The Freedom From Religion Foundation has produced a video rebuttal to the many twisted Christian-right propaganda videos choking the Internet.
The video explains why the Foundation challenged the National Day of Prayer in a lawsuit, resulting in a historic ruling on April 15 declaring the congressional act unconstitutional. The video was produced in part to debunk the Christian-right revisionist lies trotted out to justify a National Day of Prayer mandated and proclaimed by the government.
The video documents, for example, that:
• U.S. founders did not prayer during the Constitutional Convention when they adopted the (godless) Constitution.
• George Washington did not kneel in prayer at Valley Forge.
"Even had Washington formally prayed at Valley Forge, it would have been neither here nor there constitutionally. But he didn't, and we're tired of the disinformation of the religious right going uncorrected," says Annie Laurie Gaylor of FFRF. " Our lawsuit has corrected the historic record, but the myths and distortions continue unabated."
FFRF Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Gaylor explain the religious genesis of the National Day of Prayer. It was suggested by Rev. Billy Graham in 1952, and changed in 1988 to the first Thursday in May at the behest of Christian evangelicals.
"The Christian right hijacked our Constitution," says Barker.
Video cameos include staff attorney Rebecca Markert, Freethought Today editor Bill Dunn, webmaster Scott Colson, executive assistant Katie Daniel, student staffer Eleanor Wroblewski (an education major who gives Judge Barbara Crabb an "A+" for her decision), and retired attorney and volunteer Wendy Goldberg.
The video, which had to be assembled quickly, features FFRF's new advertising artwork now on Madison buses, highlighting the secular beliefs of the U.S. founders. That pretty piano accompaniment was recorded by Dan Barker on FFRF's mellow Knight piano at Freethought Hall.