LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This article from Dissident Voice explains the volitile intersection of religion and politics that has become the GOP. Great links.

I encountered the liberal insularity of the 'blue states' that the writer speaks of when I was in NYC. They think that the heartland and especially the South is like Afghanistan or something. And that everyone who lives in these states are a bunch of liberal, tobacco-spit stained, Bible-banging hicks. When I told one totally shocked Long Islander that I was from Arkansas, she looked at me like I had two heads. "Are you a Right wing spy?" she asked me. I looked at her like she had three heads. "Hell, no!" I crisply replied.

Good Gawd.

It was time for my ClueStick™ Prayer: "O Creator, please spare me from too long an encounter with the Clueless, and if I must be stuck with them, grant me the Deep Stillness I will need to keep from whacking their skulls with the nearest heavy object. Amen!"

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

From Oregon:

Guest Viewpoint: Prayer breakfasts have a history of excluding faiths

By Matthew Dennis
For The Register-Guard

Since the beginning of the republic itself, the role of religion in American life has been controversial - even as the United States supposedly became a more secular society, and even in Oregon, statistically the least churched state in the union.

A case in point is the annual Eugene-Springfield Mayors' Prayer Breakfast, the subject of an April 10 column by Rabbi Yitzhak Husbands-Hankin. The local event is an example of a larger phenomenon, which includes annual mayors', governors' and even presidential prayer breakfasts. Many occur on the official National Day of Prayer on the first Thursday in May. This year that falls on May 5 and competes with an altogether different occasion, Cinco de Mayo, a celebration of diversity.

Something billed as "The Mayors' Prayer Breakfast" raises questions. Is it a public, official event, sponsored by an elected mayor and, by implication, the city he or she represents? If it features prayer, whose prayers are featured? Is it inclusive, or is it exclusive, both of non-Christian faiths and of nonreligious Americans? Might it violate First Amendment requirements for the separation of church and state? Or is it simply an exercise of religious freedom, guaranteed by that same First Amendment?

The roots of the Mayors' Prayer Breakfast go back to the early 1950s, in the context of the Cold War, when a joint resolution of Congress, signed by President Harry Truman, declared an annual National Day of Prayer. This was the era in which "under God" was spliced into the Pledge of Allegiance. In 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower presided over the first National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. Soon prayer breakfasts multiplied and became fixtures in state capitals and other communities across the country, sometimes set for the National Day of Prayer and sometimes held on other dates.( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Read what he has to say about public prayer.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY swisscelt)

In response to Christian conservatives' "counterprotest" to the Day of Silence (as discussed in this community and at the following entry: http://www.livejournal.com/community/christianitysex/82405.html ), I have an idea for those of you who are involved with the public schools: Take Back the Pole. The idea is simple. On the school day following the National Day of Prayer, have people gather together around the flagpole as a sign that you're "taking it back". In other words, you will not stand for attempts by Dominionists to take the United States by theocratic coup.

This year's National Day of Prayer is May 5, 2005. If done this year, it will take some very hurried organizing, but it is something that can occur every year afterwards. In fact, I hope it catches on that way. What do you say?

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ordos45)

I was browsing the internet when I found this site. It's quite refreshing to see someone with so strong a faith, and trying to live his life the way that God says to in the Bible.

http://www.bluekeydesign.com/goingextreme/

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Have you run into an instance where toxic prayer has been used on you? Have you had a frustrated prosetylizer tell you, "I'll pray for you," in that tone of voice?

And have you ever prayed for the downfall of another?

If you've experienced being on the wrong end of toxic prayer, what happened? Can prayer be a curse in disguise?

Sunfell