The Freedom From Religion Foundation has sent a memo to Gov. Paul LePage and the Maine Legislative Prayer Caucus highlighting a few of the historical fallacies, contradictions and inaccuracies in the “Call to Prayer for Maine” signed on Jan. 17.
FFRF is a nonprofit, educational organization representing over 17,000 members across the country including members in Maine. It represents a viewpoint shared by the 25 percent of Maine citizens who self-identify as nonreligious. The memo discusses how this prayer is a misuse of civil power and how it ignores the 45 million Americans who "do not draw hope, strength, or comfort by supplicating to invisible means of support."
FFRF, with the help of Constitutional Consultant Andrew Seidel explained that "it is a perversion of history and our Constitution to claim that it was founded on, 'faith-based principles.' "
"Our government is not based on faith or on god; our government is based on the idea, an anti-biblical idea, that 'Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the consent of the governed.' Both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution repudiate the idea of a god-given government. The [Prayer] Proclamation renounces the democratic ideal in favor of the divine right to rule that our country rebelled against in 1776," noted FFRF.
The Prayer Proclamation cites the bible as a reason to pray, but it ignores the fact that the bible commands believers to "go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret."
"Not only is it untrue that our 'rights come from almighty God,' as the Proclamation declares, it is a shameful negation of the true cost of freedom. This idea ignores the sacrifice of those who gave their lives to secure our freedom and by attributing to God what our forebears worked so hard to achieve denigrates what is arguably the greatest human triumph in all of history — our country," wrote FFRF.
FFRF also debunks the idea that "In God We Trust" somehow lends credence to the "Christian nation" myth and instead shows that the motto is the divisive result of fearmongering.
The Prayer Caucus offensively and incorrectly asserts that people need religion to be moral. This statement shows far more about those who ascribe to it than those who don't (and it's not pretty).
FFRF invites the Prayer Caucus "to get off your knees and get back to work."