“Together, in faith, we can move mountains,” he added. “It was an honor to join the Lynchburg community today as we asked God for His guidance over our area, our nation, and its leaders.”
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House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote, “On this National Day of Prayer, Kelly and I join our country in praying that God will continue to bless America. And we especially pray today for our law enforcement and troops who keep our streets and our nation safe.”
While the tradition of designated prayer days dates back to the earliest years of the Union, Congress introduced a resolution in 1952 requiring the president to designate an annual day of prayer on the date of his choosing. That legislation was amended in 1988 to officially designate the first Thursday of May as the National Day of Prayer.
While the day has typically been seen as a moment for American unity, even across sectarian lines, some have grown concerned that it has become a rallying point for Christian nationalists.
Author and attorney Andrew L. Seidel said in a video that the National Day of Prayer is “a scar. It’s a relic of a wave of Christian nationalism that hit America in the 1950s.”
“The National Day of Prayer should not exist. The First Amendment says, ‘Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion,’ and Congress made a law establishing a religion,” he went on to say. “Don’t do that. Obey the First Amendment! Come on!”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), an organization that exists “to promote the constitutional principle of separation of state and church,” posted, “The National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional and un-American.”
In 2008, the FFRF unsuccessfully challenged the constitutionality of the National Day of Prayer in a lawsuit against then President George W. Bush, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, and Shirley Dobson, the wife of Focus on the Family founder James Dobson.
Although the case dragged on for several years, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2011 that the Bush administration’s endorsement of the National Day of Prayer did not cause any material harm or injury to FFRF.
, leaders in church and in government took to social media to commemorate the National Day of Prayer.){kind=link}