Prayer is good. I am not describing to whom it should be offered, or even if it is important that it be offered to some external being at all. I am not touching the issue of in whose name such prayers should be offered when they are shared in public at events like the National Day of Prayer, even though I truly don’t care. In fact, I have already written about why public prayer in Jesus’ name is no big deal.
But to be human is to have aspirations, to feel gratitude and to feel the need to praise the source of that which we have achieved and attained. And aspirations, gratitude and praise are the building blocks of prayer – certainly in Jewish tradition, and in pretty much every other tradition of which I know. So, prayer is good.
A National Day of Prayer is also good. No, I do not worry about issues of Constitutionality and neither has any President since the day was established in 1952. Nor do I worry about secular humanists, atheists or agnostics who object to the Day. In fact, I encourage all people, including them, to cultivate a prayer practice which accords with their beliefs and disbeliefs. And I know how much I have learned about prayer from those who are willing to give up on God while maintaining a practice which acknowledges aspiration, gratitude and praise i.e. prayer.
President Obama’s words in closing his National Day of Prayer proclamation provide and enlightening and instructive example of the kind of genuinely open and inclusive approach to prayer which I support.

I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 6, 2010, as a National Day of Prayer. I call upon the citizens of our Nation to pray, or otherwise give thanks, in accordance with their own faiths and consciences, for our many freedoms and blessings, and I invite all people of faith to join me in asking for God’s continued guidance, grace, and protection as we meet the challenges before us.

So what bothers me? That our National Day of Prayer is too much a project of too homogenous a group of people who pray. From the website of the coordinators (www.nationaldayofprayer.org) to the official book which commemorates the day, to the national chairmanship of Rev. Franklin Graham, a day which should be lead in common is instead lead by a narrowly defined group of Christians.
To their credit, they are the ones who have taken the lead in championing the value of prayer. They are the ones who have unambiguously supported prayer as a public good deserving of national recognition. But they are also the ones whose celebratory book for this year’s event trumpets only the contributions of Evangelical Christians. They are the ones who declare:

“When unbelievers pray for repentance of sin and ask for God’s forgiveness, prayer is the spiritual dynamite that obliterates the darkness and despair of a sin-soaked soul. May we ask His forgiveness, turn our backs on tolerance of sin, and bow in submission to God and seek His redemption for our people, so that future generations will know His blessed Hand has not been removed. May God the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, be once again exalted in our halls of government, in our sanctuaries of worship and in human hearts that need His healing touch. Join me in prayer for America on May 6 for the National Day of Prayer.”

Those are the words of National Day of Prayer Chairman Graham, and while they may be appropriate for Church, they are hurtful and totally inappropriate for the day. Why? Not because they are Christian words. What else should a Christian pray? And not because they are offered in Jesus’ name – how else could Rev. Graham pray with integrity?
They are hurtful and inappropriate because those words ask that all those who do not share Rev. Graham’s faith, get fixed – that our “sin-soaked souls” be “obliterated”. While people are free to believe what they want, and offer any prayer they feel, nobody has the right to publically denigrate other peoples’ religious beliefs, especially with violent language.
As much as those who oppose the National Day of Prayer need to settle down and consider how to open their hearts at least to those who pray, if not to prayer itself, the leadership of the National Day of Prayer need to open their hearts to the dignity of different faiths and those with no faith at all. If they cannot, then the day should be re-named the National Day of Religious Triumphalism, a day about which all people should be concerned.