As has every president since 1952, last week President Biden issued a proclamation about the National Day of Prayer.

I have been thinking about it and have a few thoughts to share, but before I do, some clarifications and disclaimers:

• I am not sure that preposterous is the best word to the describe the proclamation – I think silly or inane work better, but I like alliteration, so I am sticking with preposterous.
• I have watched a sufficient number of “West Wing” episodes to know that Joe Biden had little to do with the proclamation.  Some junior staffer got the assignment, and the President may not have seen the thing before the signature machine signed it.
• It is difficult to offer official opinions about prayer in a religiously pluralistic culture with sometimes militant secularists looking over your shoulder.  I pity the poor junior staffer.
• Perhaps most importantly, I don’t like the idea of a National Day of Prayer much at all. I am for the nation, as in its people, praying, but not for the congress setting aside the first Thursday in May as the designated day for prayer.  I would be happy to see the Congress repeal Public Law 100-307, but I do not think that will happen any time soon.  In the meantime, junior staffers are going to have to continue to write Prayer Proclamations.  They could do better than this one.

I have printed the proclamation below if you care to reference it.  Some observations:

The proclamation understands prayer to have the ability to “nourish souls,” to “power moral movements” (nice alliteration, junior staffer), to serve as a “healing balm,” or to provide “hope and uplift.” In prayer we “find the determination to overcome adversity.” Nice enough, but music, oratory, or yoga might claim to do the same. The proclamation sees prayer as a human endeavor measured by practical human results.

The proclamation perceives the ability to practice prayer as the result of incredible good fortune or, alternatively, the largesse of good government.  The sentence, “The First Amendment to our Constitution protects the rights of free speech and religious liberty, including the right of all Americans to pray,” strikes me as particularly odd, the junior staffer understanding nothing of prayer and misunderstanding the First Amendment altogether. Ask Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in the Soviet gulag or Natan Sharansky in Lefortovo Prison in Moscow; ask Andrew Brunson in Kiriklar Prison in Turkey about prayer being a gift of a benign government or of incredible good fortune.

Critics on the right are all upset that the President’s proclamation does not mention God.  God may not be as upset about the slight as they are.

God can take care of himself.  Nevertheless, the junior staffer in the West Wing could have done better.

It’s easy to complain, more difficult to offer a positive alternative.  But for the sake of next year’s junior staffer, let me offer my suggestion for how this year’s proclamation might have been worded:

Some Americans pray and some do not. The Congress has instructed me to ask those of us who do to join in a day of prayer this coming Thursday.  In the words of the old song, let us pray that God will “mend our every flaw” and “crown our good in brotherhood from sea to shining sea.”  And, if you will, please pray for me that God will grant me the wisdom, courage, and patience I need to serve our country well.

Thanks,
Joe

I think that would do it. They could add the therefore and the part about Public Law 100-307 as needed.

I do not like the idea of the National Day of Prayer, but if we are going to have one, let’s keep the proclamation simple, the understanding of prayer generic, and the interpretation of the Constitution, well, constitutional.

_______________

A Proclamation on National Day of Prayer
MAY 05, 2021 • PRESIDENTIAL ACTIONS

Throughout our history, Americans of many religions and belief systems have turned to prayer for strength, hope, and guidance.  Prayer has nourished countless souls and powered moral movements — including essential fights against racial injustice, child labor, and infringement on the rights of disabled Americans.  Prayer is also a daily practice for many, whether it is to ask for help or strength, or to give thanks over blessings bestowed.

The First Amendment to our Constitution protects the rights of free speech and religious liberty, including the right of all Americans to pray.  These freedoms have helped us to create and sustain a Nation of remarkable religious vitality and diversity across the generations.

Today, we remember and celebrate the role that the healing balm of prayer can play in our lives and in the life of our Nation.  As we continue to confront the crises and challenges of our time — from a deadly pandemic, to the loss of lives and livelihoods in its wake, to a reckoning on racial justice, to the existential threat of climate change — Americans of faith can call upon the power of prayer to provide hope and uplift us for the work ahead.  As the late Congressman John Lewis once said, “Nothing can stop the power of a committed and determined people to make a difference in our society.  Why?  Because human beings are the most dynamic link to the divine on this planet.”

On this National Day of Prayer, we unite with purpose and resolve, and recommit ourselves to the core freedoms that helped define and guide our Nation from its earliest days.  We celebrate our incredible good fortune that, as Americans, we can exercise our convictions freely — no matter our faith or beliefs.  Let us find in our prayers, however they are delivered, the determination to overcome adversity, rise above our differences, and come together as one Nation to meet this moment in history.

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.”

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 6, 2021, as a National Day of Prayer.  I invite the citizens of our Nation to give thanks, in accordance with their own faiths and consciences, for our many freedoms and blessings, and I join all people of faith in prayers for spiritual guidance, mercy, and protection.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-fifth.

JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.