Seventh Circuit Affirms Americans’ God-Given Right to Pray for This Nation

• By Alan Sears
• Posted Apr 26, 2011
• 2 Comments »

It’s official, now.  It’s still okay to pray for America.

On April 14, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that “a feeling of alienation” just didn’t justify a lawsuit by the Freedom From Religion Foundation aimed at overturning the law that sets aside a National Day of Prayer. The decision ordered dismissal of the lawsuit, which was originally filed against Shirley Dobson (former chairperson of the National Day of Prayer Task Force and wife of ADF co-founder Dr. James Dobson), former President George W. Bush, and others.

In its opinion, the Seventh Circuit found that “the ‘psychological consequence presumably produced by observation of conduct with which one disagrees’ is not an ‘injury’ for the purpose of standing.”  (In other words, not liking the fact that Congress has set aside a day for a National Day of Prayer doesn’t qualify one to ban it for everyone else.) “Plaintiffs have not altered their conduct one whit or incurred any cost in time or money,” the judges said. “All they have is disagreement with the President’s action.”

“Public officials should be able to participate in public prayer activities just as America’s founders did,” says ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot, who represented Shirley Dobson and the private, non-profit National Day of Prayer Task Force.

ADF attorneys filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Seventh Circuit after getting the lawsuit against Shirley Dobson tossed out entirely. (ADF attorneys continued to represent Mrs. Dobson and the Task Force throughout the case.) When the victory was announced last week, Dr. Dobson aired a special broadcast on his daily program, Family Talk, to celebrate this huge win for our nation’s history and heritage: http://myfamilytalk.com/Broadcasts/Archive.aspx.

Last month, ADF attorneys authored a letter to governors across the country, encouraging them to observe and participate in the 60th annual National Day of Prayer and explaining that they are on firm legal footing to do so.

Next Thursday, May 5, will mark that 60^th anniversary of this critical annual summons of Americans to intercede for their nation before the Lord. I hope you will join me in taking a meaningful part in this event, for surely never has our country more urgently needed the grace and intervention of God than it does in these days.

We have the freedom.  Our courts now say so – and, of course, more than that: God says so. This is our heritage as Americans, as individuals, as believers in a living God … we are free to come before His throne with our praise and our petitions, our thanks and our requests.

So: let us pray.