Just remember: Islam is peace but Muslims can be leashed like dogs. Oh, and this not a war against Islam, despite the large number of missionaries now working freely in Iraq and Afghanistan. America has zero credibility in the world.
Bush to Appear on Christian TV for Prayer Day
Three-Hour Program Airs Tonight
By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 6, 2004; Page A03
President Bush’s participation in a National Day of Prayer ceremony with evangelical Christian leaders at the White House will be shown tonight, for the first time in prime-time viewing hours, on Christian cable and satellite TV outlets nationwide.
For Bush, the broadcast is an opportunity to address a sympathetic evangelical audience without the risk of alienating secular or non-Christian viewers, because it will not be carried in full by the major television networks. Frank Wright, president of the National Association of Religious Broadcasters, said more than a million evangelicals are expected to see the broadcast.
Some civil liberties groups and religious minorities charged that the National Day of Prayer has lost its nonpartisan veneer and is being turned into a platform for evangelical groups to endorse Bush – and vice versa.
“Over the years, the National Day of Prayer has gradually been adopted more and more by the religious right, and this year in particular there is such an undercurrent of partisanship because for the first time they are broadcasting Bush’s message in an election year,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
The event’s organizers denied that it amounts to a tacit political endorsement.
“We’re in an election year, and we believe God cares who’s in those positions of authority,” said Mark Fried, spokesman for the National Day of Prayer Task Force. “But we’re not endorsing a candidate – just praying that God’s hand will be on the election.”
The private task force, which operates from the Colorado headquarters of the Christian organization Focus on the Family, has encouraged the nation’s churches to organize potluck suppers and pipe the ceremony into their sanctuaries. It will be taped in mid-afternoon in the East Room and re-broadcast during a three-hour, late evening “Concert of Prayer” featuring Christian music stars and other luminaries, such as Bruce Wilkinson, author of the best-selling “Prayer of Jabez.”
“The feed is available to any network anywhere in the world free of charge, but only religious networks have an inclination to pick it up,” Wright said.
Fried said this year’s theme is “Let Freedom Ring.” He described it as the evangelical response to efforts to remove the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance and keep the Ten Commandments out of public buildings.
“Our theme is, there is a small group of activists unleashing an all-out assault on our religious freedoms. They are targeting the Christian faith,” he said.
The National Day of Prayer has been celebrated every year since 1952, when President Harry S. Truman signed a congressional resolution calling for “a suitable day each year, other than a Sunday” to be set aside for common prayer.
Under President Ronald Reagan, the date was set permanently as the first Thursday in May. Since the mid-1980s, the ceremony has been organized by the nonprofit task force headed by two prominent evangelical women: Vonette Bright, widow of Campus Crusade for Christ founder Bill Bright, and Shirley Dobson, wife of Focus on the Family founder James C. Dobson.
As in recent years, today’s observances will begin with a congressional prayer session on Capitol Hill in the morning, followed by the afternoon ceremony at the White House. Under President Bill Clinton, Bright said in an interview this week, the White House observance was private and “very definitely lower key” than under Bush, who has invited print and television coverage each year.
Although “we were disappointed” with Clinton’s low-profile celebration, Bright said, evangelicals did not make that sentiment public. “We have as enthusiastically promoted the Day of Prayer when Democrats were in office as when they were not,” she said, adding that any “politicization” of the Day of Prayer “would be so unfortunate.”
Bright did not hesitate, however, to express admiration for Bush: “I don’t think he has a political agenda of his own. I think he’s really trying to do what would please God.”
She also made no apologies about the exclusion of Muslims and others outside of the “Judeao-Christian tradition” from ceremonies planned by the task force on Capitol Hill and in state capitals across the country. “They are free to have their own national day of prayer if they want to,” she said. “We are a Christian task force.”
The White House press office and presidential adviser Karl Rove’s office did not respond to calls seeking comment on the National Day of Prayer observances.
Organizers said some Jewish rabbis, Catholic clergy and mainline Protestants have been invited to the congressional and White House ceremonies. But the exclusion of religious minorities has led to protests in several cities.
In Salt Lake City, Mormons have complained that they are not allowed to lead prayers during the local observance.
In Oklahoma City, the Rev. W. Bruce Prescott has planned an interfaith ceremony on the steps of the state Capitol today to protest the exclusively Christian ceremony inside the building. “As a Baptist preacher, it’s hard for me to protest prayer,” he said. “What I’d rather do is see if we can’t find a way to do it right.”
© 2004 The Washington Post Company
