President Obama has decided that there will no longer be a "National Day of Prayer" held in May. He doesn't want to offend anybody. Where was his concern about offending Christians last January when he allowed the Muslims to hold a day of prayer on the capitol grounds. As a Christian American "I am offended." if you agree... copy and paste, this country was built on Freedom of Religion!!
Um...where to start? Perhaps first with the fact that it is not true! I wish that, when people post inflammatory status updates, that they'd check the facts first. Google is your friend...and if you have access to a computer to post a status update, you can surely Google something to make sure it is indeed true. When people post crap like this that's not true it makes us look like buffoons, and we then wonder why people take Christians for a naive, swallow-anything bunch of idiots.
Second, even if it WERE true, why as Christians do we need our faith to be affirmed by the State? Really? Are we such wimps that we wouldn't know what to do if believing in Jesus became outlawed? Since when do we need Caesar's stamp of approval on our talking to God? When did ever Jesus say that we need that? Where is there any Scriptural evidence that He even cared about it?
Third, why do we need a special day to celebrate what we should be doing every day? This to me is like Valentine's Day - it's nice and all, but why would you do anything on this day that you wouldn't do any of the other 364 days of the year?
Fourth, why bother bringing up Muslims? To me, this smacks of thinly veiled resentment or hatred toward Muslims, and hiding behind God to do it I find WRONG. And yes, there was a day when Muslims organized to pray (much like the Tea Party Express organized today, only they weren't praying) back in September, and it was peaceful, and they were praying for the soul of America. Why should it bother Christians that Muslims gather to pray? (Maybe because it's easier for us to think they're all terrorists who hate us and want to blow us up? That would certainly make it easier to justify the wars we're currently fighting. Well, it's not we. I'm opposed to the wars.)
Christians beginning with Constantine have been in the faces of the rest of the world for the last 1700 years wanting to make people believe what we do and wanting to punish them if they don't. It's about time we slacked off, got out of people's faces, and started living in such a way that makes people wonder (and want) what we have. As the saying goes, "Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words."
To me, posting status updates like this (in addition to spreading false witness - oops, that pesky 9th Commandment) are a lot like what my brother in Christ Shane Claiborne calls 'spiritual masturbation' - it feels real good, but doesn't give birth to much.
