To the Editor:
As of this date, it is uncertain whether there will be a National Day of Prayer. Since so much of the population already prays, in churches, synagogues, and mosques, in restaurants before meals, in hospitals, etc., it seems rather unnecessary, and perhaps dreamed up so that both elected officials and clergy might share a lavish breakfast at taxpayers’ expense.
Last year, the president did not show for public prayers, no doubt heeding the words of Jesus to, “Go into your room and closing the door, pray to your Father in secret.” (Perhaps for his choice in “opting-out,” many thought the president not Christian enough. Be that as it may…)
Also, we might ask how a religious-neutral country can even consider such a day.
So why am I writing about a day (May 6, this year) which may not be observed? The idea intrigues me, since I consider what people pray for and I’d like to recommend something to pray for on a single day and what not to pray for and why.
First of all, I ask, on behalf on Andrew, my four-year-old great nephew, that people stop praying for the world to end. There are millions of children like him, who are discovering the world our ancestors never suspected, a world where creatures are observed in the deepest areas of the sea, where surfaces of planets are seen in the everyday.
He and millions like him, have an insatiable appetite for reality, a need for answers. They will become the persons we need in the here and now, in the future, to make life, loving, and health all the better. Their smiles and enthusiasm already are making our lives richer. Who is it that is a killjoy by praying for their world to end?
If there must be a nationwide, concerted day of prayer, let that concentration be on regrowing limbs on our amputee soldiers. For the Christian believers alone, this should be sufficient, as it is written, “Whatsoever you ask the Father in My name, it shall be given you.”
It would be wonderful to see the results, and a lesson to our children on the power of prayer.
For purposes of comparison, a national day of no prayer, on which no one prays, in the week following, and observe the differences. Surely, anyone who insists that “prayer works” would have no objection.
Personally, I would prefer a universally acceptable Day of Penicillin, or Day of the Salk Vaccine, on which we celebrate the medical discoveries, the painstaking research that brought lifesaving vaccines, drugs, procedures, saving millions of lives, eliminating much misery and illness. I find it rather odd to dedicate a day to something proven to be no more effective to cure illness than placebos, judging by major studies.
Overall, to make this a better country and world for us, my great nephew, and all those other wide-eyed, eager to learn, enthused in discoveries, I’m siding with the do-ers, not the pray-ers. Every time.
Carl Scheiman, Walpole
