You can help to make the United States more constitutional by picking a winner in our annual online Nothing Fails Like Prayer contest.
The U.S. Supreme Court unwisely (and unconstitutionally) sanctioned sectarian prayer by city and county governments in its May 5, 2014, Town of Greece v. Galloway decision. It's now up to us—up to you!—to uphold the U.S. Constitution.
Although the Greece decision is a blow to secularism and the rights of the nonreligious, Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the decision, did include language that acknowledges the equal right of an atheist to give a governmental invocation. So, FFRF in 2014 instituted an annual activism prize: The Nothing Fails Like Prayer Award. The award will be given for the best secular "invocation" at a government meeting. The annual winner or winners will receive a commemorative plaque, $500 and will be invited to deliver the invocation at FFRF's annual convention in October in Pittsburgh as our guests.
You have an array of 13 impressive short speeches to choose from. The award winner will join secular activists David Williamson and Aleta Ledendecker at the Pittsburgh convention, who are the co-presidents' "picks" this year. You get to choose the third "Nothing Fails Like Prayer" winner. Brooke Mulder won the contest last year, while Amanda Novotny, Dan Courtney and Tim Earl shared the honors in 2014.
The nonwinners have no need to fret. All contesting entries will receive a commemorative certificate. In addition to posting their videos on its website, FFRF publishes the transcript of each secular invocation in its newspaper, Freethought Today.
Vote now for your favorite humanist or freethought invocation-giver. The vote ends on Monday, Aug. 29, at midnight. The winner will be announced next week. The 2017 Nothing Fails Like Prayer Contest officially opens on Sept. 1. Read rules here.
We'd like to see secular citizens flood government meetings with secular invocations that illustrate why government prayers are unnecessary, ineffective, embarrassing, exclusionary, divisive or just plain silly. The more citizens protest prayers, the more likely government prayers will stop.
FFRF plans to make the contest an annual event until the Greece decision is overturned. Help it gain traction, so that we can achieve secular change.