Not So Polite Dinner Conversation – Episode 3 Still more religious pandering

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is yet again wasting time and taxpayer dollars with more religious nonsense.  Oh we don’t need job bills, or a transportation plan or anything that would actually helpPennsylvania.  We just need more pandering to the narrow minds of a few.

Here’s the HR 609
Recognizing May 3, 2012, as the “National Day of Prayer” inPennsylvania. WHEREAS, The “National Day of Prayer” is a day set aside to pray for this nation; and WHEREAS, The designated day, the first Thursday of May,belongs to all citizens; and WHEREAS, This annual event was not created for political reasons or to promote any other agenda except prayer; and WHEREAS, The “National Day of Prayer” is designed for prayer for leaders, for communities, for families, for children and for one another; and WHEREAS, The “National Day of Prayer” is a day to ask for healing, to heal this nation and to bring people together in true unity; and WHEREAS, Prayer is regarded by millions as the most important utterance for the benefit of humankind; and WHEREAS, This nation was founded by single-minded men and women who sought wisdom through prayer; and WHEREAS, Prayer has aided many people throughout the history of this nation and this Commonwealth when support and guidance were needed; therefore be it RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives recognize May 3,2012, as the “National Day of Prayer” in Pennsylvania. 

This resolution is sadly dependent on one big lie.  It does seem that theists are dependent on those.   The National Day Of Prayer *was* created for political reasons. We have the Congress of the United Statespassing Public Law 82-324 and President Truman signing it.  If there were no politics involved, why did this have to be run through and made a law? People can certainly pray on their own as much as they want. The history of the National Day of Prayer can be traced right to the feet of Billy Graham and his influence in government.  It was created as a solely Christian event, promoting a solely Christian agenda.  That part has been ignored by politicians desperate to not offend their non-Christian constituents but history can’t be re-written.  

I’m wondering if Christians think that mass prayer will get their god’s attention any better than a single person’s prayer.  Seeing that prayer never works as advertised, I guess not.  If prayer does work for “healing”, why don’t these Christians get themselves over to the local VA hospitals and do some real good.  Of course, again, prayer doesn’t work for healing people or healing nations.  It sure doesn’t bring people together in any “true unity” since each theist thinks his/her god is the only “right” one and oh, are they sure that anyone who doesn’t believe in any god at all will go straight to hell. Right now in our national election you can see how much evangelical Christians don’t like Mormons, or Catholics. So much for “unity”. The only thing this bill does is try to force religion on everyone, and exclude many good patriotic American citizens from being considered equal with everyone else. This National Day of Prayer does not belong to me, and I am indeed a US citizen.    

Prayer may indeed be regarded by millions as the most important utterance for the benefit of mankind, but funny how it does nothing at all, no matter who does the praying.  No world peace, no food for the starving children, no healing of the sick, only hard long work by humans.  Millions of people used to think that sacrificing goats was really important too but that was just about as effective as prayer, but without the tasty meat for the priests.    

This resolution claims that prayer has “aided many people through out history”.  Did prayer aid the murderers of 9/11?  I’m sure that they were praying too.  Indeed, how can we tell whose prayers will win out, the prayers of the Afghanis who have had their families murdered and who I am sure are praying for the demise of theUS?  How about those who pray that President Obama is found out to be a “secret Muslim” or those who pray that President Obama will be re-elected? Will they cancel each other out?  What about each side when Americans pray for “their” football team to win?  Now do you see how idiotic it is to declare that everyone praying is a good and useful thing? 

Some of the founding fathers did pray and were Christians, but they were anything but “single minded” on what they believed in regards to religion. They *did* firmly establishe from the outset that no religion of any kind was to be considered better than the next or to have influence on government. They knew how dangerous that was, coming from a tyranny that was supported by the “divine right of kings”.   

Again, this is more evidence that one has to keep constant vigilance to keep the forces of theocracy at bay.  They will never stop and neither should we.