AU, allies protest offical prayer days in Georgia, Florida

Church & State, Jun 2000

Americans United activists joined forces with like-minded organizations in Georgia and Florida to protest government observance of the National Day of Prayer last month.

In Cobb County, Ga., an Atlanta suburb, a protest organized by the Atlanta Chapter of Americans United received widespread media coverage. Chapter President Walter Bell organized the demonstration after government officials in Cobb County reneged on an earlier promise to stop sponsoring the annual religious event.

"The governments of Cobb County and Georgia must represent citizens of many different faiths, some Christian and some not," Bell said in a media statement. "It is inappropriate for government to endorse and promote a sectarian event of this nature. Promotion of religion is the job of our houses of worship, not the state."

Cobb officials sponsored a prayer breakfast May 4. It was coordinated by the county's Treasury Department, and various local officials attended. The keynote speaker was Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes (D). Bell noted that county employees sold tickets to the event and used government resources to promote it.

In 1998, Americans United and the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia protested Cobb County's sponsorship of a similar prayer breakfast. At that time, Bill Byrne, chairman of the County Board of Commissioners, promised in a letter that the county would "no longer sponsor, financially support or otherwise endorse the event."

Bell organized a demonstration at the site of the prayer breakfast that received coverage on every local television station and in several newspapers. Other groups joining the protest include the ACLU of Georgia, the Atlanta Freethought Society, the Church-State Network of Georgia, Citizens for the Middle Ground, the Council for Secular Humanism, the Georgia Rural-Urban Summit, the Greater Atlanta Interfaith Alliance, the National Council of Jewish Women-- Atlanta Section and People For the American Way Foundation.

In Florida, the Tampa Bay Chapter of Americans United adopted a resolution chastising Gov. Jeb Bush for issuing a Prayer Day proclamation inviting "all residents to pray with diligence and obedience and seek the face of Almighty God." Calling Bush's action "an egregious violation of the principle of separation of church and state," the chapter asked the governor to "keep your religious beliefs out of our state government."

At the national level, Congress marked the National Day of Prayer with an event on Capitol Hill that featured Christian clergy and one conservative Jewish rabbi. The event this year was again coordinated by the National Day of Prayer Task Force, a private organization run by Shirley Dobson, wife of radio counselor and Religious Right activist James C. Dobson of Focus on the Family.

Days before the event, Americans United criticized the task force for issuing materials replete with historical errors and slanted analysis of Supreme Court decisions. (AU's analysis of the task force materials can be read online at AU's website: www.au.org.)

Americans United also charged that the event has been taken over by Religious Right forces, who use it to promote a faulty "Christian nation" view of the United States. Defending the Christian character of the day, Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ told Religion News Service, "It would dilute the meaning of this meeting if we just made this a religious gathering instead of a Christian gathering. It's not being selfish. It's not being prejudiced. It's simply being faithful to our heritage:'