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The justice and wisdom of an inclusive local observance has been obvious enough, one

should think, from the very inception of the National Day of Prayer. While faith-system

pluralism appears not to have been foremost on Trumans mind, subsequent presidentshave had the goodness to mention it.

Ronald Reagan, on designating an annual date of the first Thursday in May, prescribedthat we join together as people of many faiths. Bill Clinton said that in America weobserve an extraordinary variety of religious faiths and traditions. George W. Bush

considered it occasion to honor the religious diversity our freedom permits.

Those leaders gave a nod to the idea that the United States is a land of equality, blessed

with a constitutional promise that national things will not favor your religion over mine,

nor religion over the option of having none. The other clause, right there in the same

shining sentence, guarantees free exercise, i.e., neither can the law prohibit us fromacting on and practicing our respective philosophies and creeds.

The establishment (no pun intended) in 1972 of a National Day of Prayer Task Force wasnot and cannot lawfully have been ordained by government. No president appointed nor

did Congress approve Mrs. Shirley Dobson, but she and her Task Force effectively

placed evangelicals in charge of public ceremonies throughout the nation, and to this day

many communities have an official practice of exclusivism, i.e., proceedings in whichCatholics may not usually participate, nor Mormonsbut where Buddhists, Jews,

Muslims, Pagans and some others are pointedly uninvited.

Such narrow events are perfectly legal except when they are conducted at City Hall or the

courthouse and/or solemnized by the mayor, etc., in violation of the no establishment

provision of the constitution. The City of Abilene undertook reforms seven years ago

that put a stop to the unfair kind of National Day of Prayer event. From that time wehave seen the two ways in which public prayer ceremonies may lawfully be done on the

steps and lawn of a City Halleither with any and all religions welcome, or none.

We can thus be proud of ourcommunitys good understanding of the American way, an

intelligent outlook that puts us in the company of Oklahoma City, where Americans

United for Separation of Church and State successfully organized an inclusiveobservance that same year of 2005. We are every bit as enlightened and progressive as

Troy, Michigan and Palmdale, California.

The courageous Abilene Interfaith Council carries on a fine tradition of celebrating theNational Day of Prayer at downtown Minter Park, where prayer and devotional speech

from a number of traditions always concludes with the breaking of bread together in

peace.

This year, considering the expansive spiritual options of a free society, nearby Everman

Park has been independently reserved for a lunch hour observance meant especially to

invoke First Nation, Pagan, Buddhist and other venerable beliefs, to bless and heal theland.

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This might also be the venue for those who would speak a while on the merits of the

nonreligious way. After all, Atheists have given their lives as troops and first responders;they work and pay taxes and vote. A philosophy of reason and humanism is clearly

worthy among creeds, and a National Day that disregarded them would be the less whole

for it.

Such is the open-mindedness, fairness and respect Id like to thinkwe strive for here in

Texas. I am very sure that this attitude should be useful in resolving many a dramatic

local controversy over, e.g., the display of cross or creche on government land, prayers atpublic high school graduation ceremonies, under God in the Pledge of Allegiance, the

Ten Commandments at a given courthouse, etc. The answer is either to welcome all or to

exclude all, but in either case equally. It is nothing short of mystic that the founders of

the United States embodied true religious freedom so elegantly and succinctly.