Prayer Day a Rallying Point for Atheists, Believers

(May 5) -- For the first time in its 59-year history, Thursday's National Day of Prayer is under siege from a vocal -- and growing -- group of atheists, agnostics and others who think the line separating church and state has become entirely too blurry.

The group scored a major victory on April 15, when U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled that the National Day of Prayer violates the First Amendment to the Constitution.

"The government has taken sides on a matter that must be left to individual conscience," Crabb wrote in her 66-page decision. She also added that the U.S. government may not enact a statute supporting prayer any more than it can encourage citizens to "fast during the month of Ramadan, attend a synagogue, purify themselves in a sweat lodge or practice rune magic."

The U.S. Justice Department promptly announced it will appeal the decision. The White House said President Barack Obama will sign the 2010 Day of Prayer proclamation while the appeal is being heard.

"Judge Crabb's decision was a great victory for truth," Annie Laurie Gaylor, an atheist and co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, told AOL News. The foundation filed the original suit against President George W. Bush in November 2008.

"We're so happy that Judge Crabb set the record straight in her decision," Gaylor added. "She produced the correct history, debunking the myth that the Founding Fathers prayed at the Constitutional Convention, which was trotted out to create the National Day of Prayer. The Christian right has hijacked our Constitution."

The Freedom From Religion Foundation isn't the only group claiming that church -- particularly evangelical Christians -- and state have gotten too cozy. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation succeeded in getting the U.S. military to withdraw its invitation to have evangelist Franklin Graham speak at a Pentagon prayer service on Thursday. Graham, the son of the Rev. Billy Graham, angered some Muslims in the military by calling Islam a "very evil and wicked religion."

"This is as bright a day for the U.S. Constitution and freedoms in this country as it is a dark day for the Islamic extremists we're fighting because their propaganda tool has been taken away," Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, told AOL News in reaction to the Pentagon's decision.

After that victory, the foundation pressed the Pentagon to bar military color guard units and bands from participating in dozens of National Prayer Day events nationwide.

With a push from Billy Graham, the original National Day of Prayer legislation was introduced by conservative U.S. Sen. Absalom Robertson of Virginia, father of the Rev. Pat Robertson. It was signed into law by President Harry Truman in 1952, and presidents have signed a yearly proclamation ever since. The first Thursday in May was fixed as the annual day of prayer in 1988 by President Ronald Reagan.

Curiously, the former president's son Ron Jr. is on the Freedom From Religion Foundation's honorary board. He has described himself as "an unabashed atheist, not afraid of burning in hell." Fellow board members include actress Janeane Garofalo, neurologist and author Oliver Sacks, and writer Christopher Hitchens, author of the best-seller "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything."

The foundation, which was founded in Madison, Wis., by Gaylor and her mother in 1978, says it has more than 14,000 members, with hundreds signing up since Crabb issued her decision in mid-April.

That decision wasn't the foundation's first legal victory. Through the courts, it has also:

• Ended religious instruction in a Tennessee public school district.
• Overturned a Wisconsin law ordering worship during certain hours on Good Friday.
• Stopped a Colorado public school from requiring students to do volunteer work at churches.

The foundation also puts out a newspaper 10 times a year and hosts a weekly radio show.

There are signs that public attitudes have been changing. From 1990 to 2008, the number of people who call themselves atheist, agnostic or without religious preference nearly doubled to 15 percent of the population, according to the American Religious Identification Survey.

"I think we are finally seeing the pendulum swing back," said Gaylor, whose mother, Anne Nicol Gaylor, now 83 and still a "freethinker," used to tour Wisconsin speaking in favor of legal abortion and access to contraceptives. "The American public is becoming more enlightened and more secular. I'm very optimistic about the future of free thought --- the use of reason in forming your opinions about religion. I'm more worried about the separation of church and state."

To that end, the foundation is mounting a billboard campaign in Colorado Springs, Colo., home of the National Day of Prayer Task Force, an evangelical Christian group headed by Shirley Dobson, wife of Focus on the Family founder James Dobson. The billboards will read: "God and Government --- A Dangerous Mix. Keep Church and State Separate."

In a statement, Shirley Dobson blasted the Pentagon's decision to rescind the invitation to Graham. "Moves to exclude any member of this great family from this prayer event represent everything that is wrong with the agenda of political correctness that is rampant in our country," she said. The task force then withdrew its sponsorship of the Pentagon prayer event.

The court ruling declaring the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional has also displeased the task force, which will partner with GOD TV to broadcast three hours of ceremonies from Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

"It is a sad day in America when an atheist in Wisconsin can undermine this tradition for millions of others," Michael Calhoun, a task force spokesman, told The New York Times.

Gaylor, for her part, is unhappy that Obama is going ahead with this year's National Day of Prayer proclamation despite the recent court ruling.

"I'm very disappointed," she said. "He has taught constitutional law. He should know better."