Metroplex Atheists
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National Day of Prayer Protest 2001

The theocratic agenda of the National Day of Prayer was more in plain view this year than ever before. They once again held it on the courthouse grounds. The mayor pro-tem spoke in support of the Christianity of the Mayor, the Dallas City Council, and the entire city of Dallas. While the occasional attendee came over to tell us it was all about prayer and not about government endorsement, the speakers betrayed a much more obvious bent.

Randy was in rare form this time, bringing his Bible and doing a few selected readings for the crowd. Whenever someone came over to insist that they were being taken out of context, Randy offered 'em the Bible and asked 'em to put the verses back into context for him. Nobody took him up on the offer.

hint: "You're taking that out of context" sounds good in principle, but doesn't work in practice.

Randy's mantra this year was "Matthew six, five and six", which is the verse in which Jesus chastises those who pray loudly on streetcorners. A few folks got the message, but most insisted that Jesus was probably talking about something else.

A local parochial school arrived, and a few kids tried to tell us that we needed to read the Bible with "an open heart". When we informed 'em that a couple of us were Christians longer than they had been alive, they insisted that it couldn't be so.

A few folks passing by got the message. Some locals touring the nearby memorials asked us what was going on. A Jewish couple was shocked that the city would allow public endorsements of one religion over the rest. A Sikh woman feared that the US was becoming a Christian version of Afghanistan.

John had the occasional amateur proselytizer tied in knots. John's main question was "If a group of Hindus had a rally, could they get someone from the city to proclaim that the Dallas City Council and the City of Dallas was blessed by the love of Vishnu?". The answer was an obvious "no", and the only explanation they could provide was "because our religion is the best one and them other ones don't count".

This was one of the more distasteful parts of the event. Two women (probably teachers) showed up with a few girls. They forced the girls to their knees to pray while they watched.

David Penn was the first target for amateur proselytizers. Needless to say, he held his own. The kid in the white shirt stormed away a few times to study his Bible, only to return later to try to refute David's point. Folks in general don't think we're too well thought-out about our points and that we're easy marks.