It is that time of year again, when politicians across America strive to demonstrate their piety to the masses by leading them to prayer. In some places, they will even lead them in prayer, hosting a (Christians-only) worship service, which may look something like this:
(I was physically present when Brian filmed this a few years back, but still cannot believe how spectacularly awful that event really was. It could be marketed to secularists as an audiovisual emetic.)
I’d like to briefly go over five reasons government prayer proclamations have always been a bad idea.
- Government exists for the sake of law and enforcement, not giving advice.
- Elected officials do not wield any religious authority in their role as public servants.
- Prayer proclamations blur the line between religious and secular authority, creating the false impression of a national civic religion.
- Over time such proclamations will tend to conform more closely to the beliefs of the majority religion, or even the most dominant sect.
- Politicians may well pervert prayer proclamations to promote partisan policies.
None of these arguments are new, nor are any of them original. All of them were first advanced by the man now known as the Father of the Constitution, and may be found in their original (mildly archaic) form on the Americans United website.
