Evangelist Franklin Graham (son of Billy) said recently on Fox News that “The National Day of Prayer goes back to the Continental Congress with George Washington, when he set aside a day of prayer.” Graham apparently went on to invoke the “Judeo-Christian” tradition, and that evangelical Christians are somehow carrying forward the true intentions of George Washington.
But, Jonathan Hutson reports at Talk to Action, the new blog devoted to discussing the Christian Right and ways of most effectively opposing it, that Graham is misrepresenting what Washington said and what he meant. “In fact,” Hutson writes, “President George Washington used his first proclamation of a national day of prayer and thanksgiving to take a preemptive slap at anyone who might try to hijack the holiday for their own sectarian purposes.”
I wrote the other day, “If religious equality is to survive in our time, I believe it is necessary for us to reclaim our history and stand up to the historical revisionism of today’s theocratic Christian Right.” Reclaiming our history was one of the three main themes of my speech at the recent conference on the theocratic Christian Right in New York a few weeks ago.
Hutson’s debunking of Graham’s slippery invocation of Washington and the founders is exactly the kind thing we need more of, and that we are committed to doing at Talk to Action.
Thanks… I’m glad people are finally standing up and speaking out against these idiots. In my opinion, the “religious” right is not about religion at all, it’s about bald bigotry, hatred and ignorance, using religion as a cover, and then grabbing for power and control. I will most definetly check out the blog you mention. Sounds interesting.
Benjiaman Franklin suggested that the members of the Constitutional Convention say a prayer. Only a couple of people supported the motion and it was voted down.
The original Congress refused to fund a Congressional Chaplin, considering it a waste of taxpayer’s money.
Our founding fathers (for the most part) were extremely wary of religious fanatics and would have nothing to do with today’s right wing idiots. The right wing Republicans are about as unpatriotic, anti-Constitution and anti-American as you can get.
I think we really have to push this history, most people don’t seem to have read any history since middle school and have little idea of what really happened. (I’m including myself among people who need more education on this, aside from Zinn and the First Salute I haven’t read much American history, time to start I think).