c. 2005 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ With a purple-robed, 74-member choir as a backdrop, President Bush met with religious leaders at the White House on Thursday (May 5) to commemorate the 54th annual National Day of Prayer.

“The National Day of Prayer was founded in 1952 by an act of Congress, yet this day is part of a broader tradition that reaches back to the beginnings of America,” said Bush, as the choir from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., watched and periodic “amens” were heard from invited guests. “They declared it a self-evident truth that our right to liberty comes from God.”

In his comments, Bush emphasized the frequency and diversity of prayer.

“Every day, millions of us turn to the Almighty in reverence and humility,” Bush said. “Every day, our churches and synagogues and mosques and temples are filled with men and women who pray to our maker. And almost every day, I am given a special reminder of this great generosity of spirit when someone comes up and says, `Mr. President, I’m praying for you.”’

The White House celebration included representatives of several faiths, including Rabbi Kenneth Auman, president of the Rabbinical Council of America; Shirley Dobson, chairman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force and an evangelical Christian; Catholic priest Charles Pope, pastor at St. Thomas More in Washington; and the Rev. Max Lucado, an evangelical Christian pastor who is 2005 honorary chairman of the National Day of Prayer.

Some critics say the National Day of Prayer Task Force, a private organization based in Colorado Springs, Colo., and headed by Shirley Dobson, wife of James Dobson of Focus on the Family, has given the National Day of Prayer a politically conservative and religiously evangelical flavor.

“I am not against prayer; I just don’t want to exclude anybody from it,” said Father John Vrana, 74, a retired Catholic priest participating in an alternative Interfaith Day of Prayer in Oklahoma City. “I personally feel excluded from it.”

When asked about the criticism, Terrell Mayton, a spokesman for the NDP Task Force in Colorado Springs, said in a telephone interview that “our perspective is evangelical Christian,” which represents a “very, very large” constituency.

He emphasized that the organization, with fewer than a dozen full-time employees, is privately funded, even though it partners with government.

Gatherings were held in cities across the country, with organizers predicting beforehand that millions would participate.

Pilgrim’s Pride, the nation’s second-largest poultry producer, invited its 36,000 employees to participate in company-hosted NDP events at plants across the country.

The competing Interfaith Day of Prayer, coordinated in part by the Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State, billed its Oklahoma City gathering as a celebration of religious freedom and tolerance. Unlike the National Day of Prayer, organizers said it was limited to one locality.

In the White House East Room, Shirley Dobson, who sat next to her husband in the front row, just a few seats away from Bush and his wife, Laura, emphasized the movement’s reach.

“Almighty God continues to bless America despite the fact that we cooperatively and individually have turned our backs on him,” Shirley Dobson said in a speech.

Bush took a more positive approach, connecting prayer to one of his favorite themes, freedom.

“No government can ever take a gift from God away,” Bush said. “And in our great country, among the freedoms we celebrate is the freedom to pray as you wish, or not at all. And when we offer thanks to our creator for the gift of freedom, we acknowledge that it was meant for all men and women, and for all times.”

MO/PH END RNS