My Questions About National Day Of Prayer

My calendar shows May 2, the first Thursday in May, as National Day of Prayer. I'm all in favor of prayer, but this business of a so-called ecumenical prayer service troubles me. I wonder if you ever think about it like I do. Here's some background.

In 2009 President Obama opted not to have an ecumenical prayer service in the East Room of the White House. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, added that Obama would sign a proclamation to recognize the day. "I think the president understands, in his own life and in his family's life, the role that prayer plays," Gibbs said.

President Truman signed the first National Prayer Day proclamation, and President Reagan made it a permanent occasion. Under President Bush, the day was a political event, confirming a conviction that religion was a core tenet of Republican politics.

In 1775 the Continental Congress allocated a time for prayer in forming a new nation. Over the years, there were calls for a day of prayer, including from President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. On April 17, 1952, President Harry Truman signed a bill proclaiming the National Day of Prayer into law in the United States. President Reagan amended the law in 1988, designating the first Thursday of May each year as the National Day of Prayer.

The National Prayer Committee was formed in the United States in 1972. It went on to create the National Day of Prayer Task Force, with the intended purpose of coordinating events for the National Day of Prayer.

According to the Legal Information Institute, the president shall issue each year a proclamation designating the first Thursday in May as a National Day of Prayer on which the people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and meditation at churches, in groups, and as individuals.

Through the efforts of the National Day of Prayer Task Force, more than 35,000 prayer gatherings will be conducted by about 40,000 volunteers across the United States. Several million people are expected to participate in this call to prayer.

So here are my questions—shared also by others I might add.

• Whose God are we praying to when we gather for these ecumenical prayer services? 
• Does it even matter that some do not believe in the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit? 
• Are we Americans praying to God with the understanding that there are many paths to God? 
• Am I being unpatriotic if I choose not to join with others in my community on this National Day of Prayer? 

I don't know what you believe. I'd like to hear. I'll be taking up this topic again tomorrow.

American Civil Religion—A Critical Examination

The religious diversity of America was obvious in the many gatherings connected with the  recent presidential inauguration weekend. Those events offered the world another example of America's civil religion. Wikipedia defines American civil religion  in this way:

American civil religion is a sociological theory that there exists a religion of the United States, a nonsectarian faith that has as its sacred symbols those of the polity and national history. Scholars have portrayed it as a cohesive force, a common set of values that foster social and cultural integration. . . . There is a viewpoint that some Americans have come to see the document of the United States Constitution, along with the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights as being a cornerstone of a type of civic or civil religion.

A huge controversy arose within the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod over the practice of civil religion in the  9/11 Yankee Stadium worship service led by Oprah Winfrey. The controversy was taken up by many in the national media. The NY Times commented on the it under the heading: "Interfaith Is No Faith." The Rev. Charles Henrickson of St. Louis was quoted as saying,

"The gospel is not served, it is not confessed—indeed, the gospel is eviscerated—when Jesus Christ is presented as one of many options from which to choose on a smorgasbord of spirituality."

Did the Missouri Synod clergyman have a valid point? What does the Bible have to say about the question of civil religion, a question that continues to surface again and again in events like President Obama's recent inauguration. Mollie Ziegler was the writer of the NY Times article. She usually reports on the music industry from Washington. She is also a lay member of the Missouri Synod. The Rev. David Benke, president of the Missouri Synod's Atlantic District, took part in the 9/11 Prayer Service at Yankee Stadium. He was censured by the Synod for his actions. In defense of the Synod's censure, Ms. Ziegler wrote, 

Such renegade behavior runs against the grain of the Missouri Synod, whose system of belief is firmly grounded in Scripture and an intellectually rigorous theology. Preserving its doctrine is a key aspect of the faith. The synod was founded, as it happens, by German immigrants fighting ecumenicalism. In the early 19th century, the king of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm II, ordered Lutherans to pray and worship with Calvinists, as one. It was a popular edict among his subjects, swept up in patriotic feeling after the allied victory at Waterloo. But the church of Luther was unwilling to compromise its beliefs, even if those who resisted the edict faced persecution, including imprisonment. Lutherans emigrated to Australia, New York and Missouri.

The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod's Commission on Theology and Church relations has published a white paper, Guidelines for Participation in Civic Events. In the next couple blogs I want to summarize that paper and offer a few of my own comments on the practice of civil religion. You may want to read the entire document yourself.