jeffcagle:

Some cherrypicked paragraphs:

After a standing invitation to the White House during the Bush administration, evangelical Christian organizers of activities for the National Day of Prayer have not been invited to visit the White House on Thursday.

President Barack Obama plans to mark the day by issuing a proclamation. He will not have a ceremony at the White House, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Ron Millar, acting director for the Secular Coalition of America, commended the White House’s decision to discontinue former President George W. Bush’s traditional ceremony, which he said championed the Religious Right more than it promoted prayer. Either way, it’s not something the federal government should encourage, Millar said. “It’s a nice first step,” he said. “Generally, we don’t want the federal government to endorse prayer because it’s endorsing a specific religion. We’d rather them not be in that business. It would be difficult to be all inclusive on this.”

James Madison wrote in 1817 that national days of prayer “seem to imply and certainly nourish the erroneous idea of a national religion.”

To this, I say Amen.