National Prayer Day is Unconstitutional?

Last month a Wisconsin federal judge ruled that National Prayer Day was unconstitutional:

A Wisconsin federal judge on Thursday found the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional, saying it violates the First Amendment prohibition against laws respecting an establishment of religion.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Barbara B. Crabb of the Western District of Wisconsin was a victory for the Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation.

The group had sued the Bush and later Obama administrations in an effort to block the presidents from making their annual proclamations inviting Americans to set aside a day for prayer or meditation.

Anne Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the foundation and a plaintiff in the lawsuit, heralded Crabb's decision as courageous.

"It's an invasion of the freedom of conscience of Americans to have their president direct their prayer or tell them to pray," said Gaylor, whose organization claims a membership of nearly 15,000 freethinkers, agnostics and atheists across North America.

So we have a handful of malcontents who wish to impose their ideologue on the rest of us. What is worse, we have a federal judge that not only has misinterpreted the First Amendment, but also has no historical understanding of our country.

Alexis de Tocqueville understood the character of this great nation when he wrote his Democracy in America in the early 1800’s:

I have expressed enough to characterize Anglo-American civilization in its true colors. This civilization is the result (and this is something we must always bear in mind) of two quite distinct ingredients which anywhere else have often ended in war but which Americans have succeeded somehow to meld together in wondrous harmony; namely the spirit of religion and the spirit of liberty.

Tocqueville further adds:

Liberty looks upon religion as its companion in its struggle and triumphs, as the cradle of its young life, as the divine source of its claims. It considers religion as the guardian of morality, morality as the guarantee of law and the security that freedom will last.

Let us contrast that with the following statement:

"I find it both troubling and dangerous that so many zealous believers in any religion want to legislate their particular understanding of faith and God for everyone else," said the Rev. Dr. Janis J. Kinens of Advent Lutheran Church in Cedarburg.

"We don't need to look far to see the horrific and devastating results of a theocracy form of government," he said.

Do you not find it amazing that a foreigner, who traveled this country over a hundred and fifty years ago, understands the American nature and creed better than our “learned elite” of today?

Source: http://www.jsonline.com/features/religion/91002169.html