The sounds of music and prayer rang from the steps of City Hall for at least an hour on Thursday, when hundreds of faith leaders and residents gathered to celebrate the National Day of Prayer.
The day, which takes place on the first Thursday of May, was signed into law by President Harry S. Truman in 1952 through a joint resolution of Congress, and aimed to encourage people of all different faiths to pray for the nation. The theme of this year’s 65th Annual National Day of Prayer was “Wake Up America,” putting an emphasis on those around the country to return to faith as a source of life guidance.
“It’s our privilege today to come and literally obey the law, we’re here because we’ve been invited to (be here) by our government,” said Suzanne Dollar, who has coordinated the National Day of Prayer with her husband, Soapy, for more than 30 years. “We are here to … realize the need for prayer in our country, the desperate need for prayer and the desperate need for us not to just ask God for what we want, but for us to come humbly before Him and confess where we’ve failed and where we’ve sinned and ask for healing in our nation.”
After Mayor Ivy Taylor read the National Day of Prayer City proclamation and prayer to the crowd, a host of speakers – including religious leaders, military officials, and pastors – lead prayers that inspired many in attendance to raise their hands and scream “Amen!” throughout the afternoon. Each one used the Hebrew name for God – Jehovah – followed by other Hebrew names to highlight the different aspects of “healing” that each person was asking God to provide to the nation. The event was open to all faith groups, but attendees predominantly represented the Christian faith.
“Lord God, there’s nothing that your hand cannot touch and not redeem,” said Gilbert Hernandez, CEO San Antonio Youth for Christ. “So, we turn to the God of the universe, we turn to the God who only can make what this nation has become, and we humble ourselves before you.”
Group songs led by the Community Bible Church choir punctuated the occasion, their voices heard from blocks away, and students from 13 different Christian and Catholic elementary, middle, and high schools in the city read sacred verses of scripture from the Bible.
Toward the end of the afternoon, small prayer circles were formed throughout the crowd, where strangers stood hand-in-hand and shared out loud their prayers for the community, many asking for guidance for city and national leaders, a righteous future President, and an end to the widespread suffering occurring around the world.
“I believe in the power of prayer. I believe that God is waiting and ready to heal this land, this city, this nation,” said Cherie Mixon, one of the many Christian woman who gathered at the celebration. “There’s something that’s amazing and supernatural when people come together and pray.”
Top Image: Maria Evangelina Martinez points her finger upward as she sings to a faith based song. Photo by Scott Ball.
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I wonder if any city funds were expended in putting on the National Day of Prayer. If any were, isn’t that mingling religion with government, in violation of the Constitution? Did Mayor Ivy utilize city-funded transportation to get to the event? If so, isn’t that violating the separation of church and state? Shouldn’t she have financed her own participation in a sectarian non-government event?
The article makes no mention of non-Christian participation, only saying that “most were Christian.” Did the event coordinators do anything to increase participation by Jewish people, Muslims, Native Americans, Buddhists, secularists, etc.? Maybe those non-Christians felt unwelcome participating in a government-sponsored event since Texas voted for a scary evangelical in the recent Republican primary and a very scary xenophobe is the presumptive Republican nominee. And our Attorney General recently invoked the Bible in designating how public bathrooms are to be utilized. Many Christian Americans seem very worked up about bathrooms and genitalia these days. I digress.
Speaking of Ted Cruz, why didn’t all that praying he, his wife, his father and, especially, his mother, fail to indeed give Ted that “green light” that he claims God gave him in a Houston church in February? Sounds like God gave Ted the royal red light on that. Let’s hope that light stays red forever.