I’ve already mentioned this on my Facebook page, but I thought I’d take advantage of this forum as well. Recently a judge in WI declared that National Day of Prayer statute was uncsonstitutional.
We as Christians can respond in many ways. First, I think we should get involved. Sign the petition to express your disagreement. This is a pretty easy step. You can forward this on to other Christian friends as well. Again, a relatively easy step.
The bigger question is, how will you discuss this with nonChristian friends. Obviously, we don’t want to be whacking people with this, but I think this is a great opportunity to engage in dialogue. We can express our desire to pray for our country, our desire that while religion is not imposed, that we would still like to see our nation uphold values and protect the ideal that the sacred and the secular can and should touch. This is a point on which there is great debate. And yet, we need to help others understand there is no way a person can truly divorce their spiritual beliefs utterly from the civic world. There is so much ground where they just will touch. There are some places I don’t go. I don’t want a prayer imposed on school students. But then there are positive places. I do like time of silence for prayer. I do like allowing Christian (or other religious groups) to advertise and meet at school and governmental offices. National Day of Pryaer to me is such a place. It expresses that our government understands there is an important place for the people to pray for the country. It mandates nothing, but opens our hands to so much.
Take advantage of this as a chance to dialogue with Christian and nonChrsitians alike. I think this is a place for us to take some risks and look forward to the conversations.
