not allow religions outside of the "Judeo-Christian" tradition to participate. "People of other faith," the NDP says, can set up their own events. 
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         Elsewhere, the materials say every NDP volunteer "must be a Christian who has a personal relationship with Christ." They recommend that during public events the only church leaders who believe in "salvation by grace alone" and who "have a personal relationship with Christ" get access "to the microphone." 
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        The materials also include a sample letter for inviting religious leaders to events but adds, "[W]e are looking forward to assembling the "Body Of Christ" so we are covered as to why we haven't invited Mormons, Muslims, etc. It is a big chore to get all of the Christians together and our goal is just that." 
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     * Inaccurate portrayals of American history: Lynn asserted that the Task Force materials give a false history of the development of church-state separation in the United States. In one case, he noted, an alleged quotation by James Madison lauding the Ten Commandments is cited, even though the quotation has been debunked by scholars. 
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       Elsewhere, Lynn charged, U.S. Supreme Court decisions upholding of church-state separation are distorted to make them appear to say the opposite. Task Force materials have a "quote" from the high court's 1963 Abington Township School District v. Schempp decision that is completely 
fabricated. 
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     * Inflammatory rhetoric: The task force materials contain a sample "Prayer For Our Beloved Country" that it recommends be read aloud during public events. The prayer contains the line, "We pray that the citizens of our country will elect leaders whose consciences will not be available to the highest bidder, who will not seek to curry the favor of a Godless media, Godless lobbyists, Godless power mongers." 
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     * Links to the Religious Right: The NDP Task Force is chaired by Shirley Dobson, wife of James C... Dobson, head of Focus on the Family, and operates out of FOF's headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo. The materials recommend that event organizers who want to get a National Day of Prayer resolution passed in their states "seek the assistance of pro-family Christian groups (i.e., Family Policy Council, Concerned Women for America, Eagle Forum, Christian Coalition, etc.) in your state...." 
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      The section on the religious rights of students in public schools comes from John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute, a Religious Right legal group. Organizers are also referred to the American Center for Law and Justice, a legal group founded by TV preacher Pat Robertson and the Alliance Defense Fund, a similar group. 
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     "It's important for Americans to remember," said AU's Lynn, "that two of our key framers - Thomas Jefferson and James Madison - opposed government issuing religious proclamations. We need to get back to that spirit today and shut down this increasingly offensive coupling of government and religion." 
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     Although Madison issued a "prayer day" proclamation while President under political pressure from Congress, he later said such proclamations are inappropriate. "They seem to imply and certainly nourish the erroneous idea of a national religion," Madison wrote in a document referred to as the "Detached Memoranda." 
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     Jefferson made a similar argument, writing to the Rev. Samuel Miller in 1808, "Fasting and prayer are religious exercises; the enjoining them an act of discipline. Every religious society has a right to determine for itself the time for these exercises, and the objects proper for them, according to their own particular tenets; and right can never be safer than in their hands, where the Constitution has deposited it." 
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     Americans United is a 60,000-member public policy organization that works to educate the public about the importance of separation of church and state. The group, found in 1947, is based in Washington, D.C. 
 

      Thomas Jefferson, explaining why he could not support National Days of Prayer and Fasting, said:  "I do not believe it is for the interest of religion to invite the civil magistrate to direct it's exercises, it's discipline, or it's doctrines; nor of the religious societies that the general government should be invested with the power of effecting uniformity of time or matter among them.  Fasting & prayer are religious exercises.  The enjoining them an act of discipline. Every religious society has a right to determine for itself the times for these exercises, & the objects proper for them, according to their own particular tenets; and this right can never be safer than in their own hands, where the constitution has deposited it." 

Thomas Jefferson 
in a letter to Rev. Samuel Miller 
January 23, 1808 

     OK, we've had the National Day of Prayer, and a lot of people probably felt all warm and gooshy inside. But what actual, measurable difference did it make in the real world? Not a nickel's worth! So now let's try the ... 

The Rational Day of Care 

                                       - Richard Russell 

     Summer camp is available for freethought children between the ages of 8 and 11 and adolescents between the ages of 12 and 16. 
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     The purpose of freethought Camp Quest is to build independence and confidence as well as give campers the opportunity to network with others who think for themselves and assume responsibility for the results of that thinking. 
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     After the brief introduction you will find when you visit our camp web site, I will be happy to contact you personally to answer any questions you may have. 

Lorie Bugby 
Executive Director 
lorie@campindecon.org 
http://www.campindecon.org

      The Easter weekend of April, 1999 saw the Atheist Community of Austin (ACA) sponsor an upbeat and high profile Atheist Alliance national convention.  About 150 attended, with a noticeable increase among the younger conventioneer's compared to last year's AAI convention in St. Louis. 

     The convention mood was set Friday night when 99 atheists packed "Esther's Follies," a fast-paced skit & magic show of political, sexual and visual humor. Atheist Bobbie Kirkhart was terrific as the magician's front row "love interest". 

     Local TV showed up wanting interviews about the FBI search for the O'Hairs, with San Antonio TV getting dreadfully confused about most atheists not being part of American Atheists, Inc. AAI President Marie Castle was our media spokesperson with "background" shots of the AAI board meeting in progress being used on the nightly news that evening giving the convention an extra bit of high-profile media attention. 

     The Atheist Alliance board meeting lasted all day Friday.  Various issues surrounding atheist outreach were discussed.  The Alliance's $125 annual group membership fee was eliminated.  Member groups will be asked to contribute what they feel is fair and to contribute money and/or manpower for specific projects so that the uses for contributions are more easily understood. Marie Castle and Jim Cox were were re-elected President and Vice-President for the coming year. 

     The convention's numerous and varied speeches and workshops were well attended. The convention next year (2000) will be held in Sacramento, and will be even more family-friendly with youth activities offered by Camp Quest. 

     There will be a non-critical Friday afternoon activity for the conventioneers who gather early, and the annual AAI board meeting will extend from Thursday evening through Sunday afternoon to accommodate additional Alliance business.