Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

To my many Pagan friends, blessed Beltane!

Today is also, on the Western calendar, the celebration of Christ's ascent into Heaven (40 days after Easter, so the Orthodox celebration will be a while yet). And this evening will see the start of the 12th day of Rivdan, and Yom HaSho'ah -- Holocaust Memorial Day.

So I can see today being a rather prayerful day. And goodeness, it's also the (US) National Day of Prayer. (What? Separation of Church and State, you say? Yeah, I wondered about that too. Note, by the way, that the NDoP goes back to 1952, so the instigation of this bit of entanglement can't be blamed on Bush & co.)

Thing is, as if having an official National Day of Prayer did not seem enough like State sponsorship of religion to start with, according to the last thing I read about it, it's been 'steeplejacked', so not only is it not a broad, religions-of-the-world event, it's apparently not even a "try to include everybody but please overlook all the overtly Christian aspects", and not even just pan-Christian; rather, it has become an event just for fundamentalist Christian evangelicals.

Y'know, speaking as a Christian, I'd like to get the State's hands out of my religion. Seriously.

And then, after I finish with that thought, I speak as an American and say that while we're at it, I'd like to get various churches' fingers out of our laws. Both because we have to be fair to the great many people living here who do not share my Faith, and because allowing meddling in one direction invitesinevitably leads to meddling in the other direction.

So for me, "National Day of Prayer" means Say-Something-About-Separation-of-Church-And-State Day. After all, I can (and do) pray any day. I don't need the government telling me when to pray. As a Christian -- as a religious person at all, in fact -- I find the idea of having my government remind me to pray rather offensive. (I'm not even going to bother imagining how offended non-believers are at that idea. I've got atheist friends who will probably chime in and tell me, saving me the trouble of trying to imagine it first.)

So today should be a holy day, a prayerful day, for folks of a bunch of different faiths, but based on their own religious calendars, not because the United States government calls for a Day of Prayer. Beltane, Ascension Day, Yom HaShoah, Rivdan. No shortage of reminders there, for a much broader population than fundamentalist evangelicals, without any need for a State proclamation.

So to my friends, acquaintences, and unknown readers of all Faiths, blessed be -- may whatever observances you paricipate in go well, and may the blessings of the day be upon you. And to my atheist, agnostic, and apathist friends, I wish upon you the patience to get through a State-sponsored-religion day without apoplexy (but not quite enough patience that you forget to speak out in favour of dis-entanglement of Church and State).

Finally something about today for folks who would rather not discuss religion or politics: according to Wikipedia, today is also the 30th anniversary of the first unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail. (Was that the first spam, or had there been non-commercial UBE before then?).