Dobsons, Politicians Are Using Religion To Further
Political Agenda, Church-State Watchdog Group Charges |
Religious Right leaders and politicians are using the
National Day of Prayer (NDP) to politicize religion and divide Americans,
says Americans United for Separation of Church and State. |
The annual event, which takes place by federal law on
the first Thursday of each May, gives Religious Right groups and their
allies in public office a platform to push their political agenda,
Americans United charges. |
In recent years, religious broadcaster James Dobson
and his wife Shirley have assumed a leadership role in promoting the
observance. Dobson's Focus on the Family and Focus on the Family Action
are Religious Right organizations that oppose church-state separation
and seek to impose a fundamentalist Christian viewpoint through government
action. |
"James Dobson has shamelessly exploited the National
Day of Prayer to advance his divisive political agenda," said
the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. "This
merger of religion and politics is exactly what our nation's founding
fathers hoped to avoid." |
Lynn noted that James Madison, the Father of the Constitution,
said governmental prayer proclamations "certainly nourish the
erroneous idea of a national religion" and warned that public
officials would use such proclamations to advance their political
agenda. Thomas Jefferson, as president, refused to issue prayer proclamations
and said the Constitution forbids the federal government from "intermeddling
with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises."
|
Lynn added that most NDP activities are now coordinated
by the National Day of Prayer Task Force, a private group headed by
Shirley Dobson. This year, as in years past, the NDP Task Force is
distributing materials promoting an inaccurate "Christian nation"
view of history and distorting federal court rulings upholding church-state
separation. |
WLynn noted that this year, Mrs. Dobson even boasts
about her group sponsoring the "National Day of Prayer Official
Website," although she does not say who gave the group this designation.
(The Dobsons usually travel to the White House for an NDP observance
there with President George W. Bush, although Bush has not given the
NDP Task Force an official character.). |
The NDP Task Force encourages local groups to exclude
non-fundamentalist Christians from NDP events. The NDP Web site goes
so far as to assert that only Christian groups that endorse the Lausanne
Covenant, an evangelical statement from the 1970s, should be invited
to take part. |
"The Dobsons' events are deeply divisive,"
said Lynn. "They intentionally exclude millions of Americans
who differ with the Religious Right's narrow religious and political
agenda." |
Continued Lynn, "Rather than make a big public
display of piety, politicians would do better to use May 4 to rededicate
themselves to the spirit of the First Amendment and oppose those forces
that do not value religious diversity and religious liberty."
|
(Founded in 1947, Americans United for Separation of
Church and State brings together Americans of many faiths and political
viewpoints to defend church-state separation. FTCS supports this ideal
and we invite reasonable people to join with us.) |