Today, so I hear, is a National Day of Prayer, as proclaimed by our President Incarnate.
It’s worth recalling that Presidents Jefferson, Madison, and Jackson opposed presidential prayer proclamations on church-state separation grounds.
Madison, as President, issued them anyway; Jefferson, by contrast, stuck to his principles (um, er, on this issue, anyway).
All right-thinking people will today pray for the demise of America the State.
Following the prayer period, your regular work assignments will be doubled, but you will enjoy a twenty-minute-longer lunch break.
That is all.
Dear God,
Please make the state die
Amen.
Response from God: I’m too indifferent to care. That’s a man-made creation. Destroy it yourselves. It’s not part of anything I created so I’m not responsible.
As you note, Jefferson opposed them as president. As governor of Virginia he proclaimed them from what I’ve read.
God would say that, wouldn’t he….
Cannot prayer just be meditation? Clearing and sharpening of the mind? Is there anything wrong with raising one’s awareness?
Maybe, but that’s not what Obama is referring to.
Hey, I don’t want government telling me to clear and sharpen my mind.
And I don’t want 74 and over degree temperatures. I prefer 65-73 degrees.
Then turn up your Air Conditioner?
Exactly.
On second thought, to meditate because one sees reason to do so, is very different from meditating because of social/economic pressure to do so.
But still, anarchy (as mode of perception/structure of interaction) would suggest that you just don’t listen to the government’s instruction–unless its reasonable.
Am I not describing the *hexis* of anarchy?
Well, sure. We shouldn’t decide to pray just because the government tells us to, just as we shouldn’t decide not to pray just because the government tells us not to. But we can still resent being told.
OK. That’s fair.
Well, sure. We shouldn’t decide to pray just because the government tells us to, just as we shouldn’t decide not to pray just because the government tells us not to. But we can still resent being told.
Brothers and sisters, fellowship of the congregation, can I get an AMEN?
That depends; are you from the government?