Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) Wants National Day of Prayer for the Military

Senator Jim DeMint is introducing legislation to “Make June 6th [the] National Day of Prayer for the US Armed Forces and Their Mission.” If the resolution passes, President Franklin Roosevelt’s D-Day radio prayer would be “read aloud in Congress each June 6th.”

Some portions of the resolution sound like something you’d hear in church:

WHEREAS, public prayer and national days of prayer are a long-standing American tradition to bolster national resolve and summon the national will for victory

…

WHEREAS, with our troops once again facing danger abroad and nation looking for support here at home, the time is ripe to once again heed the words and prayerful wisdom contained in the D-Day radio address of the 20th century’s greatest Democrat president as he implored the nation: “as we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts”

We could also supply our troops with proper body armor. Or just pull them out of the war… what good is prayer going to do? Either the troops know we support them or they don’t. If that support doesn’t help, prayer isn’t going to do much better.

The whole resolution is just disappointing. The government doesn’t need to be legislating religion. Let individual groups do that if they wish. No atheist would (or should) have a problem with that.

DeMint also seems to be ignorant of the large number of men and women who serve our country and are also non-religious, including Pat Tillman.

How disrespectful to those heroes.

I suppose this resolution is better than whatever plan we currently have in Iraq, but that doesn’t make it right.

[tags]atheist, atheism, Jim DeMint, National Day of Prayer, US Armed Forces, President, Franklin Roosevelt, D-Day, church, Democrat, Pat Tillman[/tags]

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Julie Marie

oh good grief, this sounds just like the man. during the elections, he made a name for himself saying gays shouldn’t be allowed to teach our children. (I live in SC). That triggered minimal outrage in this generally unprogressive state. But then he went on to say unmarried people who live together shouldn’t be allowed to teach our children. That brought outrage from every corner and he had to wind up apologizing for both statements to save his candidacy. He just can’t quit making a spectacle of himself.
Kim G

They already disrespected Pat Tillman when they lied about his death. Sorry for the aside.

I agree, this is ridiculous. This DeMint joker shouldn’t be in office if this is the type of crap he’s proposing. As you said, supply our troops with the right equipment. It’s a sad commentary on our nation if bigots like DeMint keep getting elected.
Siamang

This reminded me of Michael Weinstein’s book, With God on Our Side: One Man’s War Against an Evangelical Coup in America’s Military.

Center for Inquiry West is holding a lecture in Costa Mesa in two weeks.
Maria

Yeah, I agree, let private groups do it. If someone proposed a non Christian prayer (I assume it is a Christian prayer he wants?) then the Christians would be upset. So they have to be fair too. Majority or not (are they the majority in the military anymore?) they need to be considerate of others.
mollishka

How embarassing.
olvlzl, no ism, no ist

The first and most useful rule to use in considering official, governmental religiosity is to remember it has nothing to do with religion, it has to do with politics. Do you really, looking at the way they live, think that the pols in DC are sincere about this kind of thing.

I suspect this is part of the ongoing Republican attempt to play political chicken with the “faith” issue. They know that the Democrats will split and that it will be opposed by a good part of the Democratic base. Included in the separation of church and state faction will be a number of liberal religious people as well as non-religious people. A lot of us think that this kind of state religion is not only offensive civically but it’s revolting religiously. Sandra Day O’Connor’s “civic deism” was the very definition of “taking the Lord’s name in vain” but you didn’t hear any of the fundamentalists calling her on that. But I did.
Maria

The first and most useful rule to use in considering official, governmental religiosity is to remember it has nothing to do with religion, it has to do with politics. Do you really, looking at the way they live, think that the pols in DC are sincere about this kind of thing.

I suspect this is part of the ongoing Republican attempt to play political chicken with the “faith” issue. They know that the Democrats will split and that it will be opposed by a good part of the Democratic base. Included in the separation of church and state faction will be a number of liberal religious people as well as non-religious people. A lot of us think that this kind of state religion is not only offensive civically but it’s revolting religiously. Sandra Day O’Connor’s “civic deism” was the very definition of “taking the Lord’s name in vain” but you didn’t hear any of the fundamentalists calling her on that. But I did.

Very very good points. I’m one of the liberal religious people you speak of. Thanks for acknowledging our existence. Many on the radical right would like to forget we exist. You may find this hard to believe, but besides talking to other liberal religious like me, it’s usually a lot easier for me to talk to an atheist about the separation of church and state thing (especially lately) than people who think like DeMint, b/c even though we disagree on the religion thing, we agree on religion and government matters, we can respect each other’s views, and also, an atheist won’t yell at me and threaten me (trust me, they do this to other believers who don’t agree with them too, though probably not as much as they do it to atheists). I found this out the hard way when I passed through “fundie country”. Never again. I’m glad I live in a big city! There are quite a few of us liberals here.

You are so right about it being about politics. Did anyone here see the movie Jesus Camp? In it the evangelicals get involved with global warming. They deny it it’s happening. That’s the neo-con view, but it is also a political view. What the hell does global warming have to do with their church? Nothing! It’s stupid. I think that if believers really do respect whatever they believe in, they need to treat the earth well. I had thought this was obvious, even to DeMints of this world, but I guess not. I think that they are probably doing this to stir up the evangelical base to get them to vote for a republican. I read in Newsweek that evangelicals in the radical right are having trouble figuring out who to vote for in the 2008 election, b/c they think all the candidates from the republican party so far are too “liberal”. Scary, isn’t it? LOL That part could be good though. Maybe they won’t vote as block this time like they did in the past 2 elections!
Mriana

You know, this imposing of religion on others is getting VERY old. 😡 Of course I believe this war is nothing but a crusade too and we really need to pull the troops out of there.
globalizati

And Jesus said…

‘But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.’ (Matthew 10:34)

‘Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.’ (John 18:22-23)

‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.’ (Matthew 5:9)

Yup… those sound just like a way to “summon the national will for victory.”
Darryl

DeMint is, without a doubt, stupid, a cretan, backward, a misanthrope, a bigot, and, more importantly, increasingly out of step with the country and the rest of the world (except for other fundamentalists). He represents the worst elements of his Party. He, and the many others like him, are why the Republican Party is disintegrating, and why it deserves to lose political power. He is a threat to our form of government, understands nothing about liberty, and shames us all. If there were a God, he would disavow DeMint. DeMint is another powerful reason why I can’t believe in God. He is a walking refutation of religion. He is a turd under the foot of the universe. Have I made myself clear on this?
Anatoly

Prayer? On my birthday? I’d be so seriously upset.

I’m still waiting to see a prayer stop a bullet.
Tina B.

Well, let’s see…A muslim prayer….a jewish prayer…..a mormon prayer….a jehovah prayer….a hindu prayer….That’s just ridiculous, do it in the churches, synagogues, etc.
Patti

Guess who gets to pay for the time, effort, and money needed to put together and publicize this Great Event?