President Proclaims National Day of Prayer, 6 May 2010
President Obama issued the annual proclamation marking the National Day of Prayer, which will be 6 May this year.
We are blessed to live in a Nation that counts freedom of conscience and free exercise of religion among its most fundamental principles, thereby ensuring that all people of goodwill may hold and practice their beliefs according to the dictates of their consciences. Prayer has been a sustaining way for many Americans of diverse faiths to express their most cherished beliefs, and thus we have long deemed it fitting and proper to publicly recognize the importance of prayer on this day across the Nation…
Let us pray for the safety and success of those who have left home to serve in our Armed Forces, putting their lives at risk in order to make the world a safer place. As we remember them, let us not forget their families and the substantial sacrifices that they make every day.
It is interesting to note what is missing from the proclamation. The “structure” of such proclamations varies little from year to year, and even from President to President, regardless of party. President Bush included, as did Obama last year, the statement
The Congress, by Public Law 100-307, as amended, has called on the President to issue each year a proclamation designating the first Thursday in May as a “National Day of Prayer.”
which was omitted this year.
While some have claimed that the recent circuit court ruling made the National Day of Prayer unConstitutional, they were mistaken. The ruling said the statute passed by Congress was unConstitutional. With respect to the NDoP and the ruling, the President remains free to make any proclamation he chooses. It is interesting, then, that the text of the traditional message changed to eliminate references to the statute in question.
If the statute was ruled unConstitutional, and is being appealed, why would you find it strange that the President not mention the statute? And if he is free to issue any proclamation that he chooses, why do you take issue with what he did have to say, JD?
You are reading too much into it. I did not say anything was “strange,” nor did I “take issue” with anything. Not everything here is controversial. Sometimes it is what it is: interesting.
Ok, so lets try it this way, if the statute was ruled unConstitutional, and is being appealed, why would you find it interesting that the President not mention the statute? And if he is free to issue any proclamation that he chooses, why do you find it interesting with what he did have to say, JD?
To repeat from the article, it is interesting that the President left out the sentence about the statute because it has been in every proclamation for at least the last 9 years, including last year. As I said, the “structure” of such proclamations doesn’t change very often. It’s really not more complex than that.
I’m still not sure what else you’re talking about. This website is about the intersection of faith and the military profession, to which the President is an integral part, and to which the NDoP proclamation frequently refers (as above). For that reason, I’ve noted the annual NDoP proclamation, with “interest,” for years. If you’re reading something more cosmic into it than that, I don’t know what it is.
Please, JD. Nothing cosmic. I was just wondering what your point was. It just seems to be a plausible explanation that Obama would not reference the statute because it is pending an appeal; you seemed to be pondering the omission. I commented.
I’m not reading anything into anything.
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