Much to Liberals' Horror, Trump Declares Nat'l Day of Prayer as We Look 'to God for Protection & Strength'
It’s great that America is turning to God in prayer. It’s a great American tradition in times of crisis.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
On the same day that President Donald Trump declared coronavirus a national emergency, the commander in chief also declared a national day of prayer for this weekend.
The day of supplication will be this Sunday.
“It is my great honor to declare Sunday, March 15th as a National Day of Prayer,” Trump tweeted Friday.
“We are a Country that, throughout our history, has looked to God for protection and strength in times like these.” “No matter where you may be, I encourage you to turn towards prayer in an act of faith. Together, we will easily PREVAIL!”
Do you plan on commemorating the national day of prayer?
The move came after his declaration of coronavirus as a national emergency.
“The action I am taking will open up access to up to $50 billion of very important and a large amount of money for states and territories and localities,” Trump said .
He added that he’d partnered with private companies in order to “vastly increase and accelerate our capacity to test for the coronavirus.”
This was the big news of the day , as it rightly should have been.
However, the national day of prayer didn’t get nearly as much coverage as it should have.
As Fox News reported, the annual National Day of Prayer is scheduled for May 7. That’s quite a ways away, particularly when you consider the fact that we’re facing a generational health crisis.
And, as Trump noted in his State of the Union speech, there’s nothing more American than humbling ourselves before the Lord.
“In America we celebrate faith. We cherish religion,” Trump said.
“We lift our voices in prayer and we raise our sights to the glory of God.”
WARNING : One of the following tweets contains vulgar language that some readers may find offensive. Viewer discretion is advised.
This sort of thing annoys some people, which is why you got more than a few responses like these which showed liberals’ horror at the idea of prayer — particularly from Trump. At difficult moments like these for the nation, this is the meliorative power of prayer .
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God,” Philippians 4:6 says.
In trying times like these, it helps to remember that things aren’t in our hands and that we have a heavenly father to call upon for protection.
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At difficult moments like these for the nation, this is the meliorative power of prayer .
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God,” Philippians 4:6 says.
In trying times like these, it helps to remember that things aren’t in our hands and that we have a heavenly father to call upon for protection.
A prime example of the problem with religious belief. Those who truly believe that God has things covered are not going to be as likely to take actions necessary to contain its spread.
You have never heard of anti-vaxers or JWs who refuse necessary blood transplants?
Naive assumption. Those who truly believe sometimes have and do act in harmful ways.
What problem? There's no problem here at all.
That's horseshit. That certainly isn't what has been happening. It's not like Trump started with prayer and then stuck with it to the exclusion of all other options. He has been taking lots of actions to contain or limit the spread of disease for several days. Only now after it has been going on for some time, has he finally suggested that people pray as a country. It will give a lot of people strength and comfort. What do you care?
There is a lot of anxiety in the country. This is a good idea.
Do you imagine that you are adding something positive to what we are all going through when you march in here and crap on the idea of praying? It's not smart. It's mean.
You have never heard of anti-vaxers or JWs who refuse necessary blood transplants?
Denying that religious beliefs do not lead to people making stupid choices is ridiculous.
I sure hope leaders (like Pence) presume that it is totally up to us to deal with this pandemic and not have in the back of his mind that God has our back.
Do you see the logic in presuming that prayer will do precisely nothing to shut down the spread of this disease?
And that is the intent....
There are several reasons people oppose vaccines. The most notorious reason in recent is because people are afraid the vaccines will cause autism in their children, not because of religion.
[deleted] Literally billions of people in the world are religious and get vaccines and other proper medical care.
And you of course go personal.
As for your logic, I mentioned anti-vaxers as an example and you return arguing that they are a minority and pretend that religious anti-vaxers do not exist.
I made no claim that they were the majority.
[deleted]
Bullshit. Your initial claim was that people who pray are "unlikely" (I take that to mean more than 50% - a majority) to take proper actions to combat disease. Now you want to try to equivocate instead of admit your error.
You also assumed that anti-vaxxing is based on religion. While it is for some people, that has not been the overriding reason. Some people are simply afraid of vaccines because they fear the shot itself will have negative side effects.
And, as I have pointed out elsewhere, billions of religious people are happy to receive appropriate medical care.
Flat out lie. Complete misrepresentation of my position and my comment history.
Man, all you have to do is read what I wrote. Here, I will show you:
If someone truly believes God has things covered, what logically do you think that will mean? Read what I actually write. Think about it. The level of presumption here is staggering.
Those were my opening comments. I have approached this topic thoughtfully. Note how the tone turned into aggressive, belligerent, personal snark with the responses.
Oh how awful! You're making it personal. Wahhh! /s
Like I care about your explanations and spin at this point.
I quoted my opening comments to read. You do not want to truly read what I write. I am not surprised based on your comments here. Much easier just to make false allegations and misrepresentations.
Good grief, chill. Try to make reasoned, factual arguments instead of going personal with allegations. And at least read what I write before you comment.
I am going to close this thread as I can see no good coming from it at this point. No more comments.
I closed this thread yet I come back to three more comments. I have deleted them. But if I see any more comments in this thread, I will be handing out points.
It's a good idea. I have added this issue into my prayers as I am sure many others have.
Why, exactly, is it a good thing? (see @4.1.8)
Okay, we will go with Tacos! making your point for you.
Prayer for comfort is a good thing. If praying can keep people from panicking then that is good. But when people think that praying is going to take care of the problem then that is bad. My point.
Denying that there are plenty of people who think that God will fix this issue if they pray is beyond naive; those people who hold that belief are engaging in counter-productive activities just like anti-vaxers.
And I have not stated that anyone here has made that suggestion. And I have acknowledge when people spoke of precaution with prayer. So maybe read what I write rather than simply proclaim.
Again, not once have I stated anything about people here in this article. Read what I write rather than invent.
Because the example holds. You insert the word ALL in your question where I made no such claim.
You talk about strawman arguments, accuse me of making them and do so in a post where that is all you have done.
The example is stupid. It's the very epitome of prejudice and stereotyping. Sure, some small number of people in the world forego vaccines or other medical care for religious reasons. The vast majority of religious people do not.
So, it would be stupid to hold it up as supportive of the idea that praying is a problem. It's like saying black people are criminals or video games turn people into murderers.
I did not even imply that it was the majority. It was an example of religious belief leading to extremely poor choices. Strawman!
I never argued that praying is a problem. Pay attention to what I actually write Tacos!. The example I used was of people who will pray (e.g. for their sick child) to get better while denying the vaccination for religious reasons. The other example I used was the JWs who would deny a blood transfusion even to save the life of their child and instead pray for the child's recovery.
Citing these examples does not mean they are the majority of cases. They are examples. See?
Now that is funny. I open with thoughtful topical points and then deal with rebutting allegations and misrepresentations from you and Tacos! and you think I am the one who is here to argue.
It does not. Why do you ask?
You tell me. Why stop making ugly allegations now?
My questions too difficult to answer?
Then why are you here?
We who are believers stand by everything that Tacos has said through out all of this seeded discussion.
I don’t expect you to stop doing exactly that regarding prayer and religious belief.
Good idea. We believers should pay for the militant and angry secularists among us.
Oh, the irony of that statement.
Because it's not actually handling the problem. It's just pandering. Just talk and no action.
The problem is we are dealing with a pandemic for which we are ill prepared for and one's solution is to pray?
It seems you don't know the definition of irony.
It is a valid point and I never said that it was all that was or is going to be done. Stop making things up!
See previous statement.
I never said no precautions. Attributing something to me for which I never said is as good as lying. But it's precautions that will help, not prayer.
Inquiring minds want to know!
no action ? Really? It would seem that the day of prayer was all that Trump did Friday in declaring a national emergency according to militant secularists. Like the offense of declaring a national day of prayer negated all the other actions taken.
We believers are definitely under siege here by the secularists embittered by Trump calling for a national day of prayer.
There's that persecution complex showing again.
How long did that take? What about preparing for a possible pandemic in the first place? Especially since we've known about Corona for months now? A national Emergency is just a reaction which may not have even been necessary or required had this issue been dealt with from the get go. This is like calling a fire department after the house has burned down.
Not at all. It's just a meaningless action which won't solve the current problem. It's little more than pretending to do something without actually doing something.
You've already demonstrated what you don't know. Sure isn't my problem.
Your statement implies that I said it was all that was or is going to be done.
Then saying "prayer WITH precautions---not prayer alone with no precautions" was unneccesary.
No, prayers won't do anything at all.
So you are upset that prayer was included with all the other precautions. You realize that that weekend in March has been an annual national day of prayer since 1988? That the already existing day of prayer was simply modified to pray about this particular situation.
Where did I say I was upset. Prayer as a precaution is useless. It won't protect anyone, much less help with corona. It's nothing more than a personal feel good exercise. But it won't do anything to deal with the current crisis.
President Donald Trump announced Friday on Twitter a National Day of Prayer on Sunday as the country combats the spread of the coronavirus.
The National Day of Prayer will take place on Sunday, March 15.
“We are a country that, throughout our history, has looked to God for protection and strength in times like these,” Trump wrote on Twitter, after making the declaration.
He encouraged all Americans to take time on Sunday to pray for the country.
“No matter where you may be, I encourage you to turn towards prayer in an act of faith,” he wrote. “Together, we will easily PREVAIL!”
The president’s declaration immediately sparked anger from anti-religious critics but drew praise from people of faith.
The president on Friday declared a State of Emergency to help mobilize the country to fight the virus.
“The next eight weeks are critical. We can learn and we will turn a corner on this virus,” Trump said.
Haters reaction to a National day of prayer:
Why do they care? Why do they have such a rancor towards a suggested something, which might bring so many of their fellow citizens some peace? It is a vexing question for many but not for me.
Imo it’s simply a self centered hatred of that which is NOK to them, driven by a deep seeded inferiority complex. But hey, that’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.
You are not wrong.
For President* Trump , asking people to pray is a political exercise.
On his personal level, we can assume he has never prayed. He never mentions praying himself, has never mentioned it in the past, and is almost never seen going to church. His religious connections are limited to photo ops like the one where leading evangelicals "laid hands on" him in the oval office.
Thus, we can see this National Prayer Day as cynical on Trump's part.
But that doesn't necessarily mean it is a futile effort. Fundamentalist Christians will appreciate it.
I don't see much harm in it.
The good of this, as I have noted, is the comforting effect this has on some people. Anything that can reduce panic is good because panic is what causes most of the problems. The ideal situation is to remain calm but be vigil in precautions under the assumption that we are on our own to deal with this.
golly, I thought god created all living things. isn't covid-19 a living thing? POS/POTUS has bungled this health crisis from day 1. not too hard to guess what I'll be praying for today.
Gray area
cool. that's the area most affected. with religious tithing and offerings now fully documented, due to churches closing, it looks like a lot of right wing political dark money will be drying up very soon. bwah ha ha ha
I’ve done all my tithing and offerings via the internet for years.
good for you. think of covid-19 as god dumping some bleach into the gene pool.
More like Satan doing so since all evil and everything bad that has happened is on him due to his rebellion.
That's nice. Prove it!
Of course, if Satan is doing evil, your God just sits back and does nothing. Talk about being useless as a deity.
This is true.
Maybe Trump should follow Obama's example./S
Didn't hear a damn peep out of the left about how Obama handled things. The lame stream media glossed it over as well.
Sounds like both Presidents didn't do enough. So what's your point? When did Obama become the topic?
When hypocrisy reared it's ugly head.
No matter what Trump did it wouldn't be good enough for some.
What could have Trump done that wouldn't have the left screaming bloody murder? What have the Democrats proposed? What are their fixes? Easy to criticize while offer no solutions. If this was so serious why didn't the Democrats in the House get bills rolling when this was supposedly contained to just one Chinese city? Why wait for WHO and the CDC to state the obvious to anyone that was paying attention- that this was an epidemic than would very easily go global.
This is only proving the US still isn't prepared for a pan epidemic; it doesn't matter who is in the White House- or what party holds Congress. The only thing we are learning is that national emergencies are fair game for political sniping. How does something as innocent as a national day of prayer get construed as something evil?
Before you play the atheist card, I am one. I take no offense to a national day of prayer. There are those that are religious- and it is a way to draw people together. Atheists can say those affected by the virus are in our thoughts. Might be worthless sentiment; but sometimes that is all that is needed to bring people together. Instead of the BS reaction we are getting.
With some governors starting to talk about martial law, and calling out the National Guard- we are going to need to come together before this turns into some sick Hollywood movie plot.
Trump needs to stop saying he's done a great job with the virus. Even if he had, which is obviously not true, he shouldn't be saying such things while tens of thousands of people are getting very sick , and some dying.
But Trump cant help himself. Is he is utterly ill equipped to be a real leader. He is a self-promoter.
He is our national leader. It’s his job to fight this virus and try to keep himself and us in as positive an outlook as possible given the situation. We are in this crisis and he is our national leader working our way out of this. We can either rally our country behind him or we can be mouth pieces for the Chinese propaganda ministry or hope for the worst for partisan gain. There are no other alternatives.
It's not so much what he did, but rather what he hasn't done.
Not disband the pandemic response team, appoint an actual doctor or scientist to head the Covid task force, coordinate with all relevant agencies ahead of time to deal with the possibility and/or reduce the risk of Covid spread to the US, get an actual infectious disease expert to address the public on Covid, including safety precautions, cooperate with the Chinese (if feasible) to work together to reduce the spread or develop a treatment to Covid. Those are just what comes off the top of my head.
That's why I hold all politicians in contempt.
Good question. See previous statement.
But we knew there was an outbreak long before it reached our shores. We had advanced warning but the government did nothing. So instead of being proactive in dealing with a then possible pandemic, now we can only be reactive after the fact.
Not evil. Just useless.
Why would I do that?
I never said otherwise. Of course religion can be comforting to some.
Some probably do I'd wager.
What's the old saying? "It's the thought that counts."
Indeed. People are irrational, panicky, hysterical, ect..
That only highlights the necessity of leadership to calm the public and call all hands on deck, so to speak, to deal with this issue.
I thought I’d see how the president’s call for a day of prayer was playing on Twitter. The response there, judging by a few hundred tweets containing “prayer,” is overwhelmingly negative. I suspect the real numbers are better than this, because some of us are actually praying instead of complaining about it. There are some, though, who slander what they do not understand (Jude 10).
They Mock What They Do Not Understand
Some think the message is prayer in place of science. (I’ve copied all these tweets in below.) What gives them the strange idea that it’s an either-or? Don’t they realize that praying people founded science as we know it, and praying people founded medicine as we know it, too? If even a world-class physicist can make that obviously ignorant mistake , though, I guess it’s no wonder others can, too.
Praying isn’t only about medical answers, anyway. There’s much more to pray for than that in these days.
Others complain that the president is violating the Constitution somehow. One said, “this is a clear violation of the Constitution & our founding fathers who DEMANDED separation of church & state!!!” The anger is palpable. So is the lack of historical awareness. The Founding Fathers called frequently for national days of prayer, so this could hardly be any violation of their intent. There is absolutely no doubt that they would have done the same thing. Even Benjamin Franklin the unbeliever urged leaders to pray :
These Twitter Users Need Our Prayers, Too
Other tweets speak hatred toward the president and toward Christianity. One Twitter user posted, “when will trump announce that he’s got corona so i can start another prayer circle for his death.” Another wrote, “Say I want to rid the country of the disease of Christianity. Would prayer work for that?”
Prayer works, but not for evil purposes, and not like a coin in a vending machine, either. It’s an act of humility before our supreme and holy God, who will answer when and how He wills. I don’t expect them to understand that, and this isn’t the place to explain it in any depth. Those who know prayer, though, know that God hears. That’s all we need to know as we enter into it.
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They won’t like me saying this (they don’t have to like it), but these Twitter users suffer from an infection beyond the reach of all science. It’s not a physical problem like coronavirus, but a spiritual one. Unless they themselves submit to a cure, this infection will lead to spiritual death, far more surely than any virus leads to physical death. But the finality of physical death, which is inevitable for all — by this virus or by other means — reminds us that spiritual death is just as final. It’s far more devastating, though.
So as we pray for the country’s and the world’s physical health, let’s pray for spiritual health, too.
Some sample scoffing tweets. View them with both discernment and Christlike concern.
Prayer in Place of Science?
That which is described in the article above is taking place now here.