Reading through my local paper today I noticed some serious discrepancies. As a resident of Carson City what was printed as fact without actual fact checking being done by either the staff reporter or the editor of The Nevada Appeal highly disappointed me. Errors in the article are a bit blatant and it seems to show that maybe this piece was written at the last minute and based solely on the information posted at The National Day of Prayer Task Force’s misleading site. To read the paper’s published article click here:

Now, the first thing we are going to look at is some history. In 1952 Billy Graham led a six week prayer campaign in Washington D.C. which concluded in members from both the House and Senate creating a resolution to have a national day of prayer. On April 17th 1952 President Truman signed the resolution into law for our country to have an official National Day of Prayer. The law was open to having the day be held when the president at the time declared it as such. Representative Priest called the resolution “a day which members of all faiths and all religions could spend in meditation and prayer.”

In 1988 S.1378, which was a Senate bill brought to the floor by Senator Strom Thurmond and brought to the House by Representative Tony Hall. This bill was signed into law on May 5th that same year by President Ronald Reagan and called for our National Day of Prayer to be held on the 1st Thursday in May every year. In Reagan’s proclamation he called for the joining together of people from many faiths and not just a single faith.

The main ideal here is that having a National Day of Prayer is to give anyone of any faith the ability to participate. Of course being America, anyone of any faith has the ability not to participate as well and that ability is one that I will be exercising this year.

Let us now take a look, again at The National Day of Prayer Task Force. This is a privately funded company housed in The Focus on The Family headquarters. The task force may state that they have the “official” national day of prayer website but they do not. This is an Evangelical Christian organization that requires its members to sign a belief statement before being associated with them in anyway. Refer to my previous article just on the task force here.

Now that the above is out of the way I’m going to get into the errors of The Nevada Appeal’s article.

Error 1: The article states that The National Day of Prayer Task Force was created in 1952 and signed into law by Truman. This is not true.

Error 2: The article says that this is a day for Christians to organize and pray. I was under the impression that anyone could pray at any time in their own way but here in my own city the local paper is telling me otherwise.

What became even more of a concern after reading their article was that the only listings for religious participation at the capitol building were for Christians.

Tomorrow, on the National Day of Prayer I’m going to compose my first letter to the editor at The Nevada Appeal. I’ll keep everyone updated on how that goes.

Also, I may get into here locally information that deals with The Alliance and the political ties between them and Focus on the Family. Sadly, I admit that I did not realize just how far the evangelical movement has come in our country in regards to actually changing laws and usurping the religious freedoms of not only non-Christian groups but of Christian denominations other than their own.

Technorati Tags: laura jean karr, national day of prayer, nevada appeal, simple abnormality

The Pagan Unity Campaign was founded by Storm Bear Williams in early 2001. The objective was to unite Pagans across the country in letting our state and federal leaders know that there was a large Pagan voting population in America.

The mission of the PUC: “ to unify the many diverse branches of Paganism in America. A lofty goal that has been tried many times before and not succeeded. However, we are not attempting to unify Pagans under a religious umbrella, but we want Pagans to come together under the banner of Freedom.”

At the groups inception they created and signed in a Pagan Bill of Rights which states:
1. Pagans shall have the same freedom to worship that is granted to followers of other religions.

2. Pagans shall have the same respect of all elected officials who represent them that is afforded to followers of other religions.

3. A Pagan parent’s religion shall not be used as evidence for the purpose of deciding child custody issues.

4. Pagans shall be free to work without regard their religion, and should be free from proselytizing and harassment at the workplace.

5. Pagans shall have the same freedom to conduct their lives that is given to followers of other religions, within the boundaries of the law, without interference by, or discrimination from representatives of their local, state, or federal government.

6. School district personnel and classroom visitors shall not proselytize or harass Pagan children while on public school property or at public school functions.

7. Pagans shall have the same freedom to exercise all of their rights as do all other American citizens.

8. Pagans are entitled to the free exercise of their beliefs and rituals and must be protected from the interference of others during the practice thereof.

9. Pagans shall have the right to redress when their religious rights are abused.

10. Pagans shall be able to wear sacred symbols of their faith in environments where followers of other faiths are free to express themselves similarly.

‘So Vote It Be’ is the PUC’s campaign that kicked off in 2002. The goal of this campaign was to provide voter education and registration to all peoples of Pagan faiths. This campaign is run leading up to local and national elections. For more click here.

The most well known of the PUC’s campaigns is the “I AM” project. This stands for sending a post card or a letter to our elected officials letting them know who of their constituency is Pagan. It stands to reason that the more our politicians understand that Pagans are educated and they are voting, that eventually the group as a whole will be known a serious voting group and start to get taken more seriously. This campaign was the first for the PUC and it began on February 9th 2001. The project has run every year during the Summer Solstice. For more click here.

The third on going project for the PUC is the Birthday Card Campaign. This campaign is designed to have birthday cards sent to their elected officials informing them of the voting Pagans in their area. For more click here.

Currently, the PUC is gearing up for it’s annual “I AM” campaign and if you are a Pagan that wants to stand up and be counted by your local and national elected officials now is the time to get ready for that movement. Follow the link above for more information on the campaign.

Technorati Tags: laura jean karr, Pagan Politics, pagan unity campaign, religious freedom

For years now the The Focus on the Family group has worked as hard as they could to over take what used to be something good for our country. The National Day of Prayer that was given to people of all faiths to take a day to pray in their own way no matter what religion they were has now been stolen by the group’s creation of The National Day of Prayer Task Force.

On the The National Day of Prayer Task Force website they state that they are the “National Day of Prayer official website” interesting that they don’t state on the front page that they are a privately funded task force and not what used to be the original government website for The National Day of Prayer. People do not learn that they are not the official group unless they first read through their mission statement on another page which states:

The National Day of Prayer Task Force’s mission is to communicate with every individual the need for personal repentance and prayer, mobilizing the Christian community to intercede for America and its leadership in the seven centers of power: Government, Military, Media, Business, Education, Church and Family.

This leaves me to wonder: Why is government placed first in their efforts and the family placed last?

On their What to pray for page, they list first our federal government leaders, then state leaders and then local officials. No where on their page does it ask you to join them in praying for your family or for your church.

While stating that this is a day for people of all faiths to celebrate if you want to help in any of the task forces events for that day you must sign an application that includes a statement of belief. You can read that form here. Oddly, enough the statement that you are required to sign is one of an evangelical view and excludes not only just the Pagans but the majority of the Christian and Jewish communities as well.

As to the theme of this years National Day of Prayer, what did our highest government official choose? Well, he didn’t. And did Congress come together to elect a theme that would welcome any citizen of any faith? No, they didn’t pick it either. The task force choose the “theme” for the national day of prayer taking a quote from the Bible and our president signed it into the governmental proclamation. What happened to our government not respecting an establishment of religion?

If you would like to take part in an open celebration for our National Day of Prayer you can ban together for your groups own prayer event or you could join in with the Inclusive Prayer Day and make a statement to the task force and our leadership that supports them by celebrating the diversity of religious freedom here in America.

www.InclusivePrayerDay.org

Technorati Tags: Ignorance, inclusive day of prayer, laura jean karr, misinformation, national day of prayer

Article Link: It’s Dangerous for Children To Know Atheism Exists, Says Illinois State Legislator-Friendly Atheist

Excerpt - Rep.Davis: It’s dangerous to the progression of this state. And it’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists!~Rep. Davis to Atheist Rob Sherman

Terry sent me the above link today and I thought it was an interesting article. Reading through it and listening to the audio, I have to admit that the shocking part to me was not that Rep. Davis became irate but that the shear number of people applauding her and the seemingly mass group energy of anger towards Rob Sherman was the most disturbing part.

I fully understand that there are many people in our country that still believe that American was founded as a Christian nation, which it was not and I understand the pervasive attitudes towards any one who is not of the Christian faith or even those who do not have a faith bubbling up to the surface and overriding the First Amendment. Those things I understand, sometimes I wish that I didn’t understand… but I do.

Technorati Tags: atheism, freindly atheist, Illinois, laura jean karr, Monquie Davis, Rob Sherman