Pray that National Day of Prayer goes on

Communities across the nation - including Sikeston - celebrated the annual National Day of Prayer this week.

Established by Congress in 1952 - though it had long been an unofficial practice - the annual observance was established to set aside one day for differences to be forgotten and the nation called to prayer.

Yet in our ever-changing national culture, there are those calling for an end to this annual celebration. And some of those voices are coming from church leaders.

There was once a time, not too long ago, when the National Day of Prayer was a highlight in our national spiritual life.

But because of a massive polarization on virtually all issues, even the national prayer observance is now coming under attack.

Some church leaders fear the day has morphed into a government-sanctioned event that gives politicians a chance to flaunt their religious credentials without the true spirit and reason for prayer.

Compound that with our politically-correct direction and it's impossible to find any event that will have universal acceptance.

I fully understand the separation of church and state. Our founding fathers fled political and religious persecution in England and the last thing they wanted was a church-run government.

But the National Day of Prayer never crosses that delicate line of separation and, in fact, it should give us pause to realize that the gifts we are given ultimately come from God and not man.

Because of an extreme minority in this country, we have effectively ended prayer at most public functions. We are so mindful of the feelings of others that we lose our core values trying to placate all viewpoints.

Here's the bottom line.

The National Day of Prayer is one small hour in one small day to address perhaps the largest issue for all of mankind.

To somehow see something wrong with this meaningful event may well come back to haunt our society.

If we begin finding fault with prayer of all things then we may have passed a point of no return.

God forbid, if we reach that point, we will surely realize that prayer is the most important foundational act of mankind.