Barbara Brennan Realty

Posted onJanuary 02, 2012 - 2:07 am by Admin | 0 Comments

On April 20, 2010, the United States House of Representatives passed Resolution 1273, “Expressing the sense of Congress with respect to the National Day of Prayer.” The Resolution reiterated the actions of prior Congresses and presidents, citing Harry S. Truman’s approval of the legislation that established a National Day of Prayer on April 17, 1952 as well as an amended version of Public Law 100-307 by Ronald Reagan on May 9, 1988. On April 20, 2010, however, U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Crabb ruled that the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional.

Origins of the National Day of Prayer

Many commentators cite the 1952 actions of evangelist Billy Graham as a catalyst in promoting the National Day of Prayer. Substantial credit, however, belongs to Frederic Fox who, as a presidential aide in the Eisenhower administration, “handled observance of patriotic and devotional events…” and whose duties “included energizing the annual National Day of Prayer…” (Richard M. Fried, The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!, Oxford University Press, 1998).

Critics of the National Day of Prayer are quick to point out that governmental approval of the observance was a reaction to the events of the time. Katha Pollitt (“Let Us [Not] Pray,” The Nation, April 29, 2010) writes that, “its actually a product of 1950s anticommunism, back when ‘communism’ was usually modified by ‘godless.’” Pollitt is an honorary board member of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin group dedicated to “protecting the constitutional principle of the separation of the church and state” – according to their web site. This organization is the plaintiff in the case decided by Judge Crabb.


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